Ritual, Play, Spectacle, Act:

Performing Culture

THETR 4030/6030 :: FGSS 4030/6031 :: VSST 4030

M 2:30 – 4:25

Schwartz 125

Spring 2011

http://courses.cit.cornell.edu/thetr603

Professor Sara Warner

Making Contact: slw42@cornell.edu or 254-2727

Office: Schwartz Center 429

Office hours: Wed 2-4 pm and by appointment

Course Rationale ::

An understanding of performance as object and lens, modality and method, is integral to scholarship and research across the humanities and social sciences. In this class we will examine performance as a means of creative expression, a mode of critical inquiry, and an avenue for public engagement. We will attend to both the practice of performance - gestures, behaviors, habits, events, artistic and social dramas – and the study of performance – the documentation, reproduction, analysis, and organization of these happenings. As an introduction to performance studies, this course explores the interdisciplinary history of the field, including its association with anthropology, visual studies, theater, gender studies, sociology, psychology, literature, and philosophy. To ground our study of performance’s constitutive relationship to culture, we will focus on four keywords: ritual, play, spectacle, and act. These cornerstones of performance enable us to unsettle and interrogate questions of identity, citizenship, being, and belonging, and they provide productive rubrics for thinking about embodiment, presence, agency, and activism in relation to live and mediated events. These keywords also permit us to explore some of the tensions, troubles and problematic assumptions this highly contested concept perpetuates. Thus, we will attempt to chart not only what performance “is” and “does,” but when and how, for whom, and under what circumstances.

Course Objectives ::

• To understand performance as event, theory, and method.
• To understand performance as integral to and constitutive of culture.
• To understand the major issues, methodologies, and paradigms of performance studies.

Course Policies ::

Readings :: You are required to read approximately 100 pages per week. Some weeks will be heavier than others.

Class Participation and Attendance :: This course will be based on lecture and in-class discussion of the material we read and view. Due to the broad amount of cultural and historical information covered in this seminar, it is essential that you arrive on time to class every day prepared to discuss the assigned texts. You are allowed to miss one class without penalty. Each unexcused absence after this will result in your grade being lowered by 10%.

You are welcome to bring your laptops to class, but use is restricted to course content. Do not text, FB, tweet, email, websurf, etc. during class on your computer, phone, or pda.

I respect and uphold University policies and regulations pertaining to the observation of religious holidays; assistance available to physically, visually and hearing impaired students; plagiarism; sexual harassment; and racial and ethnic discrimination. All students are advised to become familiar with these University regulations and are encouraged to bring any questions or concerns to my attention. In keeping with University policies, I am available to discuss appropriate academic accommodations that may be required for students with disabilities or special needs. Please see me during the first three weeks of the semester to discuss arrangements. In order for me to assist you, you must register with Student Disabilities Services.

Academic Integrity :: Each student is expected to abide by the Cornell University Code of Academic Integrity. Any work submitted by a student in this course for academic credit will be the students' own work. All outside assistance should be acknowledged, and the student’s academic position truthfully reported at all times. Please refer to the Code of Academic Integrity and Acknowledging the Work of Others in the Policy Notebook for the Cornell Community, or online at: http://cuinfo.cornell.edu/Academic/AIC.html

Written Work:: All written work must be typed, spell-checked and proofread. Please use MLA format. All due dates are clearly noted on the syllabus.

Assessments for Undergraduate Students ::

Performance Journals (25%) :: Due March 28 and May 4. In the spirit of performance studies’ experiments in "performing ethnography," you will keep a journal in which you document performance events. You should observe or serve as a participant observer in at least one performance per week. Sometimes I will assign a particular event. Other times, this will be a site, situation, or spectacle of your choosing. These will include: rituals, plays, spectacles, acts, sports events, political rallies, theater events, museum displays, historical reenactments, public lectures, and "everyday life" interactions. In this journal, you will record your observations and interactions, detailing the happenings in ways that engage with class conversations.

Mandatory Topics:

· Precious Little, February 16-19, 23-26

· Performance Encounters: Lisa Kron, “Trying and Failing,” February 17, 5 pm – 6:30 pm in the Film Forum (unless this conflicts with a class or rehearsal).

