THDA 260 - Performance Studies Praxis: Avant Garde Arts and the Social

In this introductory course we examine the key issues and methods of Avant-garde performance, performance art, and Performance Studies. Focusing on a poetics of “revolution,” we study the theory and practices of aesthetic inquiry within and beyond the conventions of cosmopolitan modernisms. Students of performance studies examine the trajectory of body and performance art from early 20th century Avant-garde practices through the contemporary period in which performance has become a vehicle to explore identities of gender, sexuality, race and issues of power. The representational critiques of literary, sonic, somatic, visual, and theatre arts guide our study. Offered yearly. (4 Credits)