English 4344/5344 (British Drama 1660+) Website: http://faculty.uca.edu/~bonniem

Sections 2061/70 (TTh 12:15); Irby 312 Email: bonniem@uca.edu;

Melchior: Spring, 2004 Office Hours: MWF 11-12; 2-3

Office: Irby 317C; Phone: 450-5127 TTh 11-12;1:30-3:00 (if no meetings)

Please turn off all cell phones and pagers during this class.

All assignments should be typed (double-spaced) or written in blue or black ink on standard-size paper (not on the back).

Required Texts:

Sheridan, School for Scandal

Congreve, Way of the World

Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest

Shaw, Arms and the Man

Orton, What the Butler Saw

Pinter, Betrayal

Churchill, Top Girls

Grading (total about 600 points):

Reading Journal: 150 to 200 points (10 points for each journal, 20 points for 2-page seed papers)

Midterm-- 100 points

2 papers @ 100 points each (5-6 pages each)

A comprehensive final exam (100 to 150 points)

Frequent in-class discussion and fewer than 4 absences (up to 20 journal points).


The Reading Journal: Each journal will count 10 points. Since one of the purposes is to encourage class discussion and keep people from getting behind, each journal must be turned in at the beginning of the period (put it on my desk). Journals not on the desk when class starts will be counted as late journals. To allow for sickness and pressing responsibilities, 2 may be turned in up to 1 week late. You may turn journals in early if you know you will be absent. Also, at the end of the semester, I will drop 1 journal grade. Write on only one side of the paper (in ink or typed). Put the play and act in the upper left corner (for ex., SS I). Fold lengthwise; put your name, "1660," and the date to the right of the fold.

Journal questions will be distributed in class or posted on my website. To get the maximum amount of credit on a journal, use specific evidence from the play (something from a quote or an action) to answer the question. Write a full page. The idea is to think about how things go together to make meaning.

Papers: Papers that are not turned in the day the syllabus says they're due will be marked down. If you know in advance that the week will be hectic, come talk to me and we can arrange something ("in advance" does not mean the day the paper is due--that's too late.) Everyone will do a 2-3 page "seed paper" as exploration and preparation for the full-length papers (these short papers will count toward journal credit). The longer, formal papers will emerge from the seed papers and the discussion generated by those papers. The final papers should be in MLA style (title and citations in MLA format).

Additional Assignments for Graduate Students:

A. Read and summarize introductory materials and turn in a journal on this material (4 typed, double-spaced pages). The journal can be informal--not in polished style. Due Tues., Jan. 27.

B. Read The Beggar's Opera (which is on the Graduate Reading List). Do a two-page reading journal on each act and a four-source annotated bibliography (see directions below). Come in and discuss the play with me for an hour after you have turned in at least part of the reading journal. Consult with me on due dates.


C. Four annotated bibliographies-- three on plays from the list above plus one on The Beggar's Opera. Two of the bibliographies will consist of 3 sources plus a response, two will be 4 sources plus a response. (One 4-source bibliography should be on The Beggar's Opera and the other on a play you are writing a paper on.) Choose sources from bibliographies obtained from me, and do a ½ to 1 page summary of each source. The first summary will be due on the first day we deal with the play. Each bibliography thereafter will be due on the last class day dealing with that play. Only one reading journal will be due for plays on which you do an annotated bibliography.

Plagiarism: Papers and journals should be based on your own close encounter with the plays. Using any material from other sources without crediting those sources will result in an "F".

The University of Central Arkansas adheres to the requirements of the Americans with disabilities Act. If you need accommodation under this act due to a disability, contact the Office of disability support Services at 450-3135. For general academic policy and policy concerning sexual harassment see the Student Handbook.

Interpretation:

Character: Everything minor characters say about major characters is true, unless contradicted within a few pages. Only major characters can "change" during the course of a play; other characters stay the same. Minor characters often function as "foils" (contrasting attitudes or character traits-- they represent other options in that situation). Look for key speeches that announce a character's intentions and motivations.

All information that is important to the meaning is provided in the play; what is not provided is not important. For instance, if the past history of a character is not provided (whether a character did or did not have children, how a character was treated as a child, etc.), it isn't important to interpreting motivation. Look for speeches in which the character himself or herself discusses motivation and reasoning.

SYLLABUS (a journal is due unless otherwise specified; see the questions for each play.)

I (Jan. 13-15)

T One definition of a comedy of manners is that it focuses on the "manners and forms" of the society, helping us understand "how social codes influence the expression and fulfillment of natural desires and how social codes facilitate or impede our living well as civilized individuals." Watch a comedy (TV or movie) that you think will give some insight into our social codes ("the way of the world"). Turn in one to two pages discussing the following questions. (I've focused them toward "the way of the world," but you can adapt them to social codes:

1. What does the setting contribute to establishing this "world"?

2. Is the protagonist a spokesperson for this world or at odds with it?

3. How do contrasting characters help define this world?

4. What kinds of plot actions communicate that the world is the way it is?

5. What piece of dialogue or "image" seems to tellingly summarize this world?

6. What issues significant to our lives might a show that defines the world this way explore?

(This is the most significant question of all!)

