The study of drama in the English department can be a “hands-on” experience, with students getting the chance to act and direct, to learn about the theatre by “doing” it. Besides the text, theatre involves physical, spacial, and temporal dimensions; actors are concerned with their characters’ “objects” and “subtext.” Performance itself involves an audience which witnesses and ratifies the onstage action. Through the wide interests of its faculty as well as opportunities to do independent study which involves working in productions, the English department can embrace drama as both literature and performance. Moreover, with courses in English, American Afro-American, and World Literature, as well as offerings in film, criticism, psychology, the department provides a context for the study of drama that is broader than that offered by traditional theater departments.
Expected Courses:
- ENL 4333 Shakespeare
- LIT 3041 Studies in Drama
- LIT 3043 Studies in Modern Drama
Theoretical Issues Related to a Particular Genre or Medium – at least one of the following:
- ENG 3115 Introduction to Film
- ENG 4310 Genres, Directors, & Periods
- LIT 3003 Forms of Narrative
- LIT 3031 Studies in Poetry
- LIT 4233 Postcolonial Literature, Culture, & Theory
Critical Context for the Drama – at least one of the following:
- ENG 3010 Theory & Practice of Modern Criticism
- ENG 3011 Major Theorists
- ENG 4015 Psychological Approaches to Literature
- LIT 4554 Feminist Theory
- SPC 4680 Rhetorical Criticism
Supplementary Courses: Five other 3000/4000 level English courses.
Recommended: Courses that provide the literary, cultural, and historical context for the drama, such as LIT 3362 (Age of the Avant-Garde), ENL 3132 (English Novel: 20th Century), ENL 3154 (20th-Century British Poetry), ENL 4220 (Renaissance Literature: 16th Century), ENL 4221 (Renaissance Literature: 17th Century), AML 3041 (American Literatures II ), AML 3605 (African-American Literature I), AML 3607 (African-American Literature II), LIT 4188 (World English Language Literatures), LIT 4194 (African Literature in English), etc.
Note: In addition to the above, Independent Study in Acting and Performance is available through Professor Homan, who is engaged as a director and actor in productions both in the theater and through the Arts in Medicine Program.
Outside the department, students should consider THE 2931, 4110, and 4111.
Faculty
Department of English faculty who regularly teach courses in this model include:
- Sidney Homan – Drama (Shakespeare & Modern), Theatre, Acting & Directing
- Peter L. Rudnytsky – Freud Studies, History of Psychoanalysis, Shakespeare, Renaissance