Ateneo - UPO

Performing race in British theatre, performance and live art,from the post-war period to the present.

* DeFrantz-Gonzalez, a cura di, Black Performance Theory (Duke UP 2014)
* L. Goddard, Staging Black Feminisms (Palgrave Macmillan 2007)
* Jami Rogers, British Black and Asian Shakespeareans: Integrating Shakespeare, 1966-2018 (Bloomsbury Arden 2022)
* Harvey Young, Theatre and Race (Red Globe Press 2013)

* To provide an overview of contemporary Black British theatre, performance and live art from the 1960s to the present day through its most varied forms * To learn how to describe a performance from visual sources and to reconstruct historical performances on the basis of documents and visual archives.
Learning to analyse theatrical texts by discussing their most significant aspects.
* To put into practice through the viewing of performances the student's ability to be an active and self-reflective spectator, including through the writing of memoirs

English B2 level.
Ability to write an argumentative essay in English.

Lectures; group discussions of audiovisual materials; watching live performances as integral part of the module.

All materials on artists and companies examined in the module will be found on the DIR page of the module.

This program is designed to be consistent with Goals 4, 5, 16) of the UNESCO 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (Quality Education, Reducing Gender Gap; Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions).

For all: a written paper in English of 10 pages plus bibliography, on a topic agreed with the lecturer. All those who cannot attend at least 80% of the lectures, in addition to the written paper mentioned above, will have to upload short assignments to demonstrate that they have studied the texts and materials shared on the DIR.
For all: two memoirs (min. 5 pages) on shows indicated by the lecturer that the students will have to go and see. Assessment weight: paper 90%, memoir 10%.
The writing of the paper allows the student to examine a case study of an artist or company through the documentation of two shows or a theatre text, in order to put into practice the tools of analysis and description exemplified in class. The two memoirs will allow the student to develop the capacity for attention, reflection and writing from the active role of a spectator of two live performances.

The module offers a basic introduction and methodology for theatre and performance studies, focusing on the interdisciplinary notion of 'performance', particularly as applied to 'race'; it presents a sampling of Black theatre and performance produced in Britain, post-war to the present day, to concretely discuss the concepts developed in the theoretical part. Students will have the opportunity to discuss visual documentation material. The module compulsorily includes the viewing of two shows recommended by the lecturer through the writing of memoirs as an example of the spectator's "affective archive". The materials will be in both Italian and English, aimed at the two types of students: English Literature A spec and the borrowed module of Theatre Literature and Performance.

* Objective - Knowledge and ability to understand: to acquire a basic knowledge of the main forms of contemporary Black British theatre (including various performance forms); to have greater tools to be able to describe and reconstruct a contemporary performing arts performance and to analyse a theatrical text * Objective - Applied knowledge and ability to Understand: a more developed interest in contemporary theatre and performing arts, supported by a greater awareness of the importance of the spectator in the creation of meaning