Writing About Performance

Semester and Year	FA 2012
Course Number	WRTNG-UG1034
Section	001
Instructor	Julie Malnig
Days	Mon,Wed
Time	12:30 PM - 1:45 PM
Units	4.0
Level	U
Foundation Requirement

Description

This writing seminar will train students to become critical viewers of performance and translate their "looking" into descriptive and analytical prose. Students will be introduced to a variety of critical strategies and approaches---from formalist to ethnographic to various forms of sociological and cultural criticism---to develop their interpretive skills. These analyses will help students discover how various performance mediums are constituted, how they "work," and how they create meaning for viewers. Assignments will include interviews, artists’ profiles, performance documentations, cultural reviews, and critical and/or theoretical analyses. Occasional group excursions to performances will be arranged, as well as class speakers. Some of the authors, essayists, and artists whose works we may read include: Susan Sontag; Michael Kirby; Edwin Denby; Deborah Jowitt; Joan Acocella; Joyce Carol Oates; Anna Deavere Smith; Spalding Gray; and Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

Course Type

Advanced Writing Courses (WRTNG-UG)