01   TTH5   CAC  52850  DIAMOND  MU-210

After investigating the roots of North American drama in homegrown popular culture--melodrama, traveling fairs and circuses--and in imports from Europe, we'll explore American drama's contribution to 1) Modernism, particularly in revisions of realism; 2) the Depression era 3) Absurdism and the Cold War; 4) the Sixties; 5) the contemporary scene. Canonical American drama has become a more inclusive category and our reading will reflect the brilliance of plays across the twentieth century that offer us a wider perspective on the field. Plays by O'Neill, Williams, Miller, Shepard will be read alongside texts by Sophie Treadwell, Ntozake Shange, Amiri Baraka, David Henry Hwang, and Suzan-Lori Parks. Throughout we will be discussing questions of form, history, and the history of ideas as they are translated and contradicted by the American theater apparatus. How does commercial conservatism versus performance experimentation influence the writing of American drama? Do we have a national theater? Why do some texts and not others enter the canon?