Seminar as Spectacle [A, F]
Term:
Spring 2009
Subject Code:
GSOC
Course Number:
5200
This course is an attempt to discover how the play element in culture is realized, utilizing Huizinga�s Homo Ludens as a starting point text. We intend to examine the dramaturgical way of knowing that will include the works of Turner, Goffman, Zerubavel, Brecht, Baraka, Mamet, Bateson, Beckett, Grotowski, Garfinkle, Pirandello, Lyman, Jarry and others. These readings will form part of a sociology of theater and engage the following strategic research sites: a local medical school (the original theater), professional wrestling events, baseball games, On and Off Broadway theaters, drag balls, fashion shows, con games, subway musicians (as street theater), mendicancy, underground theater, Hip-Hop shows, and one circus performance. Students will be required to attend at least three events, construct narratives, discuss and make presentations. A final paper is encouraged.
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