Spring 2024 Special Topic: Unsettling, Absurd, In Yer Face, Shocking & New

This course offers you an overview of the best writing for the modern and contemporary stage. After surveying some of the key figures who revolutionized theater in the early twentieth century, we'll sample such contemporary genres as absurdist drama, psychological gothic, “in yer face” theater, work by African-American, Latinx, queer and immigrant writers, documentary theater, and plays that incorporate new media. We'll be asking how theater addressed changes in its status and social function in the eras of film, television and the internet, how plays engage with identity politics both on and off the stage, and how and why contemporary theater has taken up controversial dramatic techniques like sex, shock, violence and audience participation. Interspersed in our conversations will also be snippets from key theorists of modern theater, so we can address the philosophies behind the plays. Where they are available, we'll also look at video and filmed performances to see how practitioners have realized and adapted these works. 

This course satisfies the Genres or Theory requirement for general ENGLISH majors. 

This course satisfies a Post-1800 Literature requirement for ENGL: LITERATURE, ENGL: TBD, ENGL/JOURNALISM majors. 

This course counts as an Upper Level Literature requirement for ENGL TEACHING majors.

This course may be taken for Capstone credit by general ENGLISH majors following requirement guidelines in place prior to Fall 2023. Fill out a Capstone Declaration form (available in the main English office,  Ham Smith 230F) if you wish to declare it as Capstone.