H42.2617 / Fall 1997 / Mondays 4-7, Room 636,
Sections: Tuesdays, 4-5:30, 5:30-7
Department of Performance Studies
New York University
The course
is organized around
four events through which we will explore various understandings
of performance, performativity, and performance studies. We will
pay close attention to events that we actually experience. We
will extrapolate issues from them, read theory through them, and
explore methods for documenting, analyzing, interpreting, and
writing about them. Readings will contextualize the performances
we experience as well as offer models for how they might be
studied.
Readings
for the course are
available at the NYU Book Center, on reserve in Bobst Library,
and may be found in the Performance Studies Archive. Where
possible, the full text of selected readings will be available
online.
This web site will be updated during the semester. See Electronic Access for additional features
and resources, including our newsgroup,
announcements and guidelines, bibliographies, electronic texts,
and links to other sites.
Electronic communication
is an
essential tool. Take advantage of workshops offered by the
Academic Computing Facility (Warren Weaver Hall, Room 201, corner
W 4th St. and Mercer) 998-3333. These workshops will introduce
you to the many features of your email account.
There will also be a workshop at Bobst Library (Avery Fisher
Center, 2nd floor, East Room) on September 19 during our regular
class time. All students are expected to participate in online
discussion through the class newsgroup nyu.tsoa.ps.issues_methods
. Those so inclined are encouraged to write components of
the home page for the course.
Be sure to take advantage of:
UnCover Reveal will
deliver tables of contents of journals (you specify which ones)
to your email box. Using Netscape and your NYU account, sign up
as a New User and create a Profile.
Muse offers online access
to the full text of recent issues of Performing Arts Journal,
Theatre Journal, Theatre Topics, Diacritics, and Postmodern
Culture, among others.
We strongly recommend that you use a program such as EndNote
or Pro-Cite to manage and format bibliographic information, as
well as notes that you take on the readings.
Assignments
for the course
include close reading of texts, careful observation of live
performance, and a series of writing exercises. The final grade
will be based on a portfolio of all written work produced for the
course and participation in class discussion.
Everyone is strongly encouraged to take advantage of The
Writing Center (269 Mercer Street, Room 230), where individual
tutorials can be arranged without charge. Call 998-8866.
Attendance at all Monday sessions, one of the two discussion
sections, and assigned performances is mandatory. If for any
reason you cannot attend a session, please notify us in advance,
find out what you missed, and arrange to make up the work.
Unit I: "INTRODUCTION"
Unit II: "OBJECT PERFORMANCE"
Unit III: TOTAL PERFORMANCE
Unit IV: DIASPORIC PERFORMANCE
CONCLUSION
PART I: INTRODUCTION
1. 9/8 WHAT IS PERFORMANCE?
READ:
Williams, "Introduction," "Culture," Keywords, pp. 11-26, 87-93.
Schechner,"Introduction." Draft for
textbook on Performance Studies under contract with Routledge.
RECOMMENDED:
Schechner, "Points of Contact" and "Performers and Spectators,
Transported and Transformed," Between Theater and Anthropology.
Dening, "Theatricality and the Paradoxes of Acting,"
Performances.
Hibbits, "Coming to Our
Senses: Communication and Legal Expression in Performance
Cultures,"
ASSIGNMENT:
Collect the various ways in which the word "performance" is used
in daily life, including conversation and the media (sports, arts
and leisure, business, travel, technology, etc.). Write a one-
page keyword entry for "performance," based on the materials you
have gathered. Bring 2 copies to class.
Watch the television coverage of the Princess Di's funeral.
Tapes are available in the Performance Studies Archive. The
coverage is 4 hours long--be sure to watch at least the last
fifteen minutes of the first tape (end of the procession to the
cathedral) and the first hour of the second tape (the funeral
itself). We will use this event as the performance anchor for
this unit.
========
2. 9/15 WHAT IS PERFORMANCE
STUDIES?
