Lahore University of Management Sciences. ENGL 2131 Modern Drama Spring 2017

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1 Lahore University of Management Sciences ENGL 2131 Modern Drama Spring 2017 Instructor Rabia Nafees Shah Room No. 125 HSS Wing- English (Ground Floor) Office Hours Telephone 2218 Secretary/TA TA Office Hours Course URL (if any) COURSE BASICS Credit Hours 3 Lecture(s) 2 lectures per Duration 1hr 50mins week COURSE DESCRIPTION The plays selected for this course were published between the years 1888 and 1957, a period of much experimentation in the theatre and a resulting proliferation of isms. This course will introduce students to a broad variety of modern dramatists from across Europe and the United States foregrounding issues of form and technique alongside textual and thematic analysis. How does the choice of form reflect each dramatist's aesthetic goals and what are the political implications of this choice? At heart of this interrogation are questions of authorship and the artist s relationship with the world and with the audience. What is the role that a modern dramatist should play as he grapples with the modern condition? How do these playwrights use the drama as a vehicle for social criticism? What is the purpose of modern drama, anyway? The theories of drama offered by Emile Zola, Gyorgy Lukacs, Bertolt Brecht, Lionel Abel and Martin Esslin and the rules for theatrical production constructed by Konstantin Stanislavski (the co-founder of the Moscow Art Theatre who worked directly with Anton Chekhov and Henrik Ibsen s dramas) will help situate us within this debate. The dramatists own experiences with the staging of their plays will also be considered. For purposes of this course, it will not be assumed that the students have a prior understanding of the literary movement called Modernism. Hence, the significant concerns of this movement as well as the historical, intellectual, artistic and cultural influences that birthed it, will be discussed in broad terms at the outset and then in specific terms and greater depth with reference to the genre of drama. The aim is that by the end of the course, the students will have a good sense of the historic development of the modern drama in its many manifestations. COURSE PRE-REQUISITE None. GOALS

2 Lahore University of Management Sciences This course is an attempt to help students develop a sound knowledge base in modern drama and the varied approaches taken by some of the writers whose names are synonymous with the field. The students will learn to share and defend their own interpretations of the texts through their discussions in class and the response papers and exams they will be required to take during the semester. This will help them hone their skills of close reading, critical evaluation and explicatory writing. Besides reading the stipulated plays in their course outline, they will analyze one additional play in their presentation so that the class could be briefly familiarized with a broader range of modern drama than we could do justice to in just 28 sessions. The staged reading assignment requires group work to enact one chosen scene from the principal texts in the course. The goal is to experience these extracts in a completely different way paying attention to not just the cadences and tempo of the scene but also what Stanislavsky called the sub-text behind the words on the page. GRADING 1. Presentation 15% 2. Midterm 25% 3. Class Participation 10% 4. Response Papers 15% 5. Final Paper (7-8 pages) 30% 6. Staged Readings 5% TEXTBOOKS Reading packages have been put together for the course LECTURES, TUTORIALS AND ATTENDANCE POLICY 1. There will be two 110-minute seminars per week. (A total of 28 sessions) 2. There will be a minutes presentation. 3. Attendance is Mandatory. COURSE SCHEDULE S SESSIONS TOPIC PRIMARY READINGS SECONDARY READINGS Introduction to the course Modernism and the theatre David Krasner, Introduction. History of Modern Drama Leigh Wilson, The Historical Context of Modernist Literature (26-31) Emmett Stinson, Literary and Cultural Contexts: Major Figures,

3 Institutions, Topics, Events (48-65) 3 What makes modern drama modern? Peter Szondi, Theory of the Modern Drama, Parts I-II (91-130) David Ian Paddy, Key Critical Concepts, Topics and Figures ( ) Perviz Sawoski, The Stanislavski System: Growth and Methodology (1-26) 2 4 Naturalism August Strindberg, Miss Julie Emile Zola, Naturalism on the Stage (1-5) Naturalism August Strindberg, Miss Julie 5 3 David Krasner, ( ) 6 Walter Kalaidjian et al, Forms of Modern Drama & Hedda : from Melodrama to in Understanding Literature ( ) 7 G.B. Shaw, The Technical Novelty in Ibsen s Plays ( ) Geoffrey Borny, The : Complete Synthesis of Vision and Form ( )

4 10 Roland Barthes, Death of the Author ( ) Naturalism/ Eugene O Neil, The Emperor Jones J.L. Styan, in the Theatre (1-10) 13 Gyorgy Lukacs, The Sociology of Modern Drama ( ) Midterm Exam Salesman by Arthur Miller Salesman Salesman Gyorgy Lukacs, in the Balance (28-59) Annette J. Saddik, Revisting the American Dream (40-70) Luigi Pirandello. Preface & Six Characters in Search of an Author Lionel Abel, Preface, Tragedy and Luigi Pirandello, Six Characters in Search of an Author Luigi Pirandello, Six Characters in Search of an

5 Author 23 Brecht, Theatre for Pleasure or Theatre for Instruction (69-76); Brecht, A Short Organum for the Theatre (1-19) Bertolt Brecht from The Popular and the Realistic (42-44) Theatre of the Absurd Samuel Beckett, Endgame Martin Esslin, The Theatre of the Absurd (3-14) Theatre of the Absurd Samuel Beckett, Endgame Edward Albee, Which Theatre is the Absurd One? (1-2) 28 Theatre of the Absurd Samuel Beckett, Endgame