Recap: Weeks 1 & 2

Comedy: Dicussions of Old Comedy, Middle Comedy and New Comedy. Attic Comedy and its origins. The Dionysia festivals. Structural elements of Comedy. Aristophanes' contribution to Greek Comedy. Frogs - begun.

Detailed Study of a Shakespearean Play: Stage history of Macbeth.

Novel and Modernity: The prevailing social, intellectual and moral climate that allowed the birth of the Novel. The novel as an embodiment of "transcendental homelessness" (George Lukacs). Robinson Crusoe as an absolutist fantasy. Internalisation in the novel (with ref. to and distinguishing between Richardson and Sterne, in addition to Defoe). Persuasion: Publication history. Austen's Romantic nostalgia for a near-extinct social mode of existence in Persuasion.

Modernism: General distinctive features of Modernism. Modernism's fallout - Post-Modernism and its complicated lineage. Modernist Drama: Death of a Salesman. DoaS as a formally innovative work, a social commentary, a Marxist text (?).

PS: I'm going to try and post on these individual issues. Might not be possible to post on each - so let me know which ones you need the most.

Monday: Heads Up!

NaM: Remember, SC will start Persuasion. Read the book online (searchable e-text). Or at least watch the movie (link in Sidebar). Look up publication history and thematic concerns here.

• Think about how the theme of "persuasion" runs throughout the story; remembering of course, that Austen did not name it herself. 
• Also think about Anne's character - how does the modern film adaptation represent her?
• What do the Musgroves represent? How are the two girls a foil to the Elliott daughters? What is Anne's (and presumably Austen's?) opinion of them?

Modernism: NG will probably continue with the various difficulties in classifying Modernism. A recap of the last class - issues that were brought up

• In our contemporary search for "modernisms" (Frank Kermode's term), are we risking re-enacting the presumptions of older critics? Modernism was largely defined in Euro-centric, elitist terms. If we look to literatures from marginalised communities to add to the Modernist canon - how do we choose? By applying the same definitions? Isn't this still regressive and narrow? 
• Has the Modernist movement ended? The term "Post-Modern" is often used to describe art from the 1970s onwards - this is one way of reconciliation - to acknowledge the difference in later art but by retaining Modernism as a frame of reference. One could also differentiate between the two by referring to "High Modernism" (Joyce, Eliot) - but will this mean imposing hierarchy yet again?
• Think about the use of Myth in Modernist works (Ulysses, The Wasteland) - could it be a device of accessibility? To even out the obscurity caused by use of techniques like the "stream-of-consciousness"? A key to the dense allusive nature of the work? Also, How influential is The Golden Bough to the Modernist movement?
• Recommended reading: John Carey's The Intellectuals and the Masses.

Comedy: SS discussed classical comedy. Class ended with a discussion on the Dionysia. Some info on the City Dionysia here. Will upload notes on the emerging features of Comedy and on Aristophanes' contribution soon.

If you still end up on the last bench, groggy and wondering who the heck these Moss Grove Epi Cure Dedalus people are - I can only tsk tsk!at you. =D

Comedy: Reading List - 1

Katherine Lever: The Art of Greek Comedy

Kenneth Dover: Aristophanic Comedy

Rosemary Harriott: Aristophanes, Poet and Dramatist

Erich Segal: Roman Comedy

Erich Segal: Roman Laughter: The Comedy of Plautus

Vernant and Detienne: Cunning Intelligence in Ancient Greece

Aristotle: Poetics

Arthur W. Pickard-Cambridge: Dithyramb, Tragedy and Comedy