English and drama

Samuel Beckett

Module code: Q3021
Level 6
30 credits in autumn semester
Teaching method: Seminar, Workshop
Assessment modes: Coursework

Beckett's work lies in a bleak but utopian space between art and popular culture, at the heart of debates about modernist and postmodernist writing. The module reads Beckett's fictions and plays, and his work for theatre, radio, television and film in detail, and as a critique of approaches from Marx to the Marx Brothers.

Module learning outcomes

• Understand the formal and generic developments of a named author's work.
• Understand how the work has been shaped by the social, historical and intellectual contexts in which it was produced.
• Through critical analysis of a range of the author¿s writing over his/her career, demonstrate an understanding of how his/her literary reputation was established and has been maintained.
• Organise complex material into an essay that illustrates independent research.