Introductory description

What are the links between theatre and colonialism? How have theatrical ways of seeing, knowing, and performing shaped colonialism and how has performance been imbricated in colonial logics ? Concurrently, how has theatre and performance resisted imperialist expansionism? This module explores these questions while avoiding any claims to providing a comprehensive survey of theatre and colonialism. It invites students to analyse the relationship between theatre, performance and colonialism in diverse political, economic and socio-cultural forms through specific case studies from the eighteenth to the twenty-first centuries—Shakespeare and the British Raj, neoliberalization and Disney, development and applied theatre, the modern university and decolonization. Activities in class will take a number of formats. Through seminar discussions, lectures, workshops, play readings, and performance analyses, the module will introduce students to a range of research topics, critical concepts, and socio-political debates stemming from diverse geographic contexts.

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.

Part 1: Colonial History, Theatre and Performance
Week 1 The British Empire, Shakespeare and Victorian Theatre.
Week 2 – Parsi Theatre
Week 3 – Slavery, African Decolonization and Fanon.
Week 4 – Edward Said, Kanafani and the issue of Palestine
Week 5 – Postcolonialism and postcolonial theatre
Week 6 – Reading Week
Part 2: Neocolonialism, Theatre and Performance
Week 7 – Exhibitions, Tourism and Performance
Week 8 – The Politics of Development and Applied Theatre
Week 9 – Disney and Urban Development
Week 10 – Decolonising Theatre and Performance Studies.

Learning outcomes

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

• Evaluate the multidirectional impact between theatre and performance and colonialism from historical, geopolitical, and affective perspectives.
• Demonstrate an understanding of postcolonial theory and decolonial methodologies as well as their practical applicability to social and cultural problems.
• Analyse how theatre makers have reinforced, intervened in, and subverted colonialist modes of knowledge production.
• Develop communication and analytical skills that will enable them to critically interrogate their own and others practice.

Indicative reading list

• Gainor, J. Ellen (1995) Imperialism and Theatre, Routledge.
• Poore, Benjamin (2016) Theatre and Empire, Bloomsbury.
• Leichman, Jeffrey M.; Bénac-Giroux, Karine (2021) Colonialism and Slavery in Performance: Theatre and the Eighteenth-century French Caribbean, Liverpool University Press
• Viswanathan, Gauri (2014) Masks of Conquest: Literary Study and British Rule in India, Columbia: Columbia University Press.
• Bratton, J. S.; Cave, Richard; Gregory, Brendan; Pickering, Michael (2021), Acts of Supremacy: The British Empire and the Stage, 1790-1930, Manchester University Press.
• Fanon, Frantz (2020) The Plays From Alienation and Freedom, Bloomsbury.
• Said, Edward (1993) Culture and Imperialism, New York: Knopf.
• Gilbert, Helen; Tompkins, Joanne (1996) Post-Colonial Drama: Theory, Practice, Politics, Routledge.
• Kanafani, Ghassan (1969) Returning to Haifa, adapted by Ismail Khalidi and Naomi Wallace, Faber.
• Roy, Arundhati (2006) An Ordinary Person’s Guide to Empire, Penguin Books Limited.
• Prentki, Tim (2015) Applied Theatre: Development, Bloomsbury.
• Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Barbara (1998) Destination Culture: Tourism, Museums, and Heritage, University of California Press.
• Wickstrom, Maurya (2006) Performing Consumers: Global Capital and Its Theatrical Seductions, Routledge.
• Werry, Margaret (2023) Theatre and Tourism, Bloomsbury.
• Bhambra, Gurminder K.; Gebrial, Dalia; Nişancıoğlu, Kerem (2018) Decolonizing the University, Pluto Press.
• Bala, Sruti (2017) ‘Decolonising Theatre and Performance Studies’, Tijdschrift voor Genderstudies, Volume 20, Issue 3, p. 333 – 345.

Research element

Each week students will need to understand the context in which canonical concepts and theories, performances and written plays, were produced. As part of the module, students will need to conduct independent research related to the concepts and methods being discussed.

Interdisciplinary

The module engages with issues that are comprehensively covered in fields such as comparative literature, cultural studies, modern history and tourism studies.

International

This module considers concepts and case studies from the Indian subcontinent, the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Algeria and the US.

Subject specific skills

• Identify colonialism as a social category and historical formation that shapes frameworks and systems of the present comprising theatre and performance.
• Develop a critical understanding of the mutual impact between theatre and colonialism.
• Gain knowledge of key debates and ideas in the study of colonialism in relation to theatre and performance.
• Apply canonical theories and modes of analysis acquired from the module to consider theatre and performance in relation to power.

Transferable skills

• research skills • critical thinking • problem solving • analytical skills • reflective practice • cross-cultural understanding