DRLIT-UA 261 - Comparative Study: 20th-Century Drama

Institution:

New York University

Subject:

Description:

The two decades or so following World War II were a particularly exciting period in the history of drama in Europe and America. This course focuses on five playwrights-Samuel Beckett, Tennessee Williams, Jean Genet, Adrienne Kennedy, and Peter Weiss- whose engagements with postwar history and politics shaped the form and content of their works for the stage. Questions include modes of representing historical experience, theatre and historical forms of spectatorship, and challenges to genre. The presumption is that we cannot know in advance what it means to describe a play as "political." Readings include Beckett's Waiting for Godot, Endgame, and selected shorter plays; Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire and Orpheus Descending; Genet's The Balcony, The Blacks, and The Screens; Kennedy's Funnyhouse of a Negro, The Owl Answers, and A Movie Star Has to Star in Black and White; and Weiss's Marat/Sade and The Investigation.

Credits:

4.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.nyu.edu

Phone Number:

(212) 998-1212

Regional Accreditation:

Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools

Calendar System:

Semester

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