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MUSC125

Social Movements and Performance
MUSC125 SP

Not Currently Offered

This course explores the relation of performance and politics. It includes readings and videos about music, dance, theater, and ritual, chosen from a wide variety of cultures. We will ask such questions as: Why are music, dance, theater, and ritual so often the sparks that ignite social movements? How does performance create the feelings of participation that relate people to groups? How does it relate one group to another? How does it bridge the personal and the political? Why does performance sometimes reinforce structures of hierachy and power, and why does it sometimes challenge them? To explore these questions we will look into ideas about the nature of performance drawn from anthropology, folklore, and ethnomusicology, as well as sociological theory on social movements.

MAJOR READINGS

Vaclav Havel, "The Power of the Powerless"
Honor Ford-Smith, "Sistren's Women's Theatre"
Josh Gamson, "Silence, Death, and the Invisible Enemy: AIDS
Activism and Social Movement 'Newness'"
Reebee Garafalo, ROCKIN' THE BOAT: MASS MUSIC AND MASS
MOVEMENTS
Errol Hill, THE TRINIDADIAN CARNIVAL: MANDATE FOR A NATIONAL
THEATRE
Cynthia Novak, SHARING THE DANCE
Bernice Johnson Reagon, "Let the Church Sing 'Freedom'"
Victor Turner, "Betwixt and Between: The Liminal Period in
Rites de Passage:
Arturo Escobar and Sonia Alvarez, THE MAKING OF SOCIAL
MOVEMENTS IN LATIN AMERICA

EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS

Brief response papers to selected readings; term paper and class presentation based on individual or small-group research.

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS and/or COMMENTS

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: Discussion

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

Level: UG Credit: 1.00 Gen Ed Area & Dept: HA MUSC

Prerequisites: None

Last Updated on MAR-22-1999




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