Achilles-Detailinfo
"Drama and Space" - Detailinformation
1. Dozent(en) Prof. Dr. Jochen Achilles
2. anbietende Einrichtung: Lehrstuhl für Amerikanistik
3. Titel der Veranstaltung "Drama and Space" (taught in English)
4. Veranstaltungsart: Oberseminar
5. Dienstag, 15.30 bis 17.00 Uhr
6. Raum/Ort: Phil.Bau, Hubland, Übungsraum 11
7. durchgehende Veranstaltung IM WS
8. Umfang: 2 SWS
9. angeboten für für Doktoranden der ganzen GSH und fortgeschrittene Amerikanisten.
10. max. Teilnehmerzahl: 30
12. elektronische Anmeldefrist verstrichen, persönliche Anmeldung über das Sekretariat Amerikanistik, Frau Ney (Tel. 888-4615 oder 888-5656)
Info
This seminar will discuss major American plays of the twentieth century - and, in addition, some plays from other English-speaking countries - whose settings and plot structures raise questions about the formation of both real and symbolic spaces: the interstices between local, or regional, developments and global, or universal, ones; the internalization of space in the sense of their being playing grounds for the interaction of psychic forces; the ethical implications of spatial arrangements in the sense of Michel Foucault's heterotopias and Jean Baudrillard's transparencies. Many modern plays thus transcend the boundaries of intersubjective conflicts and mirror cultural developments in which the individuals are situated or even entrapped. They can be considered as scenarios of moral decision and inner conflict, as Peter Szondi suggests in his far-sighted Theorie des modernen Dramas.
Calendar
This calendar is provisional and may be subject to change. When more than one play is listed for a single seminar session, it is mandatory to read the plays marked by an asterisk.*
Oct. 21: Introduction and Organization.
Staging Separate Spheres:
Oct. 28: Susan Glaspell, Trifles (1916); Rachel Crothers, A Man's World (1915).
African American (Inner) Spaces:
Nov. 04: Angelina Weld Grimké, Rachel (1916); Eugene O'Neill, Emperor Jones (1920).
Nov. 11: Adrienne Kennedy, Funnyhouse of a Negro (1964)
Nov. 18: Alice Childress, Trouble in Mind (1955).
Nov. 25: Suzan Lori Parks, The America Play (1991), Topdog/Underdog (2001).
Space and Modernity:
Dec. 02: Elmer Rice, The Adding Machine (1923)
Dec. 09: Sophie Treadwell, Machinal (1928)
Space as Commodity:
Dec. 16: David Mamet, Glengarry Glenross (1983)
Dec. 23: Film Version of Glengarry Glenross
European Spaces:
Jan. 13: Brian Friel, Translations (1981)
Jan. 20: Michael Frayn, Copenhagen (1998).
European and American West(s):
Jan. 27: Sam Shepard, True West (1980).
Feb. 03: Martin McDonagh, The Lonesome West (1997).
Literature
Theory and Criticism on Space: Bachelard, Gaston. The Poetics of Space. Boston: Beacon Press, 1994. 1st ed. 1958.
Baudrillard, Jean. The Transparency of Evil: Essays on Extreme Phenomena. Transl. James Benedict. London: Verso. 1993. 1st ed. 1990.
Buell, Lawrence. The Environmental Imagination: Thoreau, Nature Writing, and the Formation of American Culture. Cambridge, MA, and London: Harvard UP, 1995.
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Writing for an Endangered World: Literature, Culture, and Environment in the United States and Beyond. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 2001.
De Certeau, Michel. The Practice of Everyday Life. Berkeley: U of California P, 1984.
Lefebvre, Henri. The Production of Space. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 1991.
Nye, David E. "Foundational Space, Technological Narrative." Space in America. Theory History Culture.
Benesch, Klaus; Schmidt Kerstin (Eds.). New York: Rodopi, 2005. 119-137.
Theory and Criticism on Drama:
Auflitsch, Susanne. Staging Separate Spheres: Theatrical Spaces as Sites of Antagonism in One-Act Plays by American Women, 1910-1930. Frankfurt/Main: Lang, 2006.
Berkovitz, Gerald M. American Drama of the Twentieth Century. London and New York: Longman, 1992.
Bigsby, Christopher W. Modern American Drama, 1945-1990. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1992.
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Contemporary American Playwrights. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1999.
The Cambridge History of American Theatre. Ed. Don B. Wilmeth and Christopher Bigsby. 3 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2000.
Etherton, Michael. Contemporary Irish Dramatists. London, 1989.
Goetsch, Paul. Bauformen des modernen englischen und amerikanischen Dramas. Darmstadt: Wiss. Buchges., 2/1992.
Innes, Christopher. Modern British Drama, 1890-1990. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1992.
Müller, Kurt. Das amerikanische Drama: Eine Einführung. Berlin: Erich Schmidt Verlag, 2006.
Murray, Christopher. Twentieth-Century Irish Drama: Mirror Up to Nation. Manchester and New York: Manchester UP, 1997.
Pfister, Manfred. Das Drama. München: UTB 580, 1977.
Rabkin, Gerald. Drama and Commitment: Politics in the American Theatre of the Thirties. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1964.
Roche, Anthony. Contemporary Irish Drama. From Beckett to McGuinness. Dublin, 1994.
Shafer, Yvonne. American Women Playwrights, 1900-1950. New York: Lang, 1995.
Szondi, Peter. Theorie des modernen Dramas. Frankfurt/Main: edition suhrkamp 27, 1963.
Zapf, Hubert. Das Drama in der abstrakten Gesellschaft: Zur Theorie und Struktur des modernen englischen Dramas. Tübingen: Niemeyer, 1988.
Hinweise:
Regular attendance (not more than two absences), active in-class participation, an oral presentation including a handout and a research paper (ca. 15 pages, MLA-standards apply).
The seminar research paper will draw on recent scholarship, reviews, contextual reading, etc. It will be written on a topic concerning one or more of the entirety of texts discussed in class.
The deadline for handing in the seminar paper is March 9, 2009. No exceptions.
It is not possible to gain credit while the semester is still in progress. Credits needed for final exams have to be obtained in the semester prior to entering these exams.
