Tentative Outline:
Sept. 12 Introduction
Sept. 19 The Conquest of Granada, I (1670)
- Presenter?
- stage history
- spectacular language (the heroic couplet)
- heroic tragedy (love and war)
Sept. 26 The Rehearsal (1671)
- Presenter?
- stage history
- collaborative parody or burlesque (Villiars and Buckingham)
- personal lampoon (Dryden and his rivals)
Oct. 3 The Country Wife (1675)
- Presenter?
- China (sexual innuendo) as spectacle
- Turner, Victor. "Images and Reflections: Ritual, Drama,
Carnival, Film, and Spectacle in Cultural Performance" (21-32)
- Debord, Guy. Sections 1-4, 8 of The Society of the Spectacle
- the aside as spectacle
- review of Stratford Production (video to be shown at 5:00)
Oct. 10 THANKSGIVING - no class
Oct. 17 The Man of Mode (1676)
- Presenter?
- stage history
- Rochester as spectacle ("Dorimant")
- low morality as spectacle
Oct. 24 The Rover (1677)
- Presenter?
- stage history
- cross-dressing (masquerade) as spectacle
- vitality of action
- sources (Shakespearean and Killigrew's Tommaso)
Oct. 31 All for Love (1678)
- Presenter?
- stage history
- the spectacle of adaptation
- as Restoration tragedy
Nov. 7 The Feigned Courtesans (1679)
- Presenter?
- stage history
- cross-dressing (masquerade) as spectacle
- intrigue over character
Nov. 14 Venice Preserved (1682)
-
- stage history
- spectacle of "Popish Plot"
- Backscheider, Paula. Spectacular Politics
Nov. 21 The Emperour of the Moon (1687)
- Presenter?
- stage history
- spectacle of farce
- Lacan, Jacques. "Of the Gaze." Chapters 6 to 9 of The Four
Fundamental Concepts of Psycho-Analysis. [especially p. 116 on the
"Peking Opera"]
Nov. 28 The Relapse (1696)
- Presenter?
- stage history
- response to Cibber's sentimental comedy Love's Last Shift
Dec. 5 The Busie Body (1709)
- Presenter?
- spectacle of coups de theatre
- spectacle of bustle
Dec. 12 Term Essays Due
Last Updated: Sept. 5, 2005