ETS 252 Drama Theory on Film S. Sternlicht Fall 2004
Office MW 10:35-11:30 and also by appointment 429HL X9480/2173 Home 472 5639
svsternl@syr.edu http://web.syr.edu/~svsternl
Classroom 207HL M & W 3‑5:50
Texts: Barnet EIGHT GREAT TRAGEDIES; EIGHT GREAT COMEDIES
Sternlicht READER’S GUIDE TO MODERN AMERICAN DRAMA
Objectives: This course attempts the following: to introduce you to the genre, showing how the drama developed from ancient Greece through modern times; to give you access to modern and post‑modern critical apparatus and strategies such as psychoanalytic (Freud‑‑Lacan), Neo‑Marxist (Marx‑‑Bakhtin), and Feminist theory, so that you will become a more discerning reader, viewer, and critic of the drama; to differentiate the modes of drama: tragedy, comedy, social drama, history plays, melodrama, and farce; to demonstrate how a playwright creates; to show the relationship between dramatic texts and the theater; to understand the receptive process of the gazing audience “creating” the play; to comprehend the space called stage; to introduce Performance Theory and stage semiotics (performances are arbitrary systems of signs); to explain the function of critics and theorists; to analyze, evaluate, discuss, and respond to both the classics of drama and newer texts outside the canon; to explore the differences between a dramatic text on stage and on film; briefly to introduce film theory in contrast to drama theory; to expand your general, cultural knowledge while increasing your theater‑going pleasure.
The architectonic perspectives of this course are theoretical and cultural/historical. In the latter regard we read, discuss, and see plays from the most significant periods of Western drama: Classical Greece, The English Renaissance, French Neo‑Classicism, and Modern/Contemporary. Although the instructor is personally deeply committed to the support of African‑American culture and to the political and aesthetic tenets of feminism, the course is not one entirely in contemporary drama; and although feminist theory is a significant structural part of the course from the very beginning, and reference to African‑American aesthetics is continual, reading and discussion of African‑American and feminist plays and writers come in their more significant historical position as the course moves towards the present moment.
WEEK READING & VIEWING LECTURE‑DISCUSSION
1 none Intro to Greek Drama & Theater
2 Oedipus; Reader's Guide, 9-10, 119-25. Stage Semiotics
3 Hippolytus; RG 29-69 O'Neill, Aristotle, Nature of Tragedy
4 Twelfth Night Eliz. Drama & Stage; Feminist Theory
5 Lear Freud and Drama
6 Lear Women in Tragedy 7 The Miser Neo-Classic Theory; Marxism & Theory
8 Ghosts Psychoanalytic Theory, Jung
9 none Play writing; Screen writing
10 Earnest Nature of Comedy
11 Uncle
Vanya
12 Arms and the Man; RG 163-66,206-12 Wilde, Shaw, Beckett 13 Desire under the Elms Stage Realism; Feminist Drama
14 none African American Drama, Hansberry
15 none Discourse Summation
Requirements: satisfactory class attendance. Attendance required and taken each class. More than 4 unexcused absences will result in the loss of a letter grade (eg: A to B). More than 6 unexcused absences and an F will be recorded for the course regardless of exam scores. (Only documented medical and family emergency excuses allowed). I want to provide you with a meaningful, intellectually stimulating course and class activities cannot be replaced.
Two exams and two 1500 word essays to be assigned later; essay dates due: 4 Oct. and 17 Nov. Late essays penalized one letter grade. Number one exam includes all lectures, readings, discussions, and video showings up to the date of the exam): 13 Oct. (review: 11 Oct.) The second exam includes all lectures, readings, and video showings from 13 Oct. to the date of the exam: 8 Dec. (review: 6 Dec.) Absolutely no make‑up or earlier exams.
Students with special needs are encouraged to identify themselves to the instructor as soon as possible.
ETS 252 Drama Theory on Film: Play Videos Schedule
Fall 2004
8 Sep Oedipus (Sophocles)
15 Sep Death of a Salesman (Miller)
22 Sep Long Day's Journey into Night (0'Neill)
29 Sep Twelfth Night (Shakespeare)
6 Oct King Lear (Shakespeare)
20 Oct The Miser (Moliere)
27 Oct Ghosts (Ibsen)
3 Nov Importance of Being Earnest (Wilde)
10 Nov Uncle Vanva (Chekhov)
17 Nov Raisin in the Sun (Hansberry)
1 Dec Painting Churches (Howe)