ECTS - University of Pisa
| Modules | Area | Type | Hours | Teacher(s) | |
| STORIA DEL TEATRO INGLESE B | L-LIN/10 | LEZIONI | 54 |
|
NB: PER VISUALIZZARE IL PROGRAMMA (E LA DATA EFFETTIVA DI INIZIO DELLE LEZIONI) CARICARE LA PAGINA IN INGLESE
LE SPECIFICHE RELATIVE AL PROGRAMMA DA 6 CFU OFFERTO AGLI STUDENTI DELLA LM SAVS SONO RIPORTATE NEL CAMPO "NOTE" IN FONDO A QUESTA PAGINA.
Upon successful completion of the course, students will be able to:
A range of formative and summative assessment methods are used, including essays, presentations, and a final oral discussion.
As a result of engaging fully with this course, students will be able to:
The range of assessment methods used (presentation, essay, oral interview) are used not only for assessment purposes but also as a means of developing students’ abilities to collect, organize, evaluate and deploy relevant information and ideas from a variety of sources in reasoned arguments. Feedback on essays and presentations is designed to feed forward into future work, enabling students to develop their strengths and address any weaker areas.
Students will be asked to actively contribute to seminar sessions. They will be asked to support or challenge critical opinions by way of reasoned argument. They will be required to identify and apply data in an accurate, precise and transparent way, to learn from constructive criticism and incorporate its insights, and to develop a sound approach to problem-solving.
Students will also be expected to work to deadlines and priorities and to collaborate with other students in preparation for and during group sessions.
Students’ ability to formulate critical views and communicate them in a clear, convincing manner will be tested through their contribution to seminar sessions.
The preparation of a written essay will provide further opportunities for students to use their initiative in the collection and presentation of material, to mount a clear, cogent argument, and to draw appropriate conclusions.
Students are expected to have already acquired a good knowledge of English literature and culture.
The course is taught both by lecture and seminar. Lectures provide an overview of the key concepts and frameworks for a topic, equipping students to carry out independent research for the seminars and to develop their own. Seminars provide an opportunity for students to explore the ideas, topics and issues outlined in the lectures.
Seminars may take various formats, including plenary group discussion, small-group work and student-led presentations.
The course is delivered in English.
Course title:
“We all need stories”: Narrative, myth and history on the contemporary stage
Outline description of the course:
The course will focus on the practice of telling and retelling stories as a central concern and device within the vast and varied landscape of contemporary British and Irish drama. We will begin by looking at Samuel Beckett's experiments with the diegetic dimension in drama and trace his legacy in the work of later playwrights (Module A); we will then move on to examine the ethics and politics of narrative in the production of some key exponents of UK and Irish new writing (Module B); finally, in Module C we will address gendered revisions of myth and history in a selection of plays by women from the 1980s to the present day.
Module A: AFTER BECKETT / BECKETT AND AFTER
Primary texts:
Samuel Beckett, Endgame (1957)*, Krapp’s Last Tape (1958)*, Happy Days (1961)*, Play (1963)*, Not I (1973)*
Sarah Kane, Crave (1998), in Sarah Kane: Complete Plays, London, Methuen, 2001.
Dennis Kelly, After the End (2005)
Context and criticism:
David Greig, “Introduction”, in Sarah Kane: Complete Plays, London, Methuen, 2001, pp. ix-xviii.
Paul Lawley, “Stages of Identity: from Krapp’s Last Tape to Play”, pp. 88-105 in J. Pilling (ed.), The Cambridge companion to Beckett, Cambridge, CUP, 1994.
Katherine Weiss, The Plays of Samuel Beckett, London, Bloomsbury Methuen Drama, 2012: Introduction (pp. 1-13); 1. The Stage Plays (pp. 14-65); 4. Critical Perspectives (pp. 135-192)*
Graham Saunders, ‘Love me or kill me’: Sarah Kane and the Theatre of Extremes, Manchester UP, 2002, pp. 100-108.
Graham Saunders, “The Beckettian World of Sarah Kane”, pp. 68-79 in L. De Vos and Graham Saunders (eds), Sarah Kane in Context, Manchester, Manchester UP, 2010.
Module B: THE ETHICS AND POLITICS OF STORYTELLING
Primary texts:
Mark Ravenhill, Shopping & Fucking (1996), Methuen Student edn. 2005*
Harold Pinter, Ashes to Ashes (1996)*
Conor McPherson, The Weir (1997)*
Martin McDonagh, The Pillowman (2003): London, Faber.
Caryl Churchill, Seven Jewish Children (2009)*
Anders Lustgarten, Lampedusa (2015): London, Bloomsbury Methuen Drama.
Context and criticism:
Scott T. Cummings, “Homo Fabulator: The Narrative Imperative in Conor McPherson’s Plays”, in E. Jordan (ed.), Theatre Stuff: Critical Essays on Contemporary Irish Theatre, Dublin, Carysfort Press, 2000 (Moodle).
Miriam Felton-Dansky, “Clamorous Voices: Seven Jewish Children and Its Proliferating Publics, TDR: The Drama Review, 55:3 (2011), pp. 156-164 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/23017940).
