Courses Summer 2012
English 190
Reading, Writing, and Performing Drama
Dr. Thomas C. Crochunis
Summer 2012, Term 3, July 9-August 9
(This course fulfills the General Education Category B Literature requirement.)
Course Description
English 190 will help you develop your ability to read, discuss, write, and present scenes from drama. The course will focus on the ways different types of plays represent characters and their stories. The course’s readings will give you a brief tour of a few essential forms of drama that are important to the history and styles of modern theatre. To come to a deeper understanding of these forms, we will analyze how sample plays in each form create their meaning, explore these plays through performance, and write short scripts in similar forms as our model dramatic texts. After successfully completing this course, students will be able to
- Analyze, present, and discuss what they read
- Recognize and describe how literature represents and gives shape to varied human experiences
- Identify, contextualize, and evaluate some of the most important forms in dramatic history
- Express ideas in creative projects and logically argue ideas in short papers.
This class will be a very intense, and I hope enjoyable, exploration of drama and its expressive possibilities in a historical context. Much of what we will learn in the course will come from the combination of activities done in class and outside of class. This is NOT a correspondence course or online summer class. This is more like a thought-provoking summer drama camp. You have to be here to actually be IN the class. It’s also much more fun that way.
Dramatic Forms & Possible Course Texts
Realism
- Anton Chekhov—The Cherry Orchard
- Susan Glaspell—Trifles
- David Mamet—American Buffalo
- Theresa Rebeck—Sunday on the Rocks
Beyond Realism
- William Butler Yeats—Purgatory
- Harold Pinter—The Caretaker
- Sam Shepard—Buried Child
- Suzan-Lori Parks—Topdog/Underdog
Performance as a Multi-Layered Medium
- Paula Vogel—How I Learned to Drive
- Caryl Churchill—Cloud Nine
- Mindy Kaling and Brenda Withers—Matt and Ben
Telling Stories
- Spaulding Gray—Swimming to Cambodia
- Wallace Shawn—The Fever
- Adrienne Kennedy—The Film Club
Political/Documentary Theatre
- Bertolt Brecht—The Good Person of Szechuan
- Clifford Odets—Waiting for Lefty
- Moises Kaufman and Tectonic Theatre—The Laramie Project
The parts of the course’s work have roughly the following weight in determining your grade:
| Two short response papers |
40% |
| Class participation, including two scene presentations |
20% |
| Digital media project |
20% |
| Final script |
20% |
English 308 Online
Fiction Writing
Professor Neil Connelly
Summer 2012, May 14-June 17
English 308 (Fiction Writing) Online will be a dynamic creative writing class with plenty of room for self-pacing. Using great short stories and sometimes unusual prompts for writing exercises, the first half of the course will explore the elements of narrative. During the second half, every student will compose his/her own original story and have it reviewed by the class in a supportive, interactive workshop. There are no prequisites for this course, only the desire to write good fiction.
English 518 Online
Seminar in Multicultural Literature
Dr. Dan Shiffman
Summer 2012, July 9-August 9
ENG518 Seminar in Multicultural Literature provides in-service teachers and certification students with advanced study of American literature in a multicultural context. At least two historically under-represented social groups will be represented by the authors studied. The course helps teachers and future teachers understand current critical and theoretical approaches to the cultural diversity of American literature. This section of ENG 518 focuses on young adult multicultural literature appropriate for the middle and high school English/Language Arts classroom.