Courses

This seminar combines play-reading and theater-going to map the landscape of British drama and performance since 2000. The theater in this period is often acerbic and sometimes brazen, passionately engaged with the politics of a changing Britain and scornful of old pieties (including those of earlier radical playwrights). Many writers find elegant theatrical forms for sprawling subjects—class and racial strife in the aftermath of Thatcherism, the persistent ghosts of Britain’s imperialist past, the ethical questions prompted by technological innovation—while others create work on a more intimate scale, looking inward at the sexual gamesmanship between couples or at the equivocal morality of writers and even spectators. Readings are supplemented by weekly attendance at (and discussion of) productions in London’s established and lesser-known theaters.  HU

The British Country House: Collecting and Display (BRST 158)

This course explores the phenomenon of the British country house from the sixteenth century to the present day through its collections of works of art and their display histories. The course, centered around a series of country house “case studies,” addresses two closely related issues: the formation, character, and function of country house art collections and the conventions, development, and dynamics of pictorial and sculptural display within the country house. The course draws upon the Paul Mellon Centre’s extensive research resources, including archival materials, correspondence, country house guides, sales catalogues, books, photographs, and newly commissioned images. An essential component of the course is regular visits to country houses to study collections and displays, as well as a three-day field trip. HU