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Beckett's Dramatic Experiments

Class at Faculty of Arts |
AAA300707

Annotation

OBJECTIVES

Samuel Beckett?s plays are characterised by a constant experimentation with dramatic forms, together with an exploration of the limits of the medium used for a particular piece. The course focuses primarily on the ways in which meaning gets created in this context: textual analysis will always go hand-in-hand with an examination of the performative aspects of the play-text and the specific forms of dramatic communication utilised. The material consists both of stage and radio plays, a number of which will be presented on the video or in audio form. The numerous themes to discuss include suffering, old age, dissolution of the human subject, harmonious expression of emptiness, the torturing gaze of the society and, last but not least, humour.

MATERIAL

I. Happy Days

II. All That Fall

III. Krapp?s Last Tape

IV. Words and Music

V. Cascando

VI. Not I

VII. That Time

VIII. Footfalls

IX. Ohio Impromptu

X. Catastrophe

XI. What Where*

ASSESSMENT

Active participation in debates, an in-class presentation and a final essay (min. length 7 pp).