ENGL 344 A: Studies in Drama

Winter 2022                                          Studies in Drama                                     W.R. Streitberger                                                                                                                                                                                                   LOW 205                                                                                                                A-510 Padelford                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           MW 9:30-11:20                                          English 344a                                           streitwr@

‘The tears of the world are a constant quantity. For each one who begins to weep somewhere else another stops. The same is true of the laugh.’ (Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot)

While comic treatment of potentially tragic experience is as old as Euripides’ ironic tragedies with comic endings, tragicomedy has predominated mainly in two periods--the Renaissance and the modern era. The theoretical conceptions and critical concerns common to both periods are similar: that tragicomedy is a quintessentially ‘modern’ genre, that it is more true to life than either tragedy or comedy, that the relationship between the comic and tragic must not be haphazard but rather the one should modify the other to bring a meaningful mixture of responses from the audience, and that success in this genre is difficult to achieve. This is a production focused investigation of modern and postmodern tragicomedy in drama and film from Ibsen (1884) to Inarritu (2014). We will read a number of significant plays and key theoretical statements in our investigations of the development of the genre. Our class sessions will consist of screenings of the works and of ongoing conversations about tragicomedy.

Requirements:

1 Journals (2 pp each) write entries on each of the following play/film productions: Fargo, The Wild Duck, The Cherry Orchard, Six Characters in Search of an Author, Waiting for Godot, The Caretaker, The Dumb Waiter, Butley, Birdman.  Explain the ways in which each of these plays/films are tragicomic; evaluate the adaptations; include your personal responses and observations (40%).

2. Two group reports (2 pp each) on assigned questions, one on 19 Jan and another on 16 Feb Submit your written version, to me (20%).
3. Essay 5-7 pp. Find your own modern or post- modern tragicomic play or film to write on (40 %).

Films                                                                                                                                                                                Fargo, dir. Joel and Ethan Cohen                                                                                                                           Birdman, or the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance, dir. Michael Inarritu

Texts (at the Bookstore unless noted otherwise):                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Henrik Ibsen, The Wild Duck                                                                                                                                       Anton Chekhov, The Cherry Orchard                                                                                                                          Luigi Pirandello, Six Characters in Search of an Author (included in CP)                                                              Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot                                                                                                                                 Harold Pinter, The Caretaker                                                                                                                                     Harold Pinter, The Dumb Waiter (included in CP)                                                                                                                                           Simon Gray, Butley                                                                                                                                                    David Mamet, Oleanna                                                                                                        

Course Pack. Find under our course number (English 344a) at Professional Copy & Print, 4200 University Way NE). (1) On Fargo and ‘Mamet Speak’. (2). Foster, ‘The Name of Tragicomedy’ 9-34. (3) Guthke, ‘Analysis of The Wild Duck’, 144-65. (4) Guthke, ‘Theory of Tragicomedy’, 45-62- 68-88. (5) Foster, ‘Tragicomedy and Realism’, 117-119. (6) Foster, ‘The Cherry Orchard’, 127-35. (7) Pirandello, Six Characters in Search of an Author. (8) Pirandello, from ‘On Humor’, xii-xiii, 112-18, 130-1. (9) Foster, ‘Metatheatre and the Absurd’, 159-66. (10) Guthke, on the Grotesque and the Absurd. (11) Foster, ‘Waiting for Godot’, 166-76. (12) Ian Kott, on the Grotesque. (13) Pinter, The Dumb Waiter. (14) Martin Esslin, from Theater of the Absurd, 243-7. (15) Coppa, ‘The Sacred Joke’. (16) Foster, ‘The Caretaker’, 187-97. (17) Ionesco, from Notes and Counternotes, 24-27. (18) Foster, on Ionesco, 76-87. (19) Durrenmatt, from Plays and Essays, 252-57. (20) Raymond Carver, ‘What do we talk about when we talk about love?’ (21) On Birdman. (22) Nadel, ‘The Playwright as Director’

TRAGICOMEDY and REALISM

Week 1                                                                                                                                                                               3 Jan Introduction. What is a production-focused course?  What is tragicomedy?

