Drama 365 A

Black and Asian British Theatre

Winter 2024

Class meeting times: Tuesday, Thursday 9:30 -11:20

Location: CHD 511A

Instructor: Dr. Stefka Mihaylova

Office Hours: By appointment; ZOOM

E-mail: stefkam@uw.edu

Description

The primary objective of this course is to familiarize ourselves with the plays of Black and Asian British playwrights, from the beginnings of professional Black British theatre in the 1820s to the beginning of the twenty-first century. We will be looking at the specific aesthetic choices these playwrights made, as they negotiated their place as minoritized subjects in Britain. Our discussions will be guided by social theoretical concepts that have been used in the analysis of minoritarian performance, including the Black Atlantic, publics and counterpublics, diasporic subjects, and witnessing, among others.

By the end of the course, you will

• Become acquainted with plays by major Black and Asian British playwrights and the companies who produced their work
• Learn about social-theoretical concepts such as publics, counterpublics, and the Black Atlantic.
• Learn about a British history of Black and Asian migration.

Texts

• Purchase on Amazon or elsewhere: (1) Play Mas, by Mustapha Matura; (2) East Is East, by Ayub Khan-Din; (3) Leave Taking, by Winsome Pinnock; (4) truth and reconciliation, by debbie tucker green.
• All other plays are electronically available through the UW library website or will be provided by Stefka on CANVAS.
• Any additional texts will either be provided by Stefka on CANVAS or are available electronically through the UW library website.

Evaluation:

All students are accountable for the information about academic integrity printed in the Student Conduct Code. Students are also responsible for the following standards: (1) Participation is required in all classes. (2) Credit will not be given for two courses that meet at the same time. (3) To receive credit for a course, students must complete all of the work assigned. (4) Assignments must be turned in on time. Students are not entitled to make-up assignments or to grades of Incomplete unless the instructor has approved such arrangements in advance. Extensions should be requested in advance of the deadline.

This course will be strictly governed by the University of Washington’s policies on academic dishonesty.

Assignments                                                                                      Due

Participation: 30%                                                                              Every class session                

Test One 35%                                                                                     Jan. 30

Test Two: 35%                                                                                   March 7

Participation (including discussion questions and response papers):

• Students will prepare short reflections (500 to 1000 words) on the plays and/or articles to be discussed for the day, and post them on CANVAS 8: 00 am, every Tuesday and Thursday. Some guiding questions will be provided, but you can discuss any topic that intrigues you.

We will adhere to the rules of engagement we agree upon in our class contract. In addition, all students are expected to adhere to the rules of engagement specified in the Student Conduct Code: https://www.washington.edu/cssc/for-students/student-code-of-conduct/

Tests 1 and 2: These take-at-home tests include a number of short questions, asking you to define terms and identify historical figures, and a longer essay question.

Criteria for Assessment:

A grades reflect work that demonstrates deep, thorough and detailed knowledge, clear logical structures, correct and purposeful use of language, proper referencing, vivid and imaginative thinking and writing, a clear grasp of theoretical and historical concepts, developed reasoning, and well-substantiated arguments.

B grades reflect work that demonstrates deep, thorough and detailed knowledge, clear logical structures, correct and purposeful use of language, proper referencing, a good grasp of theoretical concepts, developed reasoning, and well-substantiated arguments, but not much imaginative thinking and writing. B work does not contribute original ideas and arguments, but relies only on the ideas and knowledge discussed in class.

C grades reflect work that shows inconsistent or partial solutions to problems, and understanding of basic ideas and methods.

D and F grades reflect work that shows inconsistent or partial solution to problems, is superficial, confused, showing incorrect or absent references, an unoriginal or absent viewpoint, poor grasp of critical theory, sloppy writing or proofreading, undeveloped ideas, lack of originality, irrelevant material, or irrelevant substantiation.

Students with disabilities will be accommodated on a confidential basis. See Professor.

Note on the course content: Any history of minoritarian performance reveals the astounding creativity of people living under very difficult conditions. Often their art engages with rampant violence. Inevitably, this course deals with uncomfortable topics such as racism, sexism, and other forms of exclusion. It is impossible to avoid these histories, along with their language and imagery. It is equally impossible to appreciate the artistic accomplishments of minoritized artists without knowledge of these histories.

Class Schedule (by week number):

** All texts should be read before the designated class.

Week One

Jan 4, Th. Introduction: Who We Are; What the Course Is About; Preparing a Class

Contract;

Week Two

Jan 9, Tu. The Black Atlantic: Ira Aldridge and the Beginning of Black British Professional Theatre

Read:

• Margaret Cohen, “Sentimental Communities.”
• Ira Aldridge, The Black Doctor, 1843.

Questions: What is the argument/thesis of Margaret Cohen’s article “Sentimental Communities”? How does The Black Doctor represent Blackness? What about that representation, in your view, could have been strategic, considering that the play was written for a white English liberal audience?

Jan 11, Th. The Abolitionist Movement: African American Performances of Escape in Britain

Read:

• William Wells Brown, The Escape; or, A Leap for Freedom, 1858 (electronically available)
• Paul Gilroy, “The Black Atlantic”

Questions: What is the argument/thesis of Paul Gilroy’s text “The Black Atlantic”? Brown’s play was always intended to be read, not to be performed, to a British audience of white abolitionists. Speculate about why he may not have wanted to have his play performed. What sentimental features can you identify in The Escape.

