ELL 605 - Comparative Studies in Drama

1. State different characteristics of dramatic modes throughout history.
2. Demonstrate knowledge of historical context and characteristics of the drama/theatrical production.
3. Use appropriate terminology and concepts to discuss the plot, characterization, themes, and linguistic devices in selected plays as an individual or as part of a team.
4. Write an essay - analysis and interpretation of a particular dramatic element using appropriate terminology.
5. Employ acquired knowledge and skills to analyze, interpret the play as both a literary text and theatrical production and communicate what has been learned.

As a collaborative mode of communication, theatre can take many forms. It can interrogate socio-political issues, question modes of cultural preservation or exclusion, present idealized worlds for escapism, offer a highly stimulating sensory experience, or portray familiar stories, characters, and traditions. Through collaboration, playwrights and theatre personnel develop and stage works for diverse audiences. This graduate course, instead of presenting a detailed and chronological survey of the theatre, will focus on themes and motifs in drama material spanning 500 years. By comparing works of different playwrights in different eras, the aim of the course is to identify the ways in which reading and analyzing plays and theatrical performances can contribute to the student's perception of social, economic, or political problems and their understanding of how these issues become imagined, contested and rehearsed in plays and productions in different time periods. 

When literary texts are conceived as agents of cultural formation rather than as objects of interpretation and appraisal, what counts as “good” character or logical sequence of events changes accordingly.  When one sets aside modernist demands—for psychological complexity, moral ambiguity, epistemological sophistication, stylistic density, formal economy—and attends to the way a text offers a blueprint for survival under a specific set of political, economic, social, or religious conditions, an entirely new story begins to unfold, and one’s sense of the formal exigencies of narrative alters accordingly, producing a different conception of what constitutes successful characters and plots.

What beliefs, myths, ideologies, values are addressed by the text?  What is the author's position with respect to them? (Distinguish, if possible, the author's position from that of the characters.)  What seems to be the basis for the belief?  How is it justified?  Is it mere intuition?  Or is there some kind of evidence in support of the belief?  What is the evidence? How does it reflect, distort or reinforce fundamental beliefs?  How "representative" is it; or more precisely, who does it represent?  These are some of the issues that we shall discuss throughout the semester in relation to Western drama.

All the primary texts on the syllabus, plus secondary literature on the individual titles as well as theatre history.

Abrams, Tevia. “Tamāshā.” Indian Theatre: Traditions of Performance, edited by

Farley P. Richmond, et al., U of Hawaii P, 1990, pp. 275–304.

Abu-Lughod, Janet L. Before European Hegemony: The World System A.D. 1250–1350.

Oxford UP, 1989.

Adedeji, Joel. “Alarinjo: The Traditional Yoruba Travelling Theatre.” Drama and

Theatre in Nigeria: A Critical Source Book, edited by Yemi Ogunbiyi, Nigeria

Magazine, 1981, pp. 221–48.

Andrews, Richard. Scripts and Scenarios: The Performance of Comedy in Renaissance

Italy. Cambridge UP, 1993.

Banham, Martin, editor. The Cambridge Guide to Theatre. Rev. ed.,

Cambridge UP, 2000.

Baugh, Christopher. “Baroque to Romantic Theatre.” The Cambridge Companion

to Theatre History, edited by David Wiles and Christine Dymkowski, Cambridge

UP, 2013, pp. 33–54.

Brandon, James R. On Thrones of Gold: Three Javanese Shadow Plays.

Harvard UP, 1970.

Brandon, James R. Theatre in Southeast Asia. Harvard UP, 1967.

Brandt, George. “German Baroque Theatre and the Strolling Players, 1550–1750.”

A History of German Theatre, edited by Simon Williams and Maik Hamburger,

Cambridge UP, 2008.

Braudel, Fernand. Out of Italy: 1450–1650. Translated by Siân Reynolds, Paris,

Flammarion, 1991.

Brooke, John. “Material Life: Bronze Age Crisis to Black Death.” The Oxford

Illustrated History of the World, edited by Felipe Fernández-Armesto, Oxford

UP, 2019, pp. 139–70.

Brown, John Russell, editor. Oxford Illustrated History of Theatre. Oxford UP, 2001.

Butler, Martin. “Private and Occasional Drama.” The Cambridge Companion to

English Renaissance Drama, edited by A. R. Braunmuller and Michael

Hattaway, Cambridge UP, 1990, pp. 127–60.

Chen, Fan Pen. “Shadow Theaters of the World.” Asian Folklore Studies, vol. 62,

2003, pp. 25–64.

Clarke, Mary, and Clement Crisp. Ballet: An Illustrated History. New York,

Universe Books, 1973.

