Assignments

English 4440/5440: Modern Drama, Spring 2016

TR 3:30-4:45PM, Arts & Sciences 366

Film Availability

This chart provides links to our class's required films that are available from Apple (digital purchase or rental), Amazon (digital purchase, rental, or streaming), Films on Demand (streaming), Netflix (streaming), or GCSU Library (4 hour DVD reserve). Check Can I Stream It?, a clearinghouse of film and television streaming sites, for availability to purchase films from Amazon, rented on disc from Netflix, or stream on services like Cinemax, Crackle, Encore, Epix, HBO, Hulu, Google Play, Showtime, Starz, Vudu, and XBox, XFinity Streampix, and YouTube.

 

Film Availability

Angels in America (Nichols, 2003)

Amazon | Apple | GCSU Reserves

Glengarry Glen Ross (Foley, 1992)

Amazon | Apple | GCSU Reserves

The Homecoming (Hall, 1973)

GCSU Reserves

Long Day's Journey into Night (Lumet, 1962)

GCSU Reserves

M. Butterfly (Cronenberg, 1993)

Amazon | Apple

Miss Julie (Ullmann, 2014)

Amazon | Apple | Netflix

Six Characters in Search of an Author (Keach, 1976)

Films on Demand

A Streetcar Named Desire (Kazan, 1951)

Amazon | Apple | GCSU Reserves

Waiting for Godot (Lindsay-Hogg, 2001)

Screenings:

Wednesday, 2-17, 5:00-7:00, A&S 155

Thursday, 2-18, 5:00-7:00, A&S 155

In Class Activities

1. From Modern to Postmodern Drama

Beckett's Waiting for Godot serves as a transitional text between modernist and postmodernist literature. Before we discuss decidedly postmodern Pinter' sThe Homecoming, let's look at what we already covered (modernist drama), the definition of postmodern drama, and the two postmodernist plays we have read. Divide into 6 groups and answer the one question assigned to your group.

  1. What do the five plays by Strindberg, Pirandello, Brecht, Williams, and O'Neill have in common? Taking a bird's eye view of the plays, what (modernist) traits do they all share? Provide 4-6 characteristics.
  2. Compare Beckett and Pinter's plays. What (postmodernist) traits do they both share? Provide 4-6 characteristics.
  3. How does Schmidt define postmodernism and postmodern theatre? Provide 4-6 significant passages.

2. Theorizing Cloud Nine

Churchill's Cloud Nine involves the intersectionality of a number of overlapping systems of oppression. Before we tackle the intersectional theme of the play, let's look at what it says about discrete identity politics through the lens of various critical theories. Break into three groups, discuss the assigned theoretical questions taken from Lois Tyson's Critical Theory Today: A User Friendly Guide, and report the highlights to the class.

  1. Feminism and Gender Studies
    • What does the work reveal about the operations (economically, politically, socially, or psychologically) of patriarchy? How are women portrayed? How do these portrayals relate to the gender issues of the period in which the novel was written or is set? In other words, does the work reinforce or undermine patriarchal ideology? (In the firrst case, we might say that the text has a patriarchal agenda. In the second case, we might say that the
      text has a feminist agenda. Texts that seem to both reinforce and undermine patriarchal ideology might be said to be ideologically conflicted.) (Tyson 119)
    • How is the work "gendered"? That is, how does it seem to de!ne femininity and masculinity? Does the characters' behavior always conform to their assigned genders? Does the work suggest that there are genders other than feminine and masculine? What seems to be the work's attitude toward the gender(s) it portrays? For example, does the work seem to accept, question, or reject the traditional view of gender? (Tyson 119)
  2. Queer Theory
    • What are the politics (ideological agendas) of specific gay, lesbian, or queer works, and how are those politics revealed in, for example, the work’s thematic content or portrayals of its characters? (Tyson 321)
    • What does the work reveal about the operations (socially, politically, psychologically) of heterosexism? Is the work (consciously or unconsciously) homophobic? Does the work critique, celebrate, or blindly accept heterosexist values? (Tyson 321)
    • How does the literary text illustrate the problematics of sexuality and sexual "identity," that is, the ways in which human sexuality does not fall neatly into the separate categories defined by the words homosexual and heterosexual? (Tyson 321-2)
  3. Postcolonial Criticism
    • How does the literary text, explicitly or allegorically, represent various aspects of colonial oppression? Special attention is often given to those areas where political and cultural oppression overlap, as it does, for example, in the colonizers’ control of language, communication, and knowledge in colonized countries. (Tyson 431)
    • What does the text reveal about the problematics of postcolonial identity, including the relationship between personal and cultural identity and such issues as double consciousness and hybridity? (Tyson 431)
    • What does the text reveal about the operations of cultural difference—the ways in which race, religion, class, gender, sexual orientation, cultural beliefs, and customs combine to form individual identity—in shaping our perceptions of ourselves, others, and the world in which we live? Othering might be one area of analysis here. (Tyson 431)

    Scene Analysis Paper and Presentation

Sign up in pairs to analyze a 1-2 page scene from a written play or a 2-3 minute scene from a film, collaboratively write a formal 5-6 page paper and give formal 7-10 minute presentation, which includes reading from the printed play or screening the scene from the film. Your essay and presentation should 1) do a close reading of the section of play and 2) interpret how the scene broaches the core conflict and overall theme of the play. Your single, collaboratively written essay should be driven by a thesis that argues the work's theme and logically organized by close reading of the text: unpack the tension and conflict, connotation and diction, idea and theme. Your well-organized presentation should clearly convey your ideas to the class, and each member should speak during the presentation.

