everything.study
21L.005

Introduction to Drama

3-0-9 units. HASS-A; CI-H · Undergraduate

A study of the history of theater art and practice from its origins to the modern period, including its roles in non-Western cultures. Special attention to the relationship between the literary and performative dimensions of drama, and the relationship between drama and its cultural context. Enrollment limited.

Fall 2016

Topics

  • Theatre Review
  • Discuss and prepare group presentations
  • Workshop on Paper 2
  • Group presentations (I)
  • Group presentations (II)
  • Group presentations (III); Final class

Readings

  • [W] = Worthen, W. B. The Wadsworth Anthology of Drama, Brief Sixth Edition . Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2010. ISBN: 9781428288157.
    Listed reading
  • SES #: 1 · TOPICS: Overview · READINGS: No readings assigned
    Reading assignment
  • Glaspell, Trifles (1916)
    Listed reading
  • Elam, The Semiotics of Theatre and Drama (1980)
    Listed reading
  • Elam, Keir. “Foundations: Signs in the Theatre.” Chapter 2 in The Semiotics of Theatre and Drama . 2nd edition. Routledge, 2002. ISBN: 9780415280181. ↗
    Listed reading
  • Aristotle, Poetics (c.335 BCE)
    Listed reading
  • Sophocles, Oedipus The King (431 BCE)
    Listed reading
  • Euripides, Medea (431 BCE)
    Listed reading
  • Hrotswitha, Dulcitius (965–75?)
    Listed reading
  • Anonymous, The York Crucifixion (c. 1376 CE)
    Listed reading
  • Kan’ami, Matsukaze (15 th century)
    Listed reading
  • Calderón, Life is a Dream (1636)
    Listed reading
  • de la Cruz, Loa to the Divine Narcissus (1687)
    Listed reading
  • Ibsen, A Doll’s House (1879)
    Listed reading
  • Cixous, “Aler á la mer” (1984)
    Listed reading
  • Cixous, Hélène. “ Aller à la mer .” Modern Drama 27, no. 4 (1984): 546–8. (Translated by Barbara Kerslake) ↗
    Listed reading
  • Shaw, Major Barbara (1905)
    Listed reading
  • Brecht, “The Street Scene” (1938)
    Listed reading
  • Brecht. “Three Cheers for Shaw” (1926)
    Listed reading
  • ———. “Three Cheers for Shaw.” Chapter 4 in Brecht on Theatre: The Development of an Aesthetic . 13th edition. Edited and translated by John Willett. Hill and Wang, 1977. ISBN: 9780809005420.
    Listed reading
  • Treadwell. Machinal (1928)
    Listed reading
  • Smith, Fires in the Mirror (1992)
    Listed reading
  • Gao, The Other Shore (1985)
    Listed reading
  • SES #: 24 · TOPICS: Group presentations (I) · READINGS: No readings assigned
    Reading assignment
  • SES #: 25 · TOPICS: Group presentations (II) · READINGS: No readings assigned
    Reading assignment
  • SES #: 26 · TOPICS: Group presentations (III); Final class · READINGS: No readings assigned
    Reading assignment
  • Brecht, Bertolt. “Three Cheers for Shaw.” Chapter 4 in Brecht on Theatre: The Development of an Aesthetic . 13th edition. Edited and translated by John Willett. Hill and Wang, 1977. ISBN: 9780809005420.
    Listed reading
  • Elam, Keir. “Foundations: Signs in the Theatre.” Chapter 2 in The Semiotics of Theatre and Drama . 2nd edition. Routledge, 2002. ISBN: 9780415280181.
    Listed reading
  • Oxford Dictionaries. Paperback Oxford English Dictionary . 7th ed. Oxford University Press, 2013. ISBN: 9780199640942. *This will be an important resource as you work out the language of your texts for close readings.
    Listed reading
  • Worthen, W. B. Wadsworth Anthology of Drama, Brief Sixth Edition. Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2010. ISBN: 9781428288157.
    Listed reading
Fall 2004

Topics

  • Individual Meetings with Prof. Henderson.
  • Video Screening of “Master Harold.”
  • Individual Meetings with Prof. Henderson: Discussion of Your Almost-midterm Self-assessment.
  • Individual Meetings with Prof. Henderson: Discussion of Your Group Work and Research Essay Ideas.
  • Video Screening of Top Girls .
  • Discussion of the Scene and Research Assignments (tentative).

Readings

  • Klaus, Carl H., Miriam Gilbert, and Bradford S. Field, Jr., eds. Stages of Drama: Classical to Contemporary Theater . 5th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2003. ISBN: 031239733X.
    Listed reading
  • Noh drama handout: Includes short selections from Waley, Arthur. The No Plays of Japan . London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1921. ISBN: 0048950114; and Tyler, Royall, ed. and trans. Japanese No Dramas . New York: Penguin, 1992. ISBN: 0140445390.
    Listed reading
  • The Bacchae by Euripides . ↗
    Listed reading
  • Oedipus by Sophocles . ↗
    Listed reading
  • The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe . ↗
    Listed reading
  • Klaus, Carl H., Miriam Gilbert, and Bradford S. Field, Jr., eds. Stages of Drama: Classical to Contemporary Theater . 5th ed. [n.b.]. Boston: Bedford/ St. Martin’s, 2003. ISBN: 031239733X.
    Listed reading

Prerequisites & course information

Same subject as 21T.141[J] Prereq: None U (Spring) 3-0-9 units. HASS-A; CI-H

Sources