READ:
Schechner, "What is 'Performance Studies'
Anyway?" Draft for textbook on Performance Studies under
contract with Routledge.
Pelias and VanOosting, "A Paradigm for Performance Studies,"
Quarterly Journal of Speech 73,2 (1987): 219-231.
RECOMMENDED:
Carlson, Performance: A Critical Introduction.
Lentricchia and McLaughlin, Critical Terms for Literary Study.
The Johns Hopkins
Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism
Performance Writing
ASSIGNMENT:
Write a 2-3 page response to one or more of the readings for the
first two weeks.
==========
3. 9/22 RESEARCH METHODS I:
ELECTRONIC WORKSHOP
Meeting: Bobst, Avery Fisher Media Center, East Room
READ:
The
Electronic Disturbance, Critical Art Ensemble (1994).
RECOMMENDED:
Jon McKenzie, All Performance Is Electronic: Feedback
Requested
UnCover Reveal will
deliver tables of contents of journals (you specify which ones)
to your email box. Using Netscape and your NYU account, sign up
as a New User and create a Profile.
Muse offers online access to
the full text of recent issues of Performing Arts Journal,
Theatre Journal, Theatre Topics, Diacritics, and Postmodern
Culture, among others.
Women and Performance
Issue 17: Sexuality and Cyberspace, Introduction by Terri
M. Senft and "Femme Manifesto."
Public Space/Culture
Wars
StudioLab
ASSIGNMENT:
Post a response (2 paragraphs) to the reading on the class
newsgroup: nyu.tsoa.ps.issues_methods
and participate in the discussion that ensues.
Do an electronic search for books, articles, media, and archival
material (if appropriate) for the research paper you will write
for another course. Use at least two of the following: RLIN
(mail the results to yourself), CarlUncover (for articles), CD-
ROMS in Bobst (MLA, newspapers, dissertations, etc.), and web
searches. Post queries and tips to the class newsgroup. Bring
the results to class.
4. 9/29 RESEARCH METHODS II:
DOCUMENTATION
READ
Barz et al., Shadows in the Field:
Kisliuk, "(Un)Doing Fieldwork," pp. 23-44.
Barz, "Confronting the Field(Note) In and Out of the Field,"
pp. 45-62.
Roach, "History, Memory, and Performance," Cities of the Dead,
pp. 2-31.
Phelan, "The Ontology of Performance," Unmarked, pp. 146-166.
RECOMMENDED
Phelan, "This Book's Body," Mourning Sex, pp. 1-22.
Geertz, "Thick Description," in The Interpretation of Culture.
Jackson, Fieldwork
ASSIGNMENT
Write a documentation (3 pages) of a segment/aspect of the
funeral of Princess Diana. Videotapes are on reserve in the
Performance Studies Archive--be sure to view at least the last 20
minutes of tape 1 and the first hour of tape 2. Develop a
strategy for documentation that takes into account issues raised
in the readings.
UNIT II: OBJECT PERFORMANCE
This unit will be built around a toy theater workshop
conducted for the class by John Bell and Mark Sussman of the
Great Small Works and Stephen Kaplan, Performance Studies alumnus,
puppetry scholar, and expert builder. We will be
theorizing performance and performing theory through
readings, discussion, video documentation of object
performance, building and performing toy theatres, and a
short writing assignment that integrates these elements.
=========
5. 10/6 DEAD OR ALIVE
VIEW: Videotapes are on reserve in the PS Archive.
Please reserve time to use our VCR to view Evidence of
Floods (Janie Geiser) and Terror As Usual (Great Small
Works). Other interesting material (Paul Zaloom, Jan
Schwankmeier, Stuart Sherman, Fernand Leger's Ballet
Mechanique, etc.) is available for viewing, thanks to the
generosity of John Bell and Mark Sussman. These
performances will give you some idea of the kind of toy
theater we will be building and performing over the next two
weeks.
READ:
Bell, "Puppets and Performing Objects in the Twentieth
Century," Performing Arts Journal 56 (1997): 29-46.
