ENG 451: Race and American Theatre: Our Town

Offers close textual readings of plays by American and British 20th century playwrights—both canonical and some that fall outside the mainstream—looking at how whiteness as an identity is created onstage, and how this has changed historically.

In Staging the War, Albert Wertheim brings to light the important role played by drama in many forms during the period between the Depression and the conclusion of WWII. He includes in his purview several works from the pre- and postwar periods. While at the time the subjects of these plays did not seem to be about the war, Wertheim discovered that "reading those dramas in a wartime context ... nuances them in unanticipated ways."

80 years after it was written, more than 110 years after its actions take place, Our Town continues to assert itself as an essential play about how we must embrace and appreciate the value of life itself. Another Day's Begun explains how this American classic has the power to inspire, heal and endure in the modern day, onstage and beyond.

This Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Thornton Wilder is considered a classic portrayal of small-town middle-class life in America. Essays included discuss the theatrical principles Wilder utilized, literary style and criticism as well as dominant themes in this play.

Introduction: the dramatic milieu and American drama -- Puritan ego and Freudian unconscious: Mourning becomes Electra -- The old woman, the doctor and the cook: The cocktail party -- Who knows not patient Job: J.B. -- Tragedy and the private eye: Detective story -- Acres of diamonds: Death of a salesman -- The passing of the old South: A streetcar named desire -- The long shadow of the law: The crucible -- A green corner of the universe: Our town -- Fun and games in suburbia: Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf? -- Conclusion: The vision of American drama.