Advanced Topics in Performance Studies: Imagining Anticolonial Performance Practices
THEA 316
Fall 2021 not offered
|
| Course Cluster and Certificates: Social, Cultural, and Critical Theory Certificate, Queer Studies, Sustainability and Environmental Justice |
What is the relationship between decolonization and performance? How might we think of performance as a critical and creative resource for the anti-normalization of settler logics and practices, including the private ownership of land and extraction of natural resources for profit? In this course we will approach these questions through the lens of performance studies (an interdisciplinary field focused on the live event and in conversation with anthropology, theater studies, linguistics, critical race studies, psychoanalysis, and queer theory). Grounded in Indigenous studies, this class will use "performance" as both a practice and a lens. We will explore questions including: "What do land, sovereignty, sustainability, and subsistence-based practices have to do with performance?" "What is the colonial history of dominant performance cultures?" "Can, or should, we separate performance from the political in our understanding of theater and performance as merely an aesthetic practice?" With a specific attention to Native North American epistemologies and practices, we will study contemporary Indigenous art and theories in order to imagine performance's potential ability to work toward the disobedience and anti-normalization of settler colonial logics and laws. Student projects will take the shape of semester-long critical research papers. We will read theoretical works by Patrick Wolfe, Sandra Ruiz, Eve Tuck, J. Kehaulani Kauanui, Linda Tuhiwai Smith, Jolene Rickard, Jodi Byrd, and Stephanie Nohelani Teves and engage artistic works by Nicholas Galanin, Jeffery Gibson, James Luna, Vick Quezada, Emily Johnson, AKU MATU, Muriel Miguel, S.J. Norman, Joseph Pierce, and many others. |
|
| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
HA THEA |
| Course Format: Seminar | Grading Mode: |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
|
Fulfills a Requirement for: (CSCT)(STS)(THEA) |
Major Readings:
"Postdramatic Theater", Hans-Thies Lehmann
"The Transformative Power of Performance: A New Aesthetics", Erika Fisher-Lichte
Course reader (online)
|
Examinations and Assignments:
Students will work on individual research papers (15-20 pages) throughout the semester. Research topics are due by the end of the first month of classes; a polished draft of the paper (7-10 pages) will serve as the mid-term; additionally, students will give an oral presentation of their research during the final week of classes. Shorter oral presentations are due throughout the course. Possible topics are (but not limited to): acting/ritualizing; modes of presence; embodiment; dance in the context of performance studies; the visual arts and performance; ritual practices in experimental performance; new rituals; ritual and diasporas; urban United States, tradition, and cultural rites; public performance as social ritual; music in ritual and performance; spectatorship in ritual, theatre, and ritual theatre; embodiment in ritual and performance; comparative analysis of different rituals/ritualized practices. |
Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
The course combines lecture and seminar formats. Students will engage in independent research. Students are invited to bring additional readings on their research projects to class discussions. Recommended for students with a background in the performing and visual arts or religious/ritual studies. Please contact the instructor via e-mail if you have questions.
This course fulfills the Religion Department "Thematic Approaches" major requirement. |
| Drop/Add Enrollment Requests | | | | | |
| Total Submitted Requests: 0 | 1st Ranked: 0 | 2nd Ranked: 0 | 3rd Ranked: 0 | 4th Ranked: 0 | Unranked: 0 |
|
|