5 Jan. View in class Fargo, dir. Joel and Ethan Cohen (120 min). Read material on Fargo and on ‘Mamet Speak’ (CP).

Prepare these Questions during class as you view the film for discussion in class on 10 Jan, Part 1.

1. Genre: How do the directors exploit and alter the ‘detective-- crime drama’ conventions in this film? What is the effect?
2. Language: How are dialogue (see ‘Mammet Speak’ in CP) and dialect used to create a sense of the inability of these characters to communicate with one another?
3. Setting: Look up the terms Expressionism. How are landscape, weather, and costuming used to create a sense of the ‘world’ or ‘universe’ (what Foster refers to as ‘the metaphysical’) of this film? What kind of world is it?.
4. Look up the term Symbolism. Does the chainsaw statue and other references to Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox take on wider significance?

Week 2                                                                                                                                                                            10 Jan 2. Part 1. Discuss Fargo.  Part 2. Read and discuss Foster ‘The Name of Tragicomedy’, (CP, pp. 9-34).

10 Jan, Part 2. Prepare these questions for discussion

1. How is Tragicomedy defined (9-11)? How different is it from serious plays (drame or genre sérieux) (27), such as Ibsen’s A Doll’s House?
2. What are the key differences between Renaissance and Modern tragicomedy? (12-13)
3. Characterize the tragicomedy of the modern period, especially by Ibsen, Pirandello, Chekhov (27-28).
4. Why does Durrenmatt think that tragedy is impossible in the post-modern world? How does the think that we can achieve the tragic? (30-31)?

12 Jan  View in class The Wild Duck, dir. Henry Saffran (96 min.). Read Henrik Ibsen, The Wild Duck, and Guthke, ‘Analysis of The Wild Duck’ (CP, pp. 144-65).

Prepare these questions for discussion on 19 Jan, Part 1.

1. Identify those moments in which Hjalmar regards himself as the breadwinner, the talented inventor, the artist, the tragic sufferer. Now identify those passages in which Ibsen undercuts these pretensions by showing that he is actually selfish and lazy. How does Hjalmar’s lack of awareness of his true nature produce comedy? How does it make him endearing to the audience?
2. How is food used to develop Hjalmar’s character?
3. How does Ibsen turn his ending from tragedy to tragicomedy?
4. In what ways does Henry Safran’s production transform the tragicomic aspects of this play into melodrama?

 Week 3.                                                                                                                                                                                

17 Jan MLK Jr. Holiday

19 Jan Part 1. Discuss The Wild Duck. Part 2. Reports on Karl Guthke, ‘Theory of Tragicomedy’ (CP, pp. 45-62, 68-88). See Report topics below. 2 pp reports due today.

Report Topics (2 pp) for 19 Jan. Part 2. 

1. Explain why Melodrama, Satire, and Humor are not tragicomic (69-71). 2. Most plays do not use raisonneurs (presenters) to explain themselves. What does Guthke suggest that playwrights have to create to indicate to viewers that their plays are tragicomic (77-78)?                                                                                                                 3. Identify the first three of the seven structural patterns Guthke identifies as tragicomic. How does each work?                                                                                                                                                                  4  Identify the last four of the seven structural patters Guthke identifies as tragicomic. How does each work?

Week 4                                                                                                                                                                           

24 Jan  View The Cherry Orchard, dir. Michael Cacoyannis (141 min.). Read The Cherry Orchard, and Foster, ‘Tragicomedy and Realism’, and ‘The Cherry Orchard’ (CP, pp. 117-19, 127-35).

               Prepare these questions for discussion on 26 Jan, Part 2.

1. How does Chekhov juxtapose contrasting attitudes toward the same things (e.g. the cherry orchard or love relationships)? Illustrate how the failure to respond adequately to what a character has said becomes progressively more absurd. Does it seem that the characters become isolated in their own emotions?
2. How does Chekhov undercut what is said (the verbal) with visuals? Look especially at the characters of Yephkhodov, Trofimov, and Charlotta. Look up the term subtext. See especially the greatest example of this in the play—the last discussion between Varya and Lopakin (p. 360) To what extent is this funny? To what extent does the use of subtext introduce a note of tragedy? What is the implication of the fact that none of the characters are capable of pairing successfully?
3. In what way is the cherry orchard symbolic of the old aristocracy? Look up Foster’s discussion of the metaphysical. How does Chekhov embody the metaphysical in the mundane?
4. According to Foster (p. 118) what are the conventions of realism? How do playwrights adapt realism to the genre of tragicomedy? What kind of elements need to be added? What is the effect of adding these elements?

