Postgraduate Course: The Autonomy of Performance: Concepts and Crafts (ENLI11155)
Course Outline
| School | School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This 20 credit course will explore the intertwined development of performance practice and its critical and theoretical language over the longue duree of Western modernity. At its heart will be the discovery and elaboration of concepts and practices specific to performance during that period, and their relationships to other, simultaneous developments in Western theatre. Setting off from the implication of performance in the specifically modernist demand or claim for artistic autonomy, the course will examine various ways in which the theory and practice of theatre and its reception have sought to provide or live up to an understanding of performance as self-grounding. In doing so, the course will also examine the extent to which such an enterprise required an appropriation and exploration of its theatrical inheritance, and the delineation of an ensemble of specifically theatrical powers. |
| Course description |
The course focuses on theatre and performance in a variety of contexts. It explores the role of theatre in different societies during modern and pre-modern periods with the focus on stylistic peculiarities of major playwrights; the inter-relationship between tradition and innovation; the links between theatre and popular forms of entertainment; the generic peculiarities of different dramatic works; the politics of theatrical form, and the notion of performability of dramatic texts. It will examine several theatrical examples related to major aesthetic trends and movements (neo-Classicism; Realism; Modernism; Avant-Garde, and Postmodernism). It will evaluate different critical perspectives on theatre and its role in the formation of social/collective identities; its impact on aesthetic values and political change; and its engagement with major cultural developments in various historical periods.
The course includes these topics: Liveliness and Textuality; Theatre and Democracy; Classicism and Neo-Classicism; Theatre and Ritual; Scene analysis (Racine); The Historical Avant-Garde: Tradition and Innovation; The Politics of Theatrical Form; Brecht and Epic Theatre; Theatre and Audience; Performance and Popular Culture; Textuality and Performability (Beckett).
Reading list:
Auslander, Philip. ed. Theory for Performance Studies. Routledge, 2008.
Balme, Christopher, B. The Cambridge Introduction to Theatre Studies. Cambridge University press, 2008.
Counsell, Colin and Wolf, Laurie. eds. Performance Analysis. Routledge, 2001. Davis, Tracy C., and Postlewait, Thomas. eds., Theatricality. Cambridge University Press, 2004.
Davis, Tracy C. ed. The Cambridge Companion to Performance Studies. Cambridge University Press, 2008.
Fischer-Lichte, Erika. The Transformative Power of Performance: a New Aesthetics. Routledge, 2008.
Krasner, David. ed. Theatre in Theory 1900-2000. Blackwell, 2008.
Leach, Robert. Theatre Studies: the Basics. Routledge, 2008.
Pavis, Patrice. Shantz, Christine trans. Dictionary of the Theatre Terms, Concepts and Analysis. Univ. of Toronto Press, 1999.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Develop a knowledge and understanding of the ways in which performance and theatre have been discussed in various historical and contemporary contexts.
- Develop knowledge of dramatic and quasi-dramatic material and discourses from different historical periods and cultures, and have the chance to explore differing conceptions of the roles and perceived dangers of dramatic representation and performance in those cultural contexts.
- Students should be able to mount a substantial, sustained, and theoretically-informed argument about theatre and performance in various historical contexts.
- Students should develop a critical vocabulary for the analysis of theatrical forms and cultural phenomena.
- Students should be able to reflect critically on current practices and disputes in cultural theory and criticism related to theatre and performance.
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Reading List
i. General Course Readers:
Auslander, Philip. ed. Theory for Performance Studies. Routledge, 2008.
Balme, Christopher, B. The Cambridge Introduction to Theatre Studies. Cambridge University press, 2008.
Counsell, Colin and Wolf, Laurie. eds. Performance Analysis. Routledge, 2001. Davis, Tracy C., and Postlewait, Thomas. eds., Theatricality. Cambridge University Press, 2004.
Davis, Tracy C. ed. The Cambridge Companion to Performance Studies. Cambridge University Press, 2008.
Fischer-Lichte, Erika. The Transformative Power of Performance: a New Aesthetics. Routledge, 2008.
Krasner, David. ed. Theatre in Theory 1900-2000. Blackwell, 2008.
Leach, Robert. Theatre Studies: the Basics. Routledge, 2008.
Pavis, Patrice. Shantz, Christine trans. Dictionary of the Theatre Terms, Concepts and Analysis. Univ. of Toronto Press, 1999.
ii. Secondary Reading:
Ackerman, Alan and Puchner, Martin. Against Theatre. Palgrave/Macmillan, 2007. Barba, Eugenio and Savarese, Nicola. Dictionary of Theatre Anthropology. Routledge, 1991.
Barish, John. The Antitheatrical Prejudice. Univ. of California Press, 1981.
