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Academic Year 2002/2003
Postmodern Performance(s)
THEA 287 FA
"Performance is the unifying mode of the postmodern."--Michael Benamou Increasingly, the idea of performance has become a central concern in a range of disciplines comprising the human and social sciences. These
disciplines
have borrowed the performance rhetoric and strategies of the theater and in turn have expanded the boundaries of what constitutes theater. This course will explore the relationship between performance and postmodernity
as
it emerges across a variety of works from theatre, video, film and performance art that will serve as case studies for integrating the theoretical and historical readings.
MAJOR READINGS
Carlson, Marvin. PERFORMANCE: A CRITICAL INTRODUCTION. New York: Routledge, 1996. Fuchs, Elinor. THE DEATH OF CHARACTER. Bloomington, Indiana UP, 1996. Harvey, David. THE CONDITION OF POSTMODERNITY. Cambridge, MA:
Blackwell, 1990. Marcus, Greil.
LIPSTICK TRACES: A SECRET HISTORY OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1989. Parker, Andrew and Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick. PERFORMATIVITY AND PERFORMANCE. New York: Routledge, 1995. Reinelt,
Janelle and Joseph Roach, eds.
CRITICAL THEORY AND PERFORMANCE. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1992. Sayre, Henry M. THE OBJECT OF PERFORMANCE: THE AMERICAN AVANT-GARDE SINCE 1970. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989. Smith,
Anna Deveare. FIRES IN THE MIRROR.
New York: Doubleday, 1983.
EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS
Six one-two page response papers. One in-class presentation on an individual artist, performance work, or movement. A 15-20 page research paper or a performance project accompanied by a critical response and/or
performance manifesto.
ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS and/or COMMENTS
This class will entail a large body of reading and an enthusiastic interest in engaging critical theory. 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:
Lecture
REGISTRATION INFORMATION
Level:
UGRD
Credit:
1
Gen Ed Area Dept:
HA THEA
Grading Mode:
Graded
Prerequisites:
NONE
Links to Web Resources For This Course.
Last Updated on MAR-18-2003
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Copyright Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459