PERF07047 2019 Postmodernism in Drama and Literature
This module explores the intellectual history of postmodernism, and will consider a range of postmodern styles, political contexts and aesthetic practices for literature and performance. The module examines the work of theatre companies, productions, designers, writers, philosophers and plays in an effort to explore how postmodern performance practice encapsulates some of the definitions of the postmodern and how this transforms the theatrical, performance and literature landscape.
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this module the learner will/should be able to;
Understand the various generic and formal manifestations of postmodernism in writing practices including poetry, fiction and the dramatic arts
Examine the problematic conceptual history of postmodernism
critique a range of writing and performance media from the postmodern framework
understand the visual potential of photography, painting, lighting, colour, mood; or the impact of devising, the internet ‑ facebook and second‑life ‑ on the postmodern moment
investigate the impact of postmodernism on issues such as gender, cultural identity, violence, nationhood and power for example
Teaching and Learning Strategies
Varied strategies for teaching and learning are used from lectures, seminars, workshops, group presentations and collaborative work.
Module Assessment Strategies
Exam ‑ 40%
Term Essay ‑ 20%
Continuous Assessment ‑ 20%
Presentation ‑ 20%
Repeat Assessments
Repeat exam
Indicative Syllabus
Some of the postmodern theorists and writers who have defined the postmodern age will be explored. They include Linda Hutcheon, Robert Wilson, Jean Baudrillard, Robert LePage, Frederic Jameson, Jean Francois Lyotard and Michel Foucault. Writers include James Joyce, W.B. Yeats, T.S. Eliot, Wallace Stevens, Samuel Beckett, Donald Barthelme, Toni Morrison, Don de Lillo, Philip Roth, Virginia Woolf, William Faulkner, David Foster Wallace, Doris Lessing and Zadie Smith.
Coursework & Assessment Breakdown
Coursework Assessment
Title | Type | Form | Percent | Week | Learning Outcomes Assessed | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Postmodernism - attendance, in-class exercises and presentation/performance | Practical | Practical Evaluation | 60 % | OnGoing | 1,2,3,4,5 |
End of Semester / Year Assessment
Title | Type | Form | Percent | Week | Learning Outcomes Assessed | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Postmodernism exam | Final Exam | Open Book Exam | 40 % | Week 15 | 1,2,5 |
Full Time Mode Workload
Type | Location | Description | Hours | Frequency | Avg Workload |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Workshop / Seminar | Flat Classroom | Postmodernism in drama and literature | 3 | Weekly | 3.00 |
Supervision | Flat Classroom | postmodern presentation (with a performance) | 1 | Once Per Module | 0.07 |
Required & Recommended Book List
Supplanting the Postmodern: An Anthology of Writings on the Arts and Culture of the Early 21st Century Bloomsbury
The Illicit Joyce of Postmodernism: Reading Against the Grain University of Wisconsin
20/09/2019 From Modernism to Postmodernism: American Poetry and Theory in the Twentieth Century (Cambridge Studies in American Literature and Culture Book 149) Cambridge University Press
20/10/2019 The Fragmented Female Body and Identity: The Postmodern, Feminist, and Multiethnic Writings of Toni Morrison, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Phyllis Alesia ... and Kathy Acker Peter Lang
20/09/2019 Causey, Matthew, Theatre and Performance in Digital Culture: from simulation to embeddedness Routledge
20/09/2019 The Cambridge Companion to Joyce Cambridge
20/10/2019 Modern/Postmodern: Society, Philosophy, Literature Continuum
Module Resources
Alexander, Christine; McMaster, Juliet, eds. (2005). The Child Writer from Austen to Woolf. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-81293-1.
Attridge,Derek ed.: 1999, The Cambridge Companion to Joyce, (Cambridge UP., Cambridge)
Auslander, Philip. Liveness: Performance in a Mediatized World, (London: Routledge, 1999)
Auslander, Philip. Performing Glam Rock: Gender and Theatricality in Popular Music, (Michigan, University of Michigan, 2006)
Bailes, Sara-Jane. Performance Theatre and the Poetics of Failure, (London: Routledge, 2010)
Barrett, Eileen; Cramer, Patricia, eds. (1997). Virginia Woolf: Lesbian Readings. NYU Press. ISBN 978-0-8147-1263-4.
Beauvoir, Simone de (2015) [1949]. The Second Sex (Vintage Feminism Short Edition). Random House. ISBN 978-1-4735-2191-9. see also The Second Sex
Benstock, Shari, ed. (1988). The Private Self: Theory and Practice of Women's Autobiographical Writings. UNC Press Books. ISBN 978-0-8078-4218-8
Bertens, Johannes Willem and Bertens, Hans, The idea of the postmodern: a history, (London: Routledge, 1995)
Bloom, Harold, ed. (2009). Virginia Woolf. Infobase Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4381-1548-1
Bowker, Gordon (2011). James Joyce : a biography. Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
Burgess, Anthony, Here Comes Everybody: An Introduction to James Joyce for the Ordinary Reader, Faber & Faber (1965). (Published in America as Re Joyce, Hamlyn Paperbacks Rev. ed edition (1982)). ISBN 0-600-20673-4.
Burgess, Anthony, Joysprick: An Introduction to the Language of James Joyce (1973), Harcourt (1975). ISBN 0-15-646561-2.
