CLST 273 / WSGS 297: Classical Tragedy with a focus on Women's Studies and Gender

CLST 273-WI / WSGS 297-WI:
Classical Tragedy with a focus on Women's Studies and Gender
Writing Intensive

Fall Semester 2010
Dr. Jacqueline Long

Medea, South-Italian krater, late 5th - early 4th c BC

Performances and Performance-essays

Goals

To collaborate in a creative endeavor complementing course work
To experiment with performance of figures and stories from Classical tragedy
- so as to explore drama as such - the root of the word in Greek means "doing" something significant
- so as to explore specific plays' representations of women and gender
To share your insights with your classmates through performance
To reflect on the processes of insight, performance, and Classical tragedy, in light of a specific, shared creative experience
To have fun doing it

For the performance:

Members of the performance team, jointly in consultation with one another

select and adapt section(s) of the play you have agreed to present
- your selections should represent aspects of the play you consider interesting and important for what they reflect about Classical Athenian tragedy and its representations of women and gender
- use Diotima or library resources to help identify an article or a chapter of scholarly analysis relating to the concerns you feel are important in your play: evaluate this research by comparing and contrasting it to the expertise you are developing in our course-work, and use it to enrich your perspective
- feel free to adapt your selections creatively to make for an effective performance: connect, condense, transpose, enhance!
- incorporate into your performance some clearly accessible commentary on the insights you are presenting
- your adapted selections will need to be possible to perform in the classroom, with its resources (or what you bring in), within 15-20 minutes of class time
decide what members of the group will do to perform your selections, so as to bring out their interesting and important aspects and engage us all in an entertaining and illuminating experience
execute your plans

To hand in, at the class meeting of the performance:

Each member of the performance team, individually, compose and type up a 750-900-word essay (3 typed pages) explaining the following points. Write your report as an essay, defining and proving a brief but cogent central argument. One of the important purposes of this exercise is to give you practice writing good academic papers.

What significant aspects of the tragedy do(es) the section(s) you selected represent? Why do(es) they seem significant? Identify the scholarly source you have consulted, and explain how its contributions intersect with your own ideas.
How has your performance has been designed to display and experiment with these elements?
Support your explanations by referring to data, in the text you're working with and in your performance, and showing how they back up the claims you are making.

Thanks!

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Revised 21 August 2010 by jlong1@luc.edu
http://www.luc.edu/classicalstudies/