Ibsen and Chekhov

ENGLISH 90IK Subject & Catalog Number

Description

The plays of Henrik Ibsen and Anton Chekhov effected an essential shift in the trajectory of Western dramatic writing. From a theater of melodrama and romance, Ibsen and Chekhov helped define and develop theatrical realism, symbolism, and modernism. Psychologically based acting, known generally as the Method, emerged to solve the problem of acting in their plays. Philosophical and political debates across Europe responded to their ideas. Their work became a cornerstone of the independent theater movement, and the model for playwrights from Shaw to Miller to Hansberry to Baker.

This course delves into these playwrights’ theatrical canons. We will read closely their major works, along with some lesser known plays and writing in other genres. We will attend to their experiences as nineteenth-century artists: their lives and artistic friendships, their relationships to the theater and to publishing, the reception of their works by their contemporaries and in the century since they wrote. Along the way, we will learn about the theaters that staged their works, the supporters that brought them fame in England and the United States, and the contemporary writers who challenged and learned from them, such as Zola, Hauptmann, Strindberg, and Gorky. In the final weeks we will examine their contemporary legacy in modern adaptations and plays by Ibsenite and Chekhovian artists.