Kleist, "On the Marionette Theatre," TDR T55 (1972), 22-26.
Craig, "The Actor and the Uebermarionette," in On the Art of the
Theatre, 54-94.
Schlemmer et al, "Man and the Art Figure" and "Theater (Buehne),"
in The Theatre of the Bauhaus, 17-46, 81-101.
Bring the readings to class. Please mark one (or more)
passages in each reading that offers a concept useful to our
discussions of performance as a keyword? How do the
passages you have selected historicize the term performance,
whether or not this term is actually used? Identify other
keywords and the "cluster" they form? Try to link the terms
and concepts to the artistic practices envisioned by the
authors.
To contextualize the readings, look up names and keywords in
The Johns
Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism and Critical Terms
for Art History.
RECOMMENDED:
de Man, "Aesthetic Formalization: Kleist's "Ueber das
Marionettentheater," The Rhetoric of Romanticism.
Breton, "Surrealist Situation of the Object: Situation of the
Surrealist Object," in Manifestos of Surrealism (1969).
Leger, "The Spectacle: Light, Color, Moving Image, Object-
Spectacle," in Functions of Painting (1973), pp. 35-47.
Tillis,
"The Actor Occluded: Puppet Theatre and Acting Theory 1,"
Theatre Topics 6, 2 (1996): 109-119. A critique of Craig.
==========
6. 10/13 Toy Theater Workshop
NO required reading this week. Work on the toy theaters and
get started on the readings for the following week.
RECOMMENDED
Bell, "The
Sioux War Panorama and American Mythic History".
Shershow, Puppets and Popular Culture (1995).
Baldwin, Toy Theatres of the World (1992).
Speaight, The History of the English Toy Theatre (1969).
Becker, "Text-Building, Epistemology, and Aesthetics in Javanese
Shadow Theatre," in The Imagination of Reality (1979), pp. 211-
143.
Keeler, Javanese Shadow Plays, Javanese Selves (1987).
10/18 Saturday Toy Theater Workshop
We will meet in the Studio at 10 am. The morning and
afternoon will be devoted to developing and rehearsing
performances and making the last adjustments to the physical
theaters themselves. The performances will take place in
the Studio starting promptly at 7 pm. Family and friends
are welcome.
==========
7. 10/20 PERFORMING THEORY
READ
Bell, "Death and Performing Objects."
PForm: A Journal of Interdisciplinary and Performance Art 41
(fall 1996): 16-19.
Barthes, "The Three Writings" and "Animate/Inanimate," Empire of
Signs, 48-55, 58-60.
Kott, "Bunraku and Kabuki, Or About Imitation," Salamagundi 35
(fall 1976): 99-109.
Bring texts to class and mark passages for discussion.
DUE October 27: Post 2 paragraphs reflecting on the process
of "performing theory" and/or discovering theory in
performance, based on the readings for this unit, your
experience creating and performing a toy theater, and class
discussion. Participate in online discussion.
RECOMMENDED
Adache, Backstage at Bunraku (1985).
Proschan "The Semiotic Study of Puppets, Masks, and Performing
Objects," Semiotica 47-1/4 (1983): 3-44.
Veltrusky, "Man and Object in Theatre," in A Prague School Reader
on Esthetics, Literary Structure, and Style, ed. Paul L. Gavin
(1964), pp. 83-91.
Bogatyrev, "Semiotics in the Folk Theatre," in Semiotics of Art,
33-50.
Pietz, "The Problem of the Fetish I," RES 9 (spring 1985): 5-17.
Rykwert, "Organic and Mechanical," RES 22 (autumn 1992): 11-18.
Fried, "Art and Objecthood," in Minimal Art, 116-147.
