Critical Theory Emphasis

This course will focus on the complex relationships that characterize and develop between performances and (the technological parameters of) the medium in which they take place.  Of particular emphasis will be critical analysis of acting techniques in moving image technologies (such as on television, in video, and on film) and writings on gestural and emotive performances in still images (such as sculptures, paintings, drawings, photographs, and video performance art).  The course goals will be multi-fold in nature: First, we will review the theoretical arguments pertaining to "still" performances as developed in Art History.  Second, we will read the existing theory and criticism on film and television performance that either draw parallels between or differentiate these performance media from the theatrical stage.  Third, we will address recent theoretical writings on issues of performativity and identity that attempt to throw into question notions of an authentic self and substitute, instead, a performative self. Finally, we will discuss the ways in which performativity (and perspectives on stage performances) can and cannot be applied to still and video performances.  Here, semiotic analysis will be combined with phenomenological approaches to the body as a locus and generator of meaning, whether still or in motion.  Readings will range from the art historical writings of Boime, Fried, Herbert, Lubar, Rosenberg, and Whiting to film and perception theory by Arnheim, Balazs, Bazin, Benjamin, Lindsey, and Pudovkin to the works on performativity, the cinematic body, and phenomenology by Butler, Deleuze, Merleau-Ponty, Metz, Shaviro, and Sobchack.