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Course Syllabus
Modern Drama
1. Course Number 2202616
2. Course Credit 3 credits
3. Course Title Modern Drama
4. Faculty / Department Graduate School, Department of English
5. Semester First
6. Academic Year 2006
7. Instructor / Academic Staff Assistant Professor Dr. Carina Chotirawe
8. Condition:
Prerequisite -
9. Status Elective
10. Curriculum Master of Arts
11. Degree Graduate
12. Hours / Week 3 hours
13. Course Description
Development of modern drama in Europe and America; important movements and trends with emphasis on significant contemporary British and American playwrights
14. Course Outline
a. Learning Objectives / Behavioral Objectives
1. read the selected plays by contemporary British and American playwrights
2. write critical, well-organized essays on the works preferably demonstrating fresh insight and extensive research on relevant critical texts
3. participate actively in class discussions as well giving oral presentations of chosen topics of interest
b. Learning Contents
Week 1 June 5,8 Introduction to the Course,
Drama as literary texts
Week 2 June 15 Realism in Modern Drama (A Doll’s House)
Week 3 June 20, 22 Naturalism in Modern Drama (Miss Julie)
Week 4 June 27, 29 Expressionism in Modern Drama (The Emperor Jones)
Week 5 July 4, 6 Social Criticism in British Drama (Look Back in Anger)
Week 6 July 13 Social Criticism in American Drama (The Crucible)
Week 7 July 18, 20
Week 8 July 25, 27 The Theatre of the Absurd (The Caretaker)
Week 9 Aug. 1, 3 The American Dream
Week 10 Aug. 8, 10 Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
Week 11 Aug. 15, 17
Week 12 Aug. 22, 24 Angels in America
Week 13 Aug. 29, 31
Week 14 Sept. 5, 7 Cloud Nine
Week 15 Sept 12, 14
Week 16 Sept. 19, 21 Class presentations
Week 17
c. Method
Lecture and discussion 100 percent
d. Media Transparencies/ CDs
e. Assignment through Network System -
f. Evaluation
i. Assessment of academic knowledge 60 percent
ii. Assessment of the assigned tasks 40 percent
The evaluation will be both criterion-based and group-based with letter grades assigned according to the following criteria:
80 or above = A 60-64 = C
75-79 = B+ 55-59 = D+
70-74 = B 50-54 = D
65-69 = C+ less than 50 = F
15. Reading List
a. Required Texts:
Henrik Ibsen, A Doll’s House
August Strindberg, Miss Julie
George Bernard Shaw, Mrs Warren’s Profession
Eugene O’Neill, The Emperor Jones
John Osborne, Look Back in Anger
Arthur Miller, The Crucible
Harold Pinter, The Caretaker
Edward Albee, The American Dream
Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
Tony Kushner, Angels in America
Caryl Churchill, Cloud Nine
b. Supplementary Texts:
Bigsby, C.W.E. Modern American Drama 1945-1990. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1992.
Bigsby, Christopher. Contemporary American Playwrights. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1999.
Bordman, Gerald. The Oxford Companion to Contemporary American Theatre. New York: Oxford UP, 1992.
Styan, J.L. Modern Drama in Theory and Practice (Vol.I-III) . Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1981.
16. Teacher Evaluation
a. Lecture
b. Adjustments in the number of assigned books
c. This course will sharpen students’ intellectual capacity through intense discussion. With specific illustrations from the plays discussed, this course will also highlight the issues of ethics and moral responsibility and their relevance to students’ lives as citizens in society.