Week 4 – Discussion 1
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Your initial discussion thread is due on Day 3 (Thursday) and you have until Day 7 (Monday) to respond to your classmates. Your grade will reflect both the quality of your initial post and the depth of your responses. Refer to the Discussion Forum Grading Rubric under the Settings icon above for guidance on how your discussion will be evaluated.
Influence of Tragedy in Contemporary Drama [WLOs: 1, 2, 3] [CLOs: 1, 2, 3, 4]
Prepare: Prior to beginning your initial post, read Chapters 10 and 11 in your course textbook, paying special attention to information on drama’s Greek history, the Shakespearean dramatic tradition, and the components of tragedy in both Greek and Shakespearean drama.
Reflect: In addition to staged productions, some of drama’s contemporary forms include television and film. Think of a film or television episode you know well and that you could analyze using the terms you learned in the textbook. Remember that the film or episode may not necessarily come from our current genre of “drama,” as the literary term drama refers to all contemporary forms of scripted theatrical production. Do NOT choose a work that would be called a ‘comedy,’ as you will be exploring comedy in your Comedy and Conflict discussion this week. It might help you to think of a plot that has a protagonist similar to those you have read about in your textbook
Write:
Part 1—Answer the following questions and directives about the film or episode you chose:
- Name the episode or film. For the benefit of your classmates who might not be familiar with it, summarize the plot in two to four sentences only.
- What is a central type of conflict in the work? You can refer to the Types of Conflicts Found in Literature (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. document to remind yourself of the types of conflict.
- How does its plot and conflict align with plot structures and types of conflict found in Greek and/or Shakespearean tragedy?
- How does it depart from the Greek or Shakespearean forms of tragedy?
- Support your responses with textual details and analytical commentary. Be sure to include specific quotations and/or paraphrases from the work. For help on writing paraphrases and quotations, review the Ashford University Writing Center’s tutorial Integrating Research (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. and the Quoting, Paraphrasing, & Summarizing (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. web page
Part 2—Consider how applying your knowledge of literary tradition and elements caused you to look at this contemporary dramatic work in a new way. Respond to the following questions:
- After completing Part 1 of this discussion, did you notice anything new about the dramatic work you selected? If so, what did you notice?
- Did your experience completing Part 1 deepen your appreciation of the work’s complexity? If so, how? If not, why not?
- Though drama has changed over time, many of its fundamental elements remain the same. What might this illustrate about the human condition?Your writing for Parts One and Two should be a combined total of at least 200 words
