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The course will investigate the development of modern American drama in the first half of the twentieth century. We will primarily concern ourselves with some of America's canonical playwrights and with close reading of their work. C.W.E. Bigsby observes that it is only when we reach the twentieth century that American drama begins to 'test its own boundaries and possibilities.' We will explore the ways in which its key playwrights address these boundaries and possibilities in particular through recurrent themes of social and individual alienation as well as through formal experiment. The playwrights in focus this semester will include: Eugene O'Neill, Susan Glaspell, Sophie Treadwell, Thornton Wilder, Clifford Odets, Lillian Hellman, Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller Lorraine Hansberry, Amiri Baraka and Edward Albee.
Schedule (subject to minor changes) Week 1 (19.2) Introduction: American theatre from melodrama to modernism Week 2 (26.2) Experiments in form – Eugene O’Neill: The Hairy Ape (1922), Strange Interlude (1928) Week 3 (5.3) Experiments in form – Susan Glaspell: Trifles (1916), Sophie Treadwell: Machinal (1928) Week 4 (12.3) Tragedy – Eugene O’Neill: Long Day’s Journey into Night (1941/2, pub. 1956) Week 5 (19.3) Anti-tragedy – Thornton Wilder: Our Town (1938) Week 6 (26.3) To be finalised: Harlem Renaissance session with Mgr. Ondřej Polák Week 7 (2.4) Morality and conflict – Clifford Odets Awake and Sing (1935) Waiting for Lefty (1935), Lillian Hellman The Children’s Hour (1934) Week 8 (9.4) Thwarted desire – Tennessee Williams The Glass Menagerie (1944) and A Streetcar Named Desire (1947) Week 9 (16.4) Tragedy revisited – Arthur Miller All My Sons (1947), Death of a Salesman (1949) Week 10 (23.4) Race / Politics – Lorraine Hansberry A Raisin in the Sun (1957), Amiri Baraka Dutchman (1964) Week 11 (30.4) No class ESSAY PROPOSALS DUE by 7 May at 18.00 Week 12 (7.5) Absurdism – Edward Albee The Zoo Story (1959), American Dream (1960) Week 13 (14.5) Conclusion Grading Scheme Attendance and Participation 20% Presentation/Short response paper 20% Proposal (10) + Final Essay (50) 60% Please note: Students are expected to attend classes. If you are absent for more than 30% of the total number of classes, you will not be entitled to the credit. In order to pass this class, you must capable of reading and discussing primary and secondary texts in English and be able to compose an academic research paper at the end of the course. If you have an Independent Study Plan, I need to know at the start of the semester. Last update: Wallace Clare, doc., M.A., Ph.D. (26.01.2025)
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Primary texts: Most of the plays on the syllabus are available in our library. However, as multiple copies are often not available and other plays are not part of the library’s holdings, primary materials will be circulated in on Moodle. Resources available in library (secondary materials): Bigsby, C. W. E. ed. Edward Albee: A Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1975. Bigsby, C.W.E. A Critical Introduction to Twentieth-Century American Drama. Volume one, 1900-1940. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989. Bigsby, C.W.E. A Critical Introduction to Twentieth-Century American Drama. Volume two, Williams/Miller/Albee. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989. Bigsby, C.W.E. A Critical Introduction to Twentieth-Century American Drama. Volume three, Beyond Broadway. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990. Bigsby, C.W.E. Modern American Drama, 1945-1990. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992. Bigsby, C.W.E. Modern American Drama, 1945-2000. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004. Bogard, Travis and William I. Oliver eds. Modern Drama: Essays in Criticism. New York: Oxford University Press, 1965. Clark, Barrett H. Eugene O'Neill: The Man and his Plays. New York: Dover Publications, 1947. Cowley, Malcolm ed. After the Genteel Tradition: American Writers 1910-1930. Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press, 1967. Cowley, Malcolm ed. Writers at Work: The Paris Review Interviews [1st series]. New York: Viking Press, 1973. Downer, Alan S. ed. American Drama and its Critics: A Collection of Critical Essays. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1967. Dukore, Bernard F. American Dramatists 1918-1945 excluding O'Neill London: Macmillan, 1984. Finkelstein, Sidney. Existentialism and Alienation in American Literature. New York: International Publishers, 1965. French, Warren ed. The Forties: Fiction, Poetry, Drama. DeLand: Everett/Edwards, 1969. Kernan, Alvin B. ed. Modern American Theater: A Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1967. Gassner, John. Eugene O'Neill. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1965. Gassner, John. Theatre at the Crossroads: Plays and Playwrights of the Mid-Century American Stage. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1960. Grebanier, Bernard. Thornton Wilder. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1964. Hogan, Robert. Arthur Miller. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1964. Lewis, Allan. The Contemporary Theatre: The Significant Playwrights of Our Time. New York: Crown Publishers, 1962. Manheim, Michael ed. The Cambridge companion to Eugene O'Neill. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Massa, Ann. American Literature in Context. IV, 1900-1930. London: Methuen, 1982. Nelson, Benjamin. Tennessee Williams: His Life and Work. London: Owen,1961. Rubin, Louis D., ed. The American South: Portrait of a Culture. Washington: Voice of America, 1979. Styan,J. L. The Dark Comedy: The Development of Modern Comic Tragedy. London: Cambridge University Press, 1974. Weales, Gerald. Tennessee Williams Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1965. Wellwarth, George. The Theater of Protest and Paradox: Developments in Avant-Garde Drama. New York: New York University Press, 1964. Williams, Raymond. Modern Tragedy. London: Chatto & Windus, 1966.
Additional suggested secondary materials will be shared on Moodle. Last update: Wallace Clare, doc., M.A., Ph.D. (26.01.2025)
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Seminar Last update: Wallace Clare, doc., M.A., Ph.D. (26.01.2025)
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