Now that you have read chapters one and two in the Schechner book, please respond to at least two of the following prompts. Your responses should be long enough to address the functional issues--in most cases, about one paragraph per comment. By class on Thursday, you should each have posted at least two comments on this reading. The sooner you are able to post, the better the chance that you can spark dialogue with your fellow students.
•Discuss this week's text "as" performance.
•Select the passage that is the most unclear, obscure, or unpersuasive to your perspective. Examine what it could mean, why you object to it, how you assume it operates within the context of the rest of the reading, and/or a point you think the passage is overlooking.
•If there is an artist/scholar/historical figure mentioned in the text that you were previously well aware of, discuss how her or his inclusion in this reading is fitting according to your understanding or enlarges your perception of this person's cultural/historical/intellectual impact. What do you know about this figure that the rest of us may not?
•How does the variety of institutional treatments of Performance Studies presented serve to elucidate your understanding of the field and to justify its validity?
Please also email me as soon as you have set up your del.icio.us page with the address so that I can give you credit for your four links this week. This should also be done before the start of class on Thursday. If you have problems with or questions about setting up a del.icio.us page, feel free to email me.
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10 comments:
I have been aware of John Cage for awhile so his inclusion was at the very least interesting. I didn't really understand how he was being related to Werner Heisenberg on page 44. It seemed more like it was a stretch to get them together by using the word "indeterminacy" as a link between them. Either way I like the John Cage refrence simply because John Cage interests me. The book briefly mentions his intrest in mushrooms, it should be noted that his interest was lifelong and that he even co-founded a Mycological Society, basically people who share an interest in fungi.
I first want to say, sorry about the deleted comment if it is still up there, I have never used this before and was still messing around. Anywho, this reading as as a performance, I never really thought of text books as a performance. I guess you could say that stories are a kind of performance because you imagine them and if they are good enough they catch your interest and you are placed in that world. In regards to this reading though, that didn't happen, but if you look on page 46 with the seven functions of performance I would say it could fall easily under number 6. As I was reading this and things for other classes, art history and jazz, I realized that they rely more on trying to persuade then trying to teach. By doing that they way they are written changes. Take the dictionary for example, that is more to teach in terms of performance, the news would be more in terms of to persuade. I think this book hints at parts that are made to entertain by the fact that there are some 1st person parts and there are also some parts that are made to teach but I would say that for the most part it relies mostly on trying to convince as its way of performance.
How does the variety of institutional treatments of Performance Studies presented serve to elucidate your understanding of the field and to justify its validity?
When I first started reading I did not understand why different institutions would enforce different teaching methods, such as NYU's syllabus of performing arts focusing on the theatre and more actual performances of the subject. Whereas, Northwestern University focused mainly on the rhetoric, communication, or vocal explanations of performing arts. What both of these colleges made me realize is that performing arts cannot be looked at from either perspective, as a topic of study it is far too broad and both areas must be included to make a proper evaluation of the subject. What I also realized is that you cannot validate or truly comprehend the act of performing without being able to converse or explain what you're trying to understand. So both ways of approaching performing arts are just fine, but not encompassing enough alone. This justifies the validity because it proves that each college can explain or show performing arts but it is too small a topic to be explained just one way, be it verbal or active.
Though the author promisies to expand upon this idea in chapter 8, his discussion of a "new world order", "rogue states", and "fundamentalists" and the stigma that surrounds them in conjunction with globalization and the internet left me confused. It seems to be extremelu subjective for the book to open with. (Despite the fact that I agree with him)
I find the mention of James Joyce to be an interesting aside in the section in which Schechner is disussing the decline in "epic" or "big" novels such as Tolstoy's War and Peace or Joyce's Ulysses and Finnegan's Wake. I find this somewhat interesting as the author ignores Dubliners and Joyce's other shorts that were quite different than his long works while simultaneously ignoring series such as Harry Potter (which I am absolutely in-no-way comparing to Joyce's works on any level!, which spanning a series of 10 novels or so could be described as nothing but big.
This and the following paragraph seem to make the auther out as being somewhat behind the times and he seems to long for a past before recorded visual media. It gives an extremely dated feel to the first chapter of his book.
When reading the text and discovering Plato's ideals and biases toward theprefrming arts and thetre I was slightly shocked to think thaat such a great philosopher could have negative views on such an encompassing subject. I then read on to see that Aristotle, Plato's apprentice, redeemed the arts. In the text it says, "Far from wanting to avoid the emotions, Aristotle wanted to arouse, understand, and purge their deletrious effects." His opposing views in favor of the arts is brave considering his teacher and "visionary" as one might say had such a different opposition. I believe since he wrote such deep material and the lasting impact is has on society and education today really reinforces my beliefs in the nature of studying and supporting performing arts. It makes it apparent that in order to be a true scholar you must embrace all areas of knowledge.
The variety of treatments of Performance Studies in the text attempts to broaden the field of behavorial/cultural studies beyond the genre of traditional performance. In this way, everyday norms of behavior are shown to be learned performances that vary from time to time and culture to culture. This allows for a more concise understanding of culture.
This weeks text can be viewed "as" performance because anything can be studied as a performance. This text for example is an attempt to convince the reader of the validity of Performance Studies. Secechner does not reveal details of his life or scholarly endeavors that are irrelevant to his argument. He is showing us what he wants us to see. He is representing Performance Studies as valid field worthy of a text to be studied.
I never thought of reading "as" performance before, and I read a lot. I agree that most people when they read a novel imagine the story in their minds, but that usually is not true of textbooks. There is just too much information to take in and process, but just the act of opening the book can be a performance. Thinking in terms of studying anything "as" performance, we can also ask questions like: How do students study?, Where do most read?, Is it easier to study/read with noise in teh background or total silence. I personally study with a movie in the background cause it engages part of my mind and I get more out of the reading then I would if it was totally silent. I find it funny that he says "this textbook is a book about the world becoming less of a book." Makes you kind of wonder if reading should be considered a performance then.
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