Barucha Rustom. Theatre and the World: Performance and the Politics of Culture. Routledge, 1993.
Beadle, Richard and Alan J. Fletcher, eds., The Cambridge Companion to Medieval English Theatre. second edition. Cambridge University Press, 2008.
Berghaus, Günter. Theatre, Performance and the Historical Avant-Garde. Plagrave.Macmillan, 2006.
Bowlt, John and Matich, Olga. eds. Laboratory of Dreams: The Russian Avant-Garde and Cultural Experiment. Stanford Univ. Press, 1996.
Bradley, Laura, Brecht and Political Theatre: ¿The Mother¿ on Stage. Oxford: Clarendon, 2006.
Bradley, Laura, Cooperation and Conflict: GDR Theatre Censorship, 1961-1989. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.
Craig, Edward Gordon. The Art of the Theatre. Heinemann, 1901.
Desnain, Véronique, Hidden Tragedies: The Social Construction of Gender in Racine. University of Bristol Press, 1998.
Farfan, Penny. Women, Modernism and Performance. Cambridge Univ. Press, 2004. Fischer-Lichte, Erika. History of European Drama and Theatre. London: Routledge, 2004.
Fortier, Mark, Theory/Theatre: An Introduction. London: Routledge, 1997.
Goodall, Jane. Stage Presence. Routledge, 2008.
Hall, Edith and Macintosh, Fiona. Greek Tragedy and the British Theatre 1600-1914. Oxford Univ. Press, 2005.
Jameson, Fredric. Brecht and Method. Verso, 1998.
Kolocotroni, Vassiliki. et.al. Modernism: An Anthology of Sources and Documents. Edinburgh Univ. Press, 1998.
Kuhn, Tom and Giles, Steve, ed. Brecht on Art and Politics. Methuen, 2003.
Lamport, Frank, German Classical Drama: Theatre, Humanity and Nation. Cambridge University Press, 1990.
Loxley, James. Performativity. Routledge, 2006.
Leach, Robert. Vsevolod Meyerhold. Cambridge University Press, 1989.
Leach, Robert. Makers of Modern Theatre. Routledge, 2004.
Milling, Jane and Ley, Graham. Modern Theories of Performance. Palgrave/Macmillan, 2001.
Parker, Andrew and Kosofsky-Sedgwick, Eve. Performativity and Performance. Routledge, 1995.
Pavis, Patrice. The Intercultural Performance Reader. Routledge, 1996.
Postlewait, Thomas, and McConachie, Bruce A., eds. Interpreting the Theatrical Past: Essays in the Historiography of Performance. University of Iowa Press, 1989.
Puchner, Martin. Poetry of the Revolution: Marx, Manifestos, and the Avant-Gardes. Princeton Univ. Press, 2005.
Sandford, Mariellen. ed. Happenings and Other Acts. Routledge, 1995.
Schechner, Richard. The Future of Ritual: Writings on Culture and Performance. Routledge, 1995.
Scolnicov, Hanna, and Holland, Peter, eds. The Play out of Context: Transferring Plays from Culture to Culture. Cambridge University Press, 1989.
Schumacher, Claude with Singleton, Brian. eds. Artaud on Theatre. Methuen, 2001. Segel, Harold B.Pinocchio¿s Progeny: Puppets, Marionettes, Automatons and Robots in Modernist and Avant-Garde Drama. The Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 1995.
Shepherd, Simon and Mick Wallis, Drama, Theatre, Performance. Routledge, 2004. Shepherd, Simon, Theatre, Body and Pleasure. Abingdon: Routledge, 2005.
Tatlow, Antony. Shakespeare, Brecht and the Intercultural Sign. Duke Univ. Press, 2001. Taxidou, Olga. Modernism and Performance: Jarry to Brecht. Palgrave/Macmillan, 2007. Walker, Greg, Plays of Persuasion: Drama and Politics at the Court of Henry VIII. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.
Walker, Greg, The Politics of Performance in Early Renaissance Drama. Cambridge University Press, 1998.
Weimann, Robert, Shakespeare and the Popular Tradition in the Theatre: Studies in the Social Dimension of Dramatic Form and Function, edited by Robert Schwartz. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1978.
Weimann, Robert, Author¿s Pen and Actor¿s Voice: Playing and Writing in Shakespeare¿s Theatre. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
Willett, John. ed. Brecht on Theatre. Methuen, 1990.
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Additional Class Delivery Information |
Contact hours includes workshops with visiting artists. |
| Keywords | TAoP,Theatre; Performance; Theatrical Form; Tradition and Innovation in Theatre; Theatre and Society |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Severine Genieys-Kirk
Tel: (0131 6)51 1734
Email: |
Course secretary | Miss Kara McCormack
Tel: (0131 6)50 3030
Email: |
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