Waiting for Godot : Let's Figure Out this weird play
In this opening unit to the third quarter, we'll delve into a tough, weird, seemingly meaningless play: Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot. In this unit, we'll do some movie-watching (of Godot and Christopher Guest's mockumentary Waiting for Guffman), view the play at Cincinnati Shakespeare Company on January 20th, and discuss the play via seminar in this class and via Bohne discussion in your religion class. You'll then write an essay about the play and the various ways in which one can interpret it.
Unit Resources:
Discussion Groups: You'll discuss your readings (from above) in groups; you should a summary of the reading with 3-5 important ideas, as well as a tangible connection between your reading and Godot.
Unit Resources:
- Godot Summary & Character List (PDF)
- Godot Script (PDF)
- Insights about Godot from the Utah Shakespeare Festival (with some lovely essays and a synopsis about the play) (PDF)
- Martin Esslin's The Theater of the Absurd (e-book link): pages 43-87 cover Godot
- Internet Movie Database (IMDB) page for Waiting for Guffman (link)
- Waiting for Godot / Guffman Essay (PDF)
- Existentialism on the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (link)
- #1: Existentialism Primer (now with Camus!) (Word) (B2: Nick Spuzzillo, JJ Harper, Austin Sanders, Luke Weber, Nick Wright; A2: TJ Peloquin, Jake Wermes)
- #2: Esslin on The Theater of the Absurd (selection from Esslin essay) (PDF) (B2: John Geyer, Griffin Mulvaney, Drew Scott, Hank Woodard; A2: Logan Cooper, Aiden Dalton, Sam Waldbillig)
- #3: Esslin on the meaning / nature of waiting and Godot (Word) (B2: Ethan Callahan, Nick Fendinger, Jacob Menke, Eric Schutter, Noah Worobetz; A2: Spencer Ballard, Jeff Shagena, Andrew Smith)
- #4: Esslin on the Christian Interpretation of Godot (Word) (B2: Jared Diesslin, Nate Fowler, Andrew Olinger, Eddy Pappalardo, Connor Peed; A2: Kevin Collins, Alex Gruber, Chase Hawkins)
- #5: Jungian Archetypes Primer (Word) (B2: Marshall Eippert, Austin Herriott, Alex Johnson, Mitch Poch, Liam Taylor; A2: Eli Proffitt, Harrison Savarese, Zane Cooper)
Discussion Groups: You'll discuss your readings (from above) in groups; you should a summary of the reading with 3-5 important ideas, as well as a tangible connection between your reading and Godot.
- A: Spuzzillo, Geyer, Callahan, Diesslin, Eippert
- B: Harper, Mulvaney, Fendinger, Fowler, Herriott
- C: Sanders, Scott, Menke, Olinger, Johnson
- D: Weber, Woodard, Schutter, Papplardo, Poch
- E: Wright, Eble, Worobetz, Peed, Taylor