THEA 280 Theories of Performance Studies

What is performance? What does performance do? Why is performance classified as a central element of political, social and cultural life? What are the distinctions between performance as event, theory, and method? In answering these questions, this course introduces students to performance studies, an interdisciplinary field that investigates a wide range of repeatable, embodied, and symbolic actions. Specifically, this course offers a critical survey of the genealogies as well as foundational theories and theorists of performance studies including Zora Neale Hurston, Richard Schechner, Dwight Conquergood, Ervin Goffman, Victor Turner, Judith Butler, E. Patrick Johnson, and D. Soyini Madison. Students will examine a broad range of performances both on and off the stage from rituals and storytelling to live and recorded performances, and from political speeches and protests to human interaction and individual acts of identity expression. Additionally, we will apply analytical frameworks of performance theory to sites and happenings including theatre, religious events, social media, community gatherings, and sporting events as well as examine people’s habitual patterns and behaviors of everyday life as performance.

Repeatable: N
Prerequisites CULS 101 Introduction to Cultural Studies or CULS 101H Introduction to Cultural Studies: Honors or THEA 106 Theatre Survey I: Global Drama and THEA 111 Theatre Foundation I: Theatre Making
Requirements Sophomore Standing or Above (SO)
Minimum Credits 3 Maximum Credits 3