units

ATS2912

Faculty of Arts

18 September 2017 20 April 2024
Monash University

Undergraduate - Unit

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2014 only. For students planning to study the unit, please refer to the unit indexes in the the current edition of the Handbook. If you have any queries contact the managing faculty for your course or area of study.

print version

6 points, SCA Band 1, 0.125 EFTSL

Refer to the specific census and withdrawal dates for the semester(s) in which this unit is offered, or view unit timetables.

LevelUndergraduate
FacultyFaculty of Arts
Organisational UnitCentre for Theatre and Performance
OfferedClayton Second semester 2014 (Day)
Coordinator(s)Dr Stuart Grant

Synopsis

This unit introduces the key thinkers and concepts in the discipline of Performance Studies from its origin in the anthropology of theatre and performance to the emergence of the main threads, debates and schools of thought which characterize the field today. The ideas of theorists such as Schechner, Turner, Conquergood, Austin, Butler and others will be covered, detailing concepts of ritual, everyday social performance and performativity. Examples from political performance, protest, institutional and environmental performance will be analysed.

Outcomes

Upon completion of this course students will:

  1. understand the meanings and applications of the concept of performativity and be able to make considered arguments concerning its worth and scope;
  2. be able to analyse everyday activities and broader social events in their performative dimensions;
  3. apply and argue the key concepts and debates in contemporary performance studies;
  4. be able to employ a variety of theoretical approaches to the analysis of everyday and ritual social and cultural performances;
  5. apply concepts of the self, gender, subjectivity and identity viewed as performances;
  6. develop a sense of the cultural relativity of their own and others' everyday practices, becoming more open-minded and understanding of the diversity of cultural practice;
  7. be able to demonstrate an understanding and employ techniques of ethnographic writing.

Assessment

Group class presentation (15 minutes equiv.900 words): 20%
Individual ethnographic description (minimum 1350 words): 30%
Exam: 50%

Chief examiner(s)

Dr Stuart Grant

Workload requirements

One 2-hour seminar per week

This unit applies to the following area(s) of study

Anthropology
Theatre

Prerequisites

Two gateway units in Theatre