Parameters

Due Date Play or Film Students
T, 1-26

Six Characters in Search of an Author

 Lizzie Perrin
Gloria Briscoe
T, 2-2

The Good Person of Szechwan

  
 
T, 2-9

Long Day's Journey into Night

 Sarah Beth Gilbert
Meghan Tucker
T, 2-16

A Streetcar Named Desire

 Lindsay Hamiliton
Jack Zerkel
T, 2-23

Waiting for Godot

 Miles Skedsvold
Lacey Williams
R, 3-3

The Homecoming

 Madison Horne
Rachel Frantz
T, 3-8

Buried Child

  
 
R, 3-10

Mud

  
 
R, 3-29

Cloud Nine

 Marykate Malena
Connor Tolbert
T, 4-5

M. Butterfly

 Catherine Evelyn
 

In Class Midterm Exam

Undergraduates will take an in-class exam composed of 2 comparison/contrast essays selected from a set of 4-6 questions. We will generate topics as a class on Thursday, February 18 and I will create 4-6 questions from those topics for the exam on Thursday, February 25.

Playwrights, Plays, and Films

Strindberg, Miss Julie (Gainor 152-93)

Miss Julie (Ullmann, 2014)

Pirandello, Six Characters in Search of an Author (Gainor 529-72)

Six Characters in Search of an Author (Keach, 1976)

Brecht, The Good Person of Szechwan (Gainor 579-652)

O'Neill, Long Day's Journey into Night (Gainor 927-1012)

Long Day's Journey into Night (Lumet, 1962)

Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire (Gainor 851-920)

A Streetcar Named Desire (Kazan, 1951)

Beckett, Waiting for Godot (Gainor 1010-72)

Waiting for Godot (Lindsay-Hogg, 2001)

Topics

Parameters

Do not use a play (or film adaptation of a play) in more than one essay. Not all works are appropriate for all essays. Choose works which afford adequate material to address the question at hand. Have a controlling idea, an interpretation, a thesis that bridges the works. Organize essays by argument and analysis. Make connections and distinctions among the writers and their works; compare and contrast the works' key ideas. Support your points with textual evidence; avoid plot summary. You will be graded on your interpretive understanding of the texts as well as your ability to compare and contrast meanings and issues.

Film Adaptation Paper

The film adaptation paper should compare and contrast the significant changes made in adapting stage to screen and analyze and evaluate how those changes affect the meaning of the work. Rather than just listing or cataloging alterations, your paper should be guided and controlled by an overarching idea. You can find elements of film analysis here.

Parameters

Research Paper

The scene analysis paper asked undergraduates to closely read a scene, and the film adaptation asked undergraduates to analyze the meaningful changes to a play as it was transformed from print to screen. The research paper will afford you the time and space to perform a sustained and sourced discussion of a significant issue in a modern or contemporary play. Your thesis-driven paper should employ textual analysis and support its interpretation of the issue with scholarly criticism. You will write a 8-10 page research paper, which incorporates at least 5 secondary sources including both scholarly journal articles and books, on either a play read in class (but not one written on previously in the scene analysis or film adaptation) or a play not studied in class by one of the playwrights studied in class.

Parameters

Take Home Final Exam

In the take home exam, you will write two thesis-driven comparison/contrast essays of your choice from a selection of four to six questions derived from topics generated by the class on Thursday, April 21.

 

Do not write about the same topic you wrote about in a previous assignment like the film adaptation or research paper. Do not use a play (or film adaptation of a play) in more than one essay. Kushner's Angels in America counts as one play. Not all works are appropriate for all essays. Choose works which afford adequate material to address the question at hand. Have a controlling idea, an interpretation, a thesis that bridges the works. Organize essays by argument and analysis. Make connections and distinctions among the plays; compare and contrast the works' key ideas. Support your points with textual evidence and quotations; avoid plot summary. You will be graded on your interpretive understanding of the plays as well as your ability to compare and contrast meanings and issues.

Playwrights, Plays, and Films

Topics

Here are the topics generated by the class on Thursday, April 21:

Questions

Answer two of the following questions, created by the professor from the class's topics:

Parameters

Annotated Bibliography and Presentation

Graduates students will research a play, compose an annotated bibliography of at least 10 scholarly sources interpreting the play, and teach the play the class, i.e., lecture and moderate class discussion, with some help from one of the articles on the work. One week before the presentation/teaching demonstration, graduate students must meet with the professor to go over their lesson plan. The citations in the annotated bibliography should be formatted to MLA style, each annotation should be approximately 100 words long.

Parameters

Book Review

While the annotated bibliography and presentation require graduate students to research, evaluate, and teach a play, the book review compels you to read and evaluate a book of criticism on modern or contemporary drama. After consulting with the professor on a suitable book (for instance a book from which our class is reading an excerpt, or another of your choosing), write a 8-10 page essay that summarizes the book's overall critical claim and then evaluates the thesis and methodology. Your essay should both appreciate and interrogate the book. The GeorgiaVIEW course packet contains book reviews; and you can find more examples using GALILEO.

Parameters

Comparison/Contrast Paper

In this 8-10 page paper, you will read two other plays by a playwright we've read in class and then compare and contrast a recurrent issue or theme in order to determine the author's world view.

 

While the book review calls for graduate students to summarize and evaluate a scholarly book of drama criticism, the comparison/contrast paper instructs them to read two other plays by a playwright we've read in class and then compare and contrast a recurrent issue or theme in order to determine the author's world view. For example, you could compare and contrast masculinity in Tennessee Williams's Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Glass Menagerie, and A Streetcar Named Desire.

Parameters

 

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