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Unit
1: Drama
One of the
oldest forms of literature is drama. For many students, it's
also one of the most familiar, so it seems like a good place to
start the course. Welcome!
In this genre
you'll have a choice of two plays to study and discuss. You must
write about one of these plays.
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Trifles is
an early twentieth century play written by an American woman
about the investigation of a murder. A man has died
and the sheriff and some neighbors come to his house to learn more
about it.
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Hamlet
is a literary classic many of you are familiar with. It was
written by William Shakespeare about 1603, and tells the story of a
family after one of the men is killed. Part of this unit
will include watching a video version of the play.
You may review
the text of each to get a sense of the author's style of writing by
clicking on the names of the plays above.
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Listservs |
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In all of the work we do in
this course, the most important part will be communicating. One way
we'll be communicating is with listservs. A listserv is a
program that allows you to email one address and then it sends the message
on to each of the other members of the listserv. It will appear in
their regular email accounts just like any other message.
Please subscribe to the
listserv for the drama unit now. Your email message should look like
this:
| To: |
Majordomo@listserv.cc.va.us |
| Subject: |
[Leave this blank] |
| Message |
subscribe
112drama youremailaddress |
When you have subscribed to
the 112drama listserv, please send a note to the other subscribers on the
list telling us that you have joined us and telling us a little bit about
who you are. To send a message to the
listserv, just use the listserv address in your email message as you would
any other address:
| To: |
112drama@listserv.cc.va.us |
| Subject: |
Hello, Hey, or ... |
| Message |
[Whatever
you wish to write.] |
While you're in the drama unit, please respond to at
least 2 messages from the listserv.
You may use the listserv to ask
questions, seek help, share frustrations or inspirations with each other,
or whatever else you find helpful. As you work through the unit on
the play you've chosen to study, you will be asked to send your
responses to a few questions. These are required tasks.
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VOCABULARY
There are some vocabulary
terms that will be helpful for you to know as you read the plays and write
your paper. You will be expected to know them when you take
your first exam, so it's best to start now.
As you read the literature in
this course, try to identify examples of each of these terms.
You can find a
good explanation of most of these terms on the web.
This website also contains a short story by Susan Glaspell, "A Jury of her
Peers," and refers to Faulkner's short story, "A Rose for
Emily," one of the choices in the fiction choices.
Now, it's time to
read the plays! Click on the works below to find the text:
Trifles or Hamlet
Return to this page
by closing the browser window with each play when you've finished reading
it. Then decide which play you'd like to write about. Good
luck!
Feel free to email me your questions or put them in
the listserv. If it's a question you have, you can be sure that others
will, too!
Trifles
Assignments
Hamlet Assignments
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