Download MetaDrama and MetaTheatre:

English 634
MetaDrama and
MetaTheatre:
Drama, Theatre and Performance about
Drama, Theatre and Performance
Ryan Claycomb
305 Colson Hall
293-9710
[email protected]
Thursday 4:00-6:50
Office Hours:
T/TH 2:30-4:00
and By Appt.
Course Description
Drama and theatre have always been anxious forms;
writing from Aristotle, Plato, Horace and Tertullian make claims about the impact of theatrical expression on
the life, mind and morality of its practitioners and spectators. Accordingly, an inordinate number of plays
exercise a self-reflexive interest the possibilities and responsibilities of playwright, actor, and audience. From
medieval morality plays through to postmodern pastiche, we can find actors breaking through fourth walls,
plotlines penetrating narrative frames, playwrights staging themselves and their audiences in powerful and
compromised positions, and performers performing performance.
This course will consider a variety of examples of meta-dramatic moments in scripts, concentrating primarily
on the 20th-century stage, and to a lesser degree on the English renaissance stage, while we read theory and
criticism on the various concerns of meta-fiction, meta-drama, and meta-theatre. Playwrights will range from
Shakespeare to Suzan-Lori Parks, from Beaumont and Fletcher to Brecht. Assigned work will likely include
response papers, an annotated bibliography, and a final paper.
The course will examine the formal, thematic, and socio-political concerns of metadrama and metatheatre,
notions that will consider narrative and performance phenomenon such as:
 Plays within plays
 Broken narrative frameworks
 Self-referentiality and self-consciously marked theatrical play
 Theatrical performances of everyday rituals and performances.
Primary readings will be paired throughout with critical and theoretical work that interrogates, among others,
the following questions:
 In what ways are metadramatical and metatheatrical moments useful to the storytelling and the
rhetoric of the playwright?
 How do such moments express anxieties about the potentials, powers, evils, and responsibilities of
theatrical representation?
 In what ways are playwrights, actors, and audiences implicated by plays that represent their own
functions?
 How is theatricality located and represented in the offstage contours of real life?
 How do metatheatrical moments function for their audiences? How do they complicate, frustrate, or
expand audience expectations and spectatorial practices?
 What do such moments suggest about the relationship of dramatic text to theatrical performance?
Obviously, designing any course is an exercise in omission. Various versions of this syllabus have included
more primary texts, more secondary texts, and different units entirely. The syllabus I present here represents
the happiest medium available. This is, therefore, not an exhaustive survey of the range of ways we might
think about metadrama and theatricality. Some of the excised readings, for example, included:
 Examples in antique Greek drama in which playwrights (e.g. Aristophanes) satirize other playwrights.
 Texts from the Restoration and 18th century that shed light on the theatrical worlds of those plays.
 Fictional representations of theatre and drama, such as Virginia Woolf’s Between the Acts.
 Samuel Beckett’s minimalist metatheatricality.
 Broad representation of metatheatricality from non-western traditions.
 Links in meta-textual representation across genres, including fiction, film, and visual arts.
 Any number of specific meta-theatrical texts that might be usefully paired with those studied in class
While these didn’t make it onto the syllabus, please consider them as possible topics to explore for final
papers. I can also suggest a whole range of others as we near that time in the semester.
Finally, this isn’t a theatre course, per se. There are times when we will focus on performance and theatrical
theory, to be sure, but the issues raised by the texts themselves will drive the course. That said, our primary
texts are performance texts. We will almost certainly be reading passages aloud to hear the language, we’ll see
a few video clips, and we may even put them on their feet to imagine productions in space. Be prepared for
this sort of participation upon occasion.
This raises important methodological questions. On the one hand, in an English class, it is important to
acknowledge that we can read performance texts as literature plain and simple. On the other hand, to discuss
performance texts as devoid of actual performance is a willful blindness. A dramatic text is essentially a
recipe for performance, so as you read, work to imagine the play not as a film, or as an interior experience,
but as a live event that will be staged in a theatre with an audience. Consider what sorts of spaces will likely
work for the text, what the production demands, how much can be represented mimetically, and how much
will likely be performed in a stylized fashion. In fact, one of the most crucial questions to ask about any play
or other performance text is to ask “Why must this be theatre?” Asking that question about these texts will
yield answers that I hope will provide ample insight into metadrama specifically, as well as the larger
categories of theatre and drama more broadly. I’m looking forward to hearing how you all (primarily as
students of text and textuality) will approach these questions.
