- Become familiar with key aspects of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century American culture, literature, and drama.
- Learn about influential nineteenth-century American and African American playwrights and their work.
- Understand American drama as a significant part of American culture and a place where American identity has been constructed and deconstructed.
- Analyse an American or African American play taking into account elements such as dramatic structure and action, dialogue, monologue, stage directions, textual and visual metaphors and symbols.
- Argue and write clearly and analytically about styles, themes, and motifs in American drama, as well as about the historical, social, and cultural contexts of the selected plays.
- Understand the conventions of dramatic literature and a range of different dramatic and performative styles (realism, naturalism, expressionism, symbolism, Epic Theatre).
- Learn and use effective terminology for reading and analysing dramatic texts.