26 Jan  Discuss The Cherry Orchard and Foster’s ideas on Tragicomedy and Realism.

TRAGICOMEDY and THE ABSURD

Week 5

31 Jan  Read Six Characters in Search of an Author (CP), Foster on ‘Metatheatre and the Absurd’, and Foster on Pirandello, (CP, pp 159-65). View Six Characters in Search of an Author, dir. Stacey Keach.

Prepare these questions for discussion on 2 Feb, Part 1.

1. What is effect of the absent author? Focus on the Father’s attempt to take over this role. To what extent is he competent? To what extent does the Stepdaughter contest his attempt at authorship?
2. To what extent is the play about the uncertainty of identity? of the illusory nature of truth?
3. How do you understand the introduction of Madam Pace? Isn’t she a seventh character? The title leads us to expect six.
4. How does Pirandello use metatheatre as ‘the bearer of the metaphysical’ (Foster’s term for this)?

2 Feb  Part 1. Discuss in class Six Characters in Search of an Author.

Week 6

7 Feb  Read Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot, Foster on ‘Waiting for Godot’ (CP, pp. 166-76), and Ian Kott on the grotesque (CP). View Waiting for Godot,  dir. Michael Lindsay-Hogg (120 min.)

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Prepare these questions for discussion on 9 Feb, Part 2.

1.What effect does the ‘absent author’ have on your response to Waiting for Godot?                                                                                                                              2. How is dialogue used to introduce ‘metatheatre’? how does this use of metatheatre evoke the ‘metaphysical’?                                                                                                                                                 3. How is food used as a method to develop character? How often are you invited to laugh at Didi and Gogo? How often to laugh with them?                                                                                                                 4. Based on Kott’s discussion explain why this play is ‘grotesque’ rather than ‘tragic’.

9 Feb  Part 1. Discuss in class Waiting for Godot and Kott’s 1 page statement on the grotesque (CP).

Week 7                                                                                                                                                                              

14 Feb Read Harold Pinter, The Dumb Waiter and The Caretaker and Foster on The Caretaker, CP pp. 187-97), . Martin Esslin, Theater of the Absurd,  and  Francesca Coppa, ‘The Sacred Joke’ (CP). View The Dumb Waiter, dir. Robert Altman. (60 min.). and The Caretaker, dir. Clive Donner. (105 min).

Prepare these questions for discussion on 16 Feb, Part 1.

1. According to Esslin the small talk Pinter uses is ‘utterly true, wildly comic, and terrifying in its absurdity’. How does this generate Pinter’s famous ‘menace’? How is it different from Black Comedy (see Coppa)?                                                                                                     2 Pinter admits to being influenced by Hemmingway’s ‘The Killers’: ‘In their tight overcoats and derby hats they looked like a vaudeville team’. In what ways is Becektt’s Waiting for Godot also an influence?                                                                                         3 Examine Ben’s character. How might you argue that he is the ‘dumb waiter’? To what extent may it be possible to interpret this in political terms?                                                                                                                 4. How does Pinter introduce the metaphysical in this play?

