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THEA287
Postmodern Performance(s)
THEA287 FA
Not Currently Offered
"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 which will serve as case studies for interrogating 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: Discussion Lecture Seminar
REGISTRATION INFORMATION
Level: UG Credit: 1.00
Gen Ed Area & Dept: HA THEA
Prerequisites:
None
Last Updated on MAR-22-1999
Contact wesmaps@wesleyan.edu to
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Copyright Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459