Department of Comparative Literature Fall 2006

The Arts Today:
From 1950 to the Present
Prof. Angela Pao,  T4:00-6:30

*This course satisfies A&H and CS requirements

This class will examine major tendencies in the performing and
visual arts since the 1950s.  These tendencies involve the blurring
of the distinctions between art and non-art and between creative and
critical texts; the development of intercultural or transcultural
forms of performance; and an increased interaction among different
art forms.  We will focus on live performance works that integrate
verbal, visual, auditory and kinesthetic forms of expression. Major
concerns will be the self-referentiality of many of these texts as
well as the disappearance of the “author” and the simultaneous
foregrounding of environmental, participatory, and concept art.
Finally, we shall consider how these various tendencies have
challenged conventional concepts of “art.”

The writers and artists whose works we will study include Antonin
Artaud, Pina Bausch, Samuel Beckett, John Cage, Merce Cunningham,
Marcel Duchamp, Robert Wilson, Peter Brook, Ariane Mnouchkine, Ping
Chong, Robert LePage.

Undergraduate Assignments:
Midterm exam
7-8 page paper
Creative/critical final project.

Graduate Assignments:
18-20 page research paper with annotated bibliography