Report Topics for 16 Feb, Part 2

1. How does Pinter use the mundane to suggest the metaphysical dimensions of his play’s world? Evaluate Essslin’s observation about the impact of the ending of this play.                                                                                                                
2. What does the realistic lower-class dialogue contribute to the overall effect of the play? Compare to Waiting for Godot.
3. According to Pinter this play is ‘funny up to a Beyond that point it ceases to be funny, and it is because of that point that I wrote it.’ How does Pinter use this point to create his famous sense of ‘menace’?
4. To what extent is Pinter’s notion of the relationship between comedy ad tragedy similar

16 Feb Part 1. Discuss in class The Dumb Waiter. Part 2. Report in class on The Caretaker. 2 pp. reports due today.

TRAGICOMEDY BEYOND THE ABSURD

Week 8                                                                                                                                                                                   21 Feb  Presidents Day Holiday

23 Feb Read Simon Gray, Butley, Eugene Ionesco, from Notes and Counternotes (CP pp. 24-7), Foster, ‘Ionesco’ (CP pp 176-87), and Friedrich Durrenmatt, Plays and Essays (CP pp. 252-7). View Simon Gray, Butley, dir. Harold Pinter. (120 min.).

Prepare these questions for discussion, 28 Feb, Part 2

1. What devices does Gray use to undercut Butley’s authoritative stature throughout the play? 2. How does Gray introduce metaphysics into his play’s world? (What tunes does Butley hum? What Shakespeare plays are mentioned? To what effect? How are babies regarded?). How does Gray introduce metatheatre? (Are there any self-conscious references to the structure of this play?)                                                                      3. To what extent is Gray indebted to Chekhov’s habits of using comic cross talk, silences, and subtext? To what effect?                                                                                                                                                            4. Durrenmatt establishes that comedy is capable of creating form. From that he develops a theory of comedy that can be used to achieve the tragic. How might this notion be applied to Butley?

Week 9                                                                                                                                                                                

28 Feb  Part 1. Discuss in class Butley and Ionesco’s and Durrenmat’s theories of comedy. Part 2. Read and disucss Raymond Carver’s ‘What do we talk about when we talk about love?’(CP).

2 Mar  View Birdman, or the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance, dir Alejandro Inarritu. Read material on Birdman (CP)

Prepare these questions for discussion, 7 Mar, Part 1

1. Wikipedia describes this film as a “black comedy drama”. What do you make of this idea of its genre? Epigraph. Where is it from? What does it mean? How does the epigraph set up your expectations for the genre? How does the first scene modify your expectations? Consider the various subplots (Riggan and his former wife. Riggan and Sam. Riggan and his girlfriend. Nick and Laura) How are they related to the main plot? How is the film related to Raymond Carver’s short story, “What do we talk about when we talk about love”?       
2. In what way is the dialogue related to Raymond Carver’s writing style (sometimes called ‘dirty realism’)? How related to what you know about ‘Mamet speak’? To what effect? How does this style of speech affect the way the characters communicate with one another? Give examples.
3. This is the most blatantly metatheatrical work we have seen. Explain in detail how the setting insists on foregrounding the film as constructed illusion but realistic at the same time? How the casting is used to reinforce both the realism and the artificiality of the film. There are many arguments about how to perform effectively on stage. Riggan and his first co-star; Nick and Laura; Riggan and Nick do this several times. What is the point? How related to Rigan’s ambition to adapt, direct, and star in Carver’s story? Why is realistic authenticity such an important theme in the film?
4. Metaphysics. The comet which we see at least twice might be one of the clues. Mainly it comes from the allusion to Shakespeare’s Macbeth. The (addict/drunk?) in the alley when Riggan is buying his bottle of whiskey shouts out Macbeth’s famous soliloquy about the meaningless of life. Is it significant that it includes the metatheatrical allusion to life being like ‘a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and is heard no more’?  What is the subject of the argument between Riggan and Sam when he catches her smoking dope?  What is his point in this argument? What is hers? How related to the metaphysics of the film? What kind of universe do these characters live in? What does that imply about the possibility of tragedy? of tragicomedy?
5. Finally: What are we to make of the last scene? Is it a magical realism or is it a hallucination? Does it affect the way you respond emotionally to the film? Does it move tragicomedy into some form of manipulated or intensified realism? Does it reflect any of the qualities that Durrenmatt thinks tragicomedy is capable of? 

Week 10

7 Mar Part 1;. View Oleanna, dir. David Mamet (90 min.). Read  Oleanna.  

9 Mar. Part 1. Discuss in class Birdman.  Part 2 Discuss Oleanna.  Journals due

Week 11

14 Mar. Conclusion. Essay (5-7 pp) due