CLAS 103(S) Greek and Roman Drama (Same as Literary Studies 222 and Theatre 311)

Greek tragedy and Greek "Old Comedy" were multi-media forms of art invented in sixth- and fifth-century Athens, where tragic and comic performances played a vital part in civic life and popular discourse. In the first half of this course, we will consider selected plays by the fifth-century tragedians Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides and by the comic playwright Aristophanes. In the second half, our focus will shift to plays which, while their existence is unimaginable without their fifth-century precursors, take very different forms and were conceived for very different audiences. We will read selected plays by Menander (the fourth-century Athenian playwright of bourgeois "New Comedy"), Plautus and Terence (comic playwrights of second-century Republican Rome), and Seneca (the highly rhetorical tragedian of first-century imperial Rome). The chronological nature of this survey will facilitate our considering the plays from several related perspectives: the political and social situations in and for which they were first produced; developments in the theatre and in various aspects of staging and performance; and changes in the formal structure of tragedies and comedies. We will be chiefly concerned, however, with questions concerning tensions between public and private, gender roles, vengeance, and problems of representation especially relevant to theatrical productions.
Satisfies one semester of Division I.
Evaluation will be based on classroom participation, two 5-page papers, and a final exam. Students registering for Theatre 311 must also do additional reading and a project which will culminate in performances for the entire class. (Consult the instructor for further details.)

Hour: HOPPIN