Interview, in groups of three, one of your
classmates and prepare to report
the following information to the rest of the class:

Course Introduction



“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, French, and Italian theater: Ibsen, Strindberg, Ernst Rosmer (Elsa Bernstein), Wilde (The Importance of Being Earnest), Pirandello, Beckett, and Genet. Students will leave with a profound appreciation for the development of modern Europe and its playhouses. Satisfies 1b (pre-1900); Drama; multinational; gender studies

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

Unit I: Pre-1900/Naturalist Drama


1.    Henrik Ibsen, Doll's House (Signet )
2.    Henrik Ibsen, Hedda Gabler
3.    A. Strindberg, Miss Julie
4. Elsa Bernstein, Twilight
5.    Oscar Wilde, Importance of Being Earnest (Dover)

Unit II: Theater of the Absurd


Brecht and Artaud (pdf/online)

6.    A. Strindberg, Ghost Sonata
7. L. Pirandello, Six Characters in Search of an Author
8.    Jean Genet,  The Maids
9.    Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot

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, German and Italian Plays

-    Appreciation for Gender Issues in Modern Drama and Culture

-    Scholastic Growth and Maturity (from Consumer to Producer of Knowledge)

Course Requirements:

Student Questions on Doll House

1.    What’s the relationship between Mrs. Linde and Krogstad?
2.    What is Dr. Rank’s illness about (tuberculosis of the spine)?
3.    Was Torvald a product of his time, or just as self centered as Nora?
Should we feel sorry for Torvald?

4.    What business did Mrs. Linde have in telling K not to take
Nora’s letter back?

-    Would Nora have confronted and left Torvald if they had not
intervened?

5.    Why is it called doll house? Would it be more appropriately
called bird house?

6.    Did Dr. Rank’s role as a supportive friend lead Nora to see
How unappreciative Torvald is?

7.    Was Nora’s comment about ‘sacred duties’ (to herself, Torvald)
A true realization or a rationalization?

8.    Why does she have to leave her children/forget her role as a mother in order
To become a better woman?

9. In what ways is Nora anti-Aristotelian—and the play?

1.    Is Hedda pregnant?
2.    Why does Hedda refer to the vine leaves in Lovborg’s hair?

Why does the play seem more about Eilert Lovborg than Hedda?

3.    Is Ibsen at all sympathetic towards Hedda despite her cruelty?
How does he feel about the upper classes? How does she relate to feminism?

Shouldn’t her name be Hedda Tesman?

What does Tesman see in Hedda? What was both of their
motivations for marrying?

4.    What does Hedda mean by calling Brack the “one cock
of the walk”?

How would nineteenth-century audiences react to the ménage-
a-trois references?

5.    Why does Hedda dislike Mrs. Elvsted so much?
6.    Why is Hedda so nasty to Aunt Julie when she supports them?
7.    What is Ibsen saying about women who choose to be rebellious?
8.    Why does Hedda burn the manuscript?
9.    What is Hedda’s attitude to old things (leaves, aunt)?
10.    Why does it seem like Hedda is underdeveloped? Does she grow at all?

11.    What do the character parallels in DH and HG mean?

-    Brack / Rank
-    Hedda / Nora
-    Linde / Elvsted
1.    Was Jean manipulating Julie the whole time?
2.    Did they just start the relationship now, or did they have a
Previous flirtation?

3.    Should the title, Miss Julie, have more meaning to it?
4.    Was Strindberg an egalitarian? Is this play really
about human equality?

5.    Is Strindberg blaming Julie for her own fate (refusing to accept
her station/role), or is he alerting his audience to
the danger of hysteria?

6.    How does Julie change from being so controlling to being
submissive?

7.    What’s the symbolism of Midsummer’s Eve?
8.    Is Jean’s cruelty at the end more about class conflict
or psycho-sexual tendencies?
Review:

-    Meaning of “romance:” chivalric tales from Middle Ages (knight, damsel in distress, impediment like a dragon or a villain); popular parlance: unrealistic expectations

-    ‘Ritter’ = knight; Graef = similar to Gräfin, or countess; Isolde = name of heroine in Wagner’s Ring cycle (Tristan and Isolde)

-    Source of Isolde’s disease suspected to be syphilis, either contract through incest or congenitally
 
-    Regardless, Isolde maintains an unnatural affection for her father (and corresponding jealousy of her grandmother and Dr. Sabine Graef)

In-class Ques. from Students:

1.    What are examples of father-daughter incest in the play?
Are there hints of an improper relationship? How did society
Then view incest then vs. now?
2.    What is Isolde’s relationship with Carl? How long have they been
together?

