DRM462H1

Black Playwrights: Resistance, Resilience and Transformation

An exploration of dramatic literature by writers from the African Diaspora (Canada, USA, UK and the Caribbean) from 1959 to the present. The course will identify playwrights central to the development of Black theatre, their plays, and performance practices. Emphasis will be placed on dramaturgical analysis, sociohistorical context, the author’s influences, and relevant critical writing, in order to evaluate these works as sites of social resistance, cultural resilience, and aesthetic transformation. Selected authors include: Lorraine Hansberry, Wole Soyinka, August Wilson, Derek Walcott, Debbie Hunter Green, George Elliott Clarke, Tarell Alvin McCraney, Walter Borden, Suzan-Lori Parks, Kwame Kwei-Armah and Ntozake Shange.