Dr. Rebhorn 3 credits

          This course offers an introduction to American drama from its origins in the late eighteenth century to the foundations of “revolutionary” drama in the 1960s. By tracing the development of three genres—melodrama, realism, and postmodernism—and how these generic aspects of drama have been interrogated, this course demonstrates the ways that American drama has been used to make sense of issues such as race, class, gender, sexuality, and nationalism. By spending time with the heavyweights of realism—Eugene O’Neill, Arthur Miller, and Tennessee Williams—as well as with provocative postmodern playwrights like Sam Shepard, Edward Albee, and Amiri Baraka, this course will ultimately reveal the ways that the performance of American drama always highlights what is means for that drama—its authors, its producers, and its audiences—to be called “American.”

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