ENGL 204 - Modern Drama

3 Credits: (3 lecture)

Course Description
This course is an examination of the development of modern drama as literature from Ibsen to contemporary dramatists.

Note This is not a performance course.

Prerequisite ENGL 101 or permission of instructor.

Text
Gainor, J. Ellen, Stanton B. Garner, and Martin Puchner. The Norton Anthology of Drama. Vol. 2. 3rd ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 2018. Print.

Objectives
The student will be able to:

A. Watch and evaluate live productions and/or video versions of plays.

B. Analyze the structure of plays.

C. Demonstrate knowledge of the history of drama.

D. Relate their own experiences to the “condition of man” as the dramatist presents it.

E. Demonstrate knowledge of dramatic terms, “isms,” eras, techniques, themes, symbols.

F. Demonstrate their ability to think critically.

G. Demonstrate their tolerance of various opinions.

H. Support their positions from evidence found within the plays themselves and through logical applications of that evidence.

Content
The history of drama is presented in brief; the nature of drama is examined in depth. Approximately twelve plays are chosen from the following authors: Henrik Ibsen, August Strindberg, Luigi Pirandello, Anton Chekhov, John Millington Synge, Oscar Wilde, George Bernard Shaw, Eugene O’Neill, Sean O’Casey, Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, Bertolt Brecht, Eugene Ionesco, Edward Albee, Harold Pinter, Lorraine Hansberry, Samuel Beckett, Peter Shaffer, Martin Sherman, Sam Shepard, Athol Fugard, Caryl Churchill, Marsha Norman, August Wilson and others.

Student Evaluation
A. Major tests including essays.

B. Three critical papers.

C. Reading quizzes.

D. Critical review of a performance which the student has attended (optional for extra credit)Bibliography
Books

Bentley, Eric. Bernard Shaw. Norfolk, CT: New Directions Publishing Corporation, 1957.

Bentley, Eric. The Life of the Drama. New York: Antheneum Publishers, 1964.

Bold, Alan, ed. Harold Pinter: You Never Heard Such Silence. London: Vision Press, 1984.

Brown, John R. ed. Modern British Dramatists: A Collection of Critical Essays. Twentieth Century Views. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1968.

Brustein, Robert S. The Theatre of Revolt; An Approach to the Modern Drama. Boston: Little, Brown, 1964.

Chesterton, G. K. George Bernard Shaw. New York: Hill and Wang, 1956.

Esslin, Martin. The Theatre of the Absurd. Garden City, NY: Doubleday and Company, 1961.

Freedman, Morris. The Moral Impulse; Modern Drama from Ibsen to the Present. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1967.

Gale, Steven. Harold Pinter: Critical Approaches. Cranbury, NJ: Associated University Presses, Inc., 1986.

Gilman, Richard. The Making of Modern Drama. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1974.

King, Mary C. The Drama of M. J. Synge. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1985.

Styan, J. L. The Dark Comedy: The Development of Modern Comic Tragedy. 2nd ed. London: Cambridge UP, 1968.

Williams, Raymond. Drama from Ibsen to Brecht. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1969.

B. Non-Print Materials

A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen. Videorecording. Dir. Patrick Garland. Christopher Hampton, Screenplay; Claire Bloom, Anthony Hopkins, and Sir Ralph Richardson. Elkins Prod. 1973.

A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen. Videorecording. Dir. Joseph Losey. Jane Fonda, Edward Fox, Trevor Howard. Los Angeles: Prism Entertainment, 1973.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams. Videorecording. Dir. Richard Brooks. 1958 film. Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman, and Burl Ives. New York: MGM/VA Home Video, 1983.

August Wilson. Insight Media, 1992.

Death of a Salesmen by Arthur Miller. Videorecording. Dir. Volker Schlordorff. Dustin Hoffman and Charles Dunning. Irvine, CA: Karl-Loriman Home Video, 1986.

Desire Under the Elms by Eugene O’Neill. Videorecording, B & W. Dir. Delbert Mann. Burl Ives, Anthony Perkins, and Sophia Loren. Los Angeles: Paramount Pictures 1958, 1986. Distributed by Karkes Video Communications.

Drama of the Twentieth Century. Kit. Robert Fromer, ed. Educational Audio Visual, 1972.

Endgame by Samuel Beckett. Videorecording. Dir. Robert Bilheimer. Smithsonian Institution Press, et al. Washington, D. C. 1992.

Equus by Peter Schaffer. Videorecording. Dir. Sidney Lumet. Richard Burton and Peter Firth. United Artists, 1977; New York: MGM/VA Horne Entertainment Group, 1985.

Krapp’s Last Tape by Samuel Beckett. Videorecording. Dir. Walter Asmus. Washington D. C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1990.

Master Harold and the Boys by Athol Fugard. Videorecording. Dir. Michael Lindsay-Hogg. Mathew Broderick and Zakes Makae. Irvine, CA: Karl Loriman Home Video, 1986.

Miss Julie by August Strindberg. Videorecording. B & W Subtitles. Dir. Afl Sjoberg. 1950 film. Anita Bjork and Ulf Palme. Los Angeles: Embassy Home Entertainment, 1985.

Our Town. Videorecording. Dir. Sam Wood. Indianapolis: Kartes Video Communications, 1984.

Playboy of the Western World. Videorecording. Dir. Brian D. Hurst. 1962 film. Siobhan McKenna and Elspeth March. New York: Thorn EMI, 1982.

Private Conversations on the Set of Death of a Salesman. Videorecording. Dir. Christian Blackwood. A Punch Production. Irvine, CA: distributed by Karl-Loriman Home Video Inc., 1986.

Raisin in the Sun. Videorecording. Dir. Daniel Petrie. 1961 film. Sidney Poitier and Ruby Dee. Video. Columbia Pictures.