123222 SE Literature Seminar / BA Paper / MA British/Irish/New English (2013S)

Farce has been provocatively defined as "practical joking turned theatrical" (Eric Bentley, 1964). Although always popular with audiences, farces have been held in low esteem by critics throughout theatre history: "the most contemptible sort of drama" (Nahum Tate, 1693). Still, there are good reasons for studying this minor subgenre, as it can provide relevant insights into the psychology and aesthetics of reception in the literary domain in general and into the intricacies of generic cross-over phenomena in particular.
The farces proposed for detailed analysis cover a wide variety of categories, e.g. classic middlebrow farce (Alistair Foot and Anthony Marriott, "No Sex, Please -- We're British", 1971); metaphysical farce and the Theatre of the Absurd (Samuel Beckett, "Endgame", 1957); meta-theatrical farce (Michael Frayn, "Noises Off", 1982); biographical farce (Freud and Dalí in Terry Johnson, "Hysteria", 1993).

NB: Students wishing to register early and ready to take on one of the topics for oral presentations in March/April are kindly asked to contact Prof. Huber via e-mail wern.huber@univie.ac.at ASAP.

Preliminary Course Outline (Early Registration):
March 12: Introduction + (1) Farce: Definitions
March 19: (2) Michael Frayn and Farce + (3) Introducing "Noises Off"
April 9: GUEST LECTURE: Dr. Michael Raab: "Translating Frayn"
April 16: (4) Farce in the History of English Literature and Theatre