· Locally Grown Dance Festival, March 3-12

· Far Away, April 15-17

· Learned Ladies, April 27-30

Optional Events @ Risley (TBA)

Optional Events @ the Kitchen Theater

· Bed & Sofa by Polly Pen and Laurence Klavin, Jan 19 - Feb 6

· boom by Peter Sinn Nachtrieb, February 23 - March 13

· The Tricky Part by Marty Moran, March 23 - April 10

Optional Events @ Ithaca College

· Coram Boy, March 29-April 3

· Baby, April 19-30

Oral Presentation (10%) :: You will present a 10-15 minute presentation of one course topic that summarizes the readings and outlines key points of convergence and dissonance among the texts. You need not address every text assigned during a particular week, but you should offer a comparative analysis of at least two essays. Presentations should be brief, concise, and dynamic. The goal of this exercise is not to exhaust a topic, but to highlight the main arguments, threads, and tropes that connect the readings. Performative enhancements are encouraged. The possibilities for presentation are limited only by your imagination. You can act out a scene from a performance, show video clips, create a powerpoint presentation, lead the class in an activity, design costumes, etc. Conclude your presentation with two to three questions to spark class discussion. Presentations should include a handout.

Short Paper (25%) :: A 5 page paper is due March 7 that explores in detail one or more themes or topics discussed in class. The paper should comply with the written assignment guidelines and include a bibliography.

Research Paper (40%) :: A 15 page research paper that you develop in consultation with me is due May 16. You are expected to conduct outside research using scholarly sources. The paper should comply with the written assignment guidelines and include a bibliography. I encourage you to consult with me regarding your topic.

Graduate Students ::

Performance Journals (25%) :: Due March 28 and May 2. In the spirit of performance studies’ experiments in "performing ethnography," you will keep a journal in which you document performance events. You should observe or serve as a participant observer in at least one performance per week. Sometimes I will assign a particular event. Other times, this will be a site, situation, or spectacle of your choosing. These will include: rituals, plays, spectacles, acts, sports events, political rallies, theater events, museum displays, historical reenactments, public lectures, and "everyday life" interactions. In this journal, you will record your observations and interactions, detailing the happenings in ways that engage with class conversations.

Mandatory Topics:

· Precious Little, February 16-19, 23-26

· Performance Encounters: Lisa Kron, “Trying and Failing,” February 17, 5 pm – 6:30 pm in the Film Forum (unless this conflicts with a class or rehearsal).

· Locally Grown Dance Festival, March 3-12

· Far Away, April 15-17

· Learned Ladies, April 27-30

Optional Events @ Cornell

· Risley (TBA)

· Savion Glover, February 28, 8 pm, Bailey Hall

· Teatrotaller: Las Mujeres de Juárez, March-April 2011

Optional Events @ the Kitchen Theater

· Bed & Sofa by Polly Pen and Laurence Klavin, Jan 19 - Feb 6

· boom by Peter Sinn Nachtrieb, February 23 - March 13

· The Tricky Part by Marty Moran, March 23 - April 10

Optional Events @ Ithaca College

· Coram Boy, March 29-April 3

· Baby, April 19-30

Oral Presentation (15%) :: You will choose a week and lead class discussion for the first part of a session, approximately 20-30 minutes. Your presentation of a course topic should summarize the readings, outline key points of convergence and dissonance, and situate the material in a useful context (social, political, aesthetic, etc). Presentations should be concise and dynamic. The goal of this exercise is not to exhaust a topic, but to highlight the main arguments, threads, and tropes that connect the readings. Performative enhancements are encouraged. The possibilities for presentation are limited only by your imagination. You can act out a scene from a performance, show video clips, create a powerpoint presentation, lead the class in an activity, design costumes, etc. Conclude your presentation with two to three questions to spark class discussion. Presentations should include a handout.

Research Paper (40%) :: Approximately 25-30 pages double-spaced, the research paper, due May 16, should offer a focused perspective on course themes. Alternately, you may present an article draft or dissertation chapter that engages directly with the course content.

Syllabus Construction (20)% :: I would like you to create a graduate and/or an undergraduate Introduction to Performance Studies class for your dossier. You may construct it according to any rubric you choose. The syllabus should be as complete as possible, including a rationale, list of objectives, reading schedule, and method of assessment. This is due May 16.

Text Books :: Available at the Cornell University Bookstore

• ISBN 9780415299275 Carlson, Marvin A. Performance: A Critical Introduction. NY: Routledge, 2003.
• 9780415372466 Schechner, Richard. Performance Studies. 2^nd Edition. NY: Routledge, 2002.
• 9780415772754 Bial, Henry. The Performance Studies Reader. NY: Routledge, 2004.

