LIT 6047
Western, Asian, and Minority Drama: Comparative Poetics
Brian Richardson
Turlington 4366
Thursday 3-4:15 and by appointment
In this course we will critically examine a number of plays from disparate
dramatic traditions. We will interrogate conventional notions of the
unitary, essentialist nature of Western drama; contrast Western works with
the classical dramas of India, China, and Japan; and examine a number of
modern plays written from "minority" perspectives -- feminist, African-
American, postcolonial, and Chinese- and Cuban-American. Throughout, our
emphasis will be on comparative poetics: how do different cultures represent
their experience in dramatic form, and what dramatic forms are felt (or
decreed) to be most appropriate for presenting those experiences. To guide
us in this exploration, we will focus on a number of fundamental elements of
dramatic construction, including plot, characterization, framing, closure,
metadrama, temporality, and reception, noting their transformation from
period to period, culture to culture, aesthetic to counter-aesthetic.
Throughout the course, we will regularly pay attention to the interconnected
issues of ideological pressures, aesthetic value, and canon formation.
SYLLABUS
WEEK 1
COMPARATIVE POETICS, MINORITY
AESTHETICS, AND THE POETICS OF DRAMA
WEEK 2
CLASSICAL WESTERN POETICS
Sophocles, Oedipus Rex; Aristotle, Poetics
CARNIVALESQUE POETICS
Aristophanes, The Thesmophoriazusae*
WEEK 3
CARNIVALESQUE POETICS
Bakhtin on Aristophanes and the Rabelaisian Chronotope*
SANSKRIT POETICS
Kalidasa, Shakuntala;
Gerow, "Sanskrit Dramatic Theory and Kalidasa's Plays";* Bharata on plot*
WEEK 4
MEDIEVAL ALLEGORY
Anon. "Youth";
ELIZABETHAN POETICS
Shakespeare, Troilus & Cressida;
Schanzer, "Shakespeare and the Doctrine of the Unity of Time";
Howard, "The Difficulties of Closure: An Approach to the Problematic in Shakespeare's
Comedies."
WEEK 5
CLASSICAL CHINESE DRAMA
Li Hao-Ku, Chang Boils the Sea*
FRENCH NEO-CLASSICISM
Corneille, The Theatrical Illusion; Elam, "Frames" 87-97
WEEK 6
FRENCH NEO-CLASSICISM
Moliere, "The Versailles Impromptu"
NOH DRAMA AND THEORY
Zeami, "Sekidera Komache," "Nishikigi"*
Anon. "Semi"* (Parody)
Zeami, "The Three Elements in Composing a Play"*
Keene "The Conventions of the Noh Drama"*
WEEK 7
EXPRESSIONISM & EPIC THEATER
Yeats, "The Only Jealousy of Emer;" "Purgatory,"*
Kokoshka "Murderer the Woman's Hope"*
Brecht, Galileo
Brecht, "On the Experimental Theater"*
WEEK 8
MODERNISM: BECKETT
"Cascando," "Breath," "Not I," "That Time"
"A Piece of Monologue," "Rockaby," "Ohio Impromptu,"
"Catastrophe." Elam, Space, 56-69
WEEK 9
MODERNISM: PINTER
No Man's Land, Old Times, "Family Voices"
Elam, textuality 178-84; time 117-26
WEEK 10
"POST" MODERNISM
Stein, "What Happened," "Do Let Us Go Away,"
"For the Country Entirely"*
Stoppard, Squaring the Circle
Elam, Dramatic Worlds, 98-117
WEEK 11
FEMINIST AESTHETICS
Churchill, Traps, Cloud Nine
Case, from Feminism and Theatre*
Forte, "Realism, Narrative & the Feminist Playwright"
WEEK 12
AFRO-AMERICAN POETICS
Hughes, "Soul Gone Home"*
Baraka, "Slave Ship"*
Kennedy, "A Movie Star Has to Star in Black and White"*
Bentson, "The Aesthetic of Modern Black Drama"*
Murray, "Facing the Camera Eye: Black and White Terrain in Women's Drama"*
WEEK 13
THE AFRICAN CONTINUUM
Cesaire, A Tempest
Soyinka, Death and the King's Horseman
Manaka, Children of Asazi
Glissant, from Caribbean Discourse*
Soyinka, from Myth, Literature and the African World*
WEEK 14
THEATER OF THE OTHER:
Hwang, M. Butterfly
Fornes, "Tango Palace"
Yarbro-Bejarano, "Chicanas' Experience in Collective Theatre: Ideology
and Form"*
Taylor, from Re-Inventing Shakespeare
COURSE REQUIREMENTS:
A 500 word abstract of your proposed term paper, due Nov. 15
A 4-5 page critical analysis of recent research on a theoretical topic of
your choice, due Nov. 22.
A 20-25 page term paper, in Chicago or MLA format, due Dec. 13.
One in-class presentation, 15-20 minutes in length.
Grading: The grade you receive on the term paper will constitute 85%
of your final grade.
TEXTS:
William Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida
Pierre Corneille, The Cid, Cinna, and The Theatrical
Illusion
Bertold Brecht, Galileo
Samuel Beckett, Collected Shorter Plays
Harold Pinter, Plays: Volume Four
Tom Stoppard, Squaring the Circle
Caryl Churchill, Plays: One
Aime Cesaire, A Tempest
Wole Soyinka, Death and the King's Horseman
David H. Hwang, M. Butterfly
Keir Elam, Semiotics of Theatre and Drama.
Available at BOOKS, 114 NW 13th Street. Other items in xerox packet.
POSSIBLE TOPICS FOR RESEARCH PAPER:
| Representing History | Causality/Chance |
Allegory | Mimesis |
| Closure | Identity | Frames | Canons |
| Dramatic Space | Genres | Spectacle | Realism
|
| Audience Response | Iconography | Beginnings |
Plot |
| Gender Construction | Symbolism | Creolite |
Characte |
| Text vs. Performance | Temporality | The Body |
Metadrama |
| Heteroglossia | Silence | Desire | Monologue |
Page created 9/8/98 Bryan Herek and
Brian Richardson |