DRAM20230 Ghosts and Monsters On Stage

Academic Year 2023/2024

Ghosts, monsters, and other supernatural entities feature in many forms of theatre. From the spectres of Japanese Noh to the deities of Ancient Greek theatres, the hauntings of Hamlet and Macbeth to the vampires of Gothic melodrama; in many cultures and across centuries, performance has offered a way to exorcise cultural anxieties, explore questions of belief, and bring the dead back to life. The history of the supernatural onstage is linked to developments in theatre technologies: masks, stage lighting, trapdoors, reflections on sheets of glass, video projection and, more recently, holograms have been used to create the effect of a figure who is simultaneously there and not there.

This module takes the ghostly and the monstrous as a frame for asking questions about what theatre is for - what it can do - in diverse cultural settings. Together, we will consider how theatre’s preoccupations with the ghostly and the monstrous are linked to technology, social change, and various forms of cultural unease. We will think about how ghosts, monsters, demons, vampires, spirits, and other more-than-human presences ‘appear’ onstage. Working to understand practices that look or feel ‘strange’ to us, we will consider theatre’s role in imagining the past and the future in a crisis-ridden world.

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Curricular information is subject to change

Learning Outcomes:

On completion of the module, students will:
● Be able to situate a range of theatrical/performance practices in their relevant historical, cultural and artistic contexts.
● Have used the ghostly or more-than-human as a critical lens through which to analyse specific theatrical texts.
● Have critically analysed their own feelings and perceptions as a means of developing their understanding of theatre.
● Be able to identify and evaluate a range of research methods, including engagement with primary and archival sources.
● Have developed their skills in academic research, writing and discussion.

Indicative Module Content:

Here are the key questions the module will explore:
● Why are ghosts so persistent across theatre cultures? What can the frame of the ghostly or the monstrous tell us about theatre as an artform and a form of cultural practice?
● What are the aesthetics of theatre’s ghosts and monsters? How have playwrights, actors, dancers, directors, designers, technicians and producers worked with otherworldly appearances to question and extend the limits of theatrical representation?
● What are the politics of theatre’s ghosts and monsters? What can a study of the ghostly and the monstrous in theatre tell us about cultural anxiety, trauma, and the past that is not finished?
● How can we use our feelings about ghosts and supernatural presences to generate insights about the theatrical practices we encounter, even - or especially - when those practices emerge from cultures that are geographically or temporally distant from our own?
● If performance is an ephemeral medium, one that disappears, how do we go about bringing past performances to life in order to remember and study them?

Student Effort Hours: 
Student Effort Type Hours
Lectures

11
Tutorial

11
Specified Learning Activities

8
Autonomous Student Learning

70
Total

100
Approaches to Teaching and Learning:
Weekly lectures will situate theatrical case studies in their relevant historical, cultural and artistic contexts. Each lecture will also offer a demonstration of how a theoretical framework associated with the ‘spectral’, the ‘ghostly’ and/or the ‘monstrous’ can be used to open up broader questions about theatre and performance.

Small group tutorials are a place to discuss the lecture, and explore its themes and questions. Collaboration is an important mode of learning and enquiry in the module, and students will work together practically to try out different methods of research in theatre and performance studies, including work with archival and other primary sources, textual analysis, fieldwork, and ‘on your feet’ practical experimentation.

 
Requirements, Exclusions and Recommendations

Not applicable to this module.


Module Requisites and Incompatibles
Not applicable to this module.
 
Assessment Strategy  
Description Timing Open Book Exam Component Scale Must Pass Component % of Final Grade
Presentation: Small group presentation on a given theatre text (8 minutes), showcasing independent research, plus short written report (400-500 words) on the group's findings. Unspecified n/a Standard conversion grade scale 40% No

30
Continuous Assessment: Three short writing exercises (200-250 words each) comprising responses to sections of critical reading and/or direct analysis of primary sources.
 Throughout the Trimester n/a Standard conversion grade scale 40% No

20
Project: Written submission (800-1,000 words excluding footnotes) combining creative and critical approaches, in the form of a fictionalised 'eyewitness' account of a ghostly or monstrous theatrical encounter. Coursework (End of Trimester) n/a Standard conversion grade scale 40% No

50

Carry forward of passed components
Yes
 
Resit In Terminal Exam
Autumn No
Please see Student Jargon Buster for more information about remediation types and timing. 
Feedback Strategy/Strategies

• Feedback individually to students, on an activity or draft prior to summative assessment
• Feedback individually to students, post-assessment

How will my Feedback be Delivered?

Not yet recorded.

Selection of secondary readings:
The Haunted Stage: The Theatre as Memory Machine, Marvin Carlson (2003)
The Monster in Theatre History: This Thing of Darkness, Michael Chemers (2017)
The Weird and the Eerie, Mark Fisher (2016)
Theatre and Ghosts: Materiality, Performance and Modernity, Mary Luckhurst and Emilie Morin (2014)
The Actor in Costume. Aoife Monks (2009)
Edo Kabuki in Transition: From the Worlds of the Samurai to the Vengeful Female Ghost, Satoko Shimazaki (2016)
Phantasmagoria: Spirit Visions, Metaphors, and Media into the Twenty-First Century. Marina Warner (2006)

Primary texts: a selection of historical and contemporary plays and performance works, which we will encounter through text extracts, eyewitness accounts by spectators, and videos of recent productions.
Name Role
Professor Eamonn Jordan Lecturer / Co-Lecturer
Dr Jeanne Tiehen Lecturer / Co-Lecturer
Timetabling information is displayed only for guidance purposes, relates to the current Academic Year only and is subject to change.
 
Spring
      
Lecture Offering 1 Week(s) - 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33 Tues 12:00 - 12:50
Tutorial Offering 1 Week(s) - 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33 Tues 13:00 - 13:50
Tutorial Offering 2 Week(s) - 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33 Wed 13:00 - 13:50
Spring