Communication performances are best studied, theorized, and evaluated as competent or not by jointly examining both the performers and their audiences.

In that simple statement is to be found the central argument of this course. Dramaturgical theory  traditionally has focused on actors, their motivations, and their performances; cultural studies  in recent years has focused on socially situated audiences and their comparative capacities for meaning-making. In putting in dialogue tenets of dramaturgical theory and Cultural Studies, this course looks for ways of interpenetrating two social research paradigms. And, because those paradigms are being used to deal particularly with communication phenomena, questions of textualization  are paramount: what kinds of texts connect performers and their audiences?

The texts we generally will concern with ourselves are political texts  (though seminarians may pursue other sorts of texts in their own work). And so, with political texts as our principal focus, we are driven to the matter of specularity,  as the political arenas of our time are unremittingly visual playgrounds. Political performances are not only heard and read about, but they are seen in news clips, advertisements, public service announcements on television, information services available over the World Wide Web from political parties and other political partisans, newspaper photos, illustrated pamphlets, buttons and bumperstickers, icons imbued with political significance, decorated political halls, and the very architecture of governmental buildings. While the effectiveness of political performances is always a rhetorical concern, in this course we often will turn to competence as an evaluative criterion, given its relevance to dramaturgical thought.

Dramaturgy theory, cultural studies, textualization, political texts, specularity, and competence--these concepts define the core concepts that underlie the central argument of this proseminar. To develop the argument, we will discuss a series of readings constructing various subsections of the overall argument.

Dennis Brisset and Charles Edgley, eds., Life as Theater: A Dramaturgical Sourcebook.  2nd ed. New York: Aldine de Gruyter, 1990.

Murray Edelman, Constructing the Political Spectacle.  Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988.

Guy Debord, Society of the Spectacle.  Detroit: Black & Red, 1983. Orig. pub. 1967; orig. trans. 1971. (A new--better, but more expensive--translation is available.)

Chris Jenks, ed., Visual Culture.  New York: Routledge, 1995.

Susan Jeffords and Lauren Rabinovitz, eds., Seeing Through the Media: The Persian Gulf War.  New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1994.

Additional pieces of works will be handed out.

WORKLOAD:

2 credits: final paper (negotiate a topic with Gronbeck)

3 credits: final paper plus a concept paper (5-8 page paper on a concept central to dramaturgical theories of communication)

4 credits: final paper, concept paper, and annotated bibliography

INSTRUCTOR:

Bruce E. Gronbeck 1:30-2:30 MF, 2:30-4:00 T (BCSB)

5-0580 (157 BCSB), 2:00-3:30 W (BSQ), others by appointment

5-2753 (105 BSQ),

628-4033 (home)

SYLLABUS (tentative):

8/25 Introduction to class; background to visuality, dramaturgy

Dramaturgical Theory and Critical Practice

9/8 The Dramaturgical Perspective

Dennis Brisset and Charles Edgley, eds., Life as Theater: A Dramaturgical Sourcebook., Part I (pp. 1-46), Appendix I (pp. 411-418), handouts

9/12 The Social as Drama

Dennis Brisset and Charles Edgley, eds., Life as Theater: A Dramaturgical Sourcebook., Part II, Chapters 1-5 (pp. 47-111)

9/15 The Self as Actor

Dennis Brisset and Charles Edgley, eds., Life as Theater: A Dramaturgical Sourcebook., Chapters 6-10 (pp. 113-199)

9/22 Motives and Motivation

Dennis Brisset and Charles Edgley, eds., Life as Theater: A Dramaturgical Sourcebook., Part IV (pp. 201-280)

9/26 Organizational Dramas

Dennis Brisset and Charles Edgley, eds., Life as Theater: A Dramaturgical Sourcebook., Part V (pp. 281-345)

9/29 Political Dramas

Dennis Brisset and Charles Edgley, eds., Life as Theater: A Dramaturgical Sourcebook., Part VI (pp. 347-410)

handouts

10/3 Multiple Senses of `Performance'

handouts

Specularity and Contemporary Politics

10/6 Ocularity and Politics

handout of Martin Jay, Barbara Stafford

Murray Edelman, Constructing the Political Spectacle, The Whole Book

10/13 The Downside of Specular Politics

Continue Edelman (if necessary), Debord, handout

CONCEPT PAPER DUE: SHORT REPORTS FROM EACH SEMINARIAN

10-20 NO CLASS. DO ASSIGNED VIEWING AND PREPARE A SHORT REPORT.

Visual Culture

10/27 Reports on viewing assignment.

Chris Jenks, ed., Visual Culture. , Chapter 1.

handouts (maybe)

11/3 Case Studies

Chris Jenks, ed., Visual Culture, Chapters 2-9 (pp. 26-95); show "Triumph of the Will"

11/10 Case Studies

Chris Jenks, ed., Visual Culture, Chapters 10-14 (pp. 170-259); show body politics

 

The Case of Television Warfare

11/17 War to War: The Deadly Hermeneutic

Susan Jeffords and Lauren Rabinovitz, eds., Seeing Through the Media: The Persian Gulf War. , Introduction (pp. 1-17)

Susan Jeffords and Lauren Rabinovitz, eds., Seeing Through the Media: The Persian Gulf War. , pp. 19-76

11/24 Televising Death

Susan Jeffords and Lauren Rabinovitz, eds., Seeing Through the Media: The Persian Gulf War. , pp. 77-142

The Home Guard

Susan Jeffords and Lauren Rabinovitz, eds., Seeing Through the Media: The Persian Gulf War. , pp. 143-204

12/1 Valuing Death

Susan Jeffords and Lauren Rabinovitz, eds., Seeing Through the Media: The Persian Gulf War. , 205-300

Afterword . . .

Susan Jeffords and Lauren Rabinovitz, eds., Seeing Through the Media: The Persian Gulf War. , pp. 301-306

The Issues Involved in Constructing a Visual Rhetoric of

(Political) Culture

12/8 FINAL PAPER DUE: SHORT PRESENTATIONS ON EACH PAPER

(hand out a one-page summary, plus bibliography)

Plan on meeting at Gronbeck's house for a final supper meeting.

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