Syllabus & Reading Schedule

Below is my self-written syllabus/reading schedule for this study. It’s subject to change, but for the most part I’ve been following this pretty faithfully. Reading assignments by Tom Stoppard unless otherwise noted.   

  • Week of Aug 27-29 (Half week)

  •      Delaney, “Exit Tomaš Straüssler, Enter Sir Tom Stoppard.”

  • Week of Sept. 1-5

  •      The Real Inspector Hound (1968)

  •      Robinson, “Plays Without Plot: The Theatre of Tom Stoppard.”

  • Week of Sept. 8-12

  •      After Magritte (1970)

  •      Sammells, “The Early Stage Plays.”

  • Week of Sept. 15-19

  •      Artist Descending a Staircase (1972)

  •      Zeifman, Hersh. “Tomfoolery: Stoppard’s Theatrical Puns.”

  • Week of Sept. 22-26

  •       Travesties (1974)

  •       Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest

  •       Innes, “Allegories from the Past: Stoppard’s Uses of History.”

  • Week of Sept. 29-Oct. 3

  •      Dogg’s Hamlet, Cahoot’s Macbeth (1979)

  •      Levenson, Jill L. “Stoppard’s Shakespeare: Textual Re-visions.”

  • Week of Oct. 6-10

  •      The Real Thing (1982)

  •      Zeifman, “The Comedy of Eros: Stoppard in Love.”

  • Week of Oct. 20-24

  •      Rough Crossing (1984)

  •      Delaney, Tom Stoppard in Conversation

  • Week of Oct. 27-31

  •      Arcadia (1993)

  •      Gussow, Conversations with Stoppard

  • Week of Nov. 3-7

  •      The Invention of Love (1997)

  • Week of Nov. 10-14

  •      The Coast of Utopia (2002)

  • Week of Nov. 17-21

  •       Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (1966)

  •       Beckett, Waiting for Godot

  •       Shakespeare, Hamlet

  • Week of Nov. 24-25 (Thanksgiving – half week)

  •       Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (cont.)

  •      Egan, “A Thin Beam of Light: The Purpose of Playing in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead.”

  •      Freeman, “Holding up the Mirror to Mind’s Nature: Reading Rosencrantz ‘Beyond Absurdity.’”

  • Week of Dec. 1-5

  •       Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (film, 1990)

  •       Shakespeare in Love (film, 1998)