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Performance and Interpretation

Module description

Performance and Interpretation develops students’ understanding of the complex and contested idea of performance and the variety of ways we might interpret it. It is built around a series of lectures given by departmental staff on their current research in their respective fields and disciplines. This means you are directly engaged with the work that is shaping contemporary performance scholarship. The module sets out to trouble and develop your understanding of research and approaches to it. Come prepared to read, to think, to be challenged, and to reconsider your role as a researcher and make your own discoveries about your research passions.

Incoming international students and Exeter students from other disciplines welcome, subject to availability. In addition to students of drama, performance or theatre studies, this module will engage the interest of students with a background in histories, languages and literatures

Module aims - intentions of the module

This module aims to introduce you to a variety of approaches to defining performances and art-forms and the analysis and interpretation of their significance. By its reliance on cutting-edge research by a selection of staff, it will introduce you to the concept of research in the performing arts.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Understand and examine the terms in which different art forms and kinds of performance may be defined and understood
• 2. Develop a sense of different methodologies applied by researchers in assessing the significance of performances
• 3. Demonstrate an ability to discuss these terms and methodologies orally and in writing

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 4. To initiate and sustain analytic and interpretative work within strict time limits and basic technical competence
• 5. To contribute research to small groups in effective presentations, to evaluate visual evidence and analyse, critique and manipulate complex material
• 6. Utilise research tools effectively
• 7. Apply library and IT skills in independent additional research

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 8. Develop personal research skills using personal initiative; to set personal objectives and to identify and evaluate personal learning strategies
• 9. Develop group cooperation skills, including the ability to give and receive constructive critical feedback and to improve communication skills and analytic abilities in discussions

Syllabus plan

Whilst the content may vary from year to year, it is envisioned that it will cover some or all of the following topics:

This module combines research-led teaching from staff in four contributions of two lectures with an overview provided by the course convenor, who also oversees a skills session and performance analysis workshop lecture and an essay workshop lecture. Each contribution will be in two parts, the first lecture concentrating on the definition of a variety of performance, the second on methodologies of its analysis and interpretation. In both instances, reference will be made to a research context of wider publication and alternative modes of analysis provided by the staff researcher.                  

Lectures will be linked closely to seminars, in which you will debate, discuss and trial the various theoretical lenses and performance analyses, facilitated by their tutor. You will write a critical portfolio assessing two readings of the theories and contexts, and a performance analysis, and will submit one extended and researched essay on a chosen field selected from the lectures.

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 40%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

Basic reading:

• R. Knowles (2014) Reading the Material Theatre Cambridge: CUP
• J. Butler(1990/2010) Gender trouble: feminism and the subversion of identity Oxon: Routledge
• S.Di Benedetto (2010) The Provocation of the Senses in Contemporary Theatre New York: Routledge
• H.Gilbert (1996)Postcolonial Drama: Theory, Practice, Politics London: Routledge
• T.Postlewait (2009) The Cambridge  Companion to Theatre Historiography, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
• S.Riley and L.Hunter (2009) Mapping Landscapes for Performance as Research New York: Palgrave
• E.Striff (2003) Performance Studies, Basingstoke: Palgrave

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

• ELE – https://vle.exeter.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=2081

Key words search

performance, interpretation, methodology