Thomas Horan, “Myth and Narrative in Mark Ravenhill’s Shopping and Fucking”, Modern Drama 55:2 (2012), pp. 251-266 (https://doi.org/10.1353/mdr.2012.0028).
Eamonn Jordan, "War on Narrative: The Pillowman", pp. 175-197 in L. Chambers and E. Jordan (eds), The Theatre of Martin McDonagh: A World of Savage Stories, Dublin, Carysfort Press, 2006 (Moodle).
Kevin Kerrane, “The Structural Elegance of Conor McPherson's The Weir”, New Hibernia Review 10:4 (2006), pp. 105-121 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/20558119).
Patrick Lonergan, The Theatre and Films of Martin McDonagh, London, Methuen, 2012, pp. 99-114.*
Hanna Scolnicov, “Bearing Witness and Ethical Responsibility in Harold Pinter’s Ashes to Ashes”, pp. in Aragay M., Monforte E. (eds), Ethical Speculations in Contemporary British Theatre, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2014 (Moodle).
Gerald C. Wood, Conor McPherson: Imagining Mischief, Dublin, Liffey Press, 2003: “The Weir: The Play and Its Reputation”, pp. 43-51 (Moodle)
Module C: MYTH, HISTORY, AND THE FEMALE GAZE
Primary texts:
Caryl Churchill, Top Girls (1982)*, A Mouthful of Birds (1986)*
Naomi Wallace, One Flea Spare (1995), in In the Heart of America and Other Plays, New York, Theatre Communications Group, 2001, pp. 1-75.
Sarah Kane, Phaedra’s Love (1996), in Sarah Kane: Complete Plays, London, Methuen, 2001.
Marina Carr, By the Bog of Cats (1998)*
Lucy Kirkwood, Maryland (2021): https://issuu.com/rct123/docs/maryland_by_lucy_kirkwood_final
Kae Tempest, Paradise (2021): London, Pan Macmillan.
Context and criticism
Darren Gobert, The Theatre of Caryl Churchill, London, Methuen, 2014: pp. 1-19.*
Laura Michiels, “Times of Contagion: The Social(ist) Politics of Plague in Naomi Wallace’s One Flea Spare”, Miranda [Online] 21 (2020), DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/miranda.28377
Cathy Leeney, ‘Marina Carr: Violence and Destruction: Language, Space and Landscape’, in Mary Luckhurst (ed.), A Companion to Modern British and Irish Drama 1880–2005 (Oxford: Blackwell, 2006), pp. 509–518 (online/Unipi subscription).
Melissa Sihra, “A Cautionary Tale: Marina Carr’s By the Bog of Cats”, in in E. Jordan (ed.), Theatre Stuff: Critical Essays on Contemporary Irish Theatre, Dublin, Carysfort Press, 2000, pp. 257-268 (Moodle).
Sara Soncini, “Riscritture dei classici nella drammaturgia inglese contemporanea”, in A. Aloni, F. Bertini, M. Treu (a cura di), Il lessico della classicità nella letteratura europea moderna, Vol. I: La letteratura drammatica, Tomo II: La commedia, Roma, Treccani, 2009, pp. 1045-1055 (Moodle).
Graham Saunders, ‘Love me or kill me’: Sarah Kane and the Theatre of Extremes, Manchester UP, 2002, pp. 71-81 (Moodle).
Isabel Stuart, “Filling the Blank: Redaction as Affective Strategy in Lucy Kirkwood’s Maryland”, Contemporary Theatre Review [Online] (2022): https://www.contemporarytheatrereview.org/2022/filling-the-blank-redaction-as-affective-strategy-in-lucy-kirkwoods-maryland/
Non-attending students are also required to read:
A. Sierz (ed.), Modern British Playwriting: the 1990s, London, Bloomsbury Methuen Drama, 2012;*
D. Rebellato (ed.), Modern British Playwriting: 2000-2009, London, Bloomsbury Methuen Drama, 2013.*
*asterisked texts are available in digital format on www.dramaonlinelibrary.com (authentication via VPN or Unipi credentials).
Non-attending students will sit an oral exam. They will also be asked to prepare a critical essay on an agreed topic. The essay must be submitted at least two weeks prior to the date of the oral exam.
Students will be assessed by way of a formative oral presentation (20%), an argumentative essay (30%), and a final oral discussion (40%). Attendance and contribution to seminar sessions will also count towards the final mark (10%).
COURSE START: Tuesday, 4 October, 2.15-3.45 p.m.
Students are advised to sign up on the course web page (see above); further details about course material as well as instructions for preliminary reading in preparation for the first week of class will be published online shortly.
Programma ridotto da 6 CFU (Storia del teatro inglese -- cod. 741LL):
Gli studenti della LM SAVS o di altre LM che seguono il corso di Storia del teatro inglese da 6 CFU sono esentati dallo studio dei materiali relativi al Modulo C e dalla frequenza delle relative lezioni.
Commissione d'esame:
Presidente: Sara Soncini
Membri: Nicoletta Caputo, Roberta Ferrari
Supplenti: Fausto Ciompi, Laura Giovannelli