Online Articles ::

• You may access online articles from the class website at: http://courses.cit.cornell.edu/thetr603
• The login is: thetr603
• The password is: (to be given out in class)

Library Aid :: A Guide to Theater Resources

Course Calendar: (O = online article; password required)

January 24 :: Setting the Stage

• Introduction: Policies, Terms, Methods

January 31 :: Unpacking Performance

• Marvin Carlson, Performance: A Critical Introduction (Preface, 1-7, 31-55)
• Richard Schechner, “What is Performance” (PS 28-51)
• Peggy Phelan, "The Ontology of Performance." Performance: Critical Concepts. Vol. II, ed. Phil Auslander. NY: Routledge, 2003. 320-335. (O)
• Guillermo Gómez-Peña, “Culturas-in-Extremis: Performing Against the Cultural Backdrop of the Mainstream Bizarre” (PSR 287-298)

February 7 :: Performance and Performance Studies I

• Richard Schechner, “What is Performance Studies?” (PS 1-27)
• Peggy Phelan, “Introduction: The Ends of Performance.” The Ends of Performance, eds. Jill Lane and Peggy Phelan. NY: NYU Press, 1998. 1-22. (O)
• Shannon Jackson, “Professing Performances: Disciplinary Genealogies” (PSR 32-42)
• Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, “Performance Studies” (PSR 43-56)
• Tracy Davis, “Introduction: the pirouette, detour, revolution, deflection, deviation, tack, and yaw of the performative turn.” The Cambridge Companion to Performance Studies, ed. Tracy Davis. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2008). 1-8. (O)
• Marvin Carlson, Performance: A Critical Introduction (83-109)

February 14 :: Performance and Performance Studies II

• Dwight Conquergood, "Performance Studies: Interventions and Radical Research" (PSR 311-322)
• Jill Dolan, “The Polemics and Potential of Theatre Studies and Performance.” Performance Studies Handbook, eds. D. Soyini Madison and Judith Hamera. Thousand Oaks, C.A.: Sage, 2005. 508-526. (O)

• John McKenzie, C.J. W.-L. Wee, and Heike Roms, “Introduction: Contesting Performance in an Age of Globalization.” Contesting Performance, eds. McKenzie, Roms, and Wee. NY: Palgrave, 2010. 1-22. (O)
• E. Patrick Johnson, “Black Performance Studies: Genealogies, Politics, Futures.” Performance Studies Handbook, eds. D. Soyini Madison and Judith Hamera. Thousand Oaks, C.A.: Sage, 2005. 446-463. (O)
• Marvin Carlson, Performance: A Critical Introduction (137-156)

• Lisa Kron is here Feb 17 at 5 pm in the Film Forum to deliver a performance/lecture entitled “Trying and Failing.”

February 21 :: Cultural Artifacts: Performance Histories, Archives & Repertoires

• Joe Roach, “History Memory Necrophilia.” The Ends of Performance, eds. Jill Lane and Peggy Phelan. NY: NYU Press, 1998. 23-30. (O)
• Diana Taylor, “Remapping Genre through Performance: From “American” to “Hemispheric” Studies.” PMLA, Volume 122, Number 5 (October 2007): 1416–1430. (O)
• W.B. Worthen, “Antigone’s Bones.” TDR: The Drama Review Volume 52, Number 3 (Fall 2008): 10-33. (O)
• Ann Cvetkovich, “Drawing the Archive in Alison Bechdel's Fun Home.” Women's Studies Quarterly, 36.1 (March 2008): 111-128. (O)

February 28 :: Rituals: Repetition, Rehearsal, and Restored Behavior

• Marvin Carlson, Performance: A Critical Introduction (11-30)
• Richard Schechner, “Ritual” (PS 52-88)
• Jon McKenzie, “The Liminal-Norm” (PSR 26-31)
• Catherine Bell, “’Performance’ and Other Analogies” (PSR 88-86)
• Homi Bhabha, “Of Mimicry and Man” (279-286)

March 7 :: Ethnography and Oral History: Recording and Recasting the Real

• Dwight Conquergood, “Rethinking Ethnography: Towards a Critical Cultural Politics” Sage Handbook of Performance Studies (Sage: 2006), 351-365. (O)
• Victor Turner with Edie Turner, “Performing Ethnography” (PS, 323-336).
• Della Pollock, “Moving Histories: Performance and Oral History.” The Cambridge Companion to Performance Studies, ed. Tracy Davis. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2008). 120-135. (O)
• E. Patrick Johnson, Introduction to Sweet Tea: Gay Black Men from the South – An Oral History. Durham: Duke UP, 2008. 1-23 (O)
• Short Paper Due (ugrad)

