Independent Study: Greek Tragedy

Follow this website, more or less.

Unit 1: Intro to Greek History and Drama

Essential Questions:

  1. How is Greek tragedy a product of its environment? (socio-historical)

  2. Why do we like to read plays about pain and suffering? (existential)

  3. What makes Greek tragedy good theater? (performative / literary)

  4. Why do Greek comedies not persist in the same way as tragedies? Why are they not studied or performed as much?

  5. Whatever happened to satyr plays?

Research Tasks

Performance

Tasks

  1. Read over this website and this website

    1. Study this map and this map

  2. Watch Introduction to Greek Theater

  3. Watch Intro to Greek tragedy

  4. Watch Intro to Greek Comedy and Satyr plays

  5. Read portions of The Greeks by H.D.F. Kitto, focusing on ch. 4 (Homer), ch. 7 (The Fifth Century), and ch. 12 (Life and Character)

  6. Read Tragedy: A Very Short Introduction by Adrian Poole

  7. Read introductory portions of ch. 17 (p. 374-436) of Will Durant's The Life of Greece

  8. Read Greek Tragedy by H.D.F. Kitto

  • Answer a minimum of 1 EQ in writing (journal)

    • Create an Introduction to Greek Tragedy lecture powerpoint (or documentary) for future class (complete when posted on class website)

  • Create and take an Intro to Greek Tragedy quiz or project (complete when posted on class website)

  • Create a Mind Map poster to put up in classroom about Greek Tragedy

  • Take Unit 1 Test

Unit 2: Sophocles

Essential Questions:

  1. What makes this playwright legendary?

  2. Why do their plays persist?

  3. What is their worldview?

  4. How is their conception of the world similar or different to your own?

  5. Why should others study them?

  6. What do they have to teach me? Us? My students? The world?

  7. What do you see in a selected character from their drama?

  8. Why are they the greatest (or not) Greek tragedian?

Research Tasks

Performance

Tasks

  1. Read specific portions of ch. 17 (p. 374-436) of Will Durant's The Life of Greece pertaining to this author

  2. Read Oedipus Rex

  3. Read this website

  4. Read Oedipus at Colonus

  5. Read this website

  6. Read Antigone

  7. Read this website

  8. Read specific to Sophocles chapters of Nussbaum's The Fragility of Goodness

  • Answer a minimum of 1 EQ in writing (journal)

    • Create an Introduction to Sophocles lecture powerpoint (or documentary) for future class (complete when posted on class website)

  • Create and take an Intro to Sophocles quiz or project (complete when posted on class website)

  • Create a character map or mind map poster of Sophocles or a chosen play you'll teach

  • Memorize one famous speech from a play of this author

  • Do a journal reflection on this quote

Unit 3: Aeschylus

Essential Questions:

  1. What makes this playwright legendary?

  2. Why do their plays persist?

  3. What is their worldview?

  4. How is their conception of the world similar or different to your own?

  5. Why should others study them?

  6. What do they have to teach me? Us? My students? The world?

  7. What do you see in a selected character from their drama?

  8. Why are they the greatest (or not) Greek tragedian?

Research Tasks

Performance

Tasks

  1. Read specific portions of ch. 17 (p. 374-436) of Will Durant's The Life of Greece pertaining to this author

  2. Read The Orestreia

  3. Read over specific pages on this website pertaining to Aeschylus

  4. Read specific to Aeschylus chapters of Nussbaum's The Fragility of Goodness

  • Answer a minimum of 1 EQ in writing (journal)

    • Create an Introduction to Aeschylus lecture powerpoint (or documentary) for future class (complete when posted on class website)

  • Create and take an Intro to Aeschylus quiz or project (complete when posted on class website)

  • Create a character map or mind map poster of Aeschylus or a chosen play you'll teach

  • Memorize one famous speech from a play of this author

  • Do a journal reflection on this quote

Unit 4: Euripides

Essential Questions:

  1. What makes this playwright legendary?

  2. Why do their plays persist?

  3. What is their worldview?

  4. How is their conception of the world similar or different to your own?

  5. Why should others study them?

  6. What do they have to teach me? Us? My students? The world?

  7. What do you see in a selected character from their drama?

  8. Why are they the greatest (or not) Greek tragedian?

Research Tasks

Performance

Tasks

  1. Read specific portions of ch. 17 (p. 374-436) of Will Durant's The Life of Greece pertaining to this author

  2. Read Bacchae

  3. Read Medea

  4. Read Hecuba

  5. Read more?

  6. Read over specific pages on this website pertaining to Euripides

  7. Read specific to Euripides chapters of Nussbaum's The Fragility of Goodness

  • Answer a minimum of 1 EQ in writing (journal)

