You are responsible for everything listed on the syllabus unless
I specifically tell you otherwise. I will assume that I can trust you to do all
the assigned reading on time. If I discover that this trust is misplaced, you
will face my wrath.
Journals
In order to help you engage with the material, and in order to
give me a sense for how you are engaging with it, you will keep a reading
journal which you turn in weekly. You must turn in one entry per week (half of
you will turn them in on Monday and the other half will turn them in on
Wednesday) which must be at least 500 words (two double-spaced pages).
You may write more if you wish. Due dates for reading journals are not given
on the syllabus. Your reading journal entries must engage with the reading
we are doing in class the week you turn it in; you may also bring in earlier
readings. Journal entries turned in late will not be accepted.
Reading journals will be marked on a credit/no credit basis. You must have a
better than 80% ‘credit’ rating in order to pass the course.
At the end of the semester you will turn in a final project of
20-30 pages which uses some of the texts we have read this semester, and some
which you will discover on your own, to investigate drama/theater/performance
in some way, shape, or form. You will develop your topic during individual
consultations with me, and you will submit a topic proposal in advance. All
assignments will be turned in at the beginning of class on the days that the
syllabus says they are due. All work must be typed on a word processor.
You
will be responsible for one 15-20 minute oral presentation in which you
contextualize one or more of the readings we are discussing that day. You will
also be responsible for compiling a bibliography relating to the topic you have
chosen and distributing it to the class. Your grade will be based on both the
oral presentation and your bibliography.
This class will be small, and your presence and participation
are crucial to its success. Attendance is mandatory. If you miss ten minutes or
more of a class, either at the beginning or at the end, that counts as an
unexcused absence. The only excuses I accept for absence are major religious
holidays, physical or mental illness, or serious personal trauma. I will allow
you one unexcused absence free of charge; after that, your class participation
grade drops 20 points with each unexcused absence. It is your responsibility to
keep track of your absences.
I will always be available in my office during my office hours
for conferences. If you can't make those hours you can always set up an
appointment with me for another time.
Your final grade for the course breaks down as follows:
Final paper: 60%
Presentation: 15%
Topic Proposal: 10%
Attendance/class participation (including reading journal): 15%
COURSE
OUTLINE
This syllabus is subject
to change. Please check your email and the online syllabus for updates.
I.
ARISTOTLE’S MIRROR
WEEK ONE
January 19
Introduction
WEEK TWO: Pity and Terror
January 24
Aristotle, Poetics
January 26
Sophocles, Oedipus Rex
Freud:
“The Dissolution of the Oedpus Complex” (661-665), “Some Psychical Consequences of
the Anatomical Distinction Between the Sexes”
(670-678)
Handout:
Freud, “Oedipus and
Hamlet”
WEEK THREE: The Rules
January 31
Gerould:
Castelvetro, The Poetics of
Aristotle (108-116); Guarini, The Compendium
of Tragic Poetry (128-134); d’Aubignac, The
Whole Art of the Stage (146-152); Corneille, Of the Three Unities of
Action, Time, and Place (153-167)
February 2
Class canceled due to
closing of the university
WEEK FOUR: Inside/Out
February 7
Gerould:
Philip Sidney, The Defense of Poetry (117-127); Dryden, An
