ENGL313 - Enabling Performances: Ritual, Culture, and the Fashioning of the Self

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Academic Year 2000/2001

Enabling Performances: Ritual, Culture, and the Fashioning of the Self
ENGL 313 SP

Crosslistings:
CHUM 313

In modern culture, "performing a role" is the opposite of "being oneself," yet that very opposition suggests that performance paradoxically defines the self by exploring the boundaries between what we understand as "authentic experience" and what we "merely perform." In this course we will examine how the idea of performance functions within cultures to enable particular conceptions of the self and its relation to the social. We will begin by looking at premodern modes of performance, such as litur gy, oath-taking, and royal ceremonies. Such perfomances are meant to effect change in the performers as well as the audience by transferring power to a king or forming an alliance; they will thus allow us to consider the conceptions of self that ritual m akes available. We will then follow the fortunes of these ritual institutions during the transition to modernity to see how drama evolves from liturgical ritual not merely as a literary genre, but as a cultural institution that represents and mediates changing understandings of the individual. Finally, we will compare these ideas of performance to contemporary examples of postmodern drama and performance art to theorize how these practices function in our culture.

MAJOR READINGS

Readings on liturgy and ritual
Selected CANTERBURY TALES (in translation)
Medieval drama in translation (THE SECOND SHEPARD'S PLAY, THE YORK CRUCIFICTION)
THE BOOK OF MARGERY KEMPE
Renaissance drama by Shakespeare and Marlowe
Excerpts from Sidney's ASTROPHIL AND STELLA
Stoppard, ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD
Pirandello, SIX CHARACTERS IN SEARCH OF AN AUTHOR
Performance art and writings by Guillermo Gomez-Pena and Coco Fusco

EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS

Several short papers (5pp.), a class presentation, and one longer paper (8-10 pp.)

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS and/or COMMENTS

This course satisfies the English Department's pre-1800 requirement.

Unless preregistered students attend the first class meeting or communicate directly with the instructor prior to the first class, they will be dropped from the class list. NOTE: Students must still submit a completed Drop/Add form to the Registrar's Office.

COURSE FORMAT: Seminar

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

Level: UGRD Credit: 1 Gen Ed Area Dept: HA ENGL Grading Mode: Graded

Prerequisites: NONE

SECTION 01

Instructor(s): Zieman,Katherine G.

Times: .M.W... 02:40PM-04:00PM; Location: CRT271

Reserved Seats: (Total Limit: 19)

SR. major: 5 Jr. major: 4

SR. non-major: 5 Jr. non-major: 5 SO: FR:

Special Attributes:

Curricular Renewal: Writing

Links to Web Resources For This Course.

Last Updated on MAR-26-2001