ENGH 332: Restoration and 18th Century Drama

ENGH 332-001: Restoration and 18th Century Drama
(Spring 2016)

01:30 PM to 02:45 PM MW

Section Information for Spring 2016

This course focuses on British plays written between 1660-1800 and performed in London's commercial theaters.  Composed by playwrights such as William Wycherley, Aphra Behn (the first professional woman writer in England), George Farquhar, and Oliver Goldsmith, these dramas are funny and occasionally weird, and they tell us a great deal about the social tensions animating 18th-century life.  We will explore those tensions--between men and women, parents and children, rich and poor, gentry and merchants, Protestants and Catholics, sophisticated city-folk and provincials, and the English and just about everybody else.

Because drama only becomes fully alive on the stage, we will also discuss performance issues.  What were theaters, actors and audiences like in the "long 18th century"?  How did this theatrical context influence plays and their performances?  Which language and plots were thought to be presentable in public theaters and which either never got staged or were at some point censored?  And, finally, how should these plays be performed today?

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Course Information from the University Catalog

Credits: 3

Restoration comedy of manners, sentimental comedy, and neoclassical and bourgeois tragedy. Theories of drama and conventions of staging. Includes writers such as Wycherley, Behn, Congreve, and Cowley. Offered by English. Limited to three attempts.
Recommended Prerequisite: Satisfaction of University requirements in 100-level English and in Mason Core literature.
Schedule Type: Lecture
Grading:
This course is graded on the Undergraduate Regular scale.

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