Required Texts
 Marlowe, Christopher. Dr. Faustus, New Mermaids.
 Kyd, Thomas. The Spanish Tragedy,Nnew Mermaids.
 Beaumont and Fletcher. Knight of the Burning Pestle, New Mermaids.
 Pirandello, Luigi. Naked Masks, Plume
 Weiss, Peter. (Marat/Sade), Waveland Press
 Parks, Suzan-Lori. Venus, Theatre Communications Group (TCG).
 Stoppard, Tom. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Grove.
 Stoppard, Tom. Travesties, Grove.
 Valdez, Luis. Zoot Suit and other plays, Arte Publico.
 Churchill, Caryl. Cloud 9, TCG.
 Wertenbaker, Timberlake. Plays: 1, Faber and Faber.
 Three Shakespeare texts—Tempest, Hamlet, and Midsummer’s—have been ordered as recommended texts,
though any edition will be ok. All other readings available electronically, either on the course e-campus
site, or if you need, via cd-rom (let me know and I’ll burn one for you). Please have all readings
accessible for reference during class, either by printing them or by bringing a laptop to class.
Required Work
All out-of-class assignments must adhere to the following criteria: typed or word-processed, Times New
Roman 12-point or equivalent font, double-spaced, 1 inch to 1.25 inch margins, spell-checked, pagenumbered, and finally, stapled or paper-clipped. Submissions that do not meet these requirements can earn
no higher than an A-.
10%
Participation/Discussion Questions: graduate work is predicated on frequent, substantive
participation—the classroom climate is as dependent upon what you bring to the classroom as any
other element. I will expect significant contribution to classroom discussion from every student,
every week. It is my belief that at this level, participation is more than just a “bump” grade. With
many of you effectively in some stage of training for the professoriate or another teaching position,
you should be able to generate and sustain dialogue about texts. Obviously, I hope to be an active
part of this process, and perhaps even the most regular participant, but this class should never be
reduced to monologue or regular lecture.
To facilitate this, please bring two discussion questions to class every week. They should be thoughtthrough, typed, and ready to turn in. The questions should be designed to get at salient issues in the
readings in a way that provokes dialogue in the class while engaging critical issues that most interest
you. Do be prepared to have something to say about each question, preferably with relevant textual
evidence at your fingertips.
Good discussion questions are open-ended, have no obvious answer, and are based on more than
simple opinion. At their best, they should do many of the following:
 They should avoid yes/no formulations or simple factual responses, and should resist valuebased judgments of the text (was it good/bad?) in question.
 They should first and foremost generate discussion (hence the name) or even debate. Good
questions might even propose two conflicting views to tease out.
 They may take a sentence or two to set up, e.g. pairing a theoretical concept with a moment
in the text that complicates or fits uneasily with that concept, and then asking a question that
might help disentangle that apparent contradiction.
 They should connect with the theoretical and critical issues we’ve been discussing in the
class; they should avoid simply working out an issue local to a primary text.
 They should attempt to move as much as possible past the obvious questions and try to
capture subtler nuances of the text.
 They should reference, when possible, specific sections of or moments in the primary texts.
 They should open up a more complex understanding of the field, rather than a simpler one.
 They might well reference other texts we’ve read in the class.
Finally, collect all of your discussion questions from over the course of the semester in a single
document. You may find use for them later in the semester.
30 %
Response Papers (3 x 3-5 pages): For each unit (Early Modern/Modern/Contemporary), please
compose a 3-5 page response paper that engages a critical/ theoretical issue raised in the unit. The
paper may respond to a discussion question brought into class by you or by another student, it may
strike out on a new course, or it may bring together threads of discussion from across different class
meetings. The scope is quite wide. The goal for the response papers is to engage on the level of
theory with these texts and performances, and to do so in a broad, even speculative way: the close
reading or research work of a final paper is not necessary for these (though welcome if it doesn’t
impinge on the scope of the thinking). These can be turned in at any time during a unit, but the hard
due dates for each paper are 2/18, 3/18, and 4/22, respectively. Note that 4/22 is the due date for
your annotated bibliography as well, so plan accordingly.
