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Cultures of the Street

Module description

This module explores ‘the street’ as a ‘stage’ for a diverse range of performance cultures and practices. We will consider the social, political and cultural significance of street performance, asking questions about how and why a variety of formal and informal performative practices might have made use of public space. We will consider the historical span of ‘street’ performance culture, from carnival to hip-hop, engaging with a range of practices which might include busking, begging, protest, flash mobs, flaneurship, break dance, street theatre, religious sermons and performance poetry. We will consider the role of the street in political discourse relating to class, race and gender and how such discourses are ‘performed’.

Module aims - intentions of the module

 The module aims to: 

• Introduce you to the theoretical and practice-based engagements with notions of ‘the street’ in both historical and contemporary contexts
• Consider the street as a ‘stage’ for both public and political discourse and formal and informal performance forms
• Explore different conceptions of the street throughout history and explore the role of the street in creating and sustaining discourses surrounding race, class and gender in different social, cultural and historical contexts
• Explore the role of public space in the development of significant performance forms and performative actions including carnival, protests and hip hop
• Contribute to your future employability potential by giving you a deeper awareness of the range of performance forms and the relationship between performance, political structure and the governance of public space

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

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

• 1. Understand the significance of public space in the development of a range of historical and contemporary performance practices
• 2. Make links between specific creative, artistic and social practices and the politics and governance of the city space
• 3. Articulate the relationship between emerging theoretical conceptions of public space and the realisation of performance forms in a range of historical and contemporary international contexts

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

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

• 4. Contribute research to small groups in effective presentations, to evaluate visual evidence and analyse, critique and manipulate complex material
• 5. Explore practical concerns through theoretical material, and to synthesise findings in practical and written tasks
• 6. Apply library and IT skills in independent additional research

ILO: Personal and key skills

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

• 7. Develop advanced personal research skills using personal initiative; to set personal objectives that are linked to a sense of challenge and extending boundaries and to identify and evaluate personal learning strategies that are self-critical as much as self-reflective
• 8. Develop group cooperation skills, including the ability to give and receive constructive critical feedback, and to improve communication skills and advanced 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:

• Key contemporary and historical practices which use ‘the street’ as a stage or context
• Theoretical approaches to the street and to public space – making connections between the practical and theoretical conceptions of street life
• Student-led presentations on the application of key ideas to performance contexts
• Further examples in context and a chance to develop individual research interests

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

• Cohen-Cruz, J. 1998. Radical Street Performance : An International Anthology . Routledge.
• Humphrey, C. 2001. The Politics of Carnival: Festival Misrule in Medieval England . Manchester University Press.
• Nield, S. 2012.. Siting the People: power, protest and public space. Performing Site-Specific Theatre. Birch, A. & Tompkins, J. (eds.). Palgrave Macmillan
• Stanziola, J. 2015. Casco Viejo Walks, Interventions , 17:6, 866-878
• Tanenbaum, S.J. 1995. Underground Harmonies: Music and Politics in the Subways of New York . Cornell University Press
• White, Edmund. 2015. The Flaneur . Bloomsbury.
• Woldu, G.H. 2010. The Kaleidoscope of Writing on Hip-Hop Culture. Notes. 67.1, 9-38.

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

• ELE – https://vle.exeter.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=6164

Key words search

Street performance, culture, politics, public space