Studies in drama: too hot to handle: forbidden plays in modern america

Bachelor's degree

In Maynard (USA)

Price on request

Description

  • Type

    Bachelor's degree

  • Location

    Maynard (USA)

  • Start date

    Different dates available

Unlike film, theater in America does not have a ratings board that censors content. So plays have had more freedom to explore and to transgress normative culture. Yet censorship of the theater has been part of American culture from the beginning, and continues today. How and why does this happen, and who decides whether a play is too dangerous to see or to teach? Are plays dangerous? Sinful? Even demonic? In our seminar, we will study plays that have been censored, either legally or extra-legally (i.e. refused production, closed down during production, denied funding, or taken off school reading lists). We'll look at laws, both national and local, relating to the "obscene", as well as unofficial practices, and think about the way censorship operates in American life now. And of course we will study the offending texts, themselves, to find what is really dangerous about them, for ourselves.

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Location

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Maynard (USA)
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02139

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Subjects

  • Production
  • Play
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  • Law
  • Materials
  • Drama
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Course programme

Lectures: 2 sessions / week, 1.5 hours / session


Unlike film, theater in America does not have a ratings board that censors content. So plays have had more freedom to explore and to transgress normative culture. Yet censorship of the theater has been part of American culture from the beginning, and continues today. How and why does this happen, and who decides whether a play is too dangerous to see or to teach? Are plays dangerous? Sinful? Even demonic? In our seminar, we will study plays that have been censored, either legally or extra-legally (i.e. refused production, closed down during production, denied funding, or taken off school reading lists). We'll look at laws, both national and local, relating to the "obscene", as well as unofficial practices, and think about the way censorship operates in American life now. And of course we will study the offending texts, themselves, to find what is really dangerous about them, for ourselves.


At the end of the course, students will be able to discuss modern American theater in the context of censorship, including the legal, political and historical discussions of obscenity, sexuality, gender, racism, socialism, and global politics. Students will also be familiar with research tools in the field, primary and secondary, and how to incorporate research and theory into their own writing and thinking.


Readings for the class include original plays, analysis of censorship in the theatre, and more general consideration of censorship issues in society. See the complete list in the readings page.


Over the course of the semester, you will asked to do the following:



Plagiarism—use of another's intellectual work without acknowledgement—is a serious offense. It is the policy of the Literature Faculty that students who plagiarize will receive an F in the subject, and that the instructor will forward the case to the Committee on Discipline. Full acknowledgement for all information obtained from sources outside the classroom must be clearly stated in all written work submitted. All ideas, arguments, and direct phrasings taken from someone else's work must be identified and properly footnoted. Quotations from other sources must be clearly marked as distinct from the student's own work. For further guidance on the proper forms of attribution, consult the style guides available at the Writing and Communication Center and the MIT Web site on Plagiarism.


Freud, "Negation"


Foucault, "The Repressive Hypothesis"


Houchin, "Overture: Theatrical Censorship from the Puritans to Anthony Comstock"


Comstock, "Frauds Exposed" (1880); US Code: obscene materials (current law) 1460; 1461; US Statutes: obscene literature (1873 "Comstock Law"); Massachusetts: "An Act to Punish Unnatural and Lascivious Acts" (1887); Massachusetts Sodomy Law; Massachusetts: "Obscenity": definitions


Odets, "Waiting for Lefty" (1935)


Research proposal presentations


Ensler, "The Vagina Monologues" (1996)


Presentations


Last class


Papers returned


Evaluations


Ideas for the future


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Studies in drama: too hot to handle: forbidden plays in modern america

Price on request