California State University, Northridge       
College of Arts, Media, and Communication
Department of Communication Studies

COMS 301: Performance, Language, & Cultural Studies
T/TH 2 - 3:15 ==== Spring 2008

Dr. Christie Logan
office hours: T/TH 1-2,
Wed 5:30 - 6:30 & by appointment

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*Check this online schedule regularly for changes*

DATE TOPIC Reading / Assignment Due

Week 1:

1/22



1/24

Introduction / Overview of Course

Definitions & Processes:
Varieties and Contexts of Performance

*Note: Many online readings require Adobe Acrobat Reader: free download here

Info sheets


online: Performance Fan, adapted & elaborated by Christie Logan. *Print and bring this to class.
Week 2:
1/29



1/31
Performance and Cultural Processes


online: John Bell, "Performance Studies in an Age of Terror," TDR 47,2 (Summer 2003), 6-8
Richard Schechner, Performance Studies: An Introduction [PS] Chapter 2, "What is Performance?" 28-51

**new: read pp. 151-54 in PS.
topic: gender & performativity

Week 3:
2/5



2/7

 

Performance and Cultural Processes

**new: The Melancholia of AIDS: interview with Douglas Crimp | Art Journal, Winter 2003.




COMS 301 Reader [RDR]: Judith Hamera, "Introduction," Opening Acts: Performance in/as Communication and Cultural Studies. Sage, 2006. 1-10.

Week 4:
2/12

 

2/14


Liminality and Performance:

Ritual, Tradition and

Power


PS: Chapter 3, "Ritual," 52 -59; 66-74; 79-88

 

online: Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, "Kodak Moments, Flashbulb Memories: Reflections on 9/11," TDR 47,1, Spring 2003
Week 5:
2/19



2/21

Eruption and Performance:


Communitas in
Social Drama

new **PS: pp. 75-77
301 RDR:
Michael Eric Dyson, Come Hell or High Water: Hurricane Katrina and the Color of Disaster. Basic Civitas Books, 2006.
online: "Spike Lee on Race, Politics, and Broken Levees," Listen to the interview here, aired on NPR's All Things Considered, 8/13/2006.

Steve Lopez, "Fires in Malibu Ignite Rage" (10/22/07) and "Katrina Comparisons..." LA Times 10/26/07.
Christopher Hawthorne, "New Developments Mask Wild Land's Deadly Threat," LA Times 10/30/07.

Week 6:
2/26


2/28

Analyzing Performance Processes:

Efficacy and Power


PS: Chapter 6 -pp. 211-18, and Chapter 7, "Performance Processes."

 

301 RDR:
Dwight Conquergood, "Lethal Theatre: Performance, Punishment, and the Death Penalty," Theatre Journal 54:3 (2002), 339-67.

Week 7:
3/4



3/6

Resistant Performance and Social Change

view Couple in a Cage

online: Coco Fusco, "The Other History of Intercultural Performance," TDR 38,1 (1994)

301 RDR:
Joni L. Jones, "sista docta: Performance as Critique of the Academy," TDR 41, 2, Summer 1997

Performance Analysis Paper due

Week 8:
3/11




3/13


Performing

Identity

and Culture


PS: Chapter 5, "Performativity," 123-161.
online: E. Patrick Johnson, "Strange Fruit: A Performance about Identity Politics," TDR 47, 2, Summer 2003.
Jeffrey Fleishman, "Pursuing Happiness Behind the Veil," LA Times 1/14/08.
May Akabogu-Collins, "Coming to Black America," LA Times, February 1, 2004
Todd Boyd, "Hello, blackness,", LA Times,February 1, 2004


Exam 1

Week 9:
 Spring Break  3/17 - 21

Week 10:
3/25


 

3/27

Semiotics of

Consuming Practices

 

 



Consumption and Ideology

301 RDR:
Stuart Hall, "Introduction" & "The Work of Representation" from Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices, pp. 11-51
 online: Daniel Chandler, Semiotics for Beginners. Peruse the various subjects in the table of contents - read Signs and Denotation, Connotation and Myth
decode: Support Buy Nothing Day



301 RDR:
Stuart Ewen, "Hard Bodies," Signs of Life in the USA, ed. Solomon & Maasik. 3rd ed. Bedford, 2000.
Lisa M. Tillmann-Healy, "A Secret Life in a Culture of Thinness," 76-108.
Goewey, "'Careful, You May Run out of Planet': SUVs & the Exploitation of the American Myth," Signs of Life, 4th ed.

Week 11:
4/1


 


4/3

Performing Consumption,

"Consuming" Performance

 


online: Eric Wiley, "Wilderness Theatre: Environmental Tourism & Cajun Swamp Tours," TDR 46, 3, Fall 2002

A Life Revealed: Afghan Girl Special Report - National Geographic, 2002.
**In addition to the main page ,peruse the links related to this story : a] zoom in gallery with commentary;  b] the original 1985 story c] read posts on the forum for Afghan Girl & post if you want; d] watch the video spanning the full coverage of NG's story: from 1985 to the present.

Case Study Prospectus Due

 

Week 12:
4/8



4/10

 

Ethics of Ethnography

view Between Two Worlds

 


301 RDR:
Conquergood, "Performing as a Moral Act: Ethical Dimensions of the Ethnography of Performance," LIP, April 1985.

Olorisa Omi Osun Olomo (Joni L. Jones), "Performance and Ethnography, Performing Ethnography, Performance Ethnography," SAGE Handbook of Performance Studies, 2006. 339-45.

Week 13: 4/15




4/17

 

Performing Ethnography

view Broken Circles

Performance Ethnography as Critical Method

301 RDR:
Joni L. Jones, "The Self as Other: Creating the Role of Joni the Ethnographer for Broken Circles," TPQ 16, April 1996

online: Joni L. Jones, "Performance Ethnography: The Role of Embodiment in Cultural Authenticity," Theatre Topics 12, 1 (2002) 1-15.



301 RDR:
D. Soyini Madison, "Dwight Conquergood's 'Rethinking Ethnography," SAGE Handbook of Performance Studies.

Conquergood, "Rethinking Ethnography: Towards a Critical Cultural Politics," Communication Monographs 58, June 1991

set performance ethnography groups
Week 14:
4/22




4/24

Public Space and Everyday Performance

 

Tourism as Performance

301 RDR:
Susan Willis, "Disney World: Public Use/Private State," Signs of Life in the USA, 4th ed. 2003

online:
Jon Goss, "The Built Environment and Social Theory," Professional Geographer 40, 4 (1988), 392-403

301 RDR:
Michael Bowman, "Looking for Stonewall's Arm: Tourist Performance as Research Method,"102-33. Opening Acts: Performance in/as Comm. & Cultural Studies. Judith Hamera, ed. SAGE, 2006
Week 15: 4/29

5/1

 

Exam 2


Groups workday; meet with me
Week 16:
5/6

5/8
  


Group presentations

Group presentations
Week 17: 5/13

Final Exam
Period
3:00 - 5:00

Group presentations completed

Individual Papers due

 

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Last Update: April 24, 2008
Please Send Comments, Suggestions, etc. to christie.logan@csun.edu