Module description
The study of performance is central to our understanding of modern society. In this module we ask a wide range of questions about the role of performing, performance and performativity. These questions build on, and extend, our understanding of key debates and issues explored within the field of Performance Studies. In particular, we situate discussion at the intersection between performance and culture – understood in terms of our systems of value recognition. Introducing key issues, debates and possibilities, the module will provide a broadly contextualised understanding of how local and global social and economic conditions inform specific performative practices and the performing arts. The curriculum unpacks and explores the significance of 'performing culture' in terms of a distinctive set of key tensions or dualisms – including between the everyday and stage, restoration and novelty, authenticity and inauthenticity, the participatory versus the presentational, and dis-enchantment versus re-enchantment. Advancing enquiry in relation to spontaneity, improvisation, play, the embodied nature of performance and more besides, the module encourages and enables a reflexive understanding of what performing, performance, and performativity constitute in our own lives, and how we might learn to develop them in creative ways for the benefit of ourselves and our communities.
Assessment details
Coursework weighted at 100% - 3,000-word Reflective Report
Educational aims & objectives
The module aims to:
- Introduce key issues, debates, and possibilities at the intersection of performance and culture.
- Provide an understanding of how local and global social and economic conditions inform specific performative practices and the performing arts.
- Explore the significance of 'performing culture' in society, focusing on the analysis of a rage of key tensions.
- Encourage and enable a reflexive understanding of what performing, performance and performativity constitute in students' own lives.
Learning outcomes
On successful completion of this module, students will be able to demonstrate their ability to:
- Critically understand how performance and culture are related, and what this means for a wide variety of stakeholders, including practitioners, participants, audiences and citizens.
- Apply empirical and conceptual tools to better understand how local and global social and economic conditions inform specific performative practices and the performing arts.
- Appreciate how 'performing culture' in society can be understood across a range of distinctive tensions, including those between the everyday and stage, restoration and novelty, authenticity and inauthenticity, the participatory versus the presentational, and dis-enchantment versus re-enchantment.
- Engage in reflective practice, developing processes that enable learning from their own experiences of performing, performance and performativity.
Teaching pattern
Ten one-hour lectures and ten one-hour seminars