DHUM 25A26 - Introduction to Performance Studies: Performing Public Space
This course introduces students to performance studies and provides them with the analytical and methodological tools necessary for research on the ways various performance practices constitute public spaces. Students will be introduced to the concept of performance, including artistic performances (theatre, dance, music, film...) and civic performances (self-presentations, daily interactions, rituals, speech acts, protests, social movements...), and the concept of public space, including a smooth public space (a space of freedom, harmony, consensus) and a striated public space (a space of confrontation, disharmony, dissensus). The students will be invited to study how different performances are constructed, how they constitute public spaces, and, consequently, how they produce social, political and cultural effects. In providing insight into various performance practices, performance theory, political theory, and art studies, this course will appeal to students who are interested in developing the theoretical tools necessary for the study of the significance of performance practices in shaping public actions, discourses, and representations. The course looks into, but is not limited to, everyday life performances, the performativity of politics, leadership, and grassroot protests, as well as the performing arts, such as theatre, dance, and music. Through a combination of close reading of texts, lectures, discussions, video and slide projections and assignments, the students will analyse selected performances both in group and individually. Reflective discussions about selected texts and performances are designed to maximize student input and participation. Equipped with analytical skills, students will learn to assess how performances can challenge and reshape public spaces.
Goran PETROVIC
Séminaire
English
Spring 2022-2023
1. Class attendance and participation in class discussion: 10%
2. Assigned group presentation (20 min max): 30%
2. Assigned debate (3 questions max): 10%
3. Final paper (5 pages max): 50%
Richard Schechner, Performance Studies (London & New York: Routledge, 2013), 1-27.
John R. Parkinson, Democracy and Public Space. The Physical Sites of Democratic Performance (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2012), 49-70.
Shirin Rai, Ceremony and Ritual in Parliament, in The Grammar of Politics and Performance, edited by Janelle Reinelt and Shirin Rai (London: Routledge, 2014), 148-161.
Alina Mozolevska, Performing the People: Discourses and Performances of Pablo Iglesias and Volodymyr Zelensky, in Petrović Lotina, Goran & Théo Aiolfi (eds.), Performing Left Populism (London: Bloomsbury, 2023).
Oliver Marchart, Dancing Politics. Political Reflections on Choreography, Dance and Protest, in Gerarld Siegmund and Stefan Holscher (eds.), Dance, Politics and Co-Immunity (Zurich, Berlin: Diaphanes 2013), 39-57.