COMS 301 Schedule - Spring 2006

*Check this online schedule regularly for changes*

Performance Fan, adapted & elaborated by Christie Logan. *Print and bring this to class.

Richard Schechner, Performance Studies: An Introduction [PS] Preface & pp.11 - 21

PS: Chapter 2, "what is Performance?"

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

PS: Chapter 3, "Ritual," 45 -58

1st Newsgroup Post Due

PS: Chapter 5, "Performativity," 110-114; Chapter 6, "Performing" 143-54 & 171-87

E. Patrick Johnson, "Strange Fruit: A Performance about Identity Politics," TDR 47, 2, Summer 2003

Jessica Hundley, "Cirque for the Soul:Krumpers & Clowners..." LA Times, August 21, 2004

Robin Abcarian, Coming of Age during an Era of Great Change, LA Times, January 21, 2006

May Akabogu-Collins, "Coming to Black America," LA Times, February 1, 2004
Todd Boyd, "Hello, blackness,", LA Times,February 1, 2004

PS: Chapter 5, "Performativity," 130-42

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

Thomas Nakayama, "Dis/Orienting Identities: Asian Americans, History, & Intercultural Communication," Our Voices, 14-20

PS: Chapter 4 "Playing," pp. 79-89 & 101-109

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

Liz Tomlin, "Transgressing Boundaries: Postmodern Performance & the Tourist Trap," TDR, 43,2, Summer 1999

Mark Crispin Miller, "The Big Ten" media conglomerates, The Nation, January 2004. Click on the links to see who owns what.

Read 1-2 of the linked essays on the website for The Persuaders. Be prepared to report in class on what you read.

Daniel Chandler, Intertextuality
Peruse the links on Daniel Chandler's Visual Perception Notes page.

Daniel Chandler, Semiotics for Beginners. Peruse the various subjects in the table of contents - read Signs and Denotation, Connotation and Myth for starters

A Life Revealed: Afghan Girl Special Report - National Geographic, 2002.
**In addition to the main page, follow all 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.

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.

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

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

4/11 & 4/13: ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Spring Break ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

3rd Newsgroup Posting Due

Amy Carroll, "Incumbent upon Recombinant Hope: EDT's Strike a Site, Strike a Pose," TDR 47, 2, Summer 2003

Jill Lane, "Digital Zapatistas," TDR 47,2, Summer 2003

Recommended Reading (see assignment guidelines):
choose either:
Marcy Chvasta, "Anger, Irony, & Protest: Confronting the Issue of Efficacy, Again," TPQ 26,1 (January 2006) 5-16.

or:
Brian Rusted, "Performing Visual Discourse: Cowboy Art & Institutional Practice," TPQ 26, 2 (April 2006), 115-37.

or:
Jennifer Iles, "Recalling the Ghosts of War: Performing Tourism on the Battlefields of the Western Front," TPQ 26, 2 (April 2006), 162-80.

Group presentations

Group presentations cont'd

Group presentations completed

Papers due

Last Update: April 26, 2006
Please Send Comments, Suggestions, etc. to christie.logan@csun.edu
This document resides at http://www.csun.edu/~vcspc00g/301/30sched.html

