DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: THIS WEEK DUE BY NOON ON WEDNESDAY MAR. 13 BY DROPBOX "Week 10 Discussion." NOTE: Please include in your assignment whether you are willing to share your exam ideas with other students in class. A. If you were going to give a final exam on this course, what question(s) would you like to see on the exam and why? You can use any of the course material (readings, images, lecture outlines, reading questions) that you like to formulate the questions. The reading/discussion questions should be particularly helpful in formulating questions that you think are interesting. Consider this in formulating your questions: What do you think is the most important thing (concept, method of analysis, content) you learned from the course? How could you convey that acquired knowledge in the final exam? If it is an essay question, the answer does not need to be fully given, but sketch out the elements of a correct answer for us (eg. page numbers in the readings with brief explanation). If you only create one question then make sure it is well-supported! Examples of possible question formats (but feel free to come up with others): 1. Comparative analysis of content/theme: how are similar themes treated in different plays and different genres: Noh, Kyogen, Kabuki, Bunraku, modern theater (Shinpa, Shingeki, and Post-Shingeki) and dance (Butoh)? 2. Comparative analysis of theatrical techniques: for example, pick a "traditional" theatrical technique from Noh, Kyogen, Kabuki or Bunraku and show how it is used in modern theater. You can also do this with Noh or Kyogen compared to Kabuki. 3. Comparative analysis of images: pick out several images from the course and compare them. This could be used with #2 as well. How are they similar? How are they different? What is the significance of the differences in terms of the play or genre? 4. What technical terms from the course (eg. shite, ado, ninjo, giri, wagoto, aragoto, hikinuki) do you think should be tested? This question could be combined with any of the questions above (thematic issues, theatrical techniques, image analysis). WEEK 10a a. Yukihiro Goto, "The Theatrical Fusion of Suzuki Tadashi" Asian Theatre Journal, Vol. 6, No. 2. (Autumn, 1989), pp. 103-123. Because we don't have playscripts for Suzuki Tadashi and Ninagawa Yukio, I'm focusing on their versions of Shakespeare's plays. We will watch Suzuki Tadashi's version of King Lear and Ninagawa's version of Hamlet. If you are not familiar with those plays, find a synopsis on the web to review the basic plot points! The article by Goto emphasizes connections between Suzuki Tadashi's development of a distinctive "post-modern" (post-shingeki) theatrical vision and form of training with traditional Japanese theater forms, especially Noh and Kabuki. READING QUESTIONS 1. What was Suzuki's original attitude towards traditional Japanese theater? Why did his attitude change? 2. According to Suzuki, what are the limitations of Kabuki, Noh, and Shingeki? How does Suzuki's theater overcome those limitations? 3. Goto argues that Suzuki borrows a variety of traditional theater techniques, listed below. To what extent do these seem like real influences? Why might Suzuki be claiming them? a. Suzuki uses two traditional compositional devices in composing his plays: honkadori (allusive variation) and sekai (historical/fantasy worlds). We've discussed honkadori in Noh (see Rhetorical Devices  on Allusion and Allusive variation) and we've discussed the use of sekai in Kabuki briefly in class (I'll go over it more). b. Dramatic structure: according to Goto why might the temporal structure of Suzuki's plays be considered "strongly traditional"? How do they differ from modern theater based on Ibsen and Stanislavsky? c. Movement and gesture: What kinds of movement kata from Noh and Kabuki does Goto discern in Suzuki's theater? How does the Suzuki training method seem reminiscent of traditional theater training methods (if at all)? How does it seem similar to, or different from Butoh training? Note that we'll see examples of the training in videos in class. d. Miscellaneous performance techniques: shomen engi (full-frontal performance style); katari (single performer's narration); murder sequences; music and dance 4. Suzuki claims that his theater reflects or comments on contemporary socio-cultural conditions, but is not "political." What do you think of this distinction? Why might Suzuki not want his theater to be called "political"? WEEK 10b a. John Brokering, "Ninagawa Yukio's Intercultural Hamlet: Parsing Japanese Iconography," Asian Theatre Journal, vol. 24, no. 2 (Fall 2007), pp. 370-97. Similar to the Goto article, Brokering analyses Ninagawa's work both in terms of its relationship to western theatrical productions (especially Shakespeare) and how he uses "traditional" Japanese theater techniques, especially from Noh and Kabuki.