Interview, in groups of three, one of your classmates and prepare to report the following information to the rest of the class: “Modern European Drama”

What is the tragedy of the modern family? How are family members expected to “perform”? And can the theater even begin to portray the comedy and tragedy (or tragicomedy) that is modern life?

So-called Anti-Aristotelian dramas, or the plays written and produced between ca. 1870 and 1950, address these and many other questions. This course covers Naturalist Drama to Theater of the Absurd. We will read and consider the performance histories of Scandinavian, Irish, German, French, and Italian theater: Ibsen, Strindberg, Hauptmann, Wilde (The Importance of Being Earnest), O’Casey, Pirandello, Beckett, and Genet.

Students will leave with a profound appreciation for the turbulent world of the modern playhouse.

Satisfies: pre-1900, Drama, multinational, gender issues

Unit I: Pre-1900/Naturalist Drama

1.    Ibsen 1 (Signet above)
2.    Ibsen 2
3.    Strindberg (Dover)
4.    Wilde (Dover)

Unit II: Theater of the Absurd

Brecht and Artaud (pdf/online)

5.    Pirandello (good edition)
6.    Beckett
7.    Genet

Course Objectives
(pre-1900, Drama, multinational, gender issues, 300-level course)

-    Historical/Literary Epochs: Sophisticated Command of “Modern European Drama” ca. 1870-1950 (Naturalist Drama & Theater of the Absurd)

-    Genre: Ability to distinguish between Drama as Text and Performance

-    Comparative Prowess: Contrasts and Similarities between Scandinavian, French, Irish, English, and Italian Plays

-    Appreciation for Gender Issues in Modern Drama and Culture

-    Scholastic Growth and Maturity (from Consumer to Producer of Knowledge)
Course Requirements:
-    Come to class having read and thought about the reading (discussion questions, critical responses on Blackboard / Discussion)

-    Performance Project: Presentation (I) and Written Portion (II) require library research (theater reviews)

-    Midterm

-    Final exam or essay -    Collegiality, respect, and integrity


Additional Student Questions about A Doll House:


Julie: What is rank referring to when he says: "It's not a case of--something on the way, is it?" (93)


Amy: In Act 3, Nora feels that she is an unfit mother. Was she a bad mother?


Erin V.: Nora states that she is an unfit parent, but is Torvald really going to be a successful parent?


[Many]: Why do the children play such a silent role in the play?


Sheila: What does the play tell us about how women were treated in the late nineteenth century?


Erin K.: What role do the stage directions play in this drama, such as the sound of the shutting door? the descriptions of the room?


Jon: Who might be the most "feminist" character, Nora or Christine?



Woman’s Question also: If women are allowed to go outside the home (to work), will they retain their femininity? How can the “Angel in the House” remain an angel if she works at a bank?


Review of Research Strategies
- Please do NOT reiterate a scholarly article’s argument about the play in question
- Rather, use your library research to support issues of PERFORMANCE that your paper hopefully raises

RESOURCES/Reference Books on First Floor:

- Plays: International Dictionary PN 2035 .I49 1992
- Drama for Students (PN 1601.D595)
- The New York Times Theater Reviews (PN 2266.N48)
- New York Theatre Critics’ Reviews (PN 1601. N4 1971; see separate index)
- McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of World Drama (PN 1625.M3 1984)
- Critical Survey of Drama (PN 1625.C68 2003)


Databases:
EBSCO
MLA: maids and genet
Project Muse
JSTOR


Collecting Theater Reviews:

[theatermania.com]

A Doll’s House last performed in San Francisco, Geary Theater, 13 Jan – 8 Feb 2004

    New York, St. Ann’s Warehouse, November 19 – December 14 2003

    New York, Creative Artists Laboratory, May 9 – June 1 2002



NY Times + NY Times Historical

NY Times Recent also: Lexis Nexus + full text + correct date range

More Student Questions:


Justin: Are there moments in the play whent he audience empathizes with Hedda Gabler? Is she a believable character? If no, why does this play continue in popularity?


Jon: Hedda appears to be promiscuous before meeting Tesman. Once married, bored, and presented with a host of eager men, why does she stay faithful?


Danielle: What significance do the characters' professions have on the play? Consider Tesman, Judge Brack, Eilert, and General Gabler.


Gabrielle: Where are the mothers in Ibsen's plays? Does their absence mean something in particular?


[Many] Compare A Doll's House to Hedda Gabler


Review of The Father


Opening scene = model for other themes in the play


•    Very masculine space (guns, hunting bags, arms)

•    Dialogue: Faith (Pastor) and “Reason” (Captain)

•    Nöjd “is waiting for orders in the kitchen”

•    Lack of certainty in paternity

•    The Captain’s lack of a strong will

•    Nöjd: “God save you, Captain” (3).


Religious Motifs

•    Cuckolding / Immaculate Conception

•    Captain is only “non-believer” in the household

•    Nurse, Grandmother coerce Bertha and Adolf

•    Laura believes in the power of the Church

•    “The Father” becomes a play on the heavenly father . . .


Review

1.    What is the big deal about letting Bertha go?
2.    Why doesn’t the Captain stick up for himself? Is the Captain’s sense of the gender war real?
3.    What does the Captain’s demise mean? Is it a cop-out by Strindberg? Does he die? Is it a kind of suicide?
4.    Does the Captain experience a deathbed conversion? Why does he refer to the Nurse as the Virgin Mary?
5.    What would the play be like if Bertha was a boy?
6.    Is the Captain a victim? Why does Strindberg victimize him? How do you compare Nora to the Captain? What messages can be found in the play in regards to gender roles?
7.    It seems like the play is pretty straightforward. Why is this?
8.    What happens with Njod and Emma?
9.    How important is fatherhood in the late 1800s? Why is it so important to the Captain?

Naturalist drama:

Family life , dysfunction
Hauntings (cf. Ghosts and Ghost Sonata)
Honesty deception
Changing gender roles

The Mother:

- characters: mother, father, family friend (doctor, lawyer, pastor), silent children, servants, nanny


- potential topics: secrets, paternity, illness, infidelity, money, addiction