20%
40%
Proposal, Annotated Bibliography, and Presentation: These three components will be graded
separately, as they are all part of the preparatory work for your final paper. Your proposal is due on
4/15 and your annotated bibliography is due on 4/22.
 The proposal should take the form of an abstract for the final paper, laying out the central critical
question that you are researching, the texts/performances you’ll use to plumb those critical
questions, the general way that existing scholarship has tackled the question, and the intervention
that you imagine your work will make in the discussion. It should run between 400-600 words (1½
-2 pages), and will serve as the preface to your annotated bibliography.
 The annotated bibliography should analyze 8-10 critical secondary sources of use to your final
project, of which no more than two may have been used in class. Each annotation should
summarize the main points of the source, zero in on its contribution to the critical conversation,
read the text for critical gaps or omissions (attending particularly to points where your work might
intervene), and identify ways in which the source will be useful to your research. Each annotation
will likely run 200-300 words.
 The presentation on 4/29 will be a brief (10-15 minutes) précis of your research and central
argument, addressed to the class, and tackling the same issues as your proposal, but with a more
definitive focus. You may want to bring handouts/visuals as appropriate. The goal of the
presentation is to both present the shape of a thoughtful final project, and also to get feedback on
your research, process, and argument from the entire class as you approach final revisions of your
paper. The understanding is that you will be well into a first, or ideally, second draft of your paper
by the time of the presentation, so that your presentation will be neither speculative nor tentative.
Final Project: The final project is an 8-10 page paper suitable for presentation at an academic
conference. It should be a focused, theoretically-engaged argument that engages a specific primary
text/performance, but does so in such a way as to also engage the larger critical discussion of
metadrama. The argument should follow the conventions of academic argumentation, including
MLA format for all citations.
Live Performance: The American Shakespeare Center in Staunton, VA is performing Dr. Faustus (opening
1/14) and Knight of the Burning Pestle (opening in April). Surely other productions from the syllabus will
appear regionally as well. Should you notice any, we can try to coordinate group trips as opportunities arise.
Special Circumstances:
If you have a registered disability that might affect your performance in this course, let me know as soon as
possible and I will make whatever accommodations are warranted. If you have a disability that is not
registered, please contact the Office of Disability Services (G30 Mountainlair, 3-6700, TDD3-7740) here on
campus as soon as possible in order to get the documentation to me. If you suspect that some other
circumstance may affect your performance this semester, please let me know as soon as possible.
Social Justice:
I am committed to promoting social justice in the classroom, which translates into an inclusive classroom
space that resists discrimination based on race, sex, age, disability, veteran status, religion, sexual orientation,
color, or national origin, or other identity categories. Please let me know if you have suggestions for better
accomplishing this goal.
Academic Dishonesty:
It probably needn’t be said at this level, but I will say it anyway: Academic dishonesty will not be tolerated.
When in doubt, cite, and cite meticulously. I’ll only respect you more for your mad research skills. It is your
responsibility to be informed about your responsibilities. For more information on the University’s Code of
Academic Integrity, visit: http://www.arc.wvu.edu/admissions/integrity.html
Course Schedule
Week 1: 1/14
Read:
Week 2: 1/21
Read:
Week 3: 1/28
Read:
Week 4: 2/4
Read:
Week 5: 2/11
Read:
Week 6: 2/18
Read:
Due:
Week 7: 2/25
Read:
Introduction to the course
Richard Hornby: Chapter 1
Supplementary: Lionel Abel/Martin Puchner: Preface and Intro to Tragedy and Metatheatre
Supplementary: Judd Hubert: Metatheatre and Performance
Early Metadrama
anonymous: “Mankynde”
Henry Medwall: “Fulgens and Lucrece”
Richard Hornby: Chapter 2
Supplementary: Greg Walker: “Fulgens and Lucres and Early Tudor Drama”
Renaissance Spectacle as Metatheatre
Christopher Marlowe: Dr. Faustus
William Shakespeare: The Tempest
Tertullian: “On the Spectacles”
Andrew Sofer: “How to Do Things with Demons: Conjuring Performatives in Doctor Faustus”
Supplementary: John Demaray: from Shakespeare and the Spectacles of Strangeness
Metatheatricality and Antitheatricality
Thomas Kyd: The Spanish Tragedy
William Shakespeare: Hamlet
Selected readings on Renaissance Anti-theatricality (Handout)
James Calderwood: from To Be and Not To Be
Supplementary: Lionel Abel: “Hamlet Q.E.D.”
