260.226  Modern Drama: Family Politics

Time:  TTh 9:00-10:20                              Instructor: Dr. Hollis Robbins
Place:     16LH                                        Office: Centre Street, #33
hrobbins@jhu.edu
 
I.  Course Objectives:
You will read and analyze a selection of modern drama from American and non-American authors written in the decades after WWII.  You will examine what makes drama different from other forms of literature as well as what aesthetic forces have shaped the idea of Modern drama.   You will be learning the texts, some beginning theatre history, tools for reading dramatic texts, analytical skills in interpreting performance critically, and the opportunity to reflect on the dramatic traditions that still influence writers, audiences, and performers today.  You will be required to read a play a week, to keep up with the reading, to write short weekly interpretive papers, and to write a long, sustained analysis of one or more texts.   .

II.  Course Requirements:
Attendance/Class participation
1 Oral Presentation (10 minutes minimum); 1 response (5 minutes minimum)
Midterm exam
Two analytical papers (4-6 pages, 6-8 pages)

Attendance for this class is critical.  Much of what you will learn in this course will be the result of class exercises and discussion.  Discussion and debate are crucial to the learning process.  You are expected not only to attend but also to participate.  Three absences (excused or not) will begin to push your final grade downward.   You will be required to read and be prepared to discuss all of the assignments.  The schedule below indicates the date by which particular works should be read and the amount of reading to be done each day to stay current with class discussion.  Bring the text to class each week.  I do not accept late papers unless there is a compelling reason for missing the deadline. 

Grade: Your grade will be calculated as follows:
Class Participation:  includes attendance, presentations, possible quizzes, contributions to class discussion:  20%
Presentation:  20%.
Two papers:   Midterm paper (20%), final paper (30%)   Total: 50%.
Midterm Exam:   10%

Writing Policy:   
All papers should be double-spaced, numbered, with your name on every page.  Neatness and excellence in punctuation, spelling, and grammar should always be a goal.   
All written work should be your own.  This means that either: A) you are telling me what you think, or B) you are telling me what you think about what someone else thinks�which means you will tell me where you found this person�s opinion, when and where he/she expressed it, and how it is related to your own opinion.  You may embrace someone else�s opinion, but you cannot pass it off as your own.  This is called plagiarism and it is wrong.
A note about my grading:
A grade of A means you have produced a paper (or presentation) exemplary in almost every way. You have presented your thesis coherently, you have organized your thoughts effectively, and you have supported your argument meticulously.  An A paper is also one that is excellent in style and voice or tone.  And in an A paper, attention to form (spelling, punctuation, grammar, documentation) is as rigorous as it is to the content.  Your work on the paper is superior.
A grade of B means you have gone beyond the minimum requirements of the assignment and have successfully balanced description with analysis. You express yourself more clearly, meaningfully, and imaginatively than in a C paper.  Your work on the paper is good.
A grade of C means you have successfully completed the minimum requirements of an assignment.  Your paper has no major problems of any kind, but there is still much for you to do to better your grade.  Your work on the paper is fair.
A grade of D means your work is seriously deficient in some way.
A grade of F means your work has failed to meet the minimum requirements.

III.  Required Texts:

Nine Plays of the Modern Theatre (Grove Press, 1981) 
M. Butterfly, David Henry Hwang 
Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry 
Plays, Irene Fornes 
Various Handouts (including Aristotle�s Poetics)

IV.  Schedule and Reading

Week 1      Introduction
T Jan 15   What is Modernism?  What is Drama?
Th Jan 17  Poetics, parts 1-5
 
Week 2     Beckett
T  Jan 22     Waiting for Godot (1948)
Th  Jan 24   Godot  and Poetics
 
Week 3      Beckett and Pinter
T  Jan 29    Godot  and Poetics (to end)
Th  Jan 31  The Birthday Party (1958)
                 
Week 4     Pinter and Genet
T  Feb 5   Birthday Party
Th  Feb 7  The Balcony (1956)
       
Week 5      Genet and Hansberry
T  Feb 12  Balcony
Th  Feb 14  Raisin in the Sun (1959)
 
Week 6     No Classes � Auditions   
 
Week 7     Hansberry
T  Feb 26  Raisin in the Sun (1959)
Th  Feb 28  Raisin       
 
Week 8      Ionesco
T  Mar 4  Rhinoceros (1959)
Th  Mar 6   Rhinoceros 

1st Paper Due  

Week 9     Stoppard
T  Mar 11    Background: Hamlet  (handout)
Th  Mar 13  Rosencranz & Guildenstern are Dead (1966)
 
Week 10    No Class: Spring Break!
         
Week 11     More Stoppard
T  Mar 25   Hamlet films
Th Mar 27  Rosencranz & Guildenstern

Week 12     Fornes
T  Apr 1  The Danube (1982)
Th  Apr 3  Danube  (also discussion of 2nd Paper, which is due May 2)                 
 
Week 13     Fornes and Mamet
M  Apr 8   Danube  
W  Apr 10  American Buffalo (1975)

Week 14     Mamet
T  Apr 15   Buffalo
Th  Apr 17  Buffalo & other Mamet
      
Week 15      Hwang & Puccini
T  Apr 22   Madama Butterfly
Th Apr 24  M. Butterfly  (1988)

Week 16       Hwang
T April 29  M. Butterfly
Th May 1   M. Butterfly

F   May 2        2nd Paper Due