DTS4820

Twentieth-century Australian drama

P Fitzpatrick

12 points
* 2 hours per week
* Second semester
* Clayton

Objectives Upon successful completion of this subject, students should have developed a broad major knowledge of major texts and patterns of innovation in Australian theatre, and their relation to developments in the wider culture. They should also have acquired a level of understanding of theatre processes and methodologies appropriate as a basis for future research.

Synopsis The subject deals with a wide range of the work of Australian playwrights of the last one hundred years. While the seminar program will focus on critical approaches to the prescribed plays, it will be concerned as well with a number of issues beyond the individual texts: the patterns of preoccupations which the plays reflect and the ideologies and conventions to which they are related; the theatrical models, both local and international, to which the plays may refer; the empowering and disabling influences of a consciousness of tradition, and the cultural assumptions on which they are based; and the ways in which the playwrights have shaped or adapted images of Australian identity.

Assessment Long essay/research project (5000 words): 50%
* Short essay (2000 words): 25%
* Seminar paper (2000 words): 25%

Prescribed texts

Bailey B On Our selection Currency, 1984
Beynon R The Shifting Heart Angus and Robertson, 1992
Darrell G The Sunny South Currency, 1988
Lawler R Summer of the Seventeenth Doll Currency, 1995
Nowra L Inside the Island Currency, 1987
Romeril J The Floating World Currency, 1995
Seymour A `The One Day of the Year' in Three Australian plays Penguin, 1994
Williamson D Don's Party Currency, 1984
Williamson D Dead White Males Currency, 1995