Causey, Matthew, Theatre and Performance in Digital Culture: from simulation to embeddedness, (London: Routledge, 2009)
Caux, Patrick & Gilbert, Bernard, EX MACHINA: Creating for the Stage, (UK: Talonbooks, 2009)
Clark, Hilary, The Fictional Encyclopaedia: Joyce, Pound, Sollers. Routledge Revivals, 2011. ISBN 978-0-415-66833-0
Cramer, Patricia. Lesbian readings of Woolf's novels: Introduction. pp. 117–127.
Curry, Ginette. Toubab La!: Literary Representations of Mixed-race Characters in the African Diaspora. Newcastle, England: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2007, ISBN 978-1847182319
Davey, Kate, Richard Foreman and the Ontological-Hysteric Theater, (New York: Vintage Books, 1981)
Delgado, Maria M. and Caridad Svich (eds.), Theatre in Crisis?: performance manifestos for a new century, (Manchester University Press, 2002)
Delgado, Maria M. and Caridad Svich (eds.), Theatre in Crisis?: performance manifestos for a new century, (Manchester University Press, 2002)
Dundjerovic, Aleksandar Sasa, The Theatricality of Robert Lepage, (London: Routledge, 2009)
Dundjerovic, Aleksandar Sasa, The Theatricality of Robert Lepage, (London: Routledge, 2009)
Featherstone, Mike. Consumer Culture and Postmodernism, London: Sage, 2007)
Foreman, Richard : Plays and Manifestos (1976) Theatre of Images (1977) No body: A Novel in Parts (1996) Paradise Hotel and Other Plays (2001) Richard Foreman (Art Performance) (2005) Bad Boy Nietzsche! and Other Plays (2005) Manifestos and Essays (forthcoming 2010) Davey, Kate, Richard Foreman and the Ontological Hysteric Theater, (New York: Vintage Books, 1981)
Hammond, Will. Verbatim Theatre: Contemporary Documentary Theatre, (London: Oberon Books, 2008)
Jameson, Frederic. Cultural Turn : Selected Writings on the Postmodern 1983 1998
Jameson, Frederic. Postmodernism, (Duke NC. 1996) Caux, Patrick & Gilbert, Bernard, EX MACHINA: Creating for the Stage, (UK: Talonbooks, 2009) Sandler, Irving, Art Of The Postmodern Era: From The Late 1960s To The Early 1990s, (u.s.: Trade Paperback, 1997) Murphie, Andrew and Potts, Culture and technology, (Palgrave Macmillan, 2003) Bertens, Johannes Willem and Bertens, Hans, The idea of the postmodern: a history, (London: Routledge, 1995) Leitc, Vincent B.,Postmodernism: local effects, global flows, (State University of New York, 1996) Whitmore, Jon, Directing Postmodern Theater: Shaping Signification in Performance, (University of Michigan, 1994)
Leitc, Vincent B.,Postmodernism: local effects, global flows, (State University of New York, 1996)
Liedeke, Plate and Anneke Smelik (eds.), Performing Memory in Art and Popular Culture, (New York: Routledge, 2013)
McHale, Brian and Len Platt (eds.). The Cambridge History of Postmodern Literature, (Cambridge, 2016)
Murphie, Andrew and Potts, Culture and technology, (Palgrave Macmillan, 2003)
Nakamura, Lisa. Cybertypes: Race, Ethnicity and Identity on the Internet, (London: Routledge, 2013)
Perloff, Marjore. Postmodern Genres, (Oklahoma UP, Oklahoma 1998)
Sandler, Irving, Art Of The Postmodern Era: From The Late 1960s To The Early 1990s, (u.s.: Trade Paperback, 1997)
Witmore, Jon, Directing Postmodern Theater: Shaping Signification in Performance, (University of Michigan, 1994)
PMC - online journal - Postmodern Culture - University of California
Project Muse
Digital Humanities Quarterly
The Journal of Digital Scholarship in the Humanities
http://www.cla.purdue.edu/academic/engl/theory/postmodernism
http://www.cla.purdue.edu/academic/engl/theory/postmodernism/modules/baudrillardpostmodernity.html
http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/fr/lyotard.htm
http://www.robertwilson.com
http://www.absolutewilson.com/main.html
http://www.ontological.com
http://www.complicite.org/
http://www.thewoostergroup.org/
http://www.nationaltheatrescotland.com/content/
http://blueraincoat.com/contact.html
Film, Director - Katherina Otto-Bernstein, Absolute Wilson: The Biography, featuring Robert Wilson, Susan Sontag, Philip Glass and David Byrne, 2006
Robert Foreman:
Radio Rick in Heaven and Radio Richard in Hell, film (1987)
Total Rain, video play (1990)
Robert Lepage:
1992: Tectonic Plates
1995: Le Confessional
1997: Le Polygraphe
1998: Nô
2000: Possible Worlds
2003: The Far Side of the Moon
Films: Chuck Palahnuik's Fight Club, David Fincher's The Matrix, Kinji Fukasaku's Japanese movie Battle Royale,
JSTOR http://libguides.itsligo.ie/az.php?a=j
Digital Theatre through IT Sligo's library
Films through IT Sligo's library
Rihard Foreman online:
Plays and Manifestos (1976)
Theatre of Images (1977)
No-body: A Novel in Parts (1996)
Paradise Hotel and Other Plays (2001)
Richard Foreman (Art + Performance) (2005)
Bad Boy Nietzsche! and Other Plays (2005)
Manifestos and Essays (forthcoming 2010)