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The course examines the performance space as a site of struggle of the various physical, social and psychic forces in society. The course singles out the colonial and postcolonial performance space - be it the street, the home, the shrine, the museum, the archeological site, the burial ground, the prison, the national theater,or even the national state - as a site of intense political theater. In particular, the course looks at the rise of popular theater movements in Africa in the light of the politics of performance space. The course is built around texts where performance and space are of particular significance in the development of the conflict. Week 1: Introduction and Requirements. Social Space: Performance as Reflection of Human Struggles
Primary Reading Detained: A Writers Prison Diary Ngøgð and Møgo: The Trial of Dedan Kðmathi Ngøgð & Ngøgð: I Will Marry When I Want Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett: Destination Culture. David Kerr: ‘The Free Travelling Theater’ in African Popular Theater Foucault: Discipline and Punish / Parts One and Two (sec1) and Part Three(sec1) Text "Of Other Spaces" Bakhtin: ‘Popular Festive Forms’ in Rabelais and his World Earl Lovelace: The Dragon Cannot Dance Chinua Achebe: Arrow of God Soyinka: Death and the King’s Horseman Fanon: ‘Pitfalls of National Consciousness,’ in The Wretched of the Earth Schechner: ‘Approaches’ in Performance Theory
Secondary/Recommended Reading: Joseph Roach: Cities of the Dead: Circum-atlantic Performance Dale Byam: Community in Motion Henri Lefebvre: The Production of Space Kwesi Owusu:’Nottinghill Carnival’ in Kwesu Owusu (editor): Storms of the Heart Okot P’Bitek: Song of Lawino and Song of Ocol Ngøgð Wa Mðrið: Community Arts and the Question of Culture in the City of Harare Biodun Jeyifo:’By Popular Demand: the Functions and Social Uses of the Yoruba Travelling Theatre’ in The Truthful Lie Zakes Mda: ‘Maratholi Travelling Theatre’ in Liz Gunner: Politics and Performance Bjorkman: ‘Mother Sing for Me’ Michael Foucault: ‘Space, Power and Knowledge,’ in The Cultural Studies Reader. Simon During (editor) Patricia Penn Hilden, ‘Race for Sale’, in TDR, Fall 2000, T167 Carol Thompson, ‘Slaves to Sculpture’, in Fall 2000, T167 |
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