Classical Studies Honors
Colloquium
University of Arkansas
Fulbright College
Spring, 2006
Professor Daniel B. Levine
Welcome!
Welcome to Greek Tragic Theater! This course
will explore dramas from Athens of the 5th century BCE. We will look at
the ideas which they convey, and study details of their performance, culminating
in a detailed study of an individual play
Required Textbooks
Please purchase the following books for this
course. It will be most beneficial if we all have the same translations
of the tragedies.
Public and Performance in the Greek Theatre, by Peter D.
Arnott, 1991 or later.
Aeschylus II (Suppliant Maidens, Persians, Seven Against Thebes,
Prometheus Bound), translated by Seth G. Benardete and David Grene.
University of Chicago “Complete Greek Tragedies” any edition.
Sophocles Antigone The Women of Trachis, Philoctetes,
Oedipus at Colonus, Loeb Classical Library volume 21 Sophocles II, edited
and translated by Hugh Lloyd-Jones, 1998 or later.
Euripides Trojan Women, Iphigenia Among the Taurians,
Ion, Loeb Classical Library volume 10 Euripides IV, edited and translated
by David Kovacs, 1999.
Euripides Cyclops, Alcestis, Medea. Loeb Classical
Library volume 12 Euripides I, edited and translated by David Kovacs, 2001.
Your Own Personal Tragedy
In the first class, students will receive
random assignments of a play. This will be the subject of their midterm
project and term paper. Students may trade assignments if they like. You
have a whole semester to get very intimate with this drama.
Procedures and Classes
We will read thirteen plays, in addition
to the six chapters of Public and Performance in the Greek Theatre.
We will discuss the plays and the chapters in class, and we will read selections
from each play aloud in class. Attendance is mandatory for all class sessions.
This course is a Colloquium, which implies that students in class will speak
with one another (Latin colloqui, to converse).
Students will:
1. Lead discussion on “their” play on the date assigned, and
choose what part(s) of the play the class will read aloud (fifteen minutes
maximum);
2. Write a very brief summary of the main points of each chapter of Arnott,
for discussion in class on the dates assigned (to be typed and handed in:
one page, single-spaced, maximum);
3. Write a very brief summary of the important points of each play we
read (to be typed and handed in: one page, single-spaced, maximum).
4. Create a Tragedy Game as a Midterm Project and share it with the class;
5. Make a Report on the performance of “their” play, with a
handout outlining their main points;
6. Write a research paper on the performance of the assigned play.
Play summaries.
The one-page summaries of each play will
contain the following:
1. Title, author, date, festival, prize, trilogy (if known);
2. Plot summary (not more than three sentences);
3. Themes/Concerns/Issues which are important in the play, with line
numbers for an example of each (minimum: 3, maximum: 6). Note briefly why
each is important in the play, and be prepared to discuss in class. Some
examples of Themes/Concerns/Issues might include:
Anagnorisis (Recognition Scene)
Athens
Barbarians (non-Greeks)
Blood
Burial Rituals
Chorus (role, significance, importance)
Curses
Debate (agon)
Deceit/trickery
Democracy
Deus ex Machina
Disguise
Establishment of Place
Exemplum (Mythological Parallel)
Exile
Foreigners (Barbarians or Greeks)
Hospitality
Hubris (outrageous conduct)
Irony
Justice (and Injustice) (gods and mortals)
Law
Love/Sex (Aphrodite, Eros, Desire, Lust, etc.)
Marriage
Messenger Speech
Music/Song (significance, importance)
Oaths
Old age/Youth
Piety (and Impiety)
Pollution (religious)
Prayer
Prophecy
Props (masks, costume, etc.)
References to significant buildings, places
Religious practices/festivals
Sacrifice
Slavery
Special Effects
Supplication
Tyranny
Visual Effects (actions, gestures, etc.)
Woman’s Life, Woman’s Lot, Woman’s Nature
AND/OR OTHER DETAILS WHICH YOU THINK ARE IMPORTANT IN THE PLAY.
Midterm project.
Students will make a (board) game based on
their tragedy. The game will include themes, characters, plot structure,
costuming, setting, and as much detail about each as is practicable. The
game will have a title, and directions (maximum, 6 pages, double spaced).
Colorful illustrations are encouraged, but not required. Proper use of Greek
words and phrases can win extra approbation.
Term Paper.
Students will write a research paper explaining
how they might stage their tragedy and emphasize its themes. The final paper
is due on or before Monday, 8 May, 2006. Papers will be in three parts.
1. First, the paper will comment on how the
play deals with the issues which Arnott raises in Public and Performance
in the Greek Theater, i.e. how your play relates to:
- Chorus and Audience
- The Actor Seen
- The Actor Heard
- Debate and Drama
- Place and Time
- Character and Continuity
2. After that, papers will address other
issues which would relate to an actual performance of the original play.
Some examples might include:
What music is appropriate, and where? What costumes will emphasized the
meaning of the piece? What kinds of masks would be appropriate? How do you
want the characters to deliver their lines? How would you use the chorus?
Do you want to use masks or not? Why?
