The seminar will focus on the representations carried and the role played by the media in contemporary culture, and in so doing it will introduce the students to media theory and research. The conceptual and methodological apparatus thus built will enable the students to complete their MA thesis projects that will involve studying the representations carried or the role played by the media in British or American culture, or investigating links between British, American and Polish culture as observed in the media. Assessment will be based on written tasks as well as the level of preparation for classes and participation in class discussions.
- Nauczyciel: Janusz Kaźmierczak
Theatre can be treated as a space that offers “the potential for a new social and cultural
discourse" (Bush-Bailey 2009: 33), allowing for a multi-dimensional reflection of reality,
indeed, its embodiment. While watching and reading plays, one may decode the rationale for
acceptance and reinforcement of social, political, cultural and religious ideologies and
frameworks as well as ways and means for criticising and opposing them. This MA seminar
will deal with the dramatic arts of Great Britain written, staged and printed between 17th and
18th centuries. While analysing and capturing the aesthetic and thematic changes in theatre and
drama itself, students will have a Chance to interrogate issues such as: ideals and ideologies;
constructions of gender; sexual politics; models and anti-models of behaviour; intergenerational
conflicts; social and individual identity; precepts of morality; multifarious definitions of
monstrosity; as well as various stereotypes conveyed through plays (for example those related
to ageism). Students will investigate what drama (or dramatic culture in general) reveals, or
tries to hide, about the times and people that created it. The seminar is to show that by studying
the past we can learn more about contemporary times and even the future. Students will be
expected to read assigned drama, participate in class discussions, and complete their MA theses
within strictly scheduled timeframes.
- Nauczyciel: Katarzyna Bronk-Bacon