Module Details

Module Code: MEDA H8004
Full Title: Theories of Reading, Reception and Audience
Valid From:: Semester 1 - 2019/20 ( June 2019 )
Language of Instruction:English
Duration: 1 Semester
Credits:: 5
Module Owner:: Fiona Fearon
Departments: Unknown
Module Description: The aim of this module is to explore paradigms of the reader and the audience and their reception processes from Aristotle to today's online environment. We will critically assess the various models and analyse reader/user experience through the reception and reaction of both the reading and viewing audience to a number of key controversial, censored or banned texts from European and North American literature in translation and in English.
 
Module Learning Outcome
On successful completion of this module the learner will be able to:
# Module Learning Outcome Description
MLO1 Analyse the impact of censorship on the production and publication of literature and drama
MLO2 Explore different paradigms of the audience and its reception process
MLO3 Evaluate their personal experience of being an audience/reader of text and performance
MLO4 Critically assess the factors effecting the reception of readers and audiences to literature, popular culture and media
Pre-requisite learning
Module Recommendations
This is prior learning (or a practical skill) that is strongly recommended before enrolment in this module. You may enrol in this module if you have not acquired the recommended learning but you will have considerable difficulty in passing (i.e. achieving the learning outcomes of) the module. While the prior learning is expressed as named DkIT module(s) it also allows for learning (in another module or modules) which is equivalent to the learning specified in the named module(s).
No recommendations listed
 
Module Indicative Content
Theories of Reading
What is Audience?, Semiotics; Reception Theory; Horizons of expectation; Interpretive Communities
Theories of Audience and the Performance Event
Performance Theory, The Gaze, Spectacle, Narcisism, the Live Event, digitised reception
Theories of Media Audiences
Effects to uses and gratifications; Stuart Hall, encoding/decoding; ethnography research into 'social audiences'; Fandom and fan creativity as cultural capital;
Censorship
Deliberate or overt censorship of performance and publication; history of censorship in Ireland; self censorship and its impact on the writer; riots and audience reactions to censored or banned texts
Key points of controversy in audience reception
Using a number of important texts the historical and contemporary reception will be discussed as a way of accessing reception. Examples of texts that might be used would be: Aristophanes, Lysistrata; Ibsen's, A Doll's House; Synge, The Tinker's Wedding; O'Casey, Drums of Father Ned; Aldous Huxley, Brave New World; DH Lawrence, Lady Chatterley's Lover; George Orwell, 1984; Edna O'Brien, The Country Girls; Tom Kilroy, The Death and Resurrection of Mr Roache; Edward Bond, Saved; J.G. Ballard, Crash; Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses
Module Assessment
Assessment Breakdown%
Course Work50.00%
Final Examination50.00%
Module Special Regulation
 

Assessments

Full-time

Course Work
Assessment Type Essay % of Total Mark 20
Marks Out Of 0 Pass Mark 0
Timing S1 Week 8 Learning Outcome 1,2,4
Duration in minutes 0
Assessment Description
Theoretical research essay. Write an in-depth research essay displaying a critical understanding of reception and audience theory; approx 1500 words
Assessment Type Reflective Journal % of Total Mark 30
Marks Out Of 0 Pass Mark 0
Timing S1 Week 13 Learning Outcome 3
Duration in minutes 0
Assessment Description
Write a reflective journal analysing three texts or events, one of which must be an award winning novel or play, and one must be a previously censored or banned text; approx 1500 words
No Project
No Practical
Final Examination
Assessment Type Formal Exam % of Total Mark 50
Marks Out Of 0 Pass Mark 0
Timing End-of-Semester Learning Outcome 1,2,4
Duration in minutes 0
Assessment Description
End-of-Semester Final Examination

