English 603.10/Drama 647: Studies in Modern Drama I (half course - Fall 2007)

Instructor: Dr. Penny Farfan

This course will trace the development of drama from the late nineteenth century through to the mid-twentieth century, identifying key concerns and strategies of a range of different playwrights and performing artists. Play readings will be supplemented by related interdisciplinary historical, critical, theoretical, and audiovisual materials. By the end of the course, students will have achieved an overview of the historical development of modern drama and will be familiar with key texts and issues in, and theoretical and critical approaches to, the field of modern drama.

Play readings may include works by such dramatists as Henrik Ibsen, Anton Chekhov, Elizabeth Robins, Cicely Hamilton and Christopher St. John, Angelina Weld Grimké, Susan Glaspell, Eugene O'Neill, Djuna Barnes, Sophie Treadwell, Gwen Pharis Ringwood, Noel Coward, Bertolt Brecht, and Tennessee Williams. Audiovisual materials may include works by or relating to such modernist artists as Oscar Wilde, Giacomo Puccini, Isadora Duncan, the Ballets Russes, and Josephine Baker.

Students will be evaluated on the basis of a variety of assignments, including essays, seminar presentations, and class discussion.

Course Texts

1) Ibsen, Henrik. Four Major Plays [includes A Doll's House, Ghosts, Hedda Gabler, and The Master Builder]. Trans. James McFarlane. Oxford UP, 1998. ISBN: 0-19-283387

2) Kelly, Katherine E., ed. Modern Drama by Women 1880s-1930s. Routledge, 1996. ISBN: 0-415-12494-8.

3) Barlow, Judith E., ed. Plays by American Women 1900-1930. New York: Applause, 1985. ISBN: 1-55783-008-8.

4) Chekhov, Anton. The Major Plays. Trans. Ann Dunnigan. Signet Classic, 1964. ISBN: 0-451-52776-3.

5) Shaw, George Bernard. Plays Unpleasant: Widowers' Houses; The Philanderer; Mrs. Warren's Profession. Penguin. ISBN: 0-14-045021-1.

6) Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman. Penguin. ISBN: 0-14-048134.

7) Brecht, Bertolt. The Measures Taken and other Lehrstücke. Methuen Drama, 1977. ISBN: 0-413-37310-X.

8) Brecht, Bertolt. Life of Galileo. Trans. John Willett. The Collected Plays, volume 5, part 1. Methuen Drama, 1993. ISBN: 0-413-39070-5.

9) Coward, Noel. Three Plays: Blithe Spirit, Hay Fever, Private Lives. New York: Vintage International, 1999. ISBN: 0-679-78179-X.

10) Williams, Tennessee. A Streetcar Named Desire. Signet. ISBN: 0-451-16778-3.

11) Additional readings TBA.