How might an analysis of
performance lead us toward new epistemologies of race? This course explores contemporary criticism,
archival sources, and multimedia materials in order to ask questions about
race, gender, and the politics of performance in the 20th and 21st century. We will engage recent works
in black performance studies and sound studies alongside poetry, fiction,
video, sound, and live events. Topics will encompass Afro-diasporic
exchange, black women's vocality, queer of color
"disidentification," and eccentric race-blurring and
gender-bending performances. We will consider writing and performance as
interfacing mediums, not merely defined by influence but by mutual
transformation. Our lens is decidedly transnational: we chart the ways
that performance travels, buoyed by historical events, social movements, and
developments in technology.
This course is
appropriate for students with broad interests in interdisciplinary work, race,
gender, embodiment, transnationalism, and performance aesthetics. Students
are encouraged develop projects informed by their own areas of specialization.
Required Texts
Taylor,
Performance*
McMillan,
Uri Embodied Avatars: Genealogies of
Black Feminist Art and Performance*
Alvarado,
Abject Performances: Aesthetic Strategies
in Latino Cultural Production*
Snorton,
Black on Both Sides: A Racial History of
Trans Identity*
Vogel,
Black Fad Performance and the Calypso
Craze
Herrera,
Latin Numbers: Playing Latino in 20th
Century U.S. Popular Performance
Vazquez,
Listening In Detail: Performances of
Cuban Music
Campt,
Listening to Images
Fiol-Matta,
The Great Woman Singer: Gender and Voice
in Puerto Rican Music*
Jones,
Gayl, Corregidora
Henriques,
Sonic Bodies: Reggae Sound Systems,
Performance Techniques, and Ways of Knowing
Jones,
The Muse is Music: Jazz Poetry from the
Harlem Renaissance to Spoken Word
Nyong’o, Afro-Fabulations:
The Queer Drama of Black Life
Musser, Sensual Excess: Queer Femininity and Brown
Jouissance
