Language and Performance
Professors Dennis Tedlock and Charles Bernstein
Course Numbers: ENG 694 A & B, COL 718, APY 694
Spring 1993
Time: Thursdays 2 to 5 PM
Location: 438 Clemens Hall
Requirements
- Weekly one-page response paper on reading: make enough copies to distribute to entire seminar.
- Response papers are due whether or not there is a guest and are welcome on any of the Wednesday at 4 events or Thursday at 12:30 events.
- Full-length research paper on related topic due May 6.
Note: Wednesdays at 4 and Thursdays at 12:30 events are an integral part of the course. Books related to the visiting artists are available at Talking Leaves.
Texts
- Required and supplemental texts are available at Talking Leaves (TL) and Lockwood Reserve (L).
- X refers to the xerox booklet sold at the first class; "handout" refers to additional xerox material distributed in class.
- X2 is the second xerox booklet for classes after March 18.
Folklore, Cultural Performance, and Popular Entertainment, ed. by Richard Bauman, is a good general introduction and is required at TL.
Schedule
- January 28: Introduction
- February 4: Sound Theory/Theory of Sound
- Garrett Stewart, Reading Voices (X; TL, L)
- Roland Barthes, "Listening" (X)
- Reuven Tsur, What Makes Sound Patterns Expressive (TL, L)
- Roman Jakobson, "Quest for the Essence of Language" (X)
- February 11: Sound Theory/Theory of Sound 2
- Dennis Tedlock, The Spoken Word (TL): selected chapters
- Lévi-Strauss (handout)
- February 18: Performance Theory
- Bernstein, "On Theatricality" and "Applied Monk" (X)
- Michael Fried, "Art and Objecthood" (X)
- Richard Schechner, from Performance Theory (X)
- Bauman: selected sections
- February 25: Wystan Curnow visit
- Drucker (X)
- Sayre, The Line in Postmodern Poetry; L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E Lines and Fraser's essay (L)
- Leiris and Lounsbury (handouts)
- March 4: Rothenberg visit
- Technicians of the Sacred (TL, L)
- "Total Translation" (X)
- Recommended: various Rothenberg texts (L)
- Bauman: selected sections
- Kurt Schwitters (handout/audiotape)
- March 11: Richard Foreman visit
- Unbalancing Acts (TL, L)
- TDR interview (X)
- Recommended: Reverberation Machines and Plays and Manifestos (L)
- March 18: Theory and Practice of Total and Performable Translation
- Seitel (X)
- X2 packet
- Bauman: selected sections
- Recommended: Evers, Fabian, Price, Dauenhauer
- March 25: Frame Analysis
- Erving Goffman, Frame Analysis (TL, L)
- Starobinski/Saussure (X)
- Derrida's Glas (supplemental)
- Moles and info theory (X2)
- Bauman: selected sections
- Recommended: Goffman, Interaction Ritual; Bernstein, "Frame Lock"
- April 1: NEW COAST FESTIVAL (No class in 438 Clemens)
- April 15: Performing Language
- Antin, selected poems and Talking at the Boundaries (L)
- Tedlock (X2), chapter 2
- Cage (X2)
- Possibly McCaffery and others (X2)
- Jessica Prinz, Art Discourse/Discourse in Art (L)
- Henry Sayre, The Object of Performance (L)
- April 22: The Limits of Music/The Possibilities of Song
- Kahn & Whitehead, eds: Wireless Imagination (X2, L)
- Lakoff sound symbolism notes (X)
- Ratcliffe: Campion, On Song (X2)
- Jacques Attali, Noise (L)
- Andrew Welsh, Roots of Lyric (L)
- Bauman: selected sections
- April 29: Music Theater
- Video of Lenny Paschen Show by Ben Yarmolinsky and C. Bernstein
- May 6: Last Class
Required Books
- Bauman, Richard, Folklore, Cultural Performances, and Popular Entertainments
- Foreman, Richard, Unbalancing Acts
- Goffman, Erving, Frame Analysis: An Essay on the Organization of Experience
- Rothenberg, Jerome, Technicians of the Sacred
- Tedlock, Dennis, The Spoken Word and the Work of Interpretation
Recommended Books
- Antin, David, Talking at the Boundaries
- Attali, Jacques, Noise: The Political Economy of Music
- Evers, Larry & Felipe S. Molina, Yaqui Deer Songs/Maso Bwikam: A Native American Poetry
- Fabian, Johannes, Power and Performance: Ethnographic Explorations through Proverbial Wisdom and Theater in Shaba, Zaire
- Foreman, Richard, Reverberation Machines
- Jakobson, Roman, Language in Literature
- Price, Richard & Sally Price, Two Evenings in Saramaka
- Schechner, Richard, Essays on Performance Theory
- Stewart, Garrett, Reading Voices: Literature and the Phonotext
- Tedlock, Dennis, Finding the Center: Narrative Poetry of the Zuni Indians
- Tsur, Reuven, What Makes Sound Patterns Expressive? The Poetic Mode of Speech Perception
- Welsh, Andrew, Roots of Lyric: Primitive Poetry and Modern Poetics
Reserved Books and Articles at Lockwood Library
- Antin, David, Selected Poems, 1963-1973
- Antin, David, Talking at the Boundaries
- Attali, Jacques, Noise: The Political Economy of Music
- Bernstein, Charles, A Conversation with Richard Foreman from TDR, Fall 1992
- Dauenhauer, Nora Marks & Richard Dauenhauer, Haa Tuwunáagu Yís, for Healing Our Spirit: Tlingit Oratory
- Evers, Larry & Felipe S. Molina, Yaqui Deer Songs/Maso Bwikam: A Native American Poetry
- Fabian, Johannes, Power and Performance: Ethnographic Explorations Through Proverbial Wisdom and Theater in Shaba, Zaire
- Foreman, Richard, Reverberation Machines
- Foreman, Richard, Plays and Manifestos
- Foreman, Richard, Unbalancing Acts
- Goffman, Erving, Frame Analysis: An Essay on the Organization of Experience
- Goffman, Erving, Interaction Ritual: Essays in Face-To-Face Behavior
- Kahn & Whitehead, Wireless Imagination
- Prinz, Jessica, Art Discourse/Discourse in Art
- performance syl.doc
- Rothenberg, Jerome, Pre-Faces & Other Writings
- Rothenberg, Jerome, Poems for the Game of Silence, 1960-1970
- Rothenberg, Jerome, Poland/1931
- Rothenberg, Jerome, Khurbn & Other Poems
- Rothenberg, Jerome, Vienna Blood & Other Poems
- Rothenberg, Jerome, Technicians of the Sacred
- Sayre, Henry, The Line in Postmodern Poetry
- Sayre, Henry, The Object of Performance: The American Avant-Garde Since 1970
- Schechner, Richard, Essays on Performance Theory
- Seitel, Peter, See So That We May See: Performances And Interpretations of Traditional Tales from Tanzania
- Stewart, Garrett, Reading Voices: Literature and the Phonotext
- Tedlock, Dennis, The Spoken Word and the Work of Interpretation
- Tedlock, Dennis, “The Story of Evenadam” and “Trying This Erotic Thing” from Breath on the Mirror: Voices and Visions from the World of Mayan Myths
- Titon, Jeff, Powerhouse for God: Speech, Chant, and Song in an Appalachian Baptist Church
- Tsur, Reuven, What Makes Sound Patterns Expressive? The Poetic Mode of Speech Perception
- Vicuña, Cecilia, Unravelling Words and the Weaving of Water
- Welsh, Andrew, Roots of Lyric: Primitive Poetry and Modern Poetics