CONTEMPORARY BRITISH DRAMA

English 3630; CRN 24536; T CHMEGR 202; R WHITE 116 1-2.15

Prof. Hugh Ormsby-Lennon Dept of English SAC 466; Phone/ Voice-mail 94655*

Office hours: Tuesday and Thursday 2.30-3.30 pm and by appt.

Home Phone/ Voice-mail 215-592-8102. (*It’s best to call me at home.)

E-mail: Hugh.Ormsby-Lennon@villanova.edu (use this rather than Voicemail)

Home fax: 215-238-1187 (Alert me first, please.)

Home Page: url: http//www60.homepage,villanova.edu/ My home page is most easily accessible from “My Classroom,” the photo site that we all share for English 2700-003. My home page is also accessible via the Villanova Faculty Directory on WWW. My home page will have a link to this syllabus, continually updated, and to other important information concerning this class. Final: Monday December 20 10.45-1.15

Goals and Objectives: Students will learn how British drama was transformed in 1956 by the production of John Osborne’s Look Back in Anger; they will also examine some masterpieces that have since followed in the wake of Osborne’s play. In addition, members of the class will also the performance of two modern plays at Vasey Theatre so that they (and I) can recognize that the texts we read together in class are primarily scripts for performance.

Reading List

Teaching Method

Lecture and discussion. Student contributions are particularly important because the professor does not claim to canvass the “right” reading of any play. Meaning is in the comprehension of the audience and there can be many readings. Without student contributions there will, alas, be no discussion–and the professor is not enamored of the sound of his own voice!

Syllabus

Aug 26 Terence Rattigan, The Winslow Boy

31 Terence Rattigan, The Winslow Boy; John Osborne, Look Back in Anger

Sept 2 John Osborne, Look Back in Anger

7 John Osborne, Look Back in Anger

9 St. Thomas of Villanova Day: Class meets 11.30-12.20

Harold Pinter, The Birthday Party

14 Harold Pinter, The Birthday Party; The Dumb Waiter

16 Harold Pinter, A Night Out; Joe Orton, Loot

21 Joe Orton, Loot; Entertaining Mr Sloane

23 Movie (about Orton): Prick Up Your Ears

28 Prick Up Your Ears; Orton, What the Butler Saw

Oct 5

The class will attend a performance of Reza’s Art at the Villanova Theatre.

Oct 7

Mid-term paper due.

Fall Break

Oct 19

Nov 2

The class will attend a performance of Duerrenmatt’s The Visit at the Villanova Theatre.

Thanksgiving

Nov 30

Dec 2

Paper Topics

In the first essay–due March 11--. We shall discuss the details in class; please come prepared with specific questions (5-7 pp.). The term paper (7-12 pp) will invite you to work with more than

Please note that the writing center has an excellent pamphlet on writing papers.

Writing assignments

All papers must be typed, except for those completed in the classroom. The arrival of late essays will be noted and the student’s final grade will be penalized accordingly. Students must retain a printed copy of their papers; the assumption that a copy of an essay will continue to reside on a diskette or a hard drive does not remain an acceptable substitute. In the event that a paper goes unaccountably astray, it is the student’s responsibility to have a replacement. Ideally papers should be handed to me in the classroom; but, in certain circumstances, they can be handed to a secretary in the English Department (please make sure that she has noted the time and date the essay was submitted. Papers can also be slipped under my office door (but this is the least desirable mode of submission).

Because of viruses NO essays will be accepted as attachments to e-mail. With the instructor’s prior approval, papers may be faxed on certain occasions.

Formal essays should have a title and an epigraph. For further advice about my criteria for a successful essay, please see the link to “Tips on Writing” on my home page. Those tips will be further updated with links to comparable advice provided by fellow instructors in the Core Humanities Program and in the English Department.

Classroom discussion

Lively discussion is required and your contributions will be reflected in your final grade. “Speaking across the curriculum” has again been recognized as an important component of education in American universities.

Grades

Final grades will be based primarily (but by no means exclusively) upon the performance of undergraduates in their essays. (See below for some guidelines.) This is a writing enriched course and students will revise their first paper after they have discussed it in conference with me. (The new grade will not replace the old one, but improvements will be registered in a new grade which should improve the undergraduate’s overall grade. Please note that a revision will NOT be accepted as a revision UNLESS it is accompanied by a copy of the original paper with my suggestions and corrections upon it.) Undergraduates are encouraged to visit the Writing Center; I shall keep a copy of the peer counselor’s report in each student’s individual file.

Email has become an important part of all our lives; I shall keep a printed record of each undergraduate’s communications with me. E-mails sent during the course should not be treated as “shopping lists” or as an informal scribble. Grammar, spelling, and general literacy will thus be scrutinized–as they will be when you get jobs in the “real world.” Your proficiency with email

The final examination will be held on Monday December 20, 10.45-1.15 in CHMEGR. The examination is open-book: you can bring notes, syllabi, emails, and whatever else you wish to the examination room; the permissibility of laptops is open to debate. This final is important insofar as I am convinced that a student’s performance on the identification and commentary question reflects her familiarity with crucial passages of the works that we have discussed during the semester. Please note that I often comment in the class-room that “This is an important passage; students should realize that it comprises just the kind of passage that will appear in the identification and commentary question.” (Hint: take some notes.) There will also be an essay question in the final examination.

