Department of Greek & Roman Classics 811: Greek Theater and Society
TTh 930-1050, AB 342
Professor Robin Mitchell-Boyask
Office: AB 327 Phone: 1-3672 Hours: M9-10, 130-230 TTh
robin@temple.edu | http://www.temple.edu/classics/dramadir/
Description: This course aims to introduce students to the nature of ancient Greek drama, both as an art form and as a product of a specific historical society. It aims to address fundamental questions about the nature and purpose of theater in the ancient world: is this art just entertainment or does it engage and comment on the problems of Athens? How and why did this society invent theater in the Western world? A secondary, but still central, aspect of this course involves asking questions about the relationship of Greek drama to the modern world: why do new versions of plays about Oedipus, Antigone and Dionysus keep popping up in places as diverse as New York, Utah, South Africa and China? How can ancient drama be staged now in a way that is both responsible to the surviving texts and stimulating to contemporary audiences? This course aims to introduce students to ancient Greek theater through close readings of the surviving texts, through viewings of modern productions of ancient theatrical works, and through students' own recreations of Greek performative media. Students will examine and experience ancient Greek drama both as a product of its own historical period and as a living art form. Please note: Greek comedy featured substantial amounts of obscenity. If you are easily offended, please do not take this course.
This course is part of Temple's General Education curriculum. Goals of GenEd Arts courses include:
Electronic equipment. Cell phones must be turned off. I will confiscate a student's phone the second time it rings in class and the first time it is used for texting during class. Laptop computers must also be closed.
Required reading: We will use a series of texts in this class. These have been chosen carefully with an eye to keeping costs reasonable, so you are required to have copies of these texts and to bring your copy of the book under discussion to class. You will also receive occasional handouts of selected texts. Some scholarship will be linked online at Blackboard.
Additional materials at Blackboard both in MS Word and html (under Course Documents):
Disability policy: Any student who has a need for accommodation based on the impact of a disability should contact the instructor privately to discuss the specific situation as soon as possible. Contact Disability Resources and Services at 215-204-1280 or 100 Ritter Annex to coordinate reasonable accommodations for students with documented disabilities.
Academic Conduct: Temple University has adopted standards on academic conduct, and all students are expected to comply fully with those standards, including with reference to the important issue of plagiarism. All students should, in all assignments, fully and unambiguously cite sources from which they are drawing important ideas and/or sizable quotations (for example, more than eight consecutive words or more than 50% of a given sentence or paragraph). Failure to do so constitutes plagiarism, which is a serious act of academic misconduct and will result in a failing grade for the course and notification of the infraction to the Dean of Students. Similarly, cheating during exams, copying written assignments from other students, or providing answers to others during exams are considered acts of academic misconduct. If you are unfamiliar with policies about plagiarism or other types of academic misconduct, you may wish to consult the on-line guide to "Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Acknowledging Sources," available at the Temple Writing Center: http://www.temple.edu/writingctr/student_resources/student_resources.htm
If you still have remaining doubts or specific questions, raise them directly with the instructor.
Temple University policy on the freedom to teach and learn: Freedom to teach and freedom to learn are inseparable facets of academic freedom. The University has adopted a policy on Student and Faculty Academic Rights and Responsibilities (Policy#03.70.02) that can be accessed through the following link: http://policies.temple.edu/getdoc.asp?policy_no=03.70.02.
Weekly Assignments
Important: The rhythm of your week should be to read a whole play for Tuesday, taking notes of what is confusing or interesting, and then reread for Thursday. Read actively and come to class with questions. The regular response papers will be designed to focus your reading and prepare for in-class discussions.
(Aug 31- Sep 2) Week 1 Tues: Introduction to Greek drama and theaters: a show for Dionysus
Required web readings to be completed by Thursday (next Tuesday at latest):
1.Thomas Martin, "Athenian Religious and Cultural Life in the Golden Age," Focus on the paragraphs on tragedy.
Recommended reading for the first three or four weeks (in BB, under External Links)
2. Introduction to Greek Stagecraft (from Didaskalia)
3. NY Times article on modern stagings
- Article, "tragedy", from the Oxford Classical Dictionary
- The essays of the first section of The Cambridge Companion to Greek Tragedy
(Sept 7-9) Week 2: Euripides: Bacchae; Aristotles' Poetics. Topics: division of parts among three actors; staging; textual problems; religion and tragedy; Dionysus and Dionysia; Aristotle and Greek tragedy. No class Thursday due to Rosh Hashana.
(Sept 14-16) Week 3: Sophocles: Ajax. Tuesday: Quiz #1 on theatrical terminology and history and on Bacchae. Topics: staging debates with masks; where is Athena?; suicides on stage? religion and tragedy; drama and hero cult; modern productions.
(Sept 21-23) Week 4: Aeschylus' Oresteia: Agamemnon. Topics: when does Clytemnestra enter? what is on stage? gender conflict and drama; modern productions, including Peter Hall's Oresteia. Response paper #1 due on Tuesday.
(Sept 28-30) Week 5: Agamemnon; Libation Bearers. Discussion of whether the murder of Clytemnestra can be staged with three actors. Also: Discussion of the politics of Greek tragedy. Response paper #2 due on Thursday.
(Oct 5-7) Week 6: Libation Bearers; Eumenides. Discussions of staging the trial vote and how the three actors are distributed across all three plays. Quiz #2 Thursday on Oresteia and Ajax.
(Oct 12-14) Week 7: Women on stage: 2 other views. Sophocles' Electra on Tuesday. Film of Aristophanes' Lysistrata on Thursday (viewer discretion advised).
(Oct 19-21) Week 8: The Great Unraveling 1: Gender, Rhetoric and the Other. Euripides' Medea. Workshop with Aquila Theater Company on Tuesday. Response paper #3 due on Thursday.
(Oct 26-28) Week 9: The Great Unraveling 2: The Crisis of the Generations. Euripides' Hippolytus (Staging: two choruses? where is Phaedra standing?) Response paper #4 due on Thursday.
(Nov 2-4) Week 10: Aristophanes' Clouds; read also Plato's Apology of Socrates on BB. Topics: The staging of Greek comedy; the social responsibility of the artist. Quiz # 3 Thursday on Medea, Hippolytus, and Clouds.
Recommended readings in BB under External Links:
(Nov 9-11) Week 11: Heracles on Stage I (man, superman, god): Sophocles' Women of Trachis and Euripides' Heracles. Response paper #5 due on Thursday.
(Nov 16-18) Week 12: Heracles on Stage II (man, superman, god, buffoon) Aristophanes' Birds (video of Aquila production at Temple). BB Thucydides readings on the Sicilian Expedition
(Nov 23) Week 13: Heracles on Stage III (war, drama and civic (dis)unity): Sophocles' Philoctetes. BB readings from Thucydides on the oligarchic coup.
(Nov 30-Dec 2) Week 14: continue Philoctetes. Begin Aristophanes' Frogs. Quiz # 4 Thursday on Women of Trachis, Heracles and Philoctetes.
(Dec 7) Week 15: Another show for Dionysus: Aristophanes' Frogs (video of Aquila production as 1950s musical, with Dionysus as Elvis) Topics: comedy, the function of drama, and the end of Athens. Comparison with Sondheim's Frogs, especially its 2004 New York production
Final Exam Thursday 12/16, 8-10 A.M.
Select Bibliography