Studies in Drama: Stoppard and Company
This MIT literature seminar uses the plays of Tom Stoppard as a springboard into math, philosophy, politics, history, and art. Readings include Stoppard works alongside contemporaries such as Caryl Churchill, Anna Deavere Smith, and Howard Barker, with students tracing influences back to sources like Lord Byron's poetry, Dadaism, and Czechoslovakia's Charter 77. Discussion sessions examine how Fermat's theorem, the bridges of Konigsberg, and chaos theory turn up as material for stage comedy, and how postmodern theory applies to dramatic form. Seminar participants take turns researching background topics and presenting findings to the group, connecting each play to the culture it depicts and the audience it addresses in performance. The course, from MIT OpenCourseWare, provides a syllabus, reading list, and assignment structure for independent study, though it carries no certificate.