Th Read School for Scandal, Act I- no journal (Read for exposition: What has happened-- inciting incident? Who wants what? How are characters related? "Type" each person-- names help) Underline key passages that indicate the character of the speaker or person spoken about. Also underline lines indicating attitudes about women and men, about marriage, and about society.

Philosophical Background: 1660 Syllabus (Spring 2004), cont. p. 3

Hobbes, whose views were prevalent in the Restoration and early 18th C., saw humans as essentially selfish. In the political world, liberty and security are incompatible. A compromise must be made.

Comedy of wit (Way of the World) emerges from the Hobbesian view. In comedy of wit, the characters, though representative of types, achieve their place not by exaggerating the eccentric but by exhibiting traits normal to society. The ideal here is conformity to a definite pattern of conduct, that of wit and breeding. The reform of the rake is through witty understanding

In the later 18th C., the prevailing view of human nature was that it's possible for humans to be good; many of life's problems would be solved by learning to recognize and act on the virtuous impulses of the heart. In marital discord, reconciliation is provoked by a change of heart (as opposed to the view that help can come only from clear sight or possibly that no solutions exist). Comedy of sensibility emerges from this later view. It implies that human nature is perfectible by an appeal to the emotions. The reform of the rake is through sensibility instead of through witty understanding. Sheridan somewhat straddles these views, but SS has much of the comedy of sensibility.

Comedy of Manners:

According to Northrop Frye, the essential comic resolution is an individual release which is also a social reconciliation. The fundamental ideal of 18th C. social comedy is the "honnete homme" in harmony with his society-- but what does that mean? (decorum? appropriateness? the golden mean?). Comedy of Manners focuses on manners and forms in the society. It is interested in the conflict between natural desires and manners (forms that, ideally, allow us to live together in a group with less friction). Two facets emerge: 1) How social codes influence the expression and fulfillment of natural desires; 2)-- a "moral" restatement-- How social forms facilitate or impede our living well as civilized individuals. (Both WW and SS are Comedies of Manners.)

Journal Questions: Choose one or more of the following questions and explore what specifics from that day's reading (and earlier reading) imply. Use evidence from more than one passage.

1. What motivates a key character? Is progress, or even decency, possible?

2. Are the ways of the world protested by he author? accepted? accepted happily?

3. Is the view of human nature harsh and satiric? humane and tolerant? crusading and miniatory (didactic)?

4. What seems the source of order and meaning in the world of this play?

5. What are the character's assumptions about social class or legitimate authority?

6. What is the nature of the "problem" underlying the play's action?

7: What social and/or psychological factors cause problems between couples? (Look at what characters say about marriage, at what men say about women and v.v., at what pressures exerted by society?)

Syllabus (cont.)

II (Jan. 20-22)

T School for Scandal, Acts II-IV (see questions at the end of this syllabus)

Th SS, V

III (Jan. 27-29)

T Way of the World, Act I

Th WW, II-III


IV (Feb. 3-5)

T WW, IV-V, Question for paper due

Th The Importance of Being Earnest, Act I

V (Feb. 10-12)

T Seed paper due

Th Earnest, II-III


VI (Feb. 17-19)

T Paper due (include seed paper)

Th Read Suzanne Langer, "The Comic Rhythm" (pp. 456-69 xerox or on my website)

 

VII (Feb. 24-26)

T Arms and the Man, Act I

Th Arms and the Man, Act II

 

VIII (Mar. 2-4)

T Arms and the Man, Act III

Th Midterm Review: quotes due

 

IX (Mar. 9-11)

T Midterm

Th What the Butler Saw, I

 

X (Mar. 16-18)

T Butler, II, and Bergson (from "Laughter): pp 745-50 (xerox or on my website)

Th Butler, III

Spring Break

XI (Mar. 30- Apr. 1)

T Question for paper due

Th Betrayal, I

XII (Apr. 6-8)

T Seed paper due

Video of Betrayal

Th Betrayal, II

XIII (Apr. 13-15)

T Paper due

Th Top Girls, I

XIV (Apr. 20-22)

T Top Girls, II

Th Top Girls

XV (Apr. 26-29)

T Oral Reports for Top Girls

Th Review, Quotations for final exam due

FINAL EXAMINATION (comprehensive)

 

Journal Question for SS: Do one question (or a part of a question) for a journal. Write about a page and support with specifics. Try to probe complexities, raise questions, follow out lines of reasoning.

1. Typical/atypical gender roles, sources of difficulty between genders, verb al interchanges.

2. Are there "kinds" of wit? Does wit affect audience sympathy?

3. How does Sheridan manipulate audience sympathy for characters where it could go either wya: Sir Peter? Lady Teazle? Charles? Sir Oliver?

4. #2 from the set on the syllabus (Are the ways of the world protested by the author? Accepted? Accepted happily?