Module description
This module aims to provide students with a deep understanding and critical awareness of the variety of performative practices in the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking worlds. Based on a series of case-studies, it will explore the different range of performative practices such as music, drama, visual arts, cinema, video and (oral) poetry, situating them in their historical, social and cultural context. Over the course of this module, students will gain detailed knowledge of the key features of each performative genre and of the different conceptual and critical frameworks used in their analysis. This module will pay special attention to how performative practices encode broader discussions on self-/national identity, race, gender, class, religious identity, political freedom and creative independence vs political authority and censorship.
This year, in the first part of the module, we will be focusing exclusively on Spanish and Portuguese theatre plays written in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Among the playwrights we will study are the Portuguese Gil Vicente (so-called “the father of Iberian drama” of the sixteenth-century), Lope de Vega (one of towering literary figures of the Spanish Golden Age), Sor Juana de la Cruz (the most famous of female writers of the period), and Angela Azevedo (Portuguese playwright who wrote her works in Spanish). We will study different types of plays by these playwrights of the period, considering the different social spaces where drama was composed and performed. We will consider the substantial contribution of Iberian drama to the development of theatre forms in this period and we will explore how playwrights addressed questions of self-identity, national identity, gender, and race. Finally, we will also consider issues of translation of the plays, and how they are translated for the stage.
The second part of the module will focus on the historical formation (from the 1960s to the 2000s) in Latin America of certain specific visual art practices that allowed addressing changing understandings of issues such as the human condition, belonging, conflict, memory, solidarity in the cultural and political spheres. Among the practices and concepts to be explored, questioned and discussed are art Installation (perception, immersion, engagement, intervention participation), the Performance (gesture, action, movement, rituality) and Body Art (individual and collective identity, race, gender). We will explore those concepts, practices and their implications addressing selected performative art actions created in Latin America by a number of artists such as Cuban Ana Mendieta, Colombian collective Rajatabla, and Peruvian Victoria Santa Cruz .
Assessment details
1 x 4,000-word piece, which may be an essay or a project to be devised under guidance of the tutor(s) (100%)
Educational aims & objectives
This module aims to provide an understanding of the principal artistic, socio-cultural and historical features of creative practices in the Global Iberias, either through its theatre, music or visual arts. To this end, it will
- introduce students to the variety of performative practices in the global Hispanic and Lusophone worlds
- transfer a coherent methodology for the study of performance across cultures, basing this on profound awareness of performance languages and cultural context
- encourage an analytical and critical thinking about core cultural concepts and these performative practices
- enhance the students’ ability to think across historical periods, geographical areas and languages
- introduce students to some of the most significant aspects of the conceptual frameworks in the analysis of these performative practices, and to apply these with critical awareness of historical, social and cultural specificity
- develop students' abilities to devise research questions, plan and compose extended essays or projects on topics chosen by themselves and to engage in independent and creative research and practice towards the issues raised in the module
Learning outcomes
On completion of this module, the student will be able to demonstrate intellectual, transferable and practicable skills appropriate to a Level 7 module and in particular will:
- develop a deep and critical awareness of the multiplicity of performative practices across the global Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking world and their historical, social and cultural contexts;
- gain detailed knowledge of the key features of the different performative practices in the global Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking worlds across a variety of spaces, times and cultures;
- analyse and manipulate a conceptual framework adequate to each performative genre (e.g. but not limited to cinema, music, drama, visual arts, poetry);
- discuss, examine, and respond to critical debates surrounding the different performative practices and how these intersect with broader issues of self-/national identity, race, gender;
- develop a thorough understanding of the role played by language in these performative practices;
- develop the ability to formulate their own arguments and questions about the performative practices discussed in the module;
- the ability to design and undertake substantial investigation into the performative practices of the Spanish and Portuguese speaking worlds.
Teaching pattern
1 x Weekly seminar (2 hours)