DATE	TOPIC	Reading / Assignment Due
Week 1: 1/31	Introduction / Overview of Course Definitions & Processes: Culture, Performance, Language & Discourse	*Note: Many online readings require Adobe Acrobat Reader: free download here Info sheets
2/2		Performance Fan, adapted & elaborated by Christie Logan. Print and bring this to class. Richard Schechner, Performance Studies: An Introduction* [PS] Preface & pp.11 - 21
Week 2: 2/7	Performance and Cultural Processes	PS: Chapter 2, "what is Performance?" Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, "Kodak Moments, Flashbulb Memories: Reflections on 9/11," TDR 47,1, Spring 2003
2/9	Performance and Cultural Processes	PS: Chapter 3, "Ritual," 45 -58
Week 3: 2/14	Politics of Cultural Performance: Ritual & Social Drama	PS: Chapter 3, "Ritual" pp. 58-68 Funeral for a Pope \| Bernard Law given Prominent Funeral Role \| Selecting a Pope \| Opus Dei has Stake in Papal Vote \| Secret Papal Voting Begins \| Papal Installation -- all coverage by LA Times new: Funeral Site for King Stirs Unease - LA Times
2/16	Politics of Cultural Performance: Ritual & Social Drama	PS: Chapter 3, "Ritual" pp. 69-78 Douglas Kellner, "9/11, Spectacles of Terror, and Media Manipulation..." Critical Discourse Studies 1,1 (April 2004), 41–64 Recommended Reading: Douglas Kellner, "The Media & the Crisis of Democracy in the Age of Bush-2," Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies 1,1 (March 2004) 29–58
Week 4: 2/21	Analyzing Performance Processes: Efficacy and Power	PS: Chapter 7, "Performance Processes"
2/23	Analyzing Performance Processes: Efficacy and Power	Reader [RDR]: Dwight Conquergood, "Lethal Theatre: Performance, Punishment, and the Death Penalty," Theatre Journal 54:3 (2002), 339-67. Recommended Reading: Elizabeth Bell, "Weddings and Pornography: the Cultural Performance of Sex," Text & Performance Quarterly [TPQ] 19, July 1999
Week 5: 2/28	Performing Identity and Culture	1st Newsgroup Post Due PS: Chapter 5, "Performativity," 110-114; Chapter 6, "Performing" 143-54 & 171-87 E. Patrick Johnson, "Strange Fruit: A Performance about Identity Politics," TDR 47, 2, Summer 2003 Jessica Hundley, "Cirque for the Soul:Krumpers & Clowners..." LA Times, August 21, 2004 Robin Abcarian, Coming of Age during an Era of Great Change, LA Times, January 21, 2006 May Akabogu-Collins, "Coming to Black America," LA Times, February 1, 2004 Todd Boyd, "Hello, blackness,", LA Times,February 1, 2004
3/2	Performing Identity and Culture	PS: Chapter 5, "Performativity," 130-42 Reader [RDR]: Joni L. Jones, "sista docta: Performance as Critique of the Academy," TDR 41, 2, Summer 1997 Thomas Nakayama, "Dis/Orienting Identities: Asian Americans, History, & Intercultural Communication," Our Voices, 14-20
Week 6: 3/7	Commodifying Culture through Performance	Cultural Performance Paper due
3/9	Commodifying Culture through Performance	PS: Chapter 4 "Playing," pp. 79-89 & 101-109 Eric Wiley, "Wilderness Theatre: Environmental Tourism & Cajun Swamp Tours," TDR 46, 3, Fall 2002
Week 7: 3/14	"Consuming" Performance, Consuming Culture View in class - Frontline: The Persuaders (2004)	Liz Tomlin, "Transgressing Boundaries: Postmodern Performance & the Tourist Trap," TDR, 43,2, Summer 1999 Mark Crispin Miller, "The Big Ten" media conglomerates, The Nation, January 2004. Click on the links to see who owns what.
3/16		Read 1-2 of the linked essays on the website for The Persuaders. Be prepared to report in class on what you read. Daniel Chandler, Intertextuality Peruse the links on Daniel Chandler's Visual Perception Notes page.
Week 8: 3/21	Semiotics as Critical Method	Daniel Chandler, Semiotics for Beginners. Peruse the various subjects in the table of contents - read Signs and Denotation, Connotation and Myth for starters
3/ 27	Semiotics as Critical Method	A Life Revealed: Afghan Girl Special Report - National Geographic, 2002. In addition to the main page, follow all** 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.
Week 9: 3/28	Ethics of Ethnography view Between Two Worlds	Analysis of Ad Campaign due
3/30	Ethics of Ethnography view Between Two Worlds	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 10: 4/4	Performing Ethnography view Broken Circles	RDR: Joni L. Jones, "The Self as Other: Creating the Role of Joni the Ethnographer for Broken Circles," TPQ 16, April 1996 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
4/6	Performing Ethnography view Broken Circles	2nd Newsgroup Post Due Patricia Penn Hilden, "Race for Sale: Narratives of Possession in Two 'Ethnic' Museums," and Carol Thompson, "Slaves to Sculpture: A Response to Patricia Penn Hilden," The Drama Review 44, 3 (Fall 2000)
4/11 & 4/13: ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Spring Break ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Week 11: 4/18	Performance Ethnography as Critical Method	Midterm Exam
4/20	Performance Ethnography as Critical Method	RDR: Della Pollock, "Memory, Remembering, and Histories of Change: A Performance Praxis," SAGE Handbook of Performance Studies, 87-105. 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
Week 12: 4/25	Activist Performance view Morality/Mortality	Jill Lane,"Reverend Billy: Preaching, Protest & Postindustrial Flanerie," TDR 46, 1, Spring 2002 California Court Bans Rev. Billy The Village Voice 10/26/2004 RDR: Robert Pincus, "The InvisibleTown Square ...Media Dramas in America's Biggest Border Town," But is it Art?, 1995. Scott Timberg, "Images with a drive-by impact," LA Times, Aug 15 2004 and peruse the Public Speaking exhibit site
4/27	Activist Performance view Morality/Mortality	Baz Kershaw, "Ecoactivist Performance: the Environment as a Partner in Protest?" TDR 46,1, Spring 2002 New: Lynn Smith, United in their Hope for City's Future LA Times, 4/21/2006. Recommended Reading (see assignment guidelines):* choose either: Dwight Conquergood, "Performance Studies: Interventions & Radical Research," TDR 46,2 Summer 2002 or these 2: TDR issue 44,4, Winter 2000: Rebecca Schneider, "Nomadmedia: On Critical Art Ensemble," and "Critical Art Ensemble Timeline" or: TDR 44,4, Winter 2000. "CAE - Tactical Media Practitioners," an interview byJon McKenzie & Rebecca Schneider
Week 13: 5/2		3rd Newsgroup Posting Due Amy Carroll, "Incumbent upon Recombinant Hope: EDT's Strike a Site, Strike a Pose," TDR 47, 2, Summer 2003 Jill Lane, "Digital Zapatistas," TDR 47,2, Summer 2003 Recommended Reading (see assignment guidelines): choose either: Marcy Chvasta, "Anger, Irony, & Protest: Confronting the Issue of Efficacy, Again," TPQ 26,1 (January 2006) 5-16. or: Brian Rusted, "Performing Visual Discourse: Cowboy Art & Institutional Practice," TPQ 26, 2 (April 2006), 115-37. or: Jennifer Iles, "Recalling the Ghosts of War: Performing Tourism on the Battlefields of the Western Front," TPQ 26, 2 (April 2006), 162-80.
5/4		Groups workday in class - meet with me
Week 14: 5/9		Group presentations
5/11		Group presentations cont'd
Week 15: 5/16		Group presentations cont'd
5/18		Group presentations completed Papers due

COMS 301: Performance, Language, & Cultural Studies Spring 2006

COMS 301: Performance, Language, & Cultural Studies
Spring 2006