THE 214 - British and Irish Drama

Semester Hours: 4

An introductory survey of the seminal dramatic literature constituting the British theatrical tradition, from the English Renaissance (Shakespeare and his cohort), through Restoration, Enlightenment and Victorian traditions, to contemporary political and avant-garde drama. The course syllabus will share space with representative 19th- and 20th-century Irish plays by major dramatists such as Wilde, Shaw, Synge, Yeats, Beckett, Friel, McDonagh, and Walsh. Students will acquaint themselves with a range of plays, playwrights, performance spaces, dramaturgical conventions, and acting methods of these periods to understand the role and impact of theater in British and Irish popular culture. When possible, the class will attend a stage production of such plays.

Cross-Listed: ENG 127