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English 257: Modern British and American Drama
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| Some major postwar innovations in American and British drama can be understood in terms of cross-cultural fertilization, the "lens" through which we will read plays in the course.
British playwrights of the late fifties (Osborne, Wesker, Delaney) "revolutionized" the British stage by importing a particularly American histrionics of passion developed by such playwrights as Hellman, O'Neill, Miller, and Williams. Later, British "kitchen sink" drama meshed with continental European absurdism to produce the distinctly British language-oriented realistic drama of Pinter. Pinter, in turn, influenced American playwrights such as Shepard, Mamet, Rabe, and Kopit who created a specifically American "talk drama." Like Pinter, these American playwrights are able to convey a sense of threat and violence erupting from an apparently innocuous language. Language in their plays is a form of energy that blasts people away or lulls them to sleep. And, even more so than in Pinter's work, language hypnotizes because the characters in these plays live in a world where power goes to the best story teller, where survival depends on an ability to fill the silence and to seduce. With little exaggeration, one could regard Williams or O'Neill's heroes as neurotics, Pinter's as schizophrenics, and Mamet or Rabe's as hysterics. Finally, language and spectacle merge in British and American plays written by politically engaged playwrights such as Churchill, Brenton, and Kushner. We will (try to) read approximately one play a week and, whenever possible and appropriate, watch movie versions of the plays. A fairly limited number of critical readings (reviews, manifestoes, theories) will help deepen our discussions. You may expect lecture/discussions, group presentations of selected scenes, and, occasionally, group moderation of discussions. Last year's selections: |
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