| Semester |
spring semester 2025
|
| Course frequency |
Irregular
|
| Lecturers |
Philipp Schweighauser (ph.schweighauser@unibas.ch, Assessor)
|
| Content |
This course offers an introduction to twentieth-century American drama on the basis of four plays. In different ways, at least three of the texts have become classics on and off the stage. As we seek to define some of the themes and techniques they share, we will also be led into questions concerning the ways in which dramatic (and literary) texts insert themselves into the canon of works accepted as major. The notion of performance as it is used in drama studies, linguistics, anthropology, and gender studies will be another focus in our analyses of plays that deserve not only to be read closely but also to be performed. Apart from the dramatic texts, which, apart from Hurston, students are expected to read before the beginning of the semester, we will be reading critical texts about the plays themselves and theoretical texts of a more general nature that introduce students to basic concepts and terms in literary theory, drama studies and, more specifically, the study of American drama. |
| Learning objectives |
Students are introduced to a range of canonical 20th c. American plays and a selection of literary-historical, theoretical, and generic concepts for their study. |
| Bibliography |
Eugene O’Neill’s "Long Days’ Journey into Night" (1956), Edward Albee’s "Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" (1962), Susan Glaspell’s "Trifles" (1916), and Zora Neale Hurston’s "Color Struck" (1925). We will begin with O’Neill. Glaspell’s short text is in the "Norton Anthology of American Literature" (buy it or make your own copies), Hurston’s will be made available on ADAM and does not need to be bought. O’Neill and Albee need to be purchased, ideally from Labyrinth bookstore. Additional reading material will be made available on ADAM. |
| Weblink |
ADAM |
