English 232 - Reading Drama

This course explores the unique challenges of experiencing performance through the page.  While this course is not intended as a survey of dramatic literature or theater history, students will be introduced to a variety of drama from across the English-language tradition.  The organizing theme of the course may change slightly from year to year, but the goal will always be to explore a wide array of theoretical and methodological approaches to drama.  Of particular interest will be the relationship of play-reading to other reading practices.  What does a play demand of the reader that a novel, a poem, or an essay does not?  How must the central elements of storytelling or world-making (character, plot, setting, dialogue, point of view, etc.) change when they are required to appear onstage?

Limited to 30 students.  Fall semester.  Professor Grobe.