Type of Credit: Elective
Credit(s)
Number of Students
The course will examine the gender issues and power relations in western drama ranging from Greek drama, Elizabethan drama, to modern drama. Students are expected to reread the plays from the perspective of feminism and gender theory.
能力項目說明
This class teaches students how to analyze English drama critically and do research academically. Students are expected to know feminist and gender theories and be able to apply them to the reading of English drama. Through working on oral presentations on both English drama and feminist theories, and through writing journals and term paper, students are expected to conduct research independently and to combine both dramatic text reading and gender theories together.
| 教學週次Course Week | 彈性補充教學週次Flexible Supplemental Instruction Week | 彈性補充教學類別Flexible Supplemental Instruction Type |
|---|---|---|
Week date Topic
1. 9.12 Course Introduction; (“Introduction: Gender as an Approach to Literature”)
2. 9.19 Rosary Mary Tong’s Feminist Thought
3. 9.26 Rosary Mary Tong’s Feminist Thought
4. 10.3 Judith Butler’s Gender Troubles + Ch.4 Psychoanalytic Feminism
5. 10.10 No class (Double Tenth Day)
6. 4.2 1. Lysistrata by Aristophanes (411 BC)
7. 4.8 2. Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare (1601-02)
7. 4.9 3. Hedda Gabler by Henri Ibsen (1891)
8. 4.16 4. Miss Julie by August Strindberg (1889)
9. 4.23 5. Fefu and Her Friends by Maria Irene Fornes (1977)
10. 4.30 6. Top Girls by Caryl Churchill (1982)
11. 5.7 7. The Grace of Mary Traverse by Timberlake Wertenbaker (1985)
12. 5.14 8. ‘Night Mother by Marsha Norman (1986)
13. 5.20 9. Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet) by Ann-Marie
MacDonald (1988)
14. 5.28 10. The Heidi Chronicles by Wendy Wasserstein (1988)
Or, Angels in America (1991), or Torch Song Trilogy (1978)
15. 6.4 11. M. Butterfly by David Henry Hwang (1988)
16. 6.11 12. Ruined by Lynn Nottage (2009)
17. 6.18 Flexible Week:
A Lecture by Professor Yi-chin Shih on The Grace of Mary Traverse
and The Heidi Chronicles
18. 6.25 Flexible Week:
Term Paper Conference; Term Paper due Jan 9, 2025
Students are expected to do three oral presentations, one on one theory reading, another on a play, and the other on a journal paper, and lead a follow-up discussion. Students are to hand in a discussion question and the answer to the question as the weekly journals every week. They are expected to submit their question to the student in charge of the oral report on the play before the assigned date, and make a copy of the weekly journal for the instructor. The oral reports should be about 20 minutes long. A final paper about 10 pages long should be due on Jan 9th, 2025. No electronic versions will be accepted.
Grade percentage
3 oral presentations 30%
Class participation & weekly journals 20%
Final paper 50%
Theoretical texts include
Abel, Elizabeth, et al. Female Subjects in Black and White. Berkeley: U of California
P, 1997.
Abel, Elizabeth. Ed. Writing and Sexual Difference. Chicago: U of Chicago P,
1982.
Armstrong, Nancy. Desire and Domestic Fiction: A Political History of the Novel.
Oxford: Oxford UP, 1987.
Aston Elaine. An Introduction to Feminism and Theatre. London: 1995.
-----. Feminist Theatre Practice: A Handbook. London: Routledge, 1999.
Austin, Gayle. Feminist Theories for Dramatic Criticism. Ann Arbor: U of
Michigan P, 1990.
Barker, Chris. Cultural Studies: Theory and Practice. London: Sage, 2000.
Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. 1990.
Case, Sue-Ellen. Feminism and Theatre. New York: Methuen, 1988.
-----. ed. Performing Feminisms: Feminist Critical Theory and Theatre. Baltimore and
London: The Johns Hopkins UP, 1990.
