Literature Teaching Sequence 9:  Drama (Lysistrata)
 

Aristophanes' Lysistrata

Monday
Assignment:  Students should read Lysistrata in full by the time of our first class meeting (note that it is a relatively short, 3-act play).

At the beginning of class, I will distribute a brief handout (see attachment) listing the topic for our collaborative learning exercise, along with a list of assigned discussion groups.  Before breaking into groups, however, students will free write for five minutes on the effect of the play's humor upon what they perceive to be its political import.  (Student will have studied two short, overtly political plays, Lady Gregory's The Rising of the Moon and Yeats' Cathleen Ni Houlihan -- the previous week).  Students will then move into their assigned groups, elect a group reporter, and discuss their responses to the question for approximately 20 minutes, making sure to refer to specific passages in the play in arguing their claims.  During the remaining 25 minutes, we will reconvene as a class and students will share the results of their discussions.  This activity is designed to encourage students to evaluate two aspects of the play;  its effectiveness as cultural commentary/political intervention (particularly when compared to the more intensely focused political content of the two pre Easter 1916 Rising Irish plays) and, perhaps more difficult for students to account for without writing it off as gratuitous, the nature of its humor.  During the last portion of class, I will take the opportunity offered by the latter subject to help students arrive at a working definition of Old Comedy.

Wednesday
Assignment:  Review Lysistrata, paying particular attention to what you feel is the play's stance on gender relations.

Our Daedalus exercise will consist of two parts:  a Respond sequence followed by an Interchange session.  Each half of the class will enter one of two Respond Sequences; one will ask students to argue the claim that Lysistrata is a feminist play, first by supplying evidence to support that claim (by pointing to at least two specific moments in the play), and then by explaining their definition of "feminist" that links the data to the claim.  The other group will follow an identical procedure to argue that Lysistrata is an anti-feminist play.  The goal of this respond sequence is to focus student attention on the function of the warrant in the claim/data/warrant model; often students seem to think that the warrant component of a paragraph is simply a restating of the obvious, when in fact it is the most contestable and nuanced portion of an argument.  In the second part of the workshop, students will move into assigned groups of four, consisting of two students each from the "feminist" and "anti-feminist" Respond Sequences, and debate the question of the play's attitude towards gender.  Hopefully, they will arrive at their own reading of the play's commentary on gender relations, while at the same time understanding the coutner-argument to their position.

Friday
Assignment:  Identify one way in which Lysistrata works to construct an idea of community.  You might consider the presentation of a particular character, a specific scene, or the formal conventions of the play.  Bring your written responses to class.

Class will begin by looking back to Wednesday's Daedalus session and recalling some of the varied definitions of "feminism" that students used to link their textual evidence to the claim assigned to them.  I will then distribute a handout on the claim/data/warrant model, and I will briefly explain its usefulness in crafting a written argument (particularly at the level of organizing paragraphs).  I will emphasize that rather than being an artificial imposition, the claim/data/warrant structure is inherent in all argumentative writing, and point out that students have already used the model successfully in the previous class.

I will then ask for volunteers to share their ideas on the role of community in Lysistrata; after each student presents his or her opinion on the topic and identifies a piece of supporting evidence, I will ask the class to provide the linking warrant.  Our discussion of community will also enable us to investigate a number of stylistic and formal issues important to understanding the play--the regionalism inherent in the differences in speech between the Athenian and Spartan characters, for example, and the function of Aristophanes' gendered choruses.

Instructions:  Take five minutes to "free write" your response to the following question:

We have recently examined two short plays with overtly political content:  Lady Gregory's The Rising of the Moon and W. B. Yeats' Cathleen Ni Houlihan.  You will recall from our previous class discussion that both Yeats and Lady Gregory viewed their plays as cultural interventions in the movement for Irish independence.  (Yeats would later wonder in his poem "Man and the Echo," "Did that play of mine send out/Cetain men the English shot?)

Despite difference of historical period, formal conventions, and genre, Lysistrata--like The Rising of the Moon and Cathleen Ni Houlihan --is an insistently political play.  What is the play's political message?  Do you think Lysistrata could function as a political intervention?  How does the humor of the play affect its political import?

Once you have finished writing, please break into discussion groups listed below.  Each group should elect one member to record the views expressed uring the discussion, including both the consensus of the group and any significant dissent.  Responses should include specific textual evidence to support the group's /member's claims.  After about 20 minutes, we will reconvene as a class and share the results of our work.

(Groups to be determined).