Seminar on the History of Performance Studies

Communication Studies 5560

Instructor:
Dr. Kelly S. Taylor

Office:
242 Terrill Hall

Course Description

The purpose of this course is to instruct the student in the varied performance techniques, philosophies, and conventions that have contributed to the formation of contemporary Performance theory and practice. Performance approaches from the Greek rhapsodes and Germanic scôps to contemporary performance artists and stand-up comedians will be covered. The course will provide the student with the opportunity to critically engage these performance traditions through discussion, analysis, and creative reconstruction.

Required Text

Course Pack -- Available at the Bookstore

(The list of recommended texts is attached to the end of this syllabus)

Methods of Evaluation

Mid-Term Exam	20%
Final Exam	20%
Historic Performance Style Web Site	20%
Historic Performance Style Reconstruction Presentation	20%
Discussion Presentation	20%

Summary of Assignments

Historic Performance Style Web Site. Each student will research a specific performer or performance style discussed in the required texts and prepare a series of linked web pages on the performer/style's origins, social context, and/or influence. A bibliography page listing reference texts and appropriate hypertext links and a chronology with links to related subjects must be included. The site will be graded on 1)content, 2)presentation, and 3)creativity. Maximum size is 1.44 mbs of data (one high density disk full). Unless the student requests in writing to the contrary, all sites receiving a grade of "B" or better will be posted on to a History of Performance site maintained on UNT's system by Dr. Taylor

Historic Performance Style Reconstruction Presentation. Each student will research a specific performer or performance style mentioned in the required texts for this class and prepare a creative reconstruction of a generic or specific performance event. Work will be graded on demonstrated quality of research and analysis as well as creativity and performance skills.

Discussion Presentation. Each student will choose a text from the list of recommended readings and prepare the following: a concise, one-page synopsis of the entire text; one or more handout(s) to focus classmate's attention on some significant aspect of the text; and a one-page description of an activity designed to generate class participation and/or discussion of some significant aspect of the text. The student will then be responsible for leading a class discussion of this text. I will expect the student's presentation to incorporate the prepared handout and the class participation activity.

Makeup Work

Any classwork missed should be turned in immediately following the student's return to class. There is a 2 point per weekday penalty for lateness -- regardless of the student's excuse. Missed performances cannot be made up.

Attendance

You will be dropped from the class roll after three unexcused absences. Excused absences require a note from the Dean of Students or UNT Health Center.

Academic Integrity

All students are expected to conform to the University's code of conduct. Students who cheat or plagiarize will fail the assignment concerned, will be turned in to the University's Judicial Committee, and may receive a failing grade for the course.

Access Policy

All effort will be made to provide reasonable accommodations to students with disabilities. Students wishing to self-identify should register on the third floor of the Student Union by the third day of the semester.

Grading Scale

100-93 = A
92-85 = B
84-77 = C
76-69 = D
69 and below = F
Recommended Texts

A. Parry, ed., The Making of Homeric Verse: The Collected Papers of Mirlman Parry (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1971)

A. B. Lord, The Singer of Tales (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ. Pres, 1960).

J. A. Notopoulos, "Studies in Early Greek Oral Poetry," Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, 68 (1964), 1-77.

Ruth Finnegan, Oral Poetry: Its Nature, Significance, and Social Context (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1977).

Dwight Conquergood, "Boasting in Anglo-Saxon England: Performance of the Heroic Ethos," Literature in Performance, 1 (April, 1981).

John S. Gentile, Cast of One, (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1989).

John F. Kasson, Rudeness and Civility (New York: Hill and Wang, 1990).

Lawrence Levine. Highbow/Lowbrow: The Emergence of Cultural Hierarchy in America (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1988).

Steven Greenblatt Renaissance Self-Fashioning (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1985).

Karen Halttunen. Confidence Men and Painted Women: A Study of Middle-Class Culture in America (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1982).

Walter Ong. Literacy and Orality

David W. Thompson, ed., Performance of Literature in Historical Perspectives, University Press of America, New York, 1983.