Drama and Democracy: 2011-12 

Compulsory core module for English and Theatre studies degree only. This module is not available to other students.

Drama is the most public literary form - at many points in history the most immediately engaged in social change. Dublin’s Abbey Theatre, Roosevelt’s Federal Theatre Project, and the Market Theatre, Johannesburg, are among the many companies that have played a major part in defining national identities at times of crisis and have been platforms for protest.

This module looks at major English-language plays written since the beginning of the twentieth century. We shall examine theatre in Ireland, the USA and South Africa to investigate some of the ways writers have dramatised political, racial, class and gender issues and have tried to foster a sense of community and intervene in history. Developments in theatrical form will be studied as vehicles for ideas. The work of designers, directors from Elia Kazan to Barney Simon and actors from Paul Robeson to Yvonne Bryceland will be considered alongside the texts, and video performances will be screened wherever possible. Each section of the module will be introduced with an illustrated contextual lecture given by a twentieth-century historian to provide a compact guide to culture, politics, and social movements in Ireland, South Africa and the U.S., and to get you thinking about the public impact of performance.

IMPORTANT ROOM CHANGE

In terms 2 and 3 teaching will take place in a new space in the HUMANITIES BUILDING -

  THE HUMANITIES STUDIO

HOW TO FIND THE HUMANITIES STUDIO in the HUMANITIES BUILDING:

It's on the GROUND FLOOR.

Enter the door marked Transnational Resources Centre, opposite the side entrance to the Cafe.

Keep walking through and then turn left, head towards room H0.81. THE STUDIO is just before that room, to your left,

TERM 2

The historian Mick Jennings will give three illustrated background lectures to the course.

Tuesday WEEK 2: USA - 6.30-7.30 in Millburn House Rehearsal Room

TERM 2

USA

Week 1: Introduction: Texts for America: Dion Boucicault, The Octoroon (download); Kern and Hammerstein, Show Boat

Please note: you can download Boucicault's The Octoroon from http://www.wayneturney.20m.com/octoroon.htm

There are interestingly different versions of this play, so try to look too at this one: http://library.marist.edu/diglib/english/americanliterature/19c-20c%20play%20archive/octoroon-index.htm

Week 2: Race and Class: Eugene O’Neill, All God's Chillun Got Wings (xerox) The Emperor Jones; The Hairy Ape

Week 3: Tragic Individualism: Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman (v);Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire (v)

Week 4: McCarthyism: Arthur Miller, The Crucible (v); Elia Kazan, On the Waterfront (video)

week 5: Redrawing History: Leroi Jones/Amiri Baraka, Dutchman (v); Slaveship (xerox)

Week 6: Reading week.

Week 7: Lorraine Hansbury, A Raisin in the Sun (v); Ntozake Shange, for colored girls who have considered suicide...

Week 8: David Mamet, Glengary Glen Ross (v); Oleanna (video)

Week 9: Tony Kushner, Angels in America I: Millennium Approaches (v)

Week 10: Tarell Alvin McCraney, The Brothers Size

NB: (v) - a video can be seen in H534 on Thursdays, from 10.00-4.00. Collect key from English Office.

TERM 3

weeks 1-4: Reviewing a Century: Revision workshops

TERM 1  

Ireland

Week 1: Introduction.

Week 2: Dion Boucicault, The Colleen Bawn; W.B.Yeats and Augusta Gregory, Cathleen Ni Houlihan; Maude Gonne, Dawn (xeroxes)

You can dowload Cathleen Ni Houlihan from: http://www.readbookonline.net/readOnLine/26361/

Week 3: Sean O’Casey, Shadow of a Gunman; The Plough and the Stars

Week 4: Frank McGuinness, Observe the Sons of Ulster; Sebastian Barry, The Steward of Christendom

Week 5: Anne Devlin, Ourselves Alone; Marina Carr, Portia Coughlan

 Week 6: Reading week

South Africa

Week 7: Fugard, Kani and Ntshone, Sizwe Bansi is Dead; The Island  

Week 8: Fugard, Statements After an Arrest Under the Immorality Act

Week 9: Documentaries and Musicals: Market Theatre, Born in the RSA; Sarafina! (videos)

Week 10: South African Shakespeare: Othello, Titus Andronicus (videos)

There will be regular film/video screenings. You should regard these as a key part of the module.

There will be three background lectures, introducing the historical context of each section of the module.

Each student will introduce one seminar each term (you can work in pairs). This can be an 'academic' presentation or a 'practical' session. You choose.

In term 1 you are also required to write a brief weekly paper (one side of A4 – about 250 words – on one of the week’s texts, whether playscript, performance or film). Put together, these will form your seminar portfolio for the term: it isn’t assessed, but you will hand the material in, in weeks 5 and 10 and it’s a requirement, to give you the chance to think about the politics of representation, and to explore ideas which you may wish to develop in your assessed writing.

Assessment will be by two essays (3,000 words each) [50%] and a three-hour examination in the summer term.

One of the assessed pieces may be a creative project, which should be a response to some of the texts or issues encountered in the module. It might for example be a literary adaptation, a video project, a work of drama, or an exhibition. Your work should be accompanied by an essay of c.1,000 words reflecting on your aims and methods. If you wish to do this you must discuss it with your tutor by week six of term 1 (first essay) or week six of term 2 (second essay).

Videos Term One

Richard Eyre documentary: Changing Stages, Ireland

The Plough and the Stars; The Shadow of a Gunman

Michael Collins

Bloody Sunday

Fugard documentary; The Island

Market Theatre: Born in the RSA; The Biko Inquest; Sarafina

Market Theatre: Othello; Titus Andronicus

Objectives

This module examines the social and political ideas of leading dramatists and theatre practitioners in twentieth-century North America, Ireland and South Africa. Students will examine plays - and where possible, film or video productions - to see how changing attitudes to imperialism, class, race and gender have been reflected in drama. At the heart of the module is the shifting relationship between theatre and social change.

Texts

Many of these plays can easily be obtained second-hand and appear in several editions. The Bookshop should have the following:

Term 1

Sean O'Casey, Three Dublin Plays (Faber)

Frank McGuinness, Observe the Sons of Ulster (Faber)

Sebastian Barry, The Steward of Christendom (Methuen)

Anne Devlin, Ourselves Alone (Faber)

Marina Carr, Plays One (Faber)

Athol Fugard, Statements (Theatre Communications Group)

Term 2 

Eugene O'Neil, Three Great Plays (Dover)

Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman (Penguin)

The Crucible (Penguin)

Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire (Penguin)

Loraine Hansbury, A Raisin in the Sun (Methuen)

Ntozake Shange, Plays One (Methuen)

David Mamet, Glengarry Glen Ross (Methuen)

Tony Kushner, Angels in America Part One (Nick Hern Books)

Tarell Alvin McCraney, The Brothers Size (Faber)