March 14 :: Playing and Role Playing

• Richard Schechner, “Play” (PS 89-122)
• Erving Goffman, “Performances: Belief in the Part one is Playing” (PSR 61-65)
• Johan Huizinga, “The Nature and Significance of Play as a Cultural Phenomenon” (PSR 137-140)
• Gregory Bateson, “A Theory of Play and Fantasy” (PSR 141-151)
• Brian Sutton-Smith, “The Ambiguity of Play: Rhetorics of Fate” (PSR 152-158)
• Allan Kaprow, “Just Doing” (PSR 159-163)
• Robin Bernstein, “Dances with Things: Material Culture and the Performance of Race.” Social Text 27 (2009): 67-94. (O)

March 21 – No Class/Spring Break

March 28 :: Spectacle: Celebrity, Stardom, and Fame

• Joe Roach, “Celebrity Erotics: Pepys, Performance, and Painted Ladies.” The Yale Journal of Criticism Volume 16, Number 1 (Spring 2003): 211-230. (O)
• Erin Hurley, “National Affection: Céline Dion.” National Performance: Representing Quebec from Expo 67 to Céline Dion. Toronto: U Toronto Press, 2011. 142-169. (O)
• Marvin Carlson, Performance: A Critical Introduction (110-134, 157-178)
• Performance Journals due (ugrad and grad)

April 4 :: Spectacles and Counter-spectacles of Terrorism

• Guy Debord, “Separation Perfected” from The Society of the Spectacle (O)
• Martin Puchner, “Society of the Counter-Spectacle: Debord and the Theatre of the Situationists.” Theatre Research International 29 (2004): 4-15. (O)
• Jean Baudrillard, “L'esprit du Terrorisme.” South Atlantic Quarterly 101. 2 (2002): 403-415. (O)
• Rebecca Schneider, “Never Again.” Performance Studies Handbook, eds. D. Soyini Madison and Judith Hamera. Thousand Oaks, C.A.: Sage, 2005. 21-32. (O)
• Jabir K. Puar and Amit S. Rai, “Monster, Terrorist, Fag: The War on Terrorism and the Production of Docile Patriots.” Social Text 20 (2002): 117-148. (O)

April 11 :: Speech Acts and Other Performatives

• Marvin Carlson, “The Performance of Language” (56-80)
• J.L. Austin, “How to Do Things With Words: Lecture II” (PSR 177-183)
• Judith Butler, "Performative Acts and Gender Constitution" (PSR 187-199)
• Andrew Parker and Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Intro to Performativity and Performance (PSR 200-207)
• Richard Schechner, “Performativity” (PS 123-168)

April 18 :: No Clas

April 25 :: Acting Out: Resistance, Rupture, and Refusal

• Lee Baxandall, “Spectacles and Scenarios: A Dramaturgy of Radical Protest” (O)
• Baz Kershaw, “Fighting in the Streets: Dramaturgies of Popular Protest.” Performance: Critical Concepts. Vol. III. Ed. Phil Auslander (NY: Routledge, 2003): 266-292. (O)
• Ngûgî wa Thiong’o, “Enactments of Power: The Politics of Performance Space.” The Drama Review 41, 3 (Fall 1997): 11-30. (O)
• Fred Moten, “Resistance of the Object: Adrian Piper’s Theatricality.” In the Break: The Aesthetics of the Black Radical Tradition. Minneapolis: U Minnesota, 2003. 233-254. (O)
• Marvin Carlson, “Resistant Performance” (179-204, 205-216)

May 2 :: Performing, Reforming, and Re-enacting

• Brecht, “A Dialogue about Acting” (PSR 219-222)
• Grotowski, “The Actor’s Technique” (PSR 223-228)
• Stasberg, “A Dream of Passion” (PSR 229-230)
• Harding, “Presenting and Representing the Self” (PSR 231-248)
• Blair, “Reconsidering Stanislavski” (PSR 249-261)
• Rebecca Schneider, Art and War in Times of Theatrical Reenactment. NY: Routledge, 2011. (O)
• Performance Journals Due

May 16 :: Final Papers Due in my mailbox by 12 pm. Syllabi due (grad students only)