Fall 2026
Prereq: Two subjects in Literature
Units: 3-0-9 HASS-H, CI-M; Can be repeated for credit
Working outwards from the plays of two of Britain’s most respected, prolific—and seriously funny—recent dramatists, this seminar will explore a wide range of knowledge in fields such as mathematics, philosophy, politics, history, genetics, and art…as well as, of course, literature and theater! To anchor our thinking and unleash your creativity, we will focus on selected texts by (the recently deceased) Sir Tom Stoppard and his exact but quite different (and still living) feminist contemporary, Caryl Churchill. To illuminate their plays, and in Stoppard’s case screenplays, some students will report on earlier plays by Shakespeare, Wilde, and Beckett; others will explore topics ranging from the poetry of Lord Byron and A. E. Housman to the art of Dadaism and Pink Floyd, from the (financial) Big Bang to the bridges of Konigsberg, and from Czechoslovakian dissidents to socialist-feminist theater collectives.
We will uncover the societal and theatrical contexts informing these postmodern plays, and consider different critical approaches to them. In the process, we will analyze drama as multimedia performance—a distinctive art form within a rapidly changing media landscape. We will also celebrate the wit and verbal energy of these writers…not to mention, how Fermat’s theorem, futures trading, Latin translation, Wittgenstein’s language games and chaos theory can become the stuff of stage comedy. Plays will include Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, Top Girls, Arcadia, Serious Money, Hapgood, A Number, and Rock ‘n’ Roll.