| SES # | TOPICS | ASSIGNMENTS |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Introduction and Overview | |
| 2 | Shaw’s Pygmalion and the Drama of Language | |
| 3 | Pygmalion from Page to Screen | |
| 4 | Pygmalion, My Fair Lady, and the Musical Drama | |
| 5 | Pirandello’s Henry IV and Psychological Relativity | |
| 6 | Brecht, Mother Courage and Her Children | |
| 7 | Brechtian Politics and Dramaturgy(cont.) | |
| 8 | Beckett, Happy Days | Essay #1 due |
| 9 | Beckett, Pinter, and Domestic Absurdism | |
| 10 | Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire | |
| 11 | Streetcar, Poetic Realism, and the Method | |
| 12 | Hwang, M. Butterfly | Essay #1 revision due |
| 13 | Wilson, The Piano Lesson | |
| 14 | Williams, Hwang, Wilson: American Dreams | Essay #2 due |
| 15 | Soyinka, Kongi’s Harvest |
Read your outside play if you haven’t already
Begin planning your final essays |
| 16 | Smith, Twilight: Los Angeles, 2002 | |
| 17 | Twilight Reflections, and Kushner, Angels in America, Part 1 | |
| 18 | Kushner, Angels in America, Parts 1 and 2 | |
| 19 | Angels Reflections | Outside play reports begin |
| 20 | Frayn, Copenhagen, Streetcar | |
| 21 | Stoppard, Hapgood | |
| 22 | Stoppard | Reports (cont.) |
| 23 | Churchill, A Number | |
| 24 | Conclusions | Final essay due |
Sample Essays
The work below is presented courtesy of the students, and used with permission.
Roe, David. “The Search for Meaning.” (PDF)
Anonymous student. “Violent and Isolating Potentials of Familial Relationships in Beckett’s Happy Days and Churchill’s A Number.” (PDF)
Lam, Jessica. “Consequences of Anglicizing Gaelic Names.” (PDF)
MIT student. “The Women in Copenhagen and Happy Days.” (PDF)
