READING ASSIGNMENTS (and sources)

Note: SB = Sourcebook (available online at the course website, or may be purchased from the Instructor).

2nd Week
Monday, January 29: Aristophanes, Lysistrata (411 B.C., from Aristophanes, Four Comedies)

Wednesday, January 31--Friday, Feb. 2: Terence, Phormio (161 B.C., from Terence, The Comedies)

 

3rd Week
-Monday, Feb. 5:
1. Plautus, Pseudolus (191 B.C., from The Menaechmus Twins and Two Other Plays) and
2. (Optional) Plautus' Version of Menander (Selections from "The Twins Named Bacchis" and "The Double Deceiver") (SB)
3. (optional) A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (video on reserve in Olin Library)

Wednesday, Feb. 7: Molière, The Mischievous Machinations of Scapin (1671, from The Misanthrope and Other Plays)

Friday, Feb. 9 No new assignment:

4th Week

Monday, Feb. 12: (SHORT ESSAY DUE TODAY)
1. Machiavelli, Mandragola (1513, SB)
2. "The Rape of Lucretia" from Livy, History of Rome (ca. 25 B.C., SB )

Wednesday, Feb. 14: The Lady Eve (Barbara Stanwyck, Henry Fonda, dir. Preston Sturges, 1941) video/DVD on reserve in Olin Library

Friday, Feb. 16: Flaminio della Scala, "Lucky Isabella" (SB)

5th Week

Monday, Feb. 19: Jonson, Volpone (1611, SB) (NOTE: The complex "interlude" p. 78-80, may be skipped; go from the bottom right column of p. 78 to line 17 of the left-column of p. 80 ("one knocks without")

Wednesday, Feb.. 21--Friday, Feb. 23: William Congreve, The Way of the World (1700, SB) (SHORT ESSAY DUE FRIDAY FEB. 23)

6th Week

Monday, Feb. 26: 1. Menander, The Girl from Samos (ca. 295 B.C.?, from Menander: Plays and Fragments)

Wednesday, Feb. 28: Plautus, The Menaechmus Twins (ca. 200 B.C.?, from The Menaechmus Twins & Two Other Plays)

Friday, Mar. 2: Molière, The Doctor in Spite of Himself (1666, from The Misanthrope and Other Plays)

7th Week:
Monday, Mar. 5: Bringing Up Baby, (Katherine Hepburn, Cary Grant, dir. Howard Hawks, 1938) (video on reserve in Olin Library)
Wednesday, Mar. 7--Friday, Mar. 9: Shakespeare, Midsummer Night's Dream (1595)

 

8th Week
Monday, Mar. 12: Beaumarchais, The Marriage of Figaro (1784, from Beaumarchais, The Barber of Seville & the Marriage of Figaro)

Wednesday, Mar. 14: After Hours (dir. Martin Scorsese, 1985: video on reserve in Olin Library)

Friday, Mar. 16: Joe Orton, What the Butler Saw (1969, on reserve in Uris)

(March 19-23: SPRING BREAK)

9th Week
Monday, Mar. 26: COMIC SCENARIO DUE
1. "Medieval Views of Comedy" (SB);
2. "Critics and Defenders of Comedy in Renaissance England" (SB);
3. Jeremy Collier, A Short View of the Immorality of the English Stage (SB)

Wednesday, Mar. 28: This is Spinal Tap (dir. Rob Reiner, 1983; video on reserve in Olin Library)

Friday, Mar. 30:
1. "Alcibiades and the End of the Peloponnesian War" (SB)
2. Aristophanes, The Frogs (405 B.C., from Four Comedies)

10th Week

Monday, Apr. 2:
1. "Greek Philosophers on Character" (SB)
2. Menander, The Dyskolos (316 B.C., "The Bad-Tempered Man" in Menander, Plays and Fragments)

Wednesday, Apr. 4: Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew (1594)

Friday, Apr. 6: Theodora Goes Wild (dir. Richard Boleslavsky, 1936: video on reserve in Olin Library)

11th Week
Monday, Apr. 9: Terence, The Brothers (163 B.C., from Terence, The Comedies)

Wednesday, Apr. 11: The Philadelphia Story (video on reserve in Olin Library)

Friday, Apr 13: Molière, The Misanthrope (1666, from The Misanthrope & Other Plays)

12th Week
Monday, Apr. 16: "Jean-Jacques Rousseau on Molière's Misanthrope" (SB)

Wednesday, Apr. 18: Duck Soup (The Marx Brothers, dir. Leo McCarey, 1933) (video on reserve in Olin Library)(6 pp. essay due today)

Friday, Apr 20:
1. Adam de la Halle, The Play of the Bower (Le jeu de la feuillée, 1277, SB)
2. (optional) R. Axton, "Plays of Arras", pp. 131-158 in European Drama of the Early Middle Ages (on reserve in Olin Library)

13th Week
Monday, Apr. 23--Wednesday, Apr. 25: Shakespeare, King Henry IV, Part I (1597)

Friday, Apr. 27: National Lampoon's Animal House (dir. John Landis, 1978; video on reserve in Olin Library)

14th Week
Monday, Apr. 30:
1. "Pericles and the Peloponnesian War" (SB)
2. "Attacks on Pericles in Athenian Comedy" (SB)
3. Aristophanes, Acharnians (425 B.C., from Four Comedies)

Wednesday May 2:
1. "Ancient Theories of Comedy" (SB)
2. "Thomas Hobbes on Comedy" (SB)
3. Freud, "The Joke and its Connection with the Unconscious" (SB)

Friday May 4: NO CLASS (slope day)

Tuesday, May 15, 2-4:30pm: Final Examination (room TBA)