ENGL30051: Comedy

1,500 word essay due week 6 (40%)
2,500 word research essay due after SWOTVAC (50%)
Class participation also counts for 10%

ENGL30051 is one of the new subjects UniMelb began offering in 2021, as such I went into it with a lot of doubts, especially as, before this, I had not taken a single English/Theatre Studies subject at uni. Admittedly, I do come from a theatre background, which absolutely came in handy during this subject. The subject also has some focus on the more historical aspects of comedy (eg. Ancient Greeks), so as someone who loves history this was a major plus. Aristophanes was by far the best part of this entire course.

Since I had no other university Literature/English/Theatre Studies subjects to compare this with, I found myself constantly comparing the subject to high school English and VCE Literature. There is definitely an overlap with VCE Lit but obviously ENGL30051 goes into a lot more depth and detail. I definitely struggled with both the midsemester essay and the final research assessment, and I had a feeling that both my essays was very "VCE-like". It definitely becomes a much more straightforward subject once one gets a better understanding of what is required.

ENGL30051 is absolutely subject that students who do English and Theatre Studies as a major / minor would find much more easy, unlike a few other arts electives I've done where the way they were structured or taught seemed to cater for students who don't actually major in it. To be absolutely honest, I don't even have any idea as to why I got the score I did (I'm very happy with it, but also very confused), since I did very badly on the first essay but very well on the second, but I felt that my first essay was way better than my second. The criteria honestly confused me a little.
Overall I'd say that ENGL30051 is a very interesting subject in terms of content, though its assessments may be a bit of a struggle especially for those who have never done any ENGL subjects prior to this.

Yes, with screen capture

Sarah Balkin

N/A.

3 out of 5

N/A

1 x 2 hr seminar per week + also 30 minutes of online weekly material

2021 Semester 1

H1 (80)