THEATRE AND CULTURAL MEMORY:

CONTEMPORARY REVISIONS OF SHAKESPEARE (32343)

Dr. Noelia Hernando Real (noelia.hernando@uam.es)

Tutorial hours by appointment (Office: 206 VI bis)

The aim of this course is to trace and analyse the influence of Shakespeare on Modern
and Postmodern theatre and, especially, on the playwrights included in the program.
Who are the contemporary dramatists who have re-written Shakespeare? Why and how?
This course will provide a detailed textual and visual analysis of the dramatic works
listed in the program, as well as the historical, cultural and philosophical background to
the given plays. Through a deep analysis of how cultural memory is transmitted and re-
presented in dramatic texts, the students will learn to know the re-visions of
Shakespeare’s canon throughout history. This is a course on influence and diversity.

SYLLABUS:
Students taking this course should have read beforehand the following
Shakespeare’s plays: Hamlet, King Lear, The Merchant of Venice, Othello, The
Tempest and Romeo and Juliet.

1. Introduction: The language of Drama. Textual and Performance analysis.

Renaissance, Modern Theatre and Postmodern conventions: symbolism,
naturalism, expressionism, surrealism and the Absurd. Theatre and Cultural
Memory. Historical, cultural and philosophical introduction to the Shakespeare
canon. Questioning the subject. On Shakespeare’s adaptations, appropriations
and the rhizome.

1
 2. Samuel Beckett: Waiting for Godot. Heroes and anti-heroes. Drama of situation
versus drama of action. Place, Time and Memory. Waiting for Gadot as a
postmodern re-vision of Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

3. Lauren Gunderson: Natural Shocks. The power of soliloquy and gun culture in
the United States. De-constructing Hamlet.

4. Edward Bond: Lear. Epic theatre and the dialectics of violence. A political re-
vision of King Lear for contemporary audiences.

5. Brian Friel: Translations. Linguistic colonialism and politics in post-colonial

drama. The problem of mendacity.

6. Winsome Pinnock: Rockets and Blue Lights. Black feminist drama. The ghosts of
colonialism and slavery.

7. Anne Marie Macdonald: Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet). Gender

Issues in post-modern drama 1. The construction of gender/genre in cultural
memory.

8. Marina Carr: Portia Coughlan. Gender issues in Post-modern drama 2. The

female other in a sequel to The Merchant of Venice.

COURSE BIBLIOGRAPHY
PRIMARY TEXTS:
Beckett, Samuel (2006). Waiting for Godot. London: Faber and Faber.

Bond, Edward (1971). Lear. London: Methuen.

Carr, Marina (1999). Portia Coughlan. Plays 1. London: Faber and Faber.
Friel, Brian (1981). Translations. London: Faber and Faber.

Gunderson, Lauren (2021). Natural Shocks. New York: Dramatists Play Service.

2
MacDonald, Anne Marie (1998). Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet).
London: Vintage.
Pinnock, Winsome (2020). Rockets and Blue Lights. London: Nick Hern Books.

SECONDARY TEXTS:
Artaud, Antonin (1994). The Theatre and its Double (1938). London: Grove Press.

Aston, Elaine (1995). An Introduction to Feminism and Theatre. London and New
York: Routledge.

Belsey, Catherine (1985). The Subject of Tragedy: Identity and Difference in

Renaissance Drama. London: Routledge.
Ben-Zvi, Linda & Angela Moorjani, eds. (2008). Beckett at 100: Revolving it All.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Bond, Edward (1971). “On Violence.” Lear. London: Methuen.
Bond, Edward (1971). “Preface to Lear.” Lear. London: Methuen.

Bond, Edward (2013). Letter on drama and violence. Online resource.

Brater, Enoch & Ruby Cohn, eds. (1990). Around the Absurd: Essays on Modern and
Postmodern Drama. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Brecht, Bertolt (1997). Brecht on Theatre: The Development of an Aesthetic. Ed. y trad.
John Willett. London: Metheun.
Brook, Peter (1968). The Empty Space. London: Penguin.

Calbi, Maurizio (2013). Spectral Shakespeares: Media Adaptations in the Twenty-First

Century. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Caldicot, Edric & Anne Fuchs (2003). Introduction. Cultural Memory. Essays on
European Literature and History. Bern: Peter Lang.11-32.
Caldicot, Edric & Anne Fuchs, eds. (2003). Cultural Memory. Essays on European
Literature and History. Bern: Peter Lang.
Carlson, Marvin (2001). The Haunted Stage: The Theatre as Memory Machine. Ann
Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Carlson, Marvin (2004). Performance: A Critical Introduction. New York and London:
Routledge.

