English 3336 Restoration and Eighteenth Century
Drama and Theatre
Prompt # 19
19 October 2012
Assessing where we are
In class today
We'll do a round in which we'll invite everybody to say what they've
done to their second research report -- what they've learned about their
question, and about research sources for their question.
We'll then do a similar round in which everyone has a chance to say
what the news is about their assigned play.
Expanding the play exploration reports
On a quick look, I think very few if any of the reports actually address
the questions I asked people to bear in mind back in Prompt
#17:
-
What do people (scholars, critics, historians, contemporaries)
say about the importance of the play?
-
How do they characterize the play's influence?
-
How do they characterize the playwright?
-
What do they say about how the play illuminates the kinds
of drama being produced? Is it considered a good example?
-
What do they say about how the play illuminates the context
of the time -- political, religious, social ideas?
-
How does the play sound? What kind of style does the author
use? (quotations help here, and everywhere)
Quote liberally, and attribute your quotes. Make sure you
tell us where work is coming from.
Before we can make a decision on which play we want to read, these questions
need to be addressed. Do what you need to do to expand your report to address
as many of these questions as possible, and make the strongest case you
can for why we should all read your play. The deadline for doing this will
be Monday night.
After Tuesday morning, everyone should read all the play reports and
post a comment on the forum I'll set up which ranks the play as a candidate
for all of us to read. There will be a prompt
over the weekend outlining how to do this and linking to the Forum for
ranking them. We'll make a decision in class on Wednesday.
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