17406
Graduate Course
WiSe 16/17: HS-Literature and Media: Theatre of Violence
André Otto
Comments
Violence is not only a central theme of drama, but can be considered to be constitutive of the institution of theatre itself. At the same time, violence poses a problem of, and for, any kind of representation, but particularly for theatrical representation. How can acts of violence be represented on stage? How does the representation of violence complicate or foreground the forms of mediation in the theatrical communicative system? Which theatrical functions, as opposed to the dramatic uses of violence with regard to plot and character, does violence serve? How does violence become a medium of theatrical self-reflection? It is these semiological problems that will be at the heart of this course. The focus will be on the theatre of Sarah Kane and Howard Barker and the different forms of violence they deal with. These 20th-century approaches to a post-dramatic theatre will be introduced and contrasted, however, with Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus and Kleist’s Penthesilea, and complemented by theoretical conceptualisations both of the forms and functions of violence and of theatres of violence, such as Antonin Artaud’s notion of the theatre of cruelty, or Howard Barker’s theatre of catastrophe. close
16 Class schedule
Regular appointments
Tue, 2016-10-18 16:00 - 18:00
Tue, 2016-10-25 16:00 - 18:00
Tue, 2016-11-01 16:00 - 18:00
Tue, 2016-11-08 16:00 - 18:00
Tue, 2016-11-15 16:00 - 18:00
Tue, 2016-11-22 16:00 - 18:00
Tue, 2016-11-29 16:00 - 18:00
Tue, 2016-12-06 16:00 - 18:00
Tue, 2016-12-13 16:00 - 18:00
Tue, 2017-01-03 16:00 - 18:00
Tue, 2017-01-10 16:00 - 18:00
Tue, 2017-01-17 16:00 - 18:00
Tue, 2017-01-24 16:00 - 18:00
Tue, 2017-01-31 16:00 - 18:00
Tue, 2017-02-07 16:00 - 18:00
Tue, 2017-02-14 16:00 - 18:00