Supplementary: Molly Smith: “The Theatre and the Scaffold”
Metadrama as Play
William Shakespeare: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Fletcher and Beaumont: The Knight of the Burning Pestle
Mikhail Bakhtin: from Rabelais and his World
Supplementary: Richard Schechner: “Play”
Supplementary: James Calderwood: “A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Art’s Illusory Sacrifice”
Supplementary: Michael Bristol: “On Weddings and Charivari” (on Midsummer)
Supplementary: Lee Bliss: “’Plot Mee No Plots’: The Life of the Drama and the Drama of Life…”
Supplementary: Alexander Leggatt: “The Audience as Patron”
Supplementary: Lucy Munro: “KBP and Generic Experimentation”
Modern Metadrama
Luigi Pirandello: Six Characters in Search of an Author
--Each in his Own Way
--Tonight We Improvise
Ariel Watson: The Anxious Triangle, Introduction, 94-104
Supplementary: Linda Hutcheon: Excerpts from Narcissistic Narrative
Last Date for Early Modern Response Paper
Epic Theatre as Metadrama
Bertolt Brecht: Caucasian Chalk Circle
--“A Short Organum for Theatre”
--“Theatre for Pleasure or Theatre for Instruction”
Supplementary: Lionel Abel: “Brecht and Metatheatre”
Supplementary: Martin Puchner: from Stage Fright
Week 8: 3/4
Read:
Roleplaying and Revolution
Peter Weiss: Marat/Sade
Jean Genet: The Balcony
Antonin Artaud: “No More Masterpieces”
Richard Hornby: Chapter 4
Ariel Watson: Chapter 1
Supplementary: Lionel Abel: “Genet and Metatheatre”
Supplementary: June Schlueter: “Weiss’ Inmates at Charenton”
Week 9: 3/11
Read:
Dissolving the Boundaries
Griselda Gambaro: Information for Foreigners
Peter Handke, Offending the Audience
Richard Schechner: from Environmental Theatre
Richard Hornby: Chapter 3, 6.
From Routledge Companion to Performance “Events,” esp. “Dionysus in 69” and “Paradise Now”
Week 10: 3/18
Read:
Due:
Postmodern Language Games
Tom Stoppard: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
--Travesties
Ariel Watson: The Anxious Triangle 82-94
Supplementary: Peter Buse on Stoppard and Lyotard
Supplementary: Nicole Boireau on Tom Stoppard’s Metadrama
Last Date for Modern Response Paper
Spring Break
Week 11: 4/1
Read:
Raced Spectacles
Wole Soyinka: Death and the King’s Horseman
Suzan-Lori Parks: Venus
Richard Schechner on Ritual
Saidiya Hartman: from Scenes of Subjection
Supplementary: Kevin J. Wetmore, Jr: “Re-Enacting: Metatheatre in thuh plays of Suzan-Lori Parks”
Supplementary: Robert Bechtel: “At First Sight: Suzan Lori Parks’s Venus and Erotic History”
Week 12: 4/8
Read:
Reviving Brecht
Caryl Churchill: Cloud 9
Luis Valdez: Zoot Suit
Supplementary: Elin Diamond: “Brechtian Theory / Feminist Theory”
Week 13: 4/15
Read:
Due:
Rehearsing Colonialism
Derek Walcott: “Pantomime”
Timberlake Wertenbaker: “Our Country’s Good”
Ariel Watson: The Anxious Triangle 104-131
Supplementary: Christine Dymkowski: “The Play’s the Thing”
Final Project Proposal
Week 14: 4/22
Read:
Due:
Parodic Spectatorship
Joan Schenkar: The Universal Wolf
Timberlake Wertenbaker: The Love of the Nightingale
Supplementary: Ryan Claycomb, “Toward a Parodic Spectator”
Supplementary: Jennifer Wagner on Formal Parody in LotN
Annotated Bibliography
Last Date for Contemporary Response Paper
Week 15: 4/29
Finals Week:
Final Project Presentations
5/5
Final Paper due via email or hardcopy by 4pm