THE DEPARTMENT OF FRENCH
AND ITALIAN is offering a new graduate seminar, FRIT 8230 Resistance in
Feminist/Queer Theory &Theatre this upcoming fall semester. This course
goes beyond the relationship between social movements and theater to hone in on
a critical theory of performance: why and how is theater so important to
feminist and queer thought. This class meets on Thursdays from 2:30 PM – 5:00
PM and is taught by Professor Jennifer Row. For more information, click here or see below.
New Graduate seminar!
Resistance in Queer/Feminist Theatre &Theory (FRIT 8230)
Prof. Jennifer Row
There is something “spectacular” about revolutions: the drama of barriers being broken, the emotion of the crowd. And for feminist and queer activism in particular, the nature of visibility, spectacle and protest has been integral to gains made by groups such as ACT UP! or the Combahee Women’s Collective. This course, however, moves beyond the relationship between social movements and theater to hone in on a critical theory of performance: why and how is theater so important to feminist and queer thought? From Judith Butler’s sense of “performatively” constructed gender to José Estaban Munoz’ theory of “disidentification” in queer of color critique, theatricality and performance studies have lent robust paradigms to queer and feminist theory. In other words, one aspect of this course will examine what theater and queer theory share: troubling the nature of representation, investigating mimesis and secondariness, spectacle and masochism. However, another aspect of this course will look at how queer and feminist thought can put pressure on the theater (and vice-versa); how do the theater’s exigencies of action (drama)
oppose theories of neutral or passive (minimal, bored) resistance? What type of spectatorship does queer and feminist theater elicit? Can the theater stand as realm of change, or is there a sense in which the “revolution can not be televised?”—that is to say, when the powerful sentiments of the disgruntled, disenfranchised, or dispossessed are captured in aesthetic form, does it give legibility or voice, or does it domesticate such affects? The course presents a genealogy of performativity and performance and its relationship to feminist theories and queer critique. Interweaving political philosophy, theater studies, and literary analysis, the course asks students to think speculatively and creatively about the poetics and politics of theatricality, sex, race, and gender.
Prof. Jennifer Row
There is something “spectacular” about revolutions: the drama of barriers being broken, the emotion of the crowd. And for feminist and queer activism in particular, the nature of visibility, spectacle and protest has been integral to gains made by groups such as ACT UP! or the Combahee Women’s Collective. This course, however, moves beyond the relationship between social movements and theater to hone in on a critical theory of performance: why and how is theater so important to feminist and queer thought? From Judith Butler’s sense of “performatively” constructed gender to José Estaban Munoz’ theory of “disidentification” in queer of color critique, theatricality and performance studies have lent robust paradigms to queer and feminist theory. In other words, one aspect of this course will examine what theater and queer theory share: troubling the nature of representation, investigating mimesis and secondariness, spectacle and masochism. However, another aspect of this course will look at how queer and feminist thought can put pressure on the theater (and vice-versa); how do the theater’s exigencies of action (drama)
oppose theories of neutral or passive (minimal, bored) resistance? What type of spectatorship does queer and feminist theater elicit? Can the theater stand as realm of change, or is there a sense in which the “revolution can not be televised?”—that is to say, when the powerful sentiments of the disgruntled, disenfranchised, or dispossessed are captured in aesthetic form, does it give legibility or voice, or does it domesticate such affects? The course presents a genealogy of performativity and performance and its relationship to feminist theories and queer critique. Interweaving political philosophy, theater studies, and literary analysis, the course asks students to think speculatively and creatively about the poetics and politics of theatricality, sex, race, and gender.
Authors studied include: Butler, Sedgwick, Ross, Edelman, Cohen, Anzaldua; Puchner, Weber, Rancière, Boal, Deleuze
Theater texts by Genet, Mouawad, Anouilh, Moraga, Lori-Parks, Kaufman
Theater texts by Genet, Mouawad, Anouilh, Moraga, Lori-Parks, Kaufman