3
Carr, Marina (1997). Interview with Heidi Stephenson. Rage And Reason : Women
Playwrights on Playwriting. London: Methuen Drama.
Case, Sue- Ellen (1988). Feminism and Theater. Londres: Macmillan.
Connor, Steven (1988). Samuel Beckett: Repetition, Theory and Text. Oxford:
Blackwell.
Deane, Ciarán (2010). “Brian Friel’s Translations: The Origins of a Cultural
Experiment.” Field Day Review 5.
Derr, Holly L. & Lauren Gunderson (2022). "Recognition and Reversal in the Plays of
Lauren Gunderson: A Dialogue with the Playwright." Journal of Dramatic
Theory and Criticism 36.2: 73-84. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/dtc.2022.0005.
Diamond, Elin (1997). Unmaking Mimesis: Essays on Feminism and Theater. London
and Nueva York: Routledge.
Drakakis, John, ed. (1985). Alternative Shakespeares. London: Routledge.
Elam, Keir (1980). The Semiotics of Theatre. London: Methuen.
Erll, Astrid & Ansgar Nünning, eds. (2010). A Companion to Cultural Memory Studies.
Berlin: De Gruyter, 2010.
Erll, Astrid (2010). “Cultural Memory Studies: An Introduction.” A Companion to
Cultural Memory Studies. Ed. Astrid Erll & Ansgar Nünning. Berlin: De Gruyter.
1-15.
Fischlin, Daniel, ed. (2014) OuterSpeares: Shakespeare, Intermedia, and the Limits of
Adaptation. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Fortier, Mark (2002). Theatre/Theory. London: Routledge.
Frye, Northrop (1973). Anatomy of Criticism. Four Essays. Princeton: Princeton
University Press.
Garner, Stanton B. Jr. (1994) Bodied Spaces: Phenomenology and Performance in
Contemporary Drama. Cornell: Cornell University Press.
Goddard, Lynette (2007). Staging Black Feminisms: Identity, Politics, Performance.
New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Greenblatt, Stephen (1988). Shakespearean Negotiations. Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
Greenblatt, Stephen (1992). Learning to Curse: Aspects of Linguistic Colonialism in the
Sixteenth Century. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Griffin, Gabriele (2003). Contemporary Black and Asian Women Playwrights in
Britain. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

4
Hay, Malcom & Philip Roberts (1978). Edward Bond: A Companion to His Plays.
London: TQ.
Hutcheon, Linda (2006). A Theory of Adaptation. London: Routledge.
Innes, Christopher (1992). Contemporary British Drama. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Pinnock, Winsome (1997). Interview with Heide Stephenson. Rage And Reason:
Women Playwrights on Playwriting. London: Methuen Drama.
Richtarik, Marilynn (2004). ‘The Field Day Theatre Company.’ The Cambridge
Companion to Twentieth-Century Irish Drama. Ed Shaun Richards. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Rodríguez Gago, Antonia (2003). “The Embodiment of Memory (and Forgetting) in
Beckett’s Plays.” Drawing on Beckett: Portraits, Performances, and Cultural
Contexts. . Ed. Linda Ben-Zvi. Tel Aviv: Assaph Books Series.
Sihra, Melissa (2018). Pastures of the Unknown: The Theatre of Marina Carr. New
York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Tolstoy, Leo (1906). Tolstoy on Shakespeare: on King Lear.
Ubersfeld, Anne (1999). Reading Theatre. Trans. Frank Collins. Toronto: University of
Toronto Press (1977. Lire le théâtre. Paris: Éditions Sociales.) (Fragmentos)
Wells, Stanley (2010). Shakespeare Sex and Love. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Teaching methodology

Theoretical and practical classes. Presentations and Seminars.

Performance analysis based on images, films and productions.

Active participation of the students is required.

Assessment (ordinary and resit)

Continual assessment: 65%.

 50% Class journal (2 pp. per session, compulsory bibliography and

academic format). Video format (5 min per session, same content as
written version)

5
  5% Participation in seminars: Students are expected to read the plays and
given articles before coming to class and to work on the aspects and
questions indicated by the lecturer in advance.
 10% Presentation. The oral presentation should show the student’s
engagement with the text and topic and the research done to provide
evidence. Instructions will be provided at the beginning of the course.

Final paper: 35% (Note that an acceptable level of academic quality of this paper is
required to pass this course). Instructions and suggested topics will be provided during
the course.

(Tentative) Calendar

Date Topic/ Workload

5th Feb Presentation and Introduction
12th Feb Introduction and Beckett
19th Feb Beckett + Gunderson
th
26 Feb Gunderson
th
4 March Bond
11th March Bond
18h March Friel
8th April Friel
15th April Pinnock
22nd Apr MacDonald
th
29 April Carr
th
6 May Presentations
13th May Modern Drama Seminar (+ 4 hours). DATE TO BE
ARRANGED