Postgraduate Course: The Autonomy of Performance: Tradition and Innovation (CLLC11188)
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 is team-taught through 10 x 2-hour seminars. It serves as the semester 1 core course for the MSc in Theatre & Performance, and it is also available as an option course to students on other MSc programmes. It may be particularly suitable as an option for students on the MSc in Comparative Literature and the MSc in Literature & Modernity. |
| 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 (such as Neo-Classicism; Baroque art; 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; Theatre and Poetry; Theatre and Music, The Historical Avant-¬Garde: Tradition and Innovation; The Politics of Theatrical Form; Theatre and Audience; Performance and Popular Culture, Textuality and Performability. Not all topics may be covered each year.
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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
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. University of Toronto Press, 1999.
Taxidou, Olga. ¿Text and Performance¿, in Cavanagh, Dermot et al (eds.), The Edinburgh Introduction to studying English literature. Edinburgh University Press, 2010. 171-179.
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr David Overend
Tel:
Email: david.overend@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Miss Kara McCormack
Tel: (0131 6)50 3030
Email: Kara.McCormack@ed.ac.uk |
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