3.    How much of the Tristan and Isolde story is referenced here?
4.    Is it common in plays to belittle the servants? Why are Ritter and
Isolde so ethnocentric? What culture do they think is elite?

5.    In what ways is this play written in opposition to Strindberg?
6.    How does this compare to Doll House and Hedda Gabler?

Stud. Ques. not addressed in class:

1. Andrea + Katie: Is Isolde willing to give up her father at the end of the play, or is her martyrdom just another form of selfishness?

2. Jessica Le.: Sabine seems to be quite the successful, scientific modern woman. Ritter, on the other hand, is artful, old-fashioned, and seems to detest modernity. Why, then, do they ultimately seem to have some attraction to each other?

3. Tara: After working so hard to become an eye surgeon, is it believable that Sabine would give up medicine to be Ritter’s wife?

Katie: How does Sabine go from this powerful doctor who has enough guts to ask if Herr Ritter if he has some form of STD to this sheepish, shy, helpless woman in love who is okay with becoming “stupid—happily stupid”?

4. Parag: Is Sabine’s depiction of the New Woman more accurate in comparison to today’s woman because the author is a woman herself?

Theater of Cruelty (Artaud):


-    no masterpieces
-    interaction with audience
-    visceral experience
-    religious / magic experience
-    harsh sounds and noise
-    gestures that communicate
-    light “interposed in its turn” (639)
-    means to induce trances
-    lyrical action

Similarities to Brecht:


-    no more 4th wall
-    vs. passive spectatorship
-    vs. European-style “theater museum”/theater as high art
-    vs. theater as illusion

Brecht, Epic Theater:


-    alienation effect
-    episodic
-    not plot-driven
-    didactic
-    screens
Pirandello

1.    Was the stepdaughter intimate with someone in the house?
2.    What do they mean by being an unrealized character?
3.    Why does the director say Pirandello’s plays are last resort (7)?
4.    How does the role of the father compare to Naturalists? What
Is his role?

5.    What does Pirandello think of actors?
6.    Why doesn’t Pirandello give name to his characters?
Are the actors and directors characters as well?

7.    On p. 27, how does the director change the story? Is that why
there’s not a satisfying ending?
Student Ques.

1.    What happens at the end of the play?
2.    Why are they role playing?
3.    Why does Claire insist they’re being spied on/watched?
4.    Is there an aspect of sexual attraction between the maids
And madame, and the maids and each other?

Who is the milkman, and what did he do?

5. Why would Solange consider her spit a “spray of diamonds” (52)?

What basic questions does Beckett’s play seem to raise about human nature?

1.    What is our destiny?
2.    How do we depend on others?
3.    What needs do we have besides food?
4.    Is it really in our nature to help others, or do we just help ourselves?
5.    Is there innate goodness in anyone? Is there such a thing?
6.    Why don’t we act on what we say we will?

Other:

-    Why is there suffering?
-    Who are we?
-    Why are we here?
-    What are we waiting for?  (Why don’t we just kill ourselves?)
-    What does a human being mean when he says “I”?
Free write on any of the following words. (10 min.)

-    Authority
-    Discipline
-    Dominant
-    Family
-    Gay
-    Man
-    Passive
-    Suicide
-    Straight
-    tragedy
-    Woman





Review for Exam:

Ghost Sonata and Cabinet of Dr. Caligari: In what ways might hypnotism be related to fascism?

Ghost Sonata: a) How does the Old Man get the Student to follow his commands? b) What do each of the deaths in Ghost Sonata mean?

Brecht and Artaud: In what ways do the theories of Brecht and Artaud react to mass culture and fascism?

Six Characters in Search of an Author: How are women depicted in Pirandello’s play? b) In what ways do the Father and the Director control the people around them? How, in other words, do they force others to act as they see fit? c) What is the significance of the deaths of the children?

The Maids: In what ways does being servants impact the maids’ sexual identity? b) Does the maids’ wish to be “beautiful, drunk, and free” come true at the end of the play, or is Genet’s work actually about control and manipulation? c) Why does Claire kill herself (or does she)?

Waiting for Godot: What does it mean to be human in Beckett’s play? b) In what ways are Estragon and Lucky feminine? Does their passivity make Didi and Pozzo masculine? c) Why don’t the characters kill themselves?