Subject Area: Theatre and Performance Studies

ARTS2121 is the core course for the Theatre and Performance Studies Major. It investigates the current state of the field of Theatre and Performance Studies regarding critical reception, repertoire and performance making. The course focuses on theoretical perspectives that have had considerable impact on contemporary Western theatre and performance. Perspectives may include: postmodernism, poststructuralism, cultural materialism, feminism, psychoanalysis, postcolonialism etc. Aspects of these frameworks explored in this course include: their relation to the countercultural movements and arts practices of the 1960s and 70s; their usefulness as analytical tools for performance commentators; and the varied ways in which they have been played out in seminal experimental works by playwrights and performance companies from contemporary Europe, North America and Australia.