Course Description
Topical issues in theatre or cinema, combining history and critical analysis of specific significant topics (e.g., national theatre or cinema, animation, authorship, genre).
Additional Requirements for Graduate Students:
Additional presentation and research and writing assignment.
Athena Title
Topics in History
Semester Course Offered
Offered every year.
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
Using a sampling of surviving plays and other kinds of evidence, we will investigate the earliest western theatre from a culture-specific perspective. Our primary objective is to understand what the performance of tragedy and comedy meant to the people who originally wrote, acted, and attended classical Greek theatre. This survey will neither idealize nor denigrate ancient Athenian culture; instead, it will try to achieve a more accurate, multifaceted, and intricate understanding of this contentious and innovative people. We will raise more questions than we can answer: Can generalizations about performance practices be made from the small number of extant plays and scanty evidence of physical production? What are the ideological structures inherent to these texts? How were women represented in tragedy and comedy and how did this representation resonate with the status of women in public and domestic life in Classical Athens? How did the tragedians shape the mythological material they used? How much of the social and political context of Athenian culture is crucial to the understanding of the plays? What do we mean by understanding, especially since the culture in question thrived 2500 years ago?
Topical Outline
Background and Introduction Homer Intro to Tragedy Origin theories and alternative approaches City, Festival, Myth Outline history of Athens, the physical environment Dramatic festivals The Curse of the House of Atreus Theatre and Myth I The metaphysical environment AGAMEMNON by Aeschylus THE LIBATION BEARERS by Aeschylus (Aeschylus' Electra play) Theatre and Myth II ELECTRA by Sophocles ELECTRA by Euripides Comparison of the three Electra plays Theatre and Democracy Athenian democracy and imperialism THE EUMENIDES by Aeschylus ORESTEIA wrap-up Sex, War and Protest Outline history of Athens; Peloponnesian War LYSISTRATA by Aristophanes Gender and sexuality Marriage, Magic, Medea Athenian society MEDEA by Euripides Boundaries ANTIGONE by Sophocles Student Presentations: (Topics: Nomos and Phusis; Other Antigones; Aristotle's Poetics; Freud and Oedipus, Modernist versions) Consequences and Redemption OEDIPUS TYRANNOS by Sophocles OEDIPUS AT COLONUS by Sophocles GOSPEL AT COLONUS Satire and Satyrs CYCLOPS by Euripides; Lecture on Old Comedy, Satyr play etc. THE BIRDS by Aristophanes Gender, Shame and Honor Student Presentations (Topics: Amazons, Hippolytus cult; Similar myths) HIPPOLYTUS by Euripides Student Presentations (Topics: Hippolytus I and Seneca's PHAEDRA; Racine's PHEDRE; O'Neill's DESIRE UNDER THE ELMS Sacrifice IPHIGENIA AT AULIS by Euripides ALCESTIS by Euripides THE BACCHAE by Euripides Captives WOMEN OF TRAXIS by Sophocles TROJAN WOMEN Comedy about Tragedy THE FROGS by Aristophanes Comparison of Euripides, Aeschylus and Sophocles
Syllabus