NOTE: There are some very interesting object/puppet performances in town
this season. Japan Society, November 14 and 15, will feature a form of
puppetry believed to be a precursor to bunraku, which is one of the most
incredible forms of puppetry. Great Small Works will perform at Los
Kapayitos Puppet Theater: Call 212-260-4080. This venue will also host
"The Radicality of Puppet Theater: Talk & Film Series," curated by John
Bell and Jenny Romaine (Performance Studies alumna), on Tuesday
nights--films, illustrated lectures, and performances. Call 212-260-4080,
X14. The series starts October 14, with John Bell's slide show on puppets
and propaganda and book signing (*Landscape and Desire*).
=======================
UNIT III: TOTAL PERFORMANCE
This unit will be built around Halloween (and Day of the
Dead). We will focus on theoretical approaches to play,
ritual, and carnival, with special reference to the city.
We will combine ethnographic and historical methods by
first, attending Halloween events during the period October
22-31, and second, by working with historical material.
Attend and document at least one Halloween event during the
next two weeks. Take field notes on the event. You may also
use video, audio, and photographic techniques.
Everything Halloween for New York
City, including everything you need to know about the Greenwich
Village Halloween Parade. Follow the links, including "Halloween-O-Webbery",
"Halloween: Myths, Monsters, and Devils", which is a very rich site,
including links to religious issues and controversies, and "Halloween
Events in New York City."
Haunted
Houses in New York City
St. John the Divine Cathedral Ghosts and Ghouls Procession. Plus showing of
silent vampire classic Nosferatu, with organ accompaniment
10/30 at 7pm and 10pm.
$12/$6 students and seniors. Call 662-2133 for tickets.
Day of the Dead celebrations at the American Indian Community House, 404
Lafayette Street, 8th fl, November 2, 1-8 pm. Procession at 6 pm.
212-598-0100. For background on Day of the Dead
"Prepare to be
consumed...gothic.net is waiting for you!"
Halloween Adventure Shops, 104 4th Ave., East Village between 11th and
12th Streets. 212-673-4546.
Avant-Ghoul-Arama, PS 122 (Friday October 31, 8:30 pm), 212-477-5288 for
reservations.
Madison Scare Garden, thru 10/26. $15.45-$17.95.
212-307-7171 or Ticketmaster.
Maskarave, at the Tunnel 27th st and 12th Ave. 10/31 2am 'til noon. $25. 307-
7171
Halloween Ball at Webster Hall. 123 E. 11th St. 9pm. $20. 307-7171
Staten Island Children's Museum
HALLOWEEN HOOPLA
1000 Richmond Terrace (Snug Harbor Cultural Center) SI 10801-1199
Oct 26 Sun 12-5pm
$7, $6 for members
(718) 273-2060
New York Botanical Garden
HALLOWEEN ON HAUNTED WALK with Ralph Lee
200th st and Southern Blvd, Bronx 10458 (718) 817-8700
Oct 26 Sun 2pm
Gothic/Industrial Clubs
Opera
THE GATHERING
539 W 21st bet 10th and 11th aves
$5 Tues 10pm
229-1618
------
The Bank
THE REALM
225 E. Houston at ave a 505-5033
Fri 11pm
$12, $8 with pass
-----
The Bank
ALBION
see above
Daily 11pm
------
CBGB's 313 gallery
ALCHEMY
313 bowery (at Bllecker)
Mon 10pm $3
529-7671
------
Down time
BATCAVE
251 W 30yh bet 7th and 8th ave
Sat 8pm
$12, $8 w/ flyer
695-2747
-------
Pyramid Club
EXEDOR
101 Ave A bet 6th and 7th st
Sat 10pm
$10, $6 w/ pass
473-7184
------
Sanctuary Lounge
444 7th ave at 15th st
Thurs 10pm
Free
-------
And for the fearless amongst you. Pork at L.U.R.E. (409 W 13th bet 9th
and 10th 741-3919) usually does something around Halloween. It's on Weds
nights it's gay s/m with a strict dress code - uniforms, fetish, leather
-- lots of leather. Take your daddy!
=================
8. 10/27 HALLOWEEN: ETHNOGRAPHIC METHODS
Please bring Mother Camp to class. We will be examining it closely for
method.
