128110 VO Cultural Studies - MA M01 (2019W)

This lecture class explores English-language cultures of theater and performance in early America, from the mid-17th to the early 19th century. It will critically engage with and refute the antitheatrical prejudice that there simply was no American theater culture before the Civil War and introduce students to a select number of popular theatrical texts and performance contexts in colonial America and the early national period. The class will familiarize students with general problems of theater historiography and the ephemeral, and highly site-specific archive of performance, and will then proceed to discuss exemplary dramatic texts and their performances on various stages across the American colonies/the U.S. The lecture class will ask what makes American theater “American,” and will look at how performances negotiated such issues as the American revolution and the question of liberal republicanism; nation building; the role of the American colonies/the U.S. in a changing Atlantic world-system, especially vis-à-vis Britain; questions concerning regional and class difference; questions concerning racial difference, especially with regard to slavery and indigeneity; as well as questions regarding gender and sexual difference.

Students should be familiar with the cultural history of early anglophone America (c. 1607-1815) before the first session. For preparation, any American cultural history will do; for an easy read, I recommend Paul S. Boyer et al., The Enduring Vision: A History of the American People (multiple editions).