IN PERSON: In Europe, the period of literary modernism (ca. 1880 to ca. 1960) produced an extraordinarily rich canon of drama, one that revolutionized the moribund tradition of 19th-century melodrama, transformed and expanded the very possibilities of theater, and bequeathed to us numerous plays that remain central to today’s global repertoire. In this course, students will read a play per week by one of several playwrights who cover a broad spectrum of the national traditions and theatrical movements that defined modern European drama: Henrik Ibsen, Alfred Jarry, Anton Chekhov, George Bernard Shaw, August Strindberg, Georg Büchner, Luigi Pirandello, Federico García Lorca, Bertolt Brecht and Samuel Beckett. Historical, social and literary contexts, including different versions of the avant-garde and reconceptualizations of comedy and tragedy, will be discussed. However, class discussions will focus more generally on the thematic concerns and formal innovations that developed during this period. | Lecture + Q&A, Facilitated discussion.
Max enrollment: 17.
Location: Judea Reform Congregation, 1933 W. Cornwallis Rd, Durham NC 27705
