116-077 Modern Italian Theatre

Note

Availability

Credit Points

Coordinator

Prerequisites

Completion of all second year Italian subjects; 37.5 points at either post-beginners or post-VCE sequence for 3rd-year; admission to Honours in Italian for 4th-year.

Semester

Contact

Subject Description

The subject will examine a selection of the most significant dramatic texts of modern Italian literature from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries. The subject will concentrate on a number of key texts written by Goldoni, Pirandello and others. Students will be asked to pay particular attention to the structural features of the plays studied, relating them, where appropriate, to current theoretical concerns and to the social and ideological context of the plays. The course will attempt to understand how the Italian dramatic tradition is constituted and how certain playwrights have attempted to renew it. In particular, the subject will examine the work of Dario Fo and Franca Rame in the context of the politicisation of the theatrical tradition. Students should have acquired by the end of the subject a knowledge of some of the most important landmarks in modern Italian theatre; have developed an awareness of the critical dimensions of analysing the theatrical text and its relationship to performance.

Assessment

A 1000-word classpaper, and a 1-hour test, and a 2000-word essay for 3rd-year. A 1000-word class paper, and a 1-hour test, and a 3000-word essay for 4th-year.

Prescribed Texts

• G Goldoni, Commedie. Garzanti.
• L Pirandello, Three Plays. Manchester University Press.
• D Fo, Morte Accidentale di un Anarchico. (Vol.VIII Le Commedie di Dario Fo) Einaudi.
• D Fo & F Rame, Venticinque Monologhi per una Donna. Einaudi.