EL590 Modern British Drama

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EL590 Modern British Drama Instructor: ASLI TEKINAY [[email protected]] Schedule: T 2 3 4 (TB 480) Office hours: T 5 6 Course objective: To provide a study of British drama over the course of the last hundred years with reference to major dramatic theories as well as key socio- political/historical/cultural events. Methodology: Each class will be devoted to the analysis of a particular playwright or theatrical movement. Students are expected to come to class having read the assigned play(s) and done sufficient background reading. Prerequisite reading: Aristotle’ s Poetics Nietzsche’s Birth of Tragedy Artaud’ s Theatre of Cruelty Useful websites: www.theatrevoice.com www. inyerface-theatre.com Schedule: Week 1: Introduction [Modern/Modernist Drama; Week 2: Introduction [British Drama 1900-1945] Week 3: 1956 Stage Revolution [Angry Drama/Kitchen-Sink Drama: John Osborne’s “Look Back in Anger” and Arnold Wesker’s Chicken Soup with Barley” and “Roots”] Week 4: Absurd Drama [Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot”] Week 5: Absurd Drama [Harold Pinter’s “The Birthday Party”, “Old Times”, “The Collection”] Week 6: Theatre of Violence [Edward Bond’s “Saved” and “Lear”] Week 7: Comedy [Alan Ayckbourn’s “How the Other Half Loves” and “Bedroom Farce”] Week 8: Adaptation [Tom Stoppard’ s “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead” and “Travesties”] Week 9: Feminist Drama [Caryl Churchill’s “Top Girls” and Martin McDonagh’ s “The Beauty Queen of Leenane”] Week 10: In-yer-face Theatre [Sarah Kane’ s “Blasted”] Week 11: In-yer-face Theatre [Mark Ravenhill’ s “Shopping and Fucking”] Assessment: *Students are expected to attend all classes. *Attendance and participation in class discussions are of utmost importance. *Students will be asked to write reaction papers (max. 1000 words) about plays assigned for each week. Each student is expected to write six reaction papers in total. *Each student will be asked to give two oral presentations. * One of the presentations will be turned into the course essay (min. 4000 words). The breakdown of marks is as follows: Class participation and reaction essays: 50% Two oral presentations: 20% Course essay: 30 % -------------------------------------------- .

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