Week Three

Jan. 16, Tu. Afro-Asian Counterpublics: Henry F. Downing and Duse Mohammed Ali

Read:

• Henry F. Downing, Placing Paul’s Play, 1913 (electronically available)
• Pallavi Rastogi, “‘Engaging the Public,’ Photo and Print Journalism,” in The Cambridge History of Black and Asian British Writing (electronically available)

Questions: Ali and Downing were part of an Afro-Asian circle of intellectuals who collaborated on theatrical, journalistic, and political ventures. (Ali, though remembered mostly for his journalism, was also an actor and a theatre agent.) For both of them, producing and publishing drama by Black and Asian playwrights was as important as doing journalism from minoritarian perspectives. What does this convey about how the two of them saw the social and political role of the stage?

Jan 18, Th. The Beginnings of Indian Theatre in Britain

Read:

• Rabindranath Tagore, The Post Office, 1913 (electronically available)
• Edward Said, excerpt from Orientalism (1978)

Questions: The Post Office is the most acclaimed play by Nobel Prize winner R. Tagore. It has been produced internationally, including, in the 1940s, in the Jewish ghetto in Warsaw, Poland in the context of rampant antisemitism. Why, in your view, did the play speak to so many diverse audiences across the world?

Week Four

Jan. 23, Tu. Black Theatre and the Legacy of the Haitian Revolution

Read:

• L. R. James, Toussaint Louverture, 1936. (electronically available)
• L. R. James, “From Toussaint L’Ouverture to Fidel Castro,” in The C. L. R. James Reader.

Watch: PBS Egalite for All: Toussaint Louverture and the Haitian Revolution (available on YouTube)

Question: C. L. R. James, a self-defined Black Marxist, viewed his work on the Haitian revolution as a critique of the values of the European Enlightenment (whose values informed the French Revolution of 1789. How does the play reflect this critique?

Jan 25, Th. Post-war Black British Theatre

Read:

• Errol John, Moon on a Rainbow Shawl, 1958 (electronically available)
• Allison Donnell, “Looking Back, Looking Forward: Revisiting the Windrush Myth,” in The Cambridge History of Black and Asian British Writing, 195-211 (electronically available)

Questions: What is “the Windrush myth,” according to Donnell? How does John’s play engage with the Windrush myth?

Week Five

Jan. 30, Tu. Test One: A take-home exam, consisting of a five-to-seven-page, double- spaced essay on a topic discussed in the first half of the course. You will choose one of two possible essay questions.

Feb. 1, Th. The 1970s: New Beginnings

Read:

• Mustapha Matura, Play Mas, 1974.
• Michael McMillan, “Ter Speak in Yer Mudder Tongue,” an interview with playwright Mustapha Matura, in Black British Culture and Society, 255-70.

Questions: Under the influence of the radical Black Arts Movement in the United States, Black British playwrights attempt to create new Black aesthetics on Britain in the 1970s and develop their own theatre institutions, as well as be well represented in mainstream theaters. In your view, where does Play Mas fit in this oppositional pull between the specifically Black aesthetic and the desire to be heard on the mainstream stages?

Week Six

Feb 6, Tu. Staging Diasporic Subjects

• Caryl Phillips, Strange Fruit, 1981
• William Safran, “Diasporas in Modern Societies: Myths of Homeland and Return,” 1991 (electronically available)

Questions: How does Borderline speak to the experiences of diasporic subjects? What explicit or implicit political messages related to migration do you find in the play?

Feb. 8, Th. Tara Theatre: Binglish and Asian British Performance from the 1980s On

Read:

• Jatinder Verma, “Three Generations of the Diaspora and Multiculturalism in Britain,” New Theatre Quarterly3 (2009): 203-23.
• Hanif Kureishi, Borderline (1981) (Stefka will provide a pdf)

Question: How is Kureishi’s drama situated in the generational account described by Verma?

Week Seven

Feb. 13, Tu. Melancholic Migrants

Read:

• Sara Ahmed, “Melancholic Migrants”
• Ayub Khan-Din, East is East (1990)

Questions: What is the argument of Ahmed’s article? For whom are migrants melancholic? How does Khan-Din’s comedy engage with the issues analyzed by Ahmed?

Feb. 15, Th.  Black and Asian Feminist Voices

Read:

• Winsome Pinnock, Leave Taking (1987)
• Magdalene Ang-Lygate, “Charting the Spaces of (Un)location: On Theorizing Diaspora” (pdf on CANVAS)

Questions: Like Jatinder Verma in “Three Generations of Diaspora and Multiculturalism in Britain,” Magdalene Ang-Lygate offers a critique of identity politics. How does viewing the characters of Leave Taking through the lens of raced-based identity politics or through the alternative lenses suggested by Verma and Ang-Lygate give us different accounts of their situations as minoritized subjects?

Week Eight

Feb. 20, Tu. Black and Asian Feminist Voices, cont.

Read:

• Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti, Besharam (2001) (Stefka will provide pdf)
• “Sikh Diasporic Feminism: Provocations 1, 2, and 3,” in Sikh Formations 4 (2017): 237-49.

Feb 22, Th. Queer Desire

Read:

• Zodwa Nyoni, Nine Lives (2014) (Stefka will provide text)
• Martin F. Manalansan IV, “In the Shadows of Stonewall: Examining Gay Transnational Politics and the Diasporic Dilemma”

Week Nine

Feb. 27, Tu. The Theatre of Bearing Witness

Read:

• Oladipo Agboluaje, Early Morning (2003) (electronically available)
• Kelly Oliver, “Introduction: Beyond Recognition” (2001) (pdf on CANVAS)

Feb. 29, Th. The Theatre of Bearing Witness

• debbie tucker green, truth and reconciliation (2011)
• Kelly Oliver, “Seeing Race,” (pdf on CANVAS)

Week Ten

March 5, Tu. Conclusion: Where Are We Now?

March 7, Th. Test Two