Skip to main content

My Terrifying Introduction to Drama — And How We Could Do Better



For my most recent graduate course, I gleefully read Shakespeare’s King Lear. Unlike historical critics, who hated what Shakespeare did to a story that traditionally has a happy ending, I think King Lear rocks.

Me having this level of enjoyment was not always the case. A poorly chosen assigned reading list turned me off of reading drama and and delayed my gratification by several years.

I’m going to do through the assigned reading list for the Introduction to Reading Drama course and explain, if it’s not immediately obvious just by the titles, why picking these plays was a bad idea.

To be clear, I loved my professor for the course. Adored her. I had taken a course before this one, and took courses from her after this. I hope if she ever sees this she laughs, because she was a very young professor at the time, and she learned so much that she became someone who teaches other professors how to teach. I’m lucky that I got her while she was brilliant but fresh-faced and just starting out.

The Originally Assigned Texts
So here, without further ado, is the reading list. I won’t torture you. Besides, these plays don’t warrant further attention by extolling the plot. Instead, a one sentence summary will do. These plays are either so famous or so infamous and looking up details about them will be easy for you, if you want to satisfy your gruesome curiosity.

Oedipus Rex : A man pokes his eyes out because he had sex with his mom.

How I Learned to Drive : A girl who is sexually abused by her uncle grows up to happily sexually abuse male students in her care as a teacher.

Who Is Sylvia? : A man ruins his family with his bestiality and pedophilia.

Othello : A black man murders his wife, proving the racist villain is absolutely right that interracial marriage is evil.

This is absolutely, relentlessly, the worst that classical drama has to offer. All of these plays are…

By Amanda Melheim

©The Learning Hub 2023

Comments

Post a Comment

Your feed Back is always welcomed.. for an amazing experience here

Popular posts from this blog

THE LEARNING HUB: It is man's intelligence that makes him so often behave more stupidly than..

It is man's intelligence that makes him so often behave more stupidly than the beasts. Man is impelled to invent theories to account for what happens in the world. Unfortunately, he is not quite intelligent enough, in most cases, to find correct explanations. So that when he acts on his theories, he behaves very often like a lunatic. Thus, no animal is clever enough, when there is a drought, to imagine that the rain is being withheld by evil spirits, or as punishment for its transgressions. Therefore you never see animals going through the absurd and often horrible fooleries of magic and religion. No horse, for example would kill one of its foals to make the wind change direction. Dogs do not ritually urinate in the hope of persuading heaven to do the same and send down rain. Asses do not bray a liturgy to cloudless skies. Nor do cats attempt, by abstinence from cat's meat, to wheedle the feline spirits into benevolence. Only man behaves with such gratuitous folly. It is the pr...
Post a Comment
Read more

THE LEARNING HUB: To laugh is to risk appearing a fool,

To laugh is to risk appearing a fool, To weep is to risk appearing sentimental. To reach out to another is to risk involvement, To expose feelings is to risk exposing your true self. To place your ideas and dreams before a crowd is to risk their loss. To love is to risk not being loved in return, To live is to risk dying, To hope is to risk despair, To try is to risk failure. But risks must be taken because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing. The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing, is nothing. He may avoid suffering and sorrow, But he cannot learn, feel, change, grow or live. Chained by his servitude he is a slave who has forfeited all freedom. Only a person who risks is free. ~Leo Buscaglia (Art: Photograph by Izis Bidermanas) ©THE LEARNING HUB 2023
Post a Comment
Read more

THE LEARNING HUB: ADVICE TO ALL EMPLOYEES

1. Build a home earlier. Be it rural home or urban home. Building a house at 50 is not an achievement. Don't get used to government houses. This comfort is so dangerous. Let all your family have good time in your house. 2. Go home. Don't stick at work all the year. You are not the pillar of your department. If you drop dead today, you will be replaced immediately and operations will continue. Make your family a priority. 3. Don't chase promotions. Master your skills and be excellent at what you do. If they want to promote you, that's fine if they don't, stay positive to your personal development. 4. Avoid office or work gossip. Avoid things that tarnish your name or reputation. Don't join the bandwagon that backbites your bosses and colleagues. Stay away from negative gatherings that have only people as their agenda. 5. Don't ever compete with your bosses. You will burn your fingers. Don't compete with your colleagues, you will fry your brain. 6. Ensure ...
Post a Comment
Read more