A variety of other “imponderables” also enters into the assignment of a final grade. Improvement (particularly in writing) can prove a major consideration. Remember to bring your books to class; remember to take your books out of your book-bag; remember to open your books to the pages we are discussing. Students who neglect to bring their books invite summary extrusion from the classroom. Don’t fall asleep in the classroom; don’t stare blankly out the window; or don’t endeavor, surreptitiously, to catch up with work for other classes. Don’t chatter with, or pass clandestine notes to, your colleagues. Read the newspaper at home, please. A student’s overall attitude is important, and it will be noted. Please remember, too, that grades in every class must display some “curving.”

Grading is an art not a science. I resist assigning “cut and dried” percentages for written work, for classroom discussion, for the final examination, and for other components of the semester’s grade. I do, however, expect contributions to class discussion and a competent performance on the final examination. (A rule of thumb for percentages might be: 60% formal writing; 20% final exam; 20% class discussion.) Rest assured that I try to be scrupulously fair and, all things being equal, invoke mercy as well as justice. Let me underline that I do expect a competent performance on the final examination. Any doubts that I may have entertained about a student’s performance are often confirmed there. On the other hand, seemingly drowsy students blow away all my suspicions with a stellar performance in the examination room.

Conferences

At least one conference will be scheduled with each student: the main series will be held after I have returned your first paper to you. You are expected not only to be on time but to have something to say about your work. “Blowing off” a conference will adversely affect a student’s cumulative grade. If circumstances prevent you from keeping an appointment on the day of our conference, call the English Department secretary and leave a message; I do not have e-mail facilities in my office so an e-mail will not reach me there. Conference appointments will be faithfully observed (and cumulative grades will suffer from any cavalier disregard by students). Come to conferences with something to say; don’t stare at me like a fish. My time is valuable; yours should be too. Would you present yourself for an important job interview in a casual or unprepared fashion?

Class communication

Students are expected to read their emails (since the e-classroom becomes more of a reality each year). I shall endeavor to send you discussion points about each of the plays we discuss. The serious student will keep a record of these. Students (particularly those who have been absent from class, for whatever reason) are required to remain familiar with the syllabus and with fresh postings about the class.

Academic honesty

Given the enticements of the Web (schoolsucks.com &c), plagiarism seems to have gone high tech. You should realize, however, that your instructors’ search engines are awesomely powerful . . . At a more old-fashioned level, professors pass students papers around and I may well have already read “that paper you borrowed from a friend who submitted it to another class.”

You are required to familiarize yourself with the latest statements of the university’s policies on academic honesty. You will also read the sections on plagiarism in the primer assigned by the university Read this material with particular attention to problems of using work not your own. Paper topics will be designed to discourage any temptation to plagiarism. You should be aware that I have reported students for plagiarism in the past and that I shall not hesitate to do so again. The university protocols for dealing with my reports protect the interests of both professor and student, but they are, necessarily, time-consuming and labor-intensive. Far better that you should avoid, scrupulously, any suspicion of plagiarism on your part. Students should also be aware that powerful search-engines have been devised for detecting any plagiarism from materials on the www; the resources of the web may seem to make it easier to pull of plagiarism, but they make academic dishonesty far more detectable.

Please make use of the Writing Center. Its guidebook, How to Write a College Paper, is excellent and is highly recommended.

Etiquette

Gentlemen may wear hats. Undergraduates are requested to eschew the use of bubble-gum in the classroom and during conferences. (Chewing gum, by contrast, is permissible.) Unexplained absences, as well as late arrivals to class, will be recorded by the instructor. If you arrive late for class or turn in a late paper, please confirm that I have made the appropriate changes in my record book. Please familiarize yourself with university policy on absences that lack a legitimate excuse.

Students can, alas, encounter sudden crises in their lives—I am always sympathetic—but please do not wait until the end of the semester to explain why you haven’t attended class or submitted papers. I am not nosey about your personal dramas, but a call from the University’s Counseling Center or a doctor’s note will help substantiate explanations. The university requires that students br prepared to document their reasons for missing class. Please note university deadlines for “WXing a class.” If your name still appears on my final grade sheet and you have, for whatever reason, disappeared from the class without leaving a paper trail, I gather from the Registrar’s Office that your capacity to receive a passing grade will be very gravely compromised.

Academic Accommodations for Qualified Students with Disabilities

“It is the policy of Villanova University to make reasonable academic accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities. If you are a person with a disability and wish to request accommodations to complete your course requirements, please make an appointment with the course professor as soon as possible to discuss the request. If you would like information on documentation requirements, contact the Office of Learning Support Services at 610-519-5636, or visit the office in Geraghty Hall.”

P. S. Before I forget, I have made a film myself