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DRA 402.01: Modern Drama, Spring 2016
Instructor: Naz Bulamur
E-mail: [email protected]
Office: TB 524
Office Hours (please make an appointment): Tuesday 10:00-12:00, Friday 13:00-15:00
The objective of this course is to introduce students to the drama genre and to do a survey of modern
European and American drama. The course packet is available at the library copy center. Check the
schedule regularly and do the readings before coming to class.
Grading System:
Class Participation
Quizzes
Midterm: 5 response papers
Final Exam
15 %
10 % (No make-up for quizzes)
40 % (hard copy + turnitin)
35 %
Response Papers should not exceed one single-spaced page (approximately 750 words). Avoid plot
summaries and don’t cover all the topics you are interested in. Instead, choose ONE idea or an issue
that you think is important and give examples from the text to support your argument. Grading criteria:
It should have a controlling purpose (a main idea), textual evidence, and should go beyond the
summary of the text. This is not an essay assignment! So you don’t need one paragraph long
introduction and conclusion. LATE PAPERS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED.
Turn in a hard copy and submit your papers to TURNITIN: http://www.turnitin.com/tr/home
First you need to enroll by using:
Class ID: 11322333 Type the numbers! Do not copy and paste!
Enrollment ID: t7d0o2w1
Schedule of Readings:
Please note that class content and course policies are subject to modification. I might take out some
texts and/or assign a few additional ones. I will notify you of any changes in class.
Week 1
Feb. 8-12
Introduction
Week 2
Feb. 15-19
Ibsen, A Doll’s House
Week 3
Feb. 22-26
Strindberg, Miss Julie (Feb. 23/ Response paper on Doll and Miss Julie)
Week 4
Chekhov, The Cherry Orchard
Feb. 29-March 4
Week 5
March 7-11
Williams, The Glass Menagerie (March 8 /Response Paper Due)
Week 6
Williams cont.
March 14-18
Week 7
Miller, All My Sons (March 22/ Response Paper Due)
March 21-25
Week 8
Excerpts from Brecht, Walter Benjamin, “What is Epic Theatre?”
March 28-Apr. 1 Brecht’s The Private Life of the Master Race
Week 9
Apr. 4-8
Pirandello, Six Characters in Search of an Author (Apr 5 /Response Paper Due)
Week 10
Apr. 11-15
Beckett, Waiting for Godot
Week 11
Apr. 18-22
Spring Break
Week 12
Apr. 25-29
Ionesco, The Bald Soprano (Apr. 26/Response Paper)
Week 13
May 2-6
Friel, Translations
Week 14
May 9-13
Friel
Suggested Reading:
Martin Puchner, The Drama Of Ideas: Platonic Provocations in Theatre and Philosophy
Martin Puchner, Stage Fright
J. L. Styan, Modern Drama in Theory and Practice, Vol. 1-3
Raymond Williams, Drama from Ibsen to Brecht / Modern Tragedy
W. B. Worthen, Modern Drama / Modern Drama and the Rhetoric of Theatre
Joseph Wood Krutch, Modernism in Modern Drama
Martin Esslin, The Theatre of the Absurd
Friedrich Nietzsche, Birth of Tragedy
Aristotle, Poetics