2008 AM From New York to Ballybeg: Crosscurrents in Irish and American
| Please note that this course will start on May 19! |
|---|
- Lecturer: Maria Doyle
- Time: Mo, 14-16
- Venue: A10 1-121a
- Contact: mdoyle@westga.edu
From New York to Ballybeg: Crosscurrents in Irish and American Drama
For the last several years, Irish plays have seemed to dominate Broadway with Brian Friel's small town of Ballybeg and Martin McDonagh's wickedly comic Leenane resituating themselves in the middle of Manhattan. At the beginning of the last century, it was a tour of Ireland's Abbey Theater that provided inspiration for American dramatist Eugene O'Neill, and several contemporary Irish playwrights have cited innovative American writers, like Tennessee Williams and David Mamet, as influences on their work. This course will explore these conversations across the Atlantic Ocean, examining not only the specific influences that writers have on one another but also larger questions of cultural exchange. How do these writers define their own sense of nationality? How is America imagined as a destination for immigrants, a space of opportunity or a site of violence? How is Ireland imagined in relation to this image? How do audiences in both spaces respond to these issues, and what does live performance contribute to that reaction?
Class requirements:
For Übung credit: regular attendance, active participation (especially during class sessions designated “discussion”), three short one-two page response essays, occasional out-of-class exercises as assigned.
Course Texts:
John Millington Synge, The Playboy of the Western World and Other Plays
Eugene O'Neill, Long Day's Journey into Night
Brian Friel, Philadelphia, Here I Come! (this can be purchased as an individual text or found in Selected Plays)
Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire
Marina Carr, By the Bog of Cats (can be purchased individually or found in Marina Carr: Plays 1)
David Mamet, American Buffalo
Martin McDonagh, The Beauty Queen of Leenane and Other Plays
A list of materials for further reading and exploration will be provided as the semester progresses.
Course Schedule: Lecture classes will meet for the full two hours. Students should have read the assigned text before class and should bring the text with them to class.
Section I: Establishing a Conversation from Dublin to New York to Ballybeg
Lecture 1: May 19 J.M. Synge, The Playboy of the Western World: Ireland’s National Theater and a Contested Idea of Nationhood
Lecture 2: May 26 Analysis of The Playboy of the Western World and the Influence of the Abbey Theater on Eugene O'Neill
Lecture 3: June 2 Eugene O'Neill, Long Day's Journey into Night
Discussion 1: June 5, 14-16 Meeting Room: A05 1-159
Philadelphia, Here I Come!: Brian Friel's Irish America
Section II: American Trends and Irish Interpretations
Lecture 4: June 9 Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire: A Gothic Theater of the American South
Discussion 2: June 10, 14-16 Meeting Room: A05 1-159
O'Neill, Williams and an American Dramatic Tradition
Lecture 5: June 16 Marina Carr, By the Bog of Cats: A Gothic Theater of the Irish Midlands
Discussion 3: June 17, 14-16 Meeting Room: A05 1-159
Comparative Analysis: Tennessee Williams and Marina Carr
Lecture 6: June 23 David Mamet, American Buffalo: Language as Combat in the Wasteland of the American Dream
Lecture 7: June 30 Martin McDonagh, The Beauty Queen of Leenane: Language as Combat in the Wasteland of the Irish West
Discussion 4: July 3, 14-16 Meeting Room: A05 0-056
Comparative Analysis: David Mamet and Martin McDonagh
Lecture 8: July 7
Explorations Further Afield: Some Concluding Thoughts on the Conversation