Papers will cite at least three scholarly studies of the play. In addition,
students should try to find a film version of the tragedy and watch it,
but only after having read the play several times. Students are also encouraged
to find reviews of modern productions of their tragedy, and refer to these
productions as appropriate.
3. Finally, the paper will describe an original
“Modern” adaptation/version that could make the themes of the
tragedy “relevant” and meaningful in modern terms. The idea is
to take some of the important issues which the original play addresses,
and present them in modern terms. This part of the paper will describe how
you would go about staging the play for today’s audience with your own spin.
Students will outline the type of presentationthey would like to see, and
include a few sample scenes that emphasize what they find significant.
For example, Hospitality at a Time of Mourning (Alcestis); God’s
Law vs. Man’s Will (Antigone, Suppliants); Victory and Defeat in
War (Persians, Trojan Women); Loss and Reunion of Siblings (Iphigeneia
in Tauris); Finding Lost Parents (Ion); Loss of a Spouse (Alcestis);
Recapturing Lost Love (Trachiniai); Broken Marriage (Medea);
Resistance to Tyrannical Rule (Prometheus Bound); Friendship and
Betrayal (Philoctetes); War and Bravado (Seven Against Thebes);
Arranged Marriage (Suppliants); Parents and Estranged Children (Oedipus
at Colonus, Alcestis). These are only a few examples. The plays themselves
are full of numerous relevant issues which you can develop.
You can go way overboard here, if you like, à la Charles Mee’s
Big Love. The important thing is to stay true to the original conflicts
and themes that you want to emphasize. Do you want to change the setting
to a “modern” place? Fine. Just explain why it would be appropriate.
Do you want to set Persians in one of Saddam’s Palaces? Do you want
to set Trachiniai on a Mississippi African-American farm? Ion
at the Vatican? Antigone at Arlington? Oedipus at Colonus
in a Nursing Home? Trojan Women in Saigon? Seven Against Thebes
in a WWI trench? Prometheus Bound at a Ford Assembly Plant? Medea
in Hollywood? Alcestis at a research hospital? A science-fiction
version of the play? A Victorian English version? A rap version? A Mexican
version? A Native American version? Read the plays and let your imagination
roam.
Students will present ideas for characterization, theme, relevance to
contemporary audiences. Think in terms of updating ancient conventions.
A messenger speech by cell phone or blackberry? Give your modern version
a modern title, based on some important theme in the play, e.g. Iphigeneia
in Tauris might become “Oh Brother Where Art Thou?” Suppliant
Maidens might be “Gimme Shelter.”
Some ideas on how to relate Arnott’s chapters to term papers:
Each paper will examine the play in light of the questions Arnott raises
about its actual performance. Not everything he discusses will apply to
every play. Here are some notes that might help guide students in considering
how to approach this section of their papers.
1. Chorus and Audience. How does the chorus function in this play?
What role does it have? How does it involve the audience and the characters?
2. The Actor Seen. How might we learn details of gestures, stage
directions, and dance from the existing text?
3. The Actor Heard. What does the text tell us about the power
of words, song, and music? What verbal echoes of other plays, epic, and
myth does the audience hear? How are characters’ entrances announced? How
are off-stage voices handled? What kind of rhetoric do we hear in extended
speeches, dialogue, debate, and stichomythia?
4. Debate and Drama. Is there an agon (debate) in this
play? How is it handled? Is there a “trial scene”? What arguments
are used? What connections might there be with courts of law? What kind(s)
of antithesis does the play stress?
5. Place and Time. What distinctions does the play show between
“inside” and “outside”? How does the play identify the
setting of the action, and how is the setting important to the themes of
the drama? How is time handled? Is there difference between “real”
and “fictional” time? How does the poet manipulate time? How do
the characters view time?
6. Character and Continuity. What kind of logic and consistency
does the does the play’s plot show? Does it have a diptychal structure,
or more of a linear narrative? Can the play be seen as a “series of
individual moments”? (164). Do the actors have multiple roles? How
might that affect the audience? What kinds of masks and costumes are involved
in the play, and how might the manipulation of costume and mask create special
meaning? What is the role of disguise in the play? How does the author introduce
characters and incidents? How arbitrary is the process? How does the play
show transitions from one mood to another? How is context a decisive factor
to stress the immediate moment?
Grades
20% Final Paper
20% Midterm Project
20% Class Discussion Leading and Reports
20% Written Summaries of Plays and Arnott Chapters
20% Participation/Preparation
Inclement Weather Policy
Students may make up work missed if they cannot
come to class because of inclement weather. If the University is open, we
will hold scheduled classes. Please do not call to find out if we will hold
class; if the University is open, class will go on.
Students with Disabilities
If you are registered with the Office of Student
Disabilities for the purpose of accommodation, please inform the professor
before the semester begins, or in the first week of class, and bring all
relevant paperwork to his office in a timely fashion.
Contact the Professor
Daniel B. Levine. Professor, Classical Studies
Kimpel Hall 502 (office) 575-5937
Kimpel Hall 425 (Mailbox and Secretary) 575-2951
Fax: 479-575-6795
Email: dlevine@uark.edu
Office Hours: MWF 10:30-11:20, and by appointment.
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