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ENGL 431 Course website

English (ENGL) 431
Canadian Drama (Revision 2)

Delivery mode: Individualized study.

Credits: 3 - Humanities

Prerequisite: ENGL 211 and ENGL 212 or equivalent first year English course(s). A knowledge of the history of drama is advised.

Precluded course: ENGL 331 (ENGL 431 may not be taken for credit if credit has already been obtained for ENGL 331.)

Centre: Centre for Language and Literature

ENGL 431 has a Challenge for Credit option.

Course website

Overview

English 431: Canadian Drama is a senior–level, three–credit course which provides a survey of Canadian plays from the 1960s to the present. English 431 examines a diversity of theatrical styles and themes in works from across the country, and interrogates the nature of Canadian drama.

English 431 focuses primarily on the analysis of individual plays as theatre and as literature. Special attention will be paid to the use of theatrical innovation or derivation, recurrent themes, sociological or psychological orientation, use of language, and stage imagery.

Students will study sixteen plays by English– and French–Canadian playwrights: George Ryga, Michel Tremblay, John Herbert, John Gray, David French, Sharon Pollock, Michel Marc Bouchard, Joan MacLeod, Morris Panych, George Walker, Tomson Highway, Judith Thompson, Robert Lepage, Guillermo Verdecchia, Djanet Sears, and Lyle Victor Albert.

Outline

The plays are grouped in six “Scenes” according to commonalities in the social, political and philosophical issues they address, and not according to chronology, although students are encouraged to consider the historiographic context of each play.

Prologue

Scene I: Developing an Indigenous Drama

Scene II: Interrogating Values

Scene III: Deconstructing Families

Scene IV: Dramatizing the Absurd

Scene V: Cultural Collisions

Scene VI: Acting the Self

Epilogue: Imaging a Nation

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Evaluation

To receive credit for ENGL 431, you must achieve a composite course grade of at least “D” (50 percent) and a grade of at least 50 percent on the final examination. The weighting of the course assignments is as follows:

Scene Analysis (1000 words) Essay 1 (2000 words) Essay 2 (2000 words) Final Exam Total
10% 25% 25% 40% 100%

To learn more about assignments and examinations, please refer to Athabasca University's online Calendar.

Course Materials

Textbooks

Conolly, L. W., ed. Canadian Drama and the Critics, Revised Edition. Vancouver: Talonbooks, 1995.

Wasserman, Jerry, ed. Modern Canadian Plays, Volume I, 4th edition. Vancouver: Talonbooks, 2000.

Wasserman, Jerry, ed. Modern Canadian Plays, Volume II, 4th edition. Jerry Wasserman. Vancouver: Talonbooks, 2001.

Albert, Lyle Victor. Scraping the Surface. Edmonton: NeWest, 2000.

Sears, Djanet. Afrika Solo. Toronto: Sister Vision, 1995.

Other Materials

The course materials also include a student manual and a study guide.

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