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, The Father (Dover)
4. Elsa Bernstein, Twilight
5.    Oscar Wilde, Importance of Being Earnest (Dover)

Unit II: Theater of the Absurd


Brecht and Artaud (pdf/online)

6.    L. Pirandello, Six Characters in Search of an Author
7.    Jean Genet,  The Maids
8.    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 is the significance of the pet names Torvald gives Nora?
What do these have to do with the dehumanization of Nora?
Does calling her bird names foreshadow her flying away?

Does he give her nicknames b/c she acts like a child, or does she act like a child because he calls her nicknames?


2.    What do Torvald’s expectations for Nora tell us about the situation of women at the time?
3.    Would it be normal for a woman like Mrs. Linde to take a job at the bank (a man’s job even)?
4.    Why does Mrs. Linde not ask for the letter back? Did she do the right thing?
5.    Is there a correlation between Mrs. Linde’s statement on p. 97 and Nora’s epiphany?
6.    Nora is the ‘doll’ trapped in the doll house. How are other characters trapped in their own ideologies, actions, or roles?

Not asked in class, but important:

[many] Is it right for Nora to leave her children?

Performance History of Doll House


- "rewritten" ending for German audience

The "Woman Question" ca. 1879:

- Are women human like men?

- Should women be given rights of citizenship
(right to hold property and money, right to vote,
ability to be educated in all fields)?

- Fear: if women are given their freedom,
they will give up their so-called sacred rights of mothers and wives?

Feminism in 2000's:


- equal rights and oopportunities, break down stereotypes,
shared responsibility in family

--> For which era is Ibsen's play really "feminist"?

Interpretive Questions that depend on Performance


- (Response to Journals):

- Does Torvald Helmer make his wife behave the way she does (through belittling names)?

- Is Nora 'performing' like a doll throughout the play, revealing her true self at the end?

Review of Hedda Gabler Discussion


Student Questions:

1.    What is Hedda’s fascination with her guns? Where does she get them?
What do they symbolize?

2.    Why won’t she let go of her past life?
3.    What’s the significance of Tesman’s occupation?
4.    What ways do things (book, hat) symbolize ‘success’?
5.    Who is Hedda really in love with?
6.    If Hedda really loves Lövborg, why does she condone/glorify
his suicide? Why does she want him to kill himself beautifully?

7.    Why does she finally commit suicide, and how it related to her
thoughts on scandal?

Group Disc. Ques./Possible Midterm Ques.:

In what ways do Hedda and Nora characterize the "New Woman"
--both in the 19th century and now?

Gender and Tragedy


-    How do Hedda and Nora categorize the New Woman?
-    What is the tragedy of family in Ibsen’s world?

Some thoughts about Naturalist scenery:


-    Can the work ever go outside its historical milieu?
-    Will this always be a play encoded with late nineteenth-century European issues?

NB: Blackboard Update
Summary:

Performance History of Hedda Gabler (1890)

What do modern critics like and dislike about
Hedda Gabler (the play and the person)?

Positive:

-    vehicle for strong actresses
-    vibrant character

Negative:

-    possibility for being a museum play
-    needs other strong actors for other parts

Two film productions:

-    starring Diana Rigg, dir. David Cunliffe (1993)

-    Starring Glenda Jackson, dir. Trevor Nunn (1975)
1.    What’s the relationship of the first scene to the Captain’s
own concerns about paternity?
2.    Does the Capt. Have a history of mental illness?
3.    What’s the significance of Bertha’s interaction
with her grandmother (13)?

4.    How does the play address the woman question?
How does Laura embody characteristics of the New Woman?

5. Why are Laura and Adolf even together?

Purpose of Naturalist drama?


- parenting = abandonment

Also: Men in Naturalist Dramas

-    Fear that Ibsen and Strindberg represent: women who embrace their independence turn women into men

•    Torvald Helmer: stuck with the kids
•    George/Jorgen Tesman: a weakling
•    Adolf / Captain: completely stripped of any will or power by the end of the play


Group Disc. Ques.: What characterizes the “Captain”
as a captain?
In what ways does he act (or fail to act) with authority,
as a military leader? How and why?
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)
Student Questions about Pirandello

1.    What’s the significance of the stage directions? (p. 7)

2.    Why does the stepdaughter hate the son? Why doesn’t the
son want to perform? Why does the stepdaughter show
   contempt for the little boy?

3.    What’s Pirandello’s intention with silencing the mother? How
does the mother feel about performing the play?

4.    Why do some characters have names, whereas others do not?
Why does P. make the characters the “real” people?
In what ways do the actors seem fake?

Why does Madame Pace make an entrance? Is there a significance
to her being bilingual?

To think about for final exam:

What gender-related issues does Pirandello’s Six Characters
in Search of an Author raise? How does the Modernist mode
of its staging either undermine or highlight these feminist concerns?
Do the Mother, Stepdaughter, Madam Pace, and the Leading Lady
share any common concerns, or does class make their lives widely divergent? Which character  (male or female) best reflects Pirandello’s own writing voice, and how does this choice relate to the play’s treatment
of gender?
What questions about human nature does Waiting for Godot pose?

Have faith? What's the purpose of faith? Is God-ot coming?

Who or what do we depend on?

Is time real?

Are we just supposed to wait?

Can we overcome human nature? What happens after we die?

Why do we exist?

Is reality what we remember?

How much can you give up?

What is suffering?

NB: Estrogen and birth control discovered well before 1948 (in 1930s): http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/00330328?single=1&query_type=word&queryword=estrogen&first=1&max_to_show=10
1.    Why can’t women play the roles in this play?
What’s the significance about an all male cast?

2.    What’s the purpose about repetition in the play
—the same conversations?

3.    Is Beckett condoning or condemning religion?

4.    Why does V. fiddle with his hat, and Estragon with his shoes?

5.    What’s the significance of the setting?

6.    Was it Beckett’s intention to aggravate his readers?

7.    What does Lucky symbolize?

8.    What’s the significance of the structure of the play?

Free write on one or more of the following keywords (10 minutes):

- authority

- dramatic literature

- family tragedy

- femininity

- language

- masculinity

- performance

- speech

- suicide