Universität Wien

127010 KO Critical Readings in Literature (2019W)

"Staging a Closet Drama"

6.00 ECTS (2.00 SWS), SPL 12 - Anglistik
Prüfungsimmanente Lehrveranstaltung
Moodle

An/Abmeldung

Hinweis: Ihr Anmeldezeitpunkt innerhalb der Frist hat keine Auswirkungen auf die Platzvergabe (kein "first come, first served").

Details

max. 30 Teilnehmer*innen
Sprache: Englisch

Lehrende

Termine (iCal) - nächster Termin ist mit N markiert

  • Donnerstag 10.10. 16:45 - 21:45 Elise Richter-Saal Hauptgebäude, 1.Stock, Stiege 1
  • Donnerstag 17.10. 16:45 - 21:45 Elise Richter-Saal Hauptgebäude, 1.Stock, Stiege 1
  • Donnerstag 24.10. 16:45 - 21:45 Elise Richter-Saal Hauptgebäude, 1.Stock, Stiege 1
  • Donnerstag 31.10. 16:45 - 21:45 Elise Richter-Saal Hauptgebäude, 1.Stock, Stiege 1
  • Donnerstag 07.11. 16:45 - 21:45 Elise Richter-Saal Hauptgebäude, 1.Stock, Stiege 1
  • Donnerstag 14.11. 16:45 - 21:45 Elise Richter-Saal Hauptgebäude, 1.Stock, Stiege 1
  • Donnerstag 21.11. 16:45 - 21:45 Elise Richter-Saal Hauptgebäude, 1.Stock, Stiege 1
  • Donnerstag 28.11. 16:45 - 21:45 Elise Richter-Saal Hauptgebäude, 1.Stock, Stiege 1
  • Donnerstag 05.12. 16:45 - 21:45 Elise Richter-Saal Hauptgebäude, 1.Stock, Stiege 1
  • Donnerstag 12.12. 16:45 - 21:45 Elise Richter-Saal Hauptgebäude, 1.Stock, Stiege 1
  • Donnerstag 09.01. 16:45 - 21:45 Elise Richter-Saal Hauptgebäude, 1.Stock, Stiege 1
  • Freitag 10.01. 18:30 - 21:45 Hörsaal A UniCampus Zugang Hof 2 2F-EG-32
  • Montag 13.01. 18:30 - 21:45 Hörsaal D Unicampus Hof 10 Hirnforschungzentrum Spitalgasse 4
  • Dienstag 14.01. 14:00 - 16:00 Besprechungsraum Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-O2-07
  • Dienstag 14.01. 18:30 - 21:45 Hörsaal A UniCampus Zugang Hof 2 2F-EG-32
  • Mittwoch 15.01. 18:30 - 21:45 Hörsaal A UniCampus Zugang Hof 2 2F-EG-32
  • Donnerstag 16.01. 16:45 - 21:45 Elise Richter-Saal Hauptgebäude, 1.Stock, Stiege 1
  • Donnerstag 16.01. 18:15 - 21:45 Hörsaal A UniCampus Zugang Hof 2 2F-EG-32
  • Freitag 17.01. 16:45 - 21:45 Hörsaal A UniCampus Zugang Hof 2 2F-EG-32
  • Samstag 18.01. 16:45 - 21:45 Hörsaal A UniCampus Zugang Hof 2 2F-EG-32
  • Donnerstag 23.01. 16:45 - 21:45 Elise Richter-Saal Hauptgebäude, 1.Stock, Stiege 1
  • Donnerstag 30.01. 16:45 - 21:45 Elise Richter-Saal Hauptgebäude, 1.Stock, Stiege 1

Information

Ziele, Inhalte und Methode der Lehrveranstaltung

This course is held in collaboration with the English Department’s acting society SASS. The aim of this course is to produce a theatre performance, which will also be filmed. There will be no written or oral exam and no term paper. Instead, students are expected to invest a considerable amount of time (and energy) in collaborative creative work. They will either be part of the cast, work on the script, create props and scenery, produce advertising material, or take on one of many other jobs involved in going from text to stage. They should be prepared to meet and work independently in groups outside of class.

NB: Classes will start 4.45 pm and regularly end 6.15 pm, the remainder of the time slot is reserved for group work and rehearsals. Also, the extra dates in January (those not in Elise Richter-Saal) are dress rehearsals, premiere and derniere.

This course will familiarise students with stage production, literary drama theory in general, the generic specificity of the closet drama, the cultural and political role it played in early-modern England before, during, and after the Civil Wars, and the special role it has played for women writers at the time.

Already before the 1642 closure of London theatres, closet drama was popular with female authors for the privacy and simultaneous freedom it allowed them. Closet plays were read aloud in groups and their composition was unfettered by the restrictions of the early-modern stage and theatrical conventions. Performing a play that was never intended for performance requires actors and directors to fill gaps where the text is unspecified and to come up with alternatives where the text proves to be unstageable.

We will be producing Margaret Cavendish’s The Unnatural Tragedy (1662). Like her other plays, this text explores possibilities for female agency and tests the ‘naturalness’ of existing gender relations. But instead of focussing mainly on the the public sphere i.e. social roles, education, and stereotypes, in The Unnatural Tragedy Cavendish also deals explicitly with questions of sexual and marital relations among individuals: incest, rape, abusive and adulterous partners. In its shocking plot, which it partly borrows from John Ford’s 'Tis Pity She's a Whore (1633), this play engages with fundamental philosophical questions about the nature of humankind—an implicit answer to Thomas Hobbes that, if anything, shows that the division between ‘natural’ and ‘unnatural’ desires or states is nebulous and contingent. Making sense of the issues raised by Cavendish, both, in their relation to the world of her seventeenth-century readership, and in their relation to the world of our twenty-first-century audience, will be the initial challenge we face in this course.

Art der Leistungskontrolle und erlaubte Hilfsmittel

Prior to enrolling for this course, students are asked to ensure that the dates provided suit their schedules (especially 17 and 18 January, the dates of the two performances!), since active participation will be responsible for the main part of their grades.

There will be compulsory readings for individual sessions and students are encouraged to refresh their knowledge of drama theory already before the course starts.

Mindestanforderungen und Beurteilungsmaßstab

50 % Active participation
25 % Contribution to performance
25 % Group work

Points must be collected in all of these categories. Students must attain at least 60% to pass this course.

Marking as follows:
90-100 % 1 (very good)
80-89 % 2 (good)
70-79 % 3 (satisfactory)
60-69 % 4 (pass)
00-59 % 5 (fail)

No more than two lessons may be missed without medical statement. Missing more than three lessons will result in failing the class.

Prüfungsstoff

Drama theory; Early-modern cultural history; Texts provided on Moodle

Students will have to show in class that they are familiar with the primary and secondary texts provided by the lecturer, and that they are able to make use of appropriate theoretical concepts (drama theory), when dealing with these texts.
There will be no written exam.

Literatur

Cavendish, Margaret. The Unnatural Tragedy (1662)

Further related primary texts and additional secondary material will be available on Moodle.

Zuordnung im Vorlesungsverzeichnis

Studium: BA 612; BEd 046/407
Code/Modul: BA08.3; BEd Modul 10
Lehrinhalt: 12-3000

Letzte Änderung: Do 09.01.2025 00:16