READ:
Newton, Mother Camp: Female Impersonators in America. In NYU Book Center
and on reserve in Bobst.
Kugelmass, "Designing the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade," in
Santino, ed., Halloween and Other Festivals of Death and Life,
187-217. Or, Kugelmass, Masked Cultures. Both are in NYU Book Center.
REREAD: Barsz, "Confronting the Field(Note) In and Out of the
Field, Barsz, ed., Shadows in the Field, 45-62.
RECOMMENDED:
Schmidt, Leigh Eric. "The Commercialization of the Calendar:
American Holidays and the Culture of Consumption," Journal of
American History (Dec. 1991): 887-916. Copy in Archive.
Kugelmass, Masked Culture: The Greenwich Village Halloween
Parade. Copies in NYU Book Center.
Jackson, "Interviewing," Fieldwork, 79-104. Book in Archive.
ASSIGNMENT: Begin the historical research assignment, which
will be due Monday November 10. The class will be divided
into groups of 3-4 people, each group will be assigned a 12-
year period between 1850 and 1998. The task is to search
for Halloween material, starting with the following tools:
Readers Guide to Periodicals, Index to the New York Times,
Dialog (to be issued a Dialog account, go to the Avery
Fisher Center in Bobst and watch the 30-minute instructional
video and request an account.). Before beginning the
research, strategize with the librarian at the Reference
Desk. Those so inclined are encouraged to use the archives
of the New-York Historical Society and any other archival
collection in the region that has pertinent material. See
also the GSAS
Guide to Graduate Research. Follow the links for Academic and
Public Libraries, Historical Resources, and Cultural Resources.
Each group will report on their findings in chronological
order during the November 10 class. Our goal is to discover
historical problems presented by the evidence and to relate
the historical material to contemporary Halloween practices.
Roach's Cities of the Dead is our model.
FRIDAY OCTOBER 31: Halloween. Class is encouraged to
attend the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade and to
participate in it, if so inclined.
Everything Halloween for New York City, including everything you
need to know about the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade.
=================
9. 11/3 PLAY, RITUAL, CARNIVAL
ASSIGNMENT: Bring field notes to class.
READ:
Tambiah, "A Performative Approach to Ritual,"Proceedings of the
British Academy 65 (1979): 113-169. In PS Archive.
Huizinga, Homo Ludens, 1-27. In NYU Book Center, Bobst Reserve, and PS
Archive.
Bakhtin, "Carnival Ambivalence," in The Bakhtin Reader, 194-244. In NYU
Book Center, Bobst Reserve, and PS Archive.
RECOMMENDED:
Bell, Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice.
Van Gennep, The Rites of Passage, 166-194.
Turner, The Ritual Process.
Bakhtin, Rabelais and His World.
=================
10. 11/10 GENEALOGIES
READ:
Roach, "History, Memory, and Performance," Cities of the Dead,
2-31.
Marin, "Notes on a Semiotic Approach to Parade, Cortege, and
Procession," in Time Out of Time, 220-228.
Brecht, "The Street Scene," in Brecht on Theater: The Development
of an Aesthetic, 121-129.
Artaud, "The Theatre of Cruelty (First Manifesto)," in Antonin
Artaud: Selected Writings, 242-252.
RECOMMENDED:
Boyer, "The City and the Theater," The City of Collective Memory:
Its Historical Imagery and Architecture.
Davis, Parades and Power: Street Theater in Nineteenth Century
Philadelphia.
Ozouf, Festivals of the French Revolution.
ORAL ASSIGNMENT: Bring in the results of the historical
research (see above for instructions) and be prepared to
make a short oral presentation to the class characterizing
the historical evidence and identifying the historical
problems that it provokes.
WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT DUE MONDAY NOVEMBER 17: In 6 pages,
while presenting your historical and ethnographic evidence,
identify a methodological model (Newton, Kugelmass, Tambiah,
Bakhtin, Roach, Marin) found in the readings and demonstrate
its usefulness for analyzing your material and making
connections between ethnographic and historical evidence.
