DRAM 389a - Ideas of History in Contemporary American Drama

Institution:

Vassar College

Subject:

Description:

(same as American Culture 389)A wave of American dramatists writing today are dedicated to exploring history. Their work suggests that historical understanding and awareness is vital to our present day survival.In this course, we explore how various playwrights negotiate history and ideas of history in their drama. What does it mean to write about history What are the different tensions and anxieties that writers encounter when dealing with history How might the American stage and the theatrical imagination be used as a laboratory to examine, weigh, and measure history and ideas of history What might we gain by viewing the playwright as historian and historiographer as well as critic and artist This course focuses heavily on, but not be limited to, American dramatists writing in the last thirty years. Play texts are integrated with historical and theoretical readings as well as essays and interviews by the playwrights themselves. Course readings include works by Thorton Wilder, Charles Fuller, Adrienne Kennedy, August Wilson, Tony Kushner, Mac Wellman, Suzan-Lori Parks, Naomi Wallace, Anna Deavere Smith, Charles Mee, Siegfried Kracauer and Peter Novick, among others.

Credits:

1.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.vassar.edu

Phone Number:

(845) 437-7000

Regional Accreditation:

Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools

Calendar System:

Semester

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