ENGLISH 170CN · also ICS 136CN, LIT 170CN, THEATRST 170CN
Political Theater
Corina Maria Stan
Description from DukeHub
This course examines political plays set in ancient Greece and Rome, as well as in various international countries across the world in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Through close engagement with political plays by Aristophanes, Sophocles, Shakespeare, Brecht, Fugard, Churchill, Dorfman, Aktar, Wolfe, and others, as well as with relevant historical sources and films, students learn about the world-shaping events of the past century and a half, reflect on competing conceptions of politics and community, justice, power, imperialism, democracy, dictatorship, and other topics, and the ways playwrights have dramatized these events on stage, engaging audiences in collective reflection and aesthetic enjoyment, and often compelling to political action.
Skills
- writingdepartment: ENGLISH
AI-resilient: 1 of 5
- No: Physical, lab or field work
- No: Live work with people
- Yes: Judgment someone is accountable for · "justice"
- No: A craft you practice with your hands or body
- No: Small, in-person format
The checks lean on Microsoft Research, Working with AI (2025), which found generative AI applies least to physical work and hands-on work with people. A signal, not a promise. How the score works
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