DTH4004 - Rethinking Theatre History

Leader: Rob Baum

Offered

Clayton Second semester 2007 (Day)

Synopsis

This unit will explore the processes of rethinking theatre history in a number of ways: the challenges to received critical thinking and methodology, and to canonical assumptions; the implications for theatre history of parallel texts reflecting 'translations' into new media; the responses of analytical and critical approaches in Drama and Theatre Studies to the influence of thinking in other disciplines; the reframing of canonical texts in the light of contemporary theoretical and cultural perspectives, and its implications for historicised interpretation.
It will examine a range of plays in relation to traditional scholarly interpretations and to specific recent re-readings.

Objectives

Students completing 'Rethinking Theatre History' should have acquired:

1. A working awareness of contemporary theoretical perspectives.
2. The capacity to apply specific theoretical approaches to a diverse range of theatrical texts.
3. An ongoing sensitivity, openness and scepticism to shifts in the climate of disciplinary debate.
4. A developed sense of the continuing volatility and contingency of intellectual debate in the field.
5. A sophisticated understanding of the issues underlying those debates at a level appropriate to graduate study.
6. Enhanced confidence in articulating informed arguments and interpretations, in both oral and written form.

Assessment

An exegetical essay (3000 words): 30%
An oral class presentation (equivalent 2000 words): 20%
A long essay (4000 words): 50%

Contact hours

2 hours per week

Co-requisites

DTH4000