Cousin, Geraldine. Women in Dramatic Place and Time: Comtemporary Female
Characters on Stage. London and New York: Routledge, 1996.
Eagleton, Mary. Feminist Literary Theory: A Reader. New York: Basil Blackwell.
1986
-----. Feminist Literary Criticism. London and New York: Longman, 1991.
Erickson, Peter. Patriarchal Structures in Shakespeare’s Drama. Berkeley: U of
California P, 1985.
Finney, Gail. Women in Modern Drama: Freud, Feminism, and European Theater at
the Turn of the Century. Ithaca and London: Cornell UP, 1989.
Fortier, Mark. Theory/Theatre: An Introduction. New York: Routledge, 1997.
Garner, Shirley Nelson, et al. Ed. The (M)other Tongue: Essays in Feminist
Psychoanalytic Interpretation. Ithaca and London: Cornell UP, 1985.
Gilbert, Sandra M. and Susan Gubar. The Madwoman in the Attic. New Haven and
London: Yale UP, 1984.
Goodman, Lizbeth. Contemporary Feminist Theatres: To Each Her Own. London:
Routledge, 1993.
-----. Ed. Literature and Gender. London: Routledge & The Open U, 1996.
Greene, Alexis. ed. Women Writing Plays: Three Decades of the Susan Smith
Blackburn Prize. Austin: U of Texas P, 2006.
Greene, Gayle and Coppelia Kahn. Making a Difference: Feminist Literary Criticism.
London and New York: Methuen, 1985.
hooks, bell. Feminist Theory from Margin to Center. Boston: South End P, 1984.
Jardine, Lisa. Still Harping on Daughters: Women and Drama in the Age of
Shakespeare. New York: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1983.
Keyssar, Helene. Ed. Feminist Theatre and Theory. London: MacMillan P Ltd., 1996.
Klein, Ethel. Gender Politics: From Consciousness to Mass Politics. Cambridge, MA:
Harvard UP, 1984.
Kolin, Philip C. ed. Contemporary African American Women Playwrights: A
Casebook. London and New York: Routledge, 2007.
Kritzer, Amelia Howe. The Plays of Caryl Churchill: Theatre of Empowerment. New
York: Palgrave, 1991.
Lenz, Carolyn Ruth Swift, et al. Ed. The Woman’s Part: Feminist Criticism of
Shakespeare. Urbana: U of Illinois P, 1983.
Mitchell, Juliet. Psycho-Analysis and Feminism: Freud, Reich, Laing and Women.
New York: Vintage Books, 1974.
Morris, Pam. Literature and Feminism: An Introduction. Oxford: Blackwell, 1993.
Moi, Toril. Sexual/Textual Politics: Feminist Literary Theory. London: Routledge,
1985.
Murphy, Brenda. Ed. The Cambridge Companion to American Women Playwrights.
Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1999.
Newman, Karen. Fashioning Femininity and English Renaissance Drama. Chicago:
U of Chicago P, 1991.
Showalter, Elaine. Ed. The New Feminist Criticism: Essays on Women, Literature,
and Theory. New York: Pantheon Books, 1985.
-----. A Literature of Their Own: British Women Novelists from Bronte to Lessing.
Princeton: Princeton UP, 1977.
Todd, Janet. Feminist Literary History. New York: Routledge, 1988.
Tong, Rosemarie Putnam. Feminist Thought: A More Comprehensive Introduction.
Oxford P, 1998.
Wandor, Michelene. Carry on, Understudies: Theatre and Sexual Politics. London &
Kegan Paul, 1986.
Warhol, Robyn R. and Diane Price Herndl. Feminisms: An Anthology of Literary
Theory and Criticism. New Brunswick: Rutgers UP, 1997.
Waxman, Barbara Frey. Ed. Multicultural Literatures through Feminist/Post-
structuralist Lenses. Knoxville: U of Tennessee P, 1993.