Cole, Catherine M. Ghana’s Concert Party Theatre. Indiana UP, 2001.

Conrad, Sebastian. What Is Global History? Princeton UP, 2016.

Conteh-Morgan, John. “Francophone Africa South of the Sahara.” A History of

Theatre in Africa, edited by Martin Banham, Cambridge UP, 2004, pp. 85–137.

Crick, Olly. “The Coming Together.” The Routledge Companion to Commedia

dell’Arte, edited by Judith Chaffee and Olly Crick, Routledge, 2015,

pp. 221–28.

Crosby, Alfred W. The Columbian Exchange; Biological and Cultural Consequences

of 1492. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1972.

Darwin, John. After Tamerlane: The Global History of Empire Since 1405.

Bloomsbury Press, 2008.

Dolby, William. A History of Chinese Drama. London, Paul Elek, 1976.

Dolby, William. “Yuan Drama.” Chinese Theatre: From Its Origins to the Present

Day, edited by Colin Mackerras, U of Hawaii P, 1983, pp. 32–59.

Dunn, Ross E. “Periodizing World History.” The New World History: A Teacher’s

Companion, edited by Ross E. Dunn, Bedford/St. Martin, 2000, pp. 359–63.

Eliot, John R, Jr. “Early Staging in Oxford.” A New History of Early English

Drama, edited by John D. Cox and David Scott Kastan, Columbia UP, 1997,

pp. 68–76.

Fischer, David Hackett. The Great Wave: Price Revolutions and the Rhythm of

History. Oxford UP, 1996.

Fischer, David Hackett. Historians’ Fallacies: Toward a Logic of Historical Thought.

Harper & Row, 1970.

Fletcher, Joseph. “Integrative History: Parallels and Interconnections in the Early

Modern Period, 1500–1800.” Journal of Turkish Studies, no. 9, 1985,

pp. 37–57.

Floor, Willem. The History of Theatre in Iran. Washington, DC, Mage

Publishers, 2005.

Frank, Andre Gunder. ReORIENT: Global Economy in the Asian Age. U of

California P, 1998.

Gargi, Balwant. Folk Theater in India. Calcutta, Rupa and Company, 1991.

Gascoigne, Bamber. World Theatre: An Illustrated History. Little, Brown, 1968.

Ghulam-Sarwar Yousef. Dictionary of Traditional South-East Asian Theatre. Kuala

Lumpur, Oxford UP, 1994.

Götrick, Kacke. Apidan Theatre and Modern Drama: A Study in Traditional

Yoruba Theatre and Its Influence on Modern Drama by Yoruba Playwrights.

Stockholm, Almqvist and Wiksell International, 1984.

Green, William A. “Periodizing World History.” The New World History: A

Teacher’s Companion, edited by Ross E. Dunn, Bedford/St. Martin, 2000,

pp. 384–93.

Green, William A. “Periodization in European and World History.” Journal of

World History, vol. 3, no.1, Spring 1992, pp. 13–53.

Guo, Li. The Performing Arts in Medieval Islam: Shadow Play and Popular Poetry

in Ibn Dāniyāl’s Mamluk Cairo. Leiden, Brill, 2012.

Hale, John. 1993. The Civilization of Europe in the Renaissance. Atheneum, 1994.

Hansen, Kathryn. Grounds for Play: The Nautanki Theatre of North India. U of

California P, 1992.

Hansen, Valerie. The Year 1000: When Explorers Connected the World—and

Globalization Began. Scribner, 2020.

Hawley, John Stratton. A Storm of Songs: India and the Bhakti Movement.

Harvard UP, 2015.

Headrick, Daniel R. Technology: A World History. Oxford UP, 2009.

Hodgson, Marshall G. S. Rethinking World History. Edited by Edmund Burke III,

Cambridge UP, 1993.

Hodgson, Marshall G. S. The Venture of Islam: Conscience and History in a World

Civilization. U of Chicago P, 1974. 3 volumes.

Homans, Jennifer. Apollo’s Angels: A History of Ballet. Random House, 2010.

Hopkins, A. G. “Globalization—An Agenda for Historians.” Globalization in

World History, edited by A. G. Hopkins, W. W. Norton, 2002, pp. 1–11.

Hopkins, A. G. “The History of Globalization—And the Globalization of

History?” Globalization in World History, edited by A. G. Hopkins,

W. W. Norton, 2002, pp. 12–44.

Hsü, Tao-Ching. The Chinese Conception of The Theatre. U of Washington P, 1985.

Idema, Wilt T. “Traditional Dramatic Literature.” The Columbia History of Chinese

Literature, edited by Victor H. Mair, Columbia UP, 2001, pp. 785–847.

