Annotation
OBJECTIVES
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, Thornton Wilder, Clifford Odets, Lillian Hellman, Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller and Edward Albee. In the following semester part 2 of the course will deal with American drama and theatre from mid-century to the present.
ASSESSMENT
Class presentation, attendance, and a 3000 word essay.