Introductory description

n/a.

Module web page

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

Intro session 1: What is Theatre Studies?
Intro session 2: What is Performance Studies?
Gender Identities 1: The Fight for Women’s Suffrage – On Stage and On the Street
Gender Identities 2: Third and Fourth Wave Feminism in Performance: Riot Grrrl, #MeToo and Feminist Adaptation
Gender Identities 3: Performing Masculinities
Gender Identities 4: Precious - Race, Gender, Class and Body Size
Queer Interventions 1: Hidden Sexuality - Queering the Theatrical Past, from the Molly Houses to Oscar Wilde
Queer Interventions 2: An Unhappy Archive - HIV, Aids & Tragic Queer Love Stories
Queer Interventions 3: Split Britches - Lesbian Feminist Theatre
Queer Interventions 4: Performing Trans and Non-Binary Identities
Race Matters 1: Empire, Race and Nation on the Nineteenth Century Stage
Race Matters 2: Shakespeare and Race
Race Matters 3: Caste, Hindutva and Decolonization
Race Matters 4: Ethnographic Display: Guillermo Gomez Pena and Coco Fusco’s The Couple in the Cage
Class Politics 1: Wish List - Staging precarity in the neoliberal present
Class Politics 2: Staging Grenfell
Class Politics 3: Performing Migration
Class Politics 4: Performing Protest in Hong Kong

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• Demonstrate an increased awareness of the sociopolitical and historical contexts against which key events, practices or movements in theatre and performance have taken place
• Position their analyses of theatre and performance events in terms of their sociopolitical and historical contexts and significance
• Utilise their increased understanding of how wider society shapes, and is shaped by, theatre and performance to consider the significance and value of art to society
• Draw on a range of conceptual and artistic frameworks to interrogate theatre and performance
• Independently draw on relevant theories to research theatre and performance, presenting their findings using appropriate academic conventions

Indicative reading list

Bial, H. (Ed.) (2007) The Performance Studies Reader, Abingdon, Routledge.

Fisher et al. (2016) Theatre Histories: An Introduction, London, Routledge.

Mangan, M. (2013) The Drama, Theatre and Performance Companion, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan.

Reynolds, B. (2014) Performance Studies: Key Words, Concepts and Theories, Red Globe.

Schechner, R. (2013) Performance Studies: An Introduction, London, Routledge.

Shepherd, S. (2016) The Cambridge Introduction to Performance Theory, Cambridge, CUP.

Journals:

Contemporary Theatre Review, New Theatre Quarterly, Studies in Theatre and Performance, Performance Research

Research element

Interdisciplinary

International

Subject specific skills

By the end of this module, students should be able to:

• Demonstrate an increased awareness of the sociopolitical and historical contexts against which key events, practices or movements in theatre and performance have taken place
• Position their analyses of theatre and performance events in terms of their sociopolitical and historical contexts and significance
• Utilise their increased understanding of how wider society shapes, and is shaped by, theatre and performance to consider the significance and value of art to society
• Draw on a range of conceptual and artistic frameworks to interrogate theatre and performance
• Independently draw on relevant theories to research theatre and performance, presenting their findings using appropriate academic conventions

Transferable skills

• Independent writing and research skills
• Skills in developing and presenting research and information