This course surveys the major aesthetic movements of the last century utilizing dramatic texts and theoretical writings to illustrate successive paradigms. Movements such as Naturalism, Symbolism, Expressionism, Dadaism, Surrealism, Epic Theatre and the Absurd are examined through close readings of associated works. Students will respond critically to the material by comunicating mastery of texts and concepts.
Classes combine lectures and seminars that require student particpation.
To understand, appreciate and master the plays of the Bard, students must approach the texts as performance specimens. This course utilizes dramatic literature and film to examine the Nazi policies of genocide that were initiated and enacted before and during the Second World War. Various representational strategies are analyzed and contrasted in an effort to gauge the relative effectiveness of artists to come to terms with these ineffable events. Issues to be examined include the relationship between a dramatic text and its historical model, the problem of transfiguration, the applicability of a structural model for organizing texts, documentary versus dramatic enactment, varying national perspectives,the emergence of feminist and gay perspectives, and the problems of exploitation and revisionism. This is an extremely challenging course that synthesizes theoretical and practical components to introduce students to the art of acting.