Let's read a selection of plays by playwrights Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Suzi Lori Parks, & Jackie Sibblies Drury--three innovators who dig deep into theater's history & reclaim / reimagine foundational dramatic works. Jacobs-Jenkins engages with Dion Boucicault's The Octoroon, Everyman & Euripides' The Bacchae; Parks incorporates the play President Lincoln watched on the last night of his life & rewrites Sophocles' Antigone in a U.S. border state; while Drury looks to 20th Century television. In addition to discussing the plays as works of literature, we'll consider how we might cast, stage, & perform them. Be prepared to read aloud in class!

Elective

Horror stories are a literary & artistic expression of anxiety. It's not odd at all that we still write about ghosts when we're busy churning up & examining the crimes of our ancestors, or that we write contagion stories (zombies!) during a pandemic, or apocalyptic horror as we face the effects of climate change. Horror stories can be-as is true of any literature-artful, profound, entertaining, and -as Ezra Pound would say-news. We'll read a selection of stories-fundamental classics, lesser-known but influential stories, and contemporary attempts-to identify genre characteristics and to locate elements that define the genre's power. We'll also read works written about horror by horror authors and test their claims. To deepen our understanding of the genre even further-in addition to essays & exams-students will have the option to try their hand at writing an original horror story.

Elective