Iezza, Julie A. “Kabuki: Superheroes and Femmes Fatales.” A History of Japanese

Theatre, edited by Jonah Salz, Cambridge UP, 2016, pp. 102–40.

Jansen, Marius B. The Making of Modern Japan. Harvard UP, 2000.

Jeyifo, Biodun. “Preface.” Modern African Drama, edited by Biodun Jeyifo,

W. W. Norton, 2002, pp. vii–xii.

Johnston, Alexandra F. “All the World was a Stage: Records of Early English

Drama.” The Theatre of Medieval Europe: New Research into Early Drama,

edited by Eckehard Simon, Cambridge UP, 1991, pp. 117–29.

Katz, Ruth. “Collective ‘Problem-Solving’ in the History of Music: The Case of

the Camerata.” Journal of the History of Ideas, vol. 45, no. 3, July–September

1984, pp. 361–77.

Keay, John. India: A History. Grove Press, 2000.

Keene, Donald. Nō and Bunraku: Two Forms of Japanese Theatre.

Columbia UP, 1990.

Kerr, David. African Popular Theatre: From Pre-Colonial Times to the Present Day.

London, James Currey, 1995.

Knight, Alan E. “France.” The Theatre of Medieval Europe: New Research into Early

Drama, edited by Eckehard Simon, Cambridge UP, 1991, pp. 151–68.

Lawrenson, T. E. The French Stage & Playhouse in the XVIIth Century: A Study in

the Advent of the Italian Order. New York, AMS Press, 1986.

Leiter, Samuel L., editor. Encyclopedia of Asian Theatre. Greenwood Press, 2007.

2 volumes.

Levi, Scott C. “Objects in Motion.” A Companion to World History, edited by

Douglas Northrop, Wiley-Blackwell, 2015, pp. 321–38.

Li Ruru. The Soul of Beijing Opera: Theatrical Creativity and Continuity in the

Changing World. Hong Kong UP, 2010.

Lockard, Craig A. Southeast Asia in World History. Oxford UP, 2009.

Mackerras, Colin. Chinese Drama: A Historical Survey. Beijing, New World

Press, 1990.

Mackerras, Colin, editor. Chinese Theatre: From Its Origins to the Present Day. U of

Hawaii P, 1983.

Rand, Richard Stockton. “The Young Lovers.” The Routledge Companion to

Commedia dell’Arte, edited by Judith Chaffee and Olly Crick, Routledge,

2015, pp. 70–81.

Raymond, André. Cairo. Translated by Willard Wood, Harvard UP, 2000.

Reid, Anthony. A History of Southeast Asia: Critical Crossroads. Wiley-Blackwell,

2015.

Richards, Kenneth, and Laura Richards. “Commedia dell’Arte.” A History of

Italian Theatre, edited by Joseph Farrell and Poalo Puppa, Cambridge UP,

2006, pp. 102–23.

Richmond, Farley P. “Characteristics of Sanskrit Drama and Theatre.” Indian

Theatre: Traditions of Performance, edited by Farley P. Richmond et al., U of

Hawaii P, 1990, pp. 33–86.

Richmond, Farley P. “Kūtiyāttam.” Indian Theatre: Traditions of Performance,

edited by Farley P. Richmond et al., U of Hawaii P, 1990, pp. 87–117.

Richmond, Farley P., et al., “Introduction.” Indian Theatre: Traditions of

Performance, edited by Farley P. Richmond et al., U of Hawaii P, 1990, pp. 1–17.

Rosand, Ellen. Opera in Seventeenth-Century Venice: The Creation of a Genre. U of

California P, 1990.

Rossabi, Morris. A History of China. Wiley-Blackwell, 2014.

Schipper, Minneke. Theatre and Society in Africa. Translated by Ampie Coetzee,

Johannesburg, Raven Press, 1982.

Shekhar, In̄ dū. Sanskrit Drama: Its Origin and Decline. 2nd ed., New Delhi,

Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers, 1977.

Soyinka, Wole. “Theatre in African Traditional Cultures: Survival Patterns.”

Modern African Drama, edited by Biodun Jeyifo, W. W. Norton, 2002,

pp. 421–33.

Stokes, Gale. “The Fates of Human Societies: A Review of Recent Macrohistories.”

The American Historical Review, vol. 106, no. 2, April 2001, pp. 508–25.

Swann, Darius L. “Rām Lıl̄ ā.” Indian Theatre: Traditions of Performance, edited

by Farley P. Richmond et al., U of Hawaii P, 1990, pp. 215–36.

Tanner, Harold M. China: A History, Vol 1., From Neolithic Cultures through the

Great Qing Empire. Hackett, 2010.

Thapar, Romila. The Penguin History of Early India: From the Origins to ad 1300.

New Delhi, Penguin Books India, 2003