Distinguish methods of documentation and methods of analysis
and show to what ends they can be used. Be explicit about
what you are trying to do and how you are doing it.
======================
11. 11/17 Halloween cont'd
=================================================================
UNIT IV: DIASPORIC PERFORMANCE
This unit will take Bring in 'da Noise, Bring in 'da
Funk as the focus for our consideration of diasporic
performance as refracted through dance and commercial
theater. We will see Bring in da Noise, Bring in da
Funk on Broadway and discuss it in its own terms and in
relation to Riverdance, which we will screen on video
(on reserve in the PS Archive). Richard Green, Felicia
McCarren, and Jaime Morrison will help us with this
unit.
Arrange to see Bring in 'da Noise, Bring in 'da Funk
before November 17. Rush tickets, available on the day
of the performance, are the cheapest tickets. Try to
read Stearns, Jazz Dance, before seeing the
performance. Please screen Riverdance before November
24.
============================
12. 11/24 Performing the Diaspora: Africa
SEE: Bring in 'da Noise, Bring in 'da Funk.
VIEW: Riverdance (videotape in the PS Archive).
Richard Green will join us for this session.
READ:
Gilroy, "'Not a Story to Pass On': Living Memory and the Slave
Sublime," The Black Atlantic, 187-223.
Stearns, Jazz Dance: The Story of American Vernacular Dance, 11-
60, 180-196, 363-369, 429 through plate 5.
Gilroy, in The Politics of Black Performance, 12-33
Program notes, Riverdance--The Show
RECOMMENDED:
Simas, Review of Bring in 'da Noise, Bring in 'da Funk
Willis, "Black Women Hoofers: Tapping Their Rhythms and Telling
Their Stories," Sage: A Scholarly Journal on Black Women 8, no. 2
(fall 1994).
Malone, Steppin' on the Blues: The Visible Rhythms of African
American Dance.
Hazzard, Jookin': The Rise of Social Dance Formations in African
American Culture.
Gothschild, Brenda Dixon. Digging the Africanist Presence.
Rose, Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary
America.
Olaniyan, Scars of Conquest/Masks of Resistance: The Invention of
Cultural Identities in African, African-American, and Caribbean
Drama.
Dent, ed., Black Popular Culture.
Kratz, Affecting Performance: Meaning, Movement, and Experience
in Okiek Women's Initiation.
Broyles-Gonzalez, El Teatro Campesino.
====================
13. 12/1 Performing the Diaspora: Ireland
Felicia McCarren and Jaime Morrison will join us.
READ:
Mauss, "Body Techniques," Sociology and Psychology: Essays by
Marcel Mauss, 97-123.
Ramirez, "Social and Political Dimensions of Folklorico Dance:
The Binational Dialectic of Residual and Emergent Culture,"
Western Folklore 48 (1989): 15-32.
Hall, "Cultural Identity and Diaspora," in Colonial Discourse and
Post-Colonial Theory, 392-401.
RECOMMENDED
Connerton, "Bodily Practices," How Societies Remember, 72-103.
Feldman, Formations of Violence.
Kilkelly, "Ghost Notes," Women and Performance 13.
Cullinane, Aspects of History of Irish Dancing in North America.
Wagner, Adversaries of Dance: From the Puritans to the Present.
Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White.
Ramsey, Indigenism, Tourism, and Official Nationalism: Staged
Folklore in Haiti, 1941-1957. M.A. Thesis, Performance Studies,
1994.
==========================
14. 12/8 Conclusion
Assignment due.
Based on your observations of Bring in 'da Noise, Bring in
'da Funk and Riverdance and the readings, discuss the
deployment of the body in the name of "identity" and
"heritage." 4 pages, double spaced.
12/15 PORTFOLIO DUE
The portfolio should contain all the written work done for
the semester, including fieldnotes, interviews, research,
essays that were handed in, posted to the newsgroup, and
revised (hand in both the original essay and the revised
one).