Final Analysis
Directions: These questions test you on the application of Aristotle’s “Poetics,” the six elements of tragic drama, and the form of the play, as well as the application of textual analysis, from the use of context in reading a text, to Marxist analysis, and gender analysis. Application will be on the full-length play, “Walang Kukurap” by Layeta Bucoy.
- Discuss the play plot based on Aristotle’s definition of a successful plot to be one that is whole, has magnitude, and is complex. In the complex plot, we are also told that there should be a change of fortune through reversal, recognition, or both. This change of fortune should also happen through some frailty. Does “Walang Kukurap” succeed in terms of plot, given these requirements of Aristotle? (300 to 500 words, 20 points)
- Aristotle asserts that well-constructed plot must be a single-issue plot. What do you think is the single issue that “Walang Kukurap” discusses, and do you think it succeeds at discussing this issue with you as a spectator? (100 to 200 words, 10 points)
- The characters in the play are divided according to family and social class. Do you think the thought and diction (dialogue, actions) of these characters fit the particular social class they belong to in this particular world that the play creates? Yes or no, explain your answers. (300 to 500 words, 20 points)
- Heavily contextualized as this play is in the Philippines, do you think a spectator or reader from a different context would understand a play like this? Let’s say language was not an issue, what aspects of the text do you think would resonate with audiences/readers from a different political/national context? (100 to 200 words, 10 points)
- Look at the women in this play in relation to (a) the roles they play in the community, and (b) the roles they play in the family. Do you think these portrayals are empowering? Without falling back on issues of morality, look at what the women in this text have in common, what kind of power they hold, and what they do with that power. (300 to 500 words, 20 points.)
- The divides among social classes is very clear in the telling of the play, but look at how these divides actually overlap with each other. What is the text saying about social class difference and inequality, in terms of who is oppressor and who is oppressed, who “wins” and who “loses”? Does it redefine these terms in the narrative? How? (300 to 500 words, 20 points.)
BONUS Question: Where does the text place you as reader/spectator in this hierarchy, whether in terms of social class and / or gender? How does it imagine a spectator like yourself might transform that act of viewing into action? (100 words, 5 points)
BONUS Requirement: Create a poster for “Walang Kukurap” that to you would capture what you think the play is essentially about, which captures the audience’s attention, but doesn’t give all of it away. (10 points)
DEADLINE: August 14 2021, 12NN. Upload (instead) to Google Drive folder FINAL ANALYSIS.
