İDE316

School of Humanities \ English Language and Literature

3

6

Elective

English

-

Undergraduate

This course will cover the major social and historical developments of the period, major themes, important dramatic and performance features, as well as some of the leading figures of the era such as Harold Pinter, Caryl Churchill, Peter Shaffer, Sarah Kane, Anthony Neilson and Mark Ravenhill. playwrights will be analyzed. Harold Pinter's Old Times, Caryl Churchill's Top Girls, Peter Shaffer's Equus, Sarah Kane's Cleansed, Anthony Neilson's Penetrator and Ravenhill's Faust is Dead will be analyzed to see to what extent and how they reflect dramatic, In-Yer-Face and post-dramatic aesthetics and will be exemplified.

1. Old Times (1971) • Harold Pinter
2. Top Girls (1982) • Caryl Churchill
3. Equus (1973) • Peter Shaffer (text and film versions)
4. Penetrator (1993) • Anthony Neilson
5. Faust is Dead (1997) • Mark Ravenhill Supplementary Resources: 1. BAL, Mustafa. "Memory Plays: Harold
Pinter's Old Times and Anthony Neilson's Penetrator." Pamukkale University Journal of Social Sciences
Institute, No: 42, January 2021. pp. 155-167. DOI: 10.30794/pausbed.697184
https: //dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/989684
2. BAL, Mustafa. "Elements of Brecht's Epic Theater in Caryl Churchill's Mad Forest and Sarah Kane's
Cleansed." RumeliDE Journal of Language and Literature Studies, (Ö8), November 2020. pp. 678-692. DOI:
10.29000/rumelide.816670
https: //dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/1364856
3. MAROHL, Joseph. "De-realised Women: Performance and İDEntity in Caryl Churchill's Top Girls." In
Contemporary British Drama: 1970-90. Edited by Hersh Zeifman and Cynithia Zimmerman.
4. Extracts from In-Yer-Face Theater: Contemporary British Theater Today by Aleks Sierz. London: Faber and
Faber, 2000.
5. Extracts from "The End: The Apocalyptic in In-Yer-Face Drama." PhD Dissertation by Mustafa Bal. Middle
East Technical University, 2009.
6. The Methuen Drama Guide to Contemporary British Drama. Editors: Martin Middeke, Peter Paul
Schneirer, and Aleks Sierz. London: Methuen Drama, 2011.15: 15

This course aims to examine British theater written, staged and performed since the 1960s.

1. Adequate knowledge of the main characteristics, roots and developmental stages of contemporary British theater (undergraduate level) to have knowledge.
2. Analytical knowledge of the major plays of contemporary British theater. to be able to produce approaches.
3. To be able to identify the main dramatic dynamics in the plays of contemporary British theater. To be able to define their characteristics.
4. To be able to identify the factors that prepared the ground for the playwrights of the period to produce their plays. To learn the characteristics of the social and historical background.
5. To compare and contrast previous dramatic works with the plays produced in this period.

Week 1: Historical (political, sociological, economic) and literary background
Week 2: Harold Pinter and the Pinteresque concept; Pinter's comedy of menace; Pinter as an absurdist; Old Times
Week 3: Caryl Churchill; feminism in Churchill's plays
Week 4: Top Girls
Week 5: Peter Shaffer; Psychological theater; Equus
Week 6: In-Yer-Face Theater
Week 7: Anthony Neilson; Penetrator
Week 8: Memory games examining Old Times and Penetrator games;
Week 9: Mark Ravenhill; Faust is Dead
Week 10: Sarah Kane; Cleansed
Week 11: Examination of Brechtian theater elements in Churchill's Mad Forest and Kane's Cleansed
Week 12: Examination of Brechtian theater elements in Churchill's Mad Forest and Kane's Cleansed

• Midterm 30 %
• Final 40 %
• Quizzes 30 %