English 153 - Winter, 2012

Topics in Drama

Topic: Closet Drama/Drama of the Closet

Class Information

Instructor: Rapatz, Vanessa
CRN: 53861
Time: MWF 1:10-2:00
Location: 115 Wellman

Description

Claustrophilia: Closet Drama/Drama of the Closet

In 1642 England was embroiled in civil war, royalist supporters of a beheaded king were in exile, and plays were banned from the public stage. Amidst the fear and chaos of war and the isolation and alienation it produced, closet dramas enjoyed a golden age. These plays were not the first to be written without the intention of public performance; however, the backdrop of political unrest and the closing of the theaters seem to have opened up a space for writers to explore concepts of public and private. Paradoxically, the closing of the theaters opened the way for dramatic works to imaginatively stage intimate spaces and the often closeted issues surrounding themes of politics, gender, and sexuality.

In today's media-saturated society where nearly everything is staged for public consumption, we may see little connection to nor understand the power of closet drama, a genre that seems to move inward and threatens to be claustrophobic. However, it is our very desire to open up such spaces that, in fact, gives them greater importance. The closet must exist in order for us to peek inside and disclose its secrets. This voyeuristic impetus is the foundation of contemporary reality television with shows that invite us into people's homes or allow us to witness enclosed social experiments. We see this in shows such as Big Brother, Keeping up with the Kardashians, and Jersey Shore where we are privy to the "private" negotiations of people's "everyday" lives—the more intimate and salacious, the better. Even our television dramas cater to our desires for an inside look at highly specialized professions—think ER, The West Wing, and CSI. While we might find the isolation of the closet unbearable for ourselves, we are intensely interested in seeing its effects on others.

In this course we will explore the etymology of the closet, as well as its close relatives, and the way these spaces have been dramatized in different moments. We will think about the original parameters of such spaces often initially purposed for close council as we see in discussion of kings' toilets—inner chambers for conducting court business—and the way these spaces have come to be seen as more private spaces for individual retreat. We will question the benefits of the closet as well as potential dangers and fears associated with this space—especially given the very issues surrounding politics, gender, and sexuality that are still associated with the secrecy and titillation of such enclosures. As we read the course texts, we will interrogate the way we define dramatic form against our conceptions of the "dramatic" as we move from English Civil War dramas and dialogues to more contemporary British and American dramatic works.




Grading

Grading: midterm project 30%, term paper 35%, short reading responses 15%, final exam 10%, participation 10%

Texts

The Convent of Pleasure (1668), Margaret Cavendish
The Religious (1662), Margaret Cavendish
The English Nunne (1642), excerpt
Venus in the Cloister (1683), excerpt
The Toilet (1963), Amiri Baraka
The Dresser (1981), Ronald Harwood
Angels in America, Part One: Millennium Approaches (1993), Tony Kushner
The Birdcage (1996)
Doubt (2004), John Patrick Shanley
The West Wing, (selected episodes)