Part-time

Course Work
Assessment Type Essay % of Total Mark 20
Marks Out Of 0 Pass Mark 0
Timing S1 Week 8 Learning Outcome 1,2,4
Duration in minutes 0
Assessment Description
Theoretical research essay. Write an in-depth research essay displaying a critical understanding of reception and audience theory; approx 1500 words
Assessment Type Reflective Journal % of Total Mark 30
Marks Out Of 0 Pass Mark 0
Timing S1 Week 13 Learning Outcome 3
Duration in minutes 0
Assessment Description
Write a reflective journal analysing three texts or events, one of which must be an award winning novel or play, and one must be a previously censored or banned text; approx 2500 words
No Project
No Practical
Final Examination
Assessment Type Formal Exam % of Total Mark 50
Marks Out Of 0 Pass Mark 0
Timing End-of-Semester Learning Outcome 1,2,4
Duration in minutes 0
Assessment Description
End-of-Semester Final Examinatio
Reassessment Requirement
A repeat examination
Reassessment of this module will consist of a repeat examination. It is possible that there will also be a requirement to be reassessed in a coursework element.

DKIT reserves the right to alter the nature and timings of assessment

 

Module Workload

Workload: Full-time
Workload Type Contact Type Workload Description Frequency Average Weekly Learner Workload Hours
Lecture Contact No Description Every Week 2.00 2
Tutorial Contact No Description Every Week 1.00 1
Directed Reading Non Contact Reading primary texts for tutorial discussion Every Week 3.00 3
Independent Study Non Contact Preparation of continuous assement and wider secondary reading Every Week 3.00 3
Total Weekly Learner Workload 9.00
Total Weekly Contact Hours 3.00
Workload: Part-time
Workload Type Contact Type Workload Description Frequency Average Weekly Learner Workload Hours
Lecture Contact No Description Every Week 1.00 1
Tutorial Contact No Description Every Week 1.00 1
Directed Reading Non Contact Reading primary texts for tutorial discussion Every Week 4.00 4
Independent Study Non Contact Preparation of continuous assement and wider secondary reading Every Week 3.00 3
Total Weekly Learner Workload 9.00
Total Weekly Contact Hours 2.00
 
Module Resources
Recommended Book Resources
  • Bennett, Susan. (1994), Theatre Audiences, Routledge,, London and New York.
  • Eagleton, Terry. (2008), Literary Theory, 25th Anniversary Edition. Wiley Blackwell.
  • Hodkinson, Paul. (2017), Media, Culture and Society, 2nd. Sage, London.
Supplementary Book Resources
  • Abercrombie, N and Longhurst, B. (1998), Audiences: A sociological Theory of Performance and Imagination, Sage, London and Thousand Oaks, CA:.
  • Baker, Kenneth. (2016), On the Burning of Books, Unicorn Press, London, [ISBN: 978-191078711].
  • Brooker, Will and Deborah Jermyn. (2003), The Audience Studies Reader, Routledge, London and New York:.
  • Freshwater, Helen. (2009), Theatre & Audience, Palgrave Macmillan, London.
  • Gillespie, Marie, ed.. (2005), Media Audiences, Open University Press, Maidenhead.
  • Kemp, Geoff, ed.. (2014), Censorship Moments, Bloomsbury, London, [ISBN: 978-147251284].
  • Karolides, Nicholas, Bald, Margaret and Sova, Dawn. (1999), 120 Banned Books: Censorship Histories and World Literature, Checkmark Books, New York.
  • Leitch, Vincent B.. (2010), The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism, Second Edition. Norton and Company, New York and London.
  • Martin, Peter. (2006), Censorship in the Two Irelands, Irish Academic Press, Dublin, [ISBN: 978-071652829].
  • Moore, Nicole, Ed.. (2017), Censorship and the Limits of the Literary: A Global View, Bloomsbury, London.
  • Schechner, Richard. (2013), Performance Studies, revised edition. Routledge, London and New York.
  • Schroder, Kim and Kirsten Drotner, Stephen Kline, Catherine Murray. (2003), Researching Audiences, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
  • Svich, Cariad. (2012), Out of Silence: Censorship in Theatre and Performance, EyeCorner Press, Roskilde.
This module does not have any article/paper resources
Other Resources