21L.421 | Spring 2008 | Undergraduate

Comedy

Readings

Required Texts

Although I would not ordinarily prescribe editions for classic works, we will read several in translation; try to have the same version others are using for those texts at least (Aristophanes, Plautus, Molière, Calvino).

Additional supplemental readings are included on the study materials page.

Note: All downloadable texts linked here are not the versions used in the course. Be aware that they may contain errors.

Aristophanes. Four Plays by Aristophanes: The Clouds, the Birds, Lysistrata, the Frogs. Translated by William Arrowsmith. New York, NY: Plume Books, 1994. ISBN: 9780452007178. (Download a version of the text from Project Gutenberg.)

Plautus, Titus Maccius. Four Comedies: The Braggart Soldier, The Brothers Menaechmus, The Haunted House, The Pot of Gold. Translated by Erich Segal. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1998. ISBN: 9780192838964.

Shakespeare, William. The Comedy of Errors. New York, NY: Washington Square Press, 1996. ISBN: 9780671722579. (Download a version of the text from Project Gutenberg.)

———. Four Comedies. Edited by G. R. Hibbard and S. Wells. New York, NY: Penguin Classics, 1995. ISBN: 9780140434545.

Moliere, Jean Baptiste Poquelin. The Misanthrope and Tartuffe. Translated by Richard Wilbur. Fort Washington, PA: Harvest Books, 1965. ISBN: 9780156605175. (Download a version of the text from Bibliomania.)

Behn, Aphra. The Rover and Other Plays. Edited by Jane Spencer. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2000. ISBN: 9780192834515. (Download a version of the text from the University of Adelaide Library.)

Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. Edited by J. Kisley, with F. W. Bradbrook and I. Armstrong. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1998. ISBN: 9780192833556.

Twain, Mark. The Tragedy of Pudd’nhead Wilson and the Comedy Those Extraordinary Twins. Edited by Shelley Fisher Fishkin. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1997. ISBN: 9780195114157. (Download a version of the text from Project Gutenberg.)

Wilde, Oscar, and Sylvan Barnet. The Importance of Being Earnest and Other Plays. New York, NY: Signet Books, 1985. ISBN: 9780451525055. (Download a version of the text from Project Gutenberg.)

Calvino, Italo. Cosmicomics. Translated by William Weaver. New York, NY: Harvest/HBJ, 1976. ISBN: 9780156226004.

Bechdel, Alison. Fun Home. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 2006. ISBN: 9780618477944.

Course Info

Instructor
Departments
As Taught In
Spring 2008
Learning Resource Types
Written Assignments with Examples