The reading of drama demands a complexity unique to the genre, since a play must be read not only as literature, but as a performable work and as a representation of the culture which produced it, and the series of cultures (including our own) which has allowed it to endure. This course will attempt to approach the study of the dramatic text accordingly, from a variety of angles, and through different types of assignments.
Beginning with several Medieval mystery plays, and continuing through the centuries with a focus ultimately weighted on the twentieth century, we’ll take as a general framework for thinking about the works, and about the theatre and its development more generally, this idea behind the course title. Whether we consider Joyce’s notion of history as a “nightmare from which [we are] trying to awake,” or the idea, articulated by Septimus in Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia that “we shed as we pick up, like travelers who must carry everything in their arms,” the presence of that which came before looms over all literary works, but is perhaps especially significant in the drama. The question of the Past affects our reading of play texts both externally—as a consideration of the progressive development of the genre and its dependence upon and conflict with tradition and precedent, and as a specific demand for research and education to understand a play’s meaning and context—and as a thematic concern within the plays themselves, as characters work to navigate and negotiate their own histories and the histories of others.
As mentioned above, students will be required to complete a variety of assignments in order to address various aspects of the study of drama. English 244 meets the university “W” requirement, which means that students must produce 10-15 pages of graded, out-of-class writing, that must undergo significant revision. These may take the form of two 5-7 page papers, or one longer one. (For more specific W-course criteria, please see http://www.washington.edu/uaa/gateway/advising/degreeplanning/writreqs.php ). Besides these papers, course work may include brief reading quizzes, along with projects addressing technical issues of staging plays (like costume and set design), possible research work and/or group presentations, reviews of local productions and performances of scenes (no acting skill required).

BOOK LIST (subject to adjustment/addition):
Shakespeare, William. Hamlet.
Gay, John. The Beggar’s Opera.
Ibsen. A Doll’s House.
Brecht, Bertolt. The Threepenny Opera.
Beckett, Samuel. Endgame ISBN: 0-8021-5024-1
Soyinka, Wole. Death and the King’s Horseman.
Stoppard, Tom. Arcadia ISBN: 0-571-16933-3
Kushner, Tony. Angels in America (Millennium Approaches and Perestroika)
ISBN: 1-55936-061-5/1-55936-073-9
* Besides the book list, there will also be a course reader available for purchase at the beginning of the quarter which will include critical and secondary materials, and some dramatic texts not ordered in book form (including the medieval mystery plays).
* Not all ISBN numbers are listed here because I don’t have specific editions in mind. The nice thing about studying drama is that plays can be had used for very cheap, so any edition is fine (even for those listed).