LFU:online

Students will perfect their skills in analyzing drama, employing methods of general literary and discourse analysis as well as paying attention to the medial specificity of plays. They will practice how to select and critically assess relevant research. They will also train how to present and discuss their findings both in an interactive setting (expert groups) and as a cogent written argument (research paper). Moreover, students will reflect on the social and cultural functions of theatre (also in relation to other media).

One of the most interesting trends on the British stage in the last two decades has been the rise of the so-called verbatim play, a form where the script is based on real-life interviews with a wide range of people, from soldiers to homeless teenagers, terrorists to housewives. Often, the plays have the ethical or political aim of giving voice to experiences and perspectives usually not represented in mainstream media. The use of documentary techniques can be regarded as an attempt of giving authentic insights into contemporary realities. At the same time, however, many of the plays reflect on the limits and pitfalls of such claims to authenticity.

In this seminar, we will read a range of different plays that can be associated with the verbatim tradition, including Robin Soans' Talking to Terrorists, Alecky Blythe's London Road, Nadia Fall's Home, Gregory Burke's Black Watch and Dennis Kelly's verbatim parody Taking Care of Baby. We are going to discuss the plays' range of documentary techniques and how they are used to represent contemporary issues. We will study theories of realism in order to get a more nuanced idea of how claims to accuracy and authenticity relate to each other, and what problems they raise.

For practical reasons, we will focus mainly on the published scripts of the plays, but where possible we will also consider performance aspects and look at some visual material.

Discussion, presentations, group work, expert groups, writing/research assignments

Oral (active participation in class, presentation as part of an expert group) and written (short writing assignments during the semester, final paper)

We will start with Robin Soans' Talking to Terrorists (Oberon Books, 2005). Please buy a copy and bring it to the first session. Further texts will be announced at the beginning of term, and additional material will be provided.

MA: none

Teacher Training Programme 2001: Positive completion of first part of studies (1. Studienabschnitt).

Due to substantial differences in the allocation of ECTS-Credits in various curricula (teacher training program - BA/MA English and American Studies), the requirements for this course vary. Information will be provided by the instructor at the beginning of the course.