20th Century Theater

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

Since the founding of the modern German state, theater and theater artists were at the forefront of raising issues of public concern, challenging state authorities, and rehearsing solutions to social and political conflicts. The problems playwrights dramatized provide us with a compact history of Germany on stage. How did they represent the drastic political changes, rifts, and turns, from the German Empire during the Industrial Revolution, the economic upheavals and political experimentations of the Weimar Republic, the menacing rise of Nazism, and the German division during the Cold War, to the current period of Europeanization? In many instances we will regard the theatrical ensemble as representative of the nation, but we will also pay attention to the evolving theatrical techniques that roused and empowered the audience as democratic, self-determined citizens. Readings, class discussion, and written assignments will be in German. There will be three papers of about 3-5 pages each (on plot summary, character analysis, performance analysis). In addition, there will be a collaborative creative assignment culminating in a performance at the end.