    • Create an Introduction to Euripides lecture powerpoint (or documentary) for future class (complete when posted on class website)

  • Create and take an Intro to Euripides quiz or project (complete when posted on class website)

  • Create a character map or mind map poster of Euripides or a chosen play you'll teach

  • Memorize one famous speech from a play of this author

  • Do a journal reflection on this quote

Unit 5: Greek Tragedy Comparison

Essential Questions:

  1. How do the three tragedians compare and contrast to each other?

  2. How do they differ in telling the same story? (Electra)

Research Tasks

Performance

Tasks

  1. Read this page and this page

  2. Read Electra by Sophocles and Euripides

  • Answer a minimum of 1 EQ in writing (journal)

  • Create a TRIPLE BUBBLE map between the three tragedians

    • Create an Greek Tragedy Comparison lecture powerpoint (or documentary) for future class (complete when posted on class website)

  • Create and take an Greek Tragedy Comparison quiz or project (complete when posted on class website)

  • Write a fake letter to the school board / administration defending why we should purchase a class set of a Greek tragedy we don't already have, describing why it would be useful

  • Actually do it.

  • Or at the very least, complete a DonorsChoose.org project proposal for it.

  • Write a "lawyer speech" defending a chosen Greek tragedian (Sophocles, Aeschylus, or Euripides) as the greatest

    • Or choose one to defend as being the most underrated

Unit 6: Greek Tragedy and Shakespeare

Essential Questions:

  1. How does Shakespeare continue or differ from the Greek tragic tradition?

  2. How does Oedipus / Antigone / et al compare to Shakespearean tragic heroes (King Lear, Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, Othello, Julius Caesar, et al)?

  3. Which should we study (if you only had time for one)?

  4. What are the relative merits of each?

Research Tasks

Performance

Tasks

  1. Read Tragedy: Shakespeare and the Greek Example

    1. Reread 1+ Shakespearean tragedy (Hamlet, King Lear, Macbeth, or Othello) in light of Greek tragedies you've already read

  • Answer a minimum of 1 EQ in writing (journal)

    • Create an Greek Tragedy and Shakespeare Comparison lecture powerpoint (or documentary) for future class (complete when posted on class website)

  • Create a project that will help class transition to Shakespeare

  • Create a bubble map comparing Shakespearean tragedy and Greek tragedy

    • Create a bubble map comparing Greek tragic hero and Shakespearean tragic hero

    • Write a "lawyer speech" defending whether Shakespearean or Greek tragedy is the greatest of all time

    • Write a letter to an English faculty colleague who only has time for one (Greek or Shakespeare), which should they choose and why?

Unit 7: Theories of Tragedy

Essential Questions:

  1. What is your own theory of tragedy?

  2. How does it compare to other scholars?

  3. Is it about theory or experience?

  4. Can an audience's reception be expected / planned / manipulated? Is it as simple as Aristotle says?

  5. Are their other possibilities beside Aristotle?

  6. Does their need to be a balance between tragedy and comedy?

  7. What does tragedy provide? What effect does it have on the reader? Audience? (their inner and outer lives, long-term and short-term effects)

Research Tasks

Performance

Tasks

  1. Review this website

  2. Read Plato, Republic

  3. Read Aristotle, Poetics

  4. Read Nietzsche, Birth of Tragedy

  5. Read Martha Nussbaum, The Fragility of Goodness

  6. Reread and review Greek Tragedy by H.D.F. Kitto

  7. Consult this book (?)

  • Answer a minimum of 1 EQ in writing (journal)

  • Create essay prompts for analytical writing (eg "Based on the above quote by Aristotle, analyze the character of Oedipus. Does he fit the definition of a tragic hero? Do you agree or disagree with Aristotle...etc)

  • Create a systematic treatise of your own theory of tragedy

  • Interview others about why tragedies persist (colleagues, friends, family) vs. comedies persisting

Unit 8: Conclusions

Essential Questions:

  1. Why is pleasurable to see pathos on stage? Why is tragedy pleasurable? Persistent? Perennial? Universal?

Research Tasks

Performance

Tasks

  1. Read this website

  2. Memorize 3+ scenes / speeches and recite (to practice for Performance Task)

  • Answer a minimum of 1 EQ in writing (journal)

  • Create (or add onto Intro to Tragedy lecture powerpoint from earlier) a presentation that answers EQ 1 about why tragedy is interesting to study...directly answering persistent student question

  • Create assignment directions for a Performance Contest for my class (based on this)

  • Implement the fruits of this study in Fall 2015 AP course...just do it!

As the culmination to this study, I hope to attend in the summer of 2016 a trip to Greece with EF Tours!

All to Greece: Click here

Greece and Turkey? I think so...click here

RESOURCES

University Syllabus / Course Links: