Performance Studies

4.0 credits

This course examines the interdisciplinary field of Performance Studies. Situated at the intersection of anthropology, communications, rhetoric, and theater, this field helps us to understand the complex relationships between social and aesthetic modes of performance. Topics will include speech-acts and performativity; performances of gender and race; archives and repertoires; theatricality; spectatorship; and regimes of performance in spheres such as economics and athletics. Readings include: J.L. Austin, Judith Butler, Jacques Derrida, Saidiya Hartman, Peggy Phelan, Rebecca Schneider, Hortense Spillers, and Diana Taylor.