Essay of Dramatic Poesy (168-178)
Course
packet and/or handout:
Shakespeare, Hamlet
(II.ii and III.ii), The
Winter’s Tale (prologue to Act IV)
February 9
Gerould:
Diderot, Conversations
on The Natural Son, The Paradox of Acting (189-201); Johnson,
Preface to Shakespeare (219-235)
Electronic
Reserve:
Joseph Roach, “Diderot”
Course
packet:
Joseph Roach, “Preface”
II. ACTING NATURAL
WEEK FIVE: Myth and the Material
February 14
Electronic
Reserve:
Richard Wagner, “The
Art-Work of the Future”
Gerould:
Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy (336-350)
February 16
Gerould:
Zola, Preface to
Therese Raquin and Naturalism in the Theatre
(351-367); Strindberg, Preface to Miss Julie (368-380)
Electronic
Reserve:
Una Chaudhuri,
“Plays and Place”
WEEK SIX: Living the Part
February 21
Electronic
Reserve:
Michel Foucault, “Docile
Bodies”
Handout
Constantin Stanislavski,
selections from An Actor Prepares
February 23
Handout:
Christopher Innes, A Sourcebook on Naturalist Theatre,
137-164
Anton
Chekov:
The Seagull
WEEK SEVEN: Somatophobia
February 28
Freud:
“Anna O.” (60-78), “The Aetiology of Hysteria” (96-110)
Electronic
Reserve:
Elin Diamond, “Realism’s
Hysteria: Disruption in the Theater of Knowledge”
March 2
PDF:
Edward Gordon Craig, The Actor and the Ubermarionette
Electronic Reserve:
Vsevolod Meyerhold,
“First Attempts at a Stylized Theatre”
WEEK EIGHT: Against the Real
March 7
Gerould: 444-461
Brecht, “The Modern
Theatre is the Epic Theatre,” “Alienation Effects in Chinese Acting”
Handout:
Bertolt Brecht, notes on The
Mother
March 9
PRESENTATION:
Carina Finn
Handout:
Antonin Artaud,
selections from The Theatre and its Double
March 13-19: Spring
break. No class.
III. FINDING THE BODY
WEEK NINE: Bodies In Space
March 21
PRESENTATION: John
Dillon
Electronic Reserve:
Victor Turner, “Liminality and Communitas”
Richard Schechner, “Drama, Script, Theory, Performance”
March 23
PRESENTATION:
Garrett Seelinger
Electronic
Reserve:
Richard Schechner, “Six Axioms for Environmental Theatre”
Handout:
Richard Schechner, “Participation”; selections from Herbert Blau, “Repression, Pain, and the Participation Mystique”
WEEK TEN: Bodies In Pain
March 28
PRESENTATION:
Nathaniel Myers
Course
packet:
Stanford B. Garner Jr.,
“The Phenomenology of Performance”
Electronic
Reserve:
Stanford B. Garner Jr, “Post-Brechtian Anatomies: The
Politics of Embodiment”
March 30
No class
WEEK ELEVEN: Bodies As Signs
April 4
Electronic Reserve:
Handout:
Jacques Lacan, “The
Mirror Stage,” “The Signification of the Phallus”
April 6
PRESENTATION:
CJ Waterman
Judith
Butler, Gender Trouble: 101-180
“Subversive Bodily Acts”
IV. PLAYING WITH OUR SELVES
WEEK TWELVE: Acting Up
April 11
PRESENTATION:
Seth Oelbaum
Judith
Butler, Gender Trouble 181-190:
“From Parody to Politics”
Electronic
Reserve:
Peggy Phelan, “Broken
symmetries: memory, sight, love”
Course Packet:
Peggy Phelan, “White men
and pregnancy: discovering the body to be rescued”
April 13
Sophocles,
Antigone
Judith Butler, Antigone’s Claim: 1-27
“Antigone’s Claim”
WEEK THIRTEEN: A Little More Than Kin
April 18
PRESENTATION:
Robin Murphy
Butler, Antigone’s Claim chapters 2 & 3:
“Unwritten Laws, Aberrant Transmissions;”
“Promiscuous Obedience”
April 20
TOPIC PROPOSAL DUE.
Handout:
selections from Lee Edelman, No
Future: Queer Theory and the Death Drive
WEEK FOURTEEN: Future Shock
April 25
Easter Monday. NO CLASS.
April
27
Conferences
WEEK FIFTEEN: Dead Or Alive?
May 2
Electronic
Reserve:
Philip Auslander, “Live Performance in a Mediatized
Culture”
May 4
Presentation of final
projects
MAY 13:
Final paper must be submitted to me electronically by 8:00
a.m. at sharris2@nd.edu