Cultural Diversity in American Drama and Film

Prof. Dr Kornelia Slavova
Lectures: 30
Seminars: 30
ECTS credits: 6

The course aims to acquaint students with cultural diversity in twentieth century American society through the lens of pluralistic American drama/ theatre, which have attacked racial and ethnic prejudice, as well as sexual discrimination. Lectures will explore cultural difference along various lines (race, gender, class, region, and performance style), whereas seminars will discuss specific plays and their film adaptations. The approach will be student-oriented: we will be looking at plays as art, as literary creations but also as cultural objects in the public arena of theatre and film making. Students will be encouraged to do independent work on specific cultural issues as well as to trace the transformations of the dramatic text in performance and film. Assessment will be based on seminar presentation and term paper/ project. There are no special prerequisites for the course apart from a good command of English language as the course is conducted in English.