ANCIENT AND MODERN TRAGEDY

ANCIENT AND MODERN TRAGEDY

Module Level:

III

Module Tutor:

Martin Pugmire.

Module Credit Value:

20 Credit Points.

Recommended prior knowledge: Prior to the double module students should have followed at least one of the Level I ‘skill-based’ drama units, ‘Introduction to Drama’ and ‘Introduction to Modern European Drama’. It would be helpful if they have also followed the Second Year ‘Shakespeare’ double module.

Aims

to discuss examples of the earliest surviving tragedies, and to see them in relation to their society and ours.
to study tragic works both as individual texts and in relation to each other, and to consider whether features recur in different periods.
to examine some of the different meanings and emphases that have been applied to the term ‘Tragedy’, starting with Aristotle and coming up to the present with the views of unconventional critics such as John Orr.
to explore whether the term ‘Tragedy’ is applicable to twentieth-century texts, including television and film drama, with reference to comments by both writers and critics.

Indicative Content

The role and legacy of Greek tragedy, with particular reference to its distinctive features and social environment.

The role of tragedy in later societies, with special emphasis on the ways in which later tragedies have conformed to/deviated from classical patterns.

The changing nature of the theatrical environment in which tragedies are performed.

The different critical approaches to the question, ‘What makes a work tragic?’

Specific Texts

Texts may vary from year to year (for instance, to coincide with particular performances available to students), but will cover the following areas:

Ancient Greek tragedy. Texts currently studied : Sophocles Oedipus the King and Antigone; Euripides The Women of Troy.

Modern theatrical tragedy. Texts currently studied : Ibsen The Master Builder, Anouilh Antigone (to link with Sophocles’ version, above), Friel Translations, Shaffer Amadeus, and Dorfman Death and the Maiden.

Modern television and film drama. Texts currently studied : Nicholson Life Story, Campion The Piano.

There are no Elizabethan and Jacobean texts on the course because they are studied in two complementary modules : ‘Shakespeare : Tragedies and Romances’ (Level 2) and ‘Literature from 1590 to the Restoration’ (Level 3). However, the general discussion of ‘Tragedy’ at the end of the course draws on texts from these modules as well as from ‘Ancient and Modern Tragedy’.

Learning Outcomes

At the end of the unit students should be able to:

demonstrate detailed knowledge and understanding of the texts studied on the unit, and respond independently and intelligently to the complex questions and issues raised by those texts.
provide evidence of an ability to relate and apply knowledge of specific texts to the discussion, analysis and interpretation of ‘Tragedy’ as a concept.
discuss the relation between particular texts and their social, cultural and historical contexts.
describe and evaluate some of the different critical perspectives which have been applied to tragic texts.
provide evidence of having developed individual skills of detailed, questioning reading and interpretation, and of further being able to articulate and discuss their responses and judgments with their peers.

Teaching and Learning Strategies

Texts will be studied in blocks of 1-2 weeks, combining general lectures (to provide background perspectives and introduce general issues), seminar discussion and small-group work.

Assessment Strategies :

This unit will be assessed through a balance of coursework (50%) and examination (50%). In line with the learning outcomes, coursework requirements will consist of a 2,000 word assignment, an oral presentation, and contribution to class and small-group discussion. Assignment questions will refer to one or two texts, each question being designed to elicit detailed analytical and interpretative responses to open-ended issues. The examination will be a 3-hour unseen paper, with students being required to answer one general and two text-specific questions on the material they have studied for this unit. They will not be able to use the texts chosen for their assignment and oral presentation as principal texts in their exam answers.

Students will be assessed on their detailed knowledge of the texts themselves, and on their ability to apply, relate and evaluate appropriate critical insights and perspectives. In assignments, oral presentation and discussion, and exam answers tutors will be looking for detailed, discriminating and informed responses, both to individual texts, and to the wider issues and terms governing the development of the tragic tradition.

Bibliography

Required Reading

Aeschylus : The Oresteia, (Open University, A292, 1976)

Aristotle, Aristotle’s Poetics : A Translation and Commentary for Students of Literature, translated by Leon Golden and O.B. Harrison (Prentice-Hall, 1968)

Goldhill, S Reading Greek Tragedy, (Cambridge University Press, 1986)

Jones, J On Aristotle and Greek Tragedy, (Oxford University Press, 1962)

Nietzsche, F The Birth of Tragedy and On the Genealogy of Morals , translated by Francis Golffing (Anchor Press, 1988)

Orr, J Tragic Drama and Modern Society, (Macmillan, 1989)

Williams, R Modern Tragedy (Chatto, 1980)

Recommended Reading

Belsey, C The Subject of Tragedy (Routledge, 1985)

Dollimore, J Radical Tragedy (Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1989)

Esslin, M The Theatre of the Absurd (Pelican, 1980)

Frye, N Anatomy of Criticism (Princeton University Press, 1957)

Kott, J The Eating of the Gods (Eyre Methuen, 1973)

Miller, A Collected Plays (The Cresset Press, 1974)

Rossiter, A.P. Angel with Horns (Longman,1961)

Steiner, G The Death of Tragedy (Faber, 1961)

Walcot, P Greek Drama in its Theatrical and Social Context (University of Wales, 1976)

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