28126 - Theories and Cultures of Representation (LM)

Academic Year 2021/2022

  • Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures
  • Campus: Bologna
  • Corso: Second cycle degree programme (LM) in Music and Theatre Studies (cod. 8837)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course the student will: acquire basic theorical-methodological tools for studying and understanding theatre facts, included those belonging to the field of music. The student also will: - acquire advanced knowledge about the study of theatre (musical theatre included) and theatre theory, that by now must go together with necessary intercultural and transcultural approach on live arts, and which must be able to integrate the contributions coming from "hard" sciences, of course beyond those from history and humanities; - command interdisciplinary theorical-methodological tools, necessary for future artistic, critical, organisational activities in the fields of live arts.

Course contents

Period: February 07 - April 27, 2022

Days:
Monday 11h-13h
Tuesday 11h-13h
Wednesday 9h-11h in the Auditorium until 9 March 2021. From 23 March - Wednesday 11h-13h Marescotti Hall.

Course title: Vocal techniques and care of the self

From the beginning, theatre has been the place of the voice.

Man cries, and for man the animal cries, but also the wind, the cloud and the water, as well as the trees and every entity. Thus, the sound expresses the astonished dismay - the thauma - before the becoming of the world. Lamentation is its original form.

In order to give substance to this assumption, which at first sight appears axiomatic, we will start from a consideration: every sound is a voice, not all voices are words, every word is sound. This is our starting point: everything is voice.

In order to understand vocal techniques within the horizon of contemporary theatre - and, therefore, its roots, firmly rooted in music - it is necessary to turn first to sound. On the other hand, the phōnē to which figures such as Antonin Artaud, Louis Jouvet, Carmelo Bene, Leo De Berardinis, Ermanna Montanari, Mariangela Gualtieri or Chiara Guidi refer in various ways, just to mention some of the artists we are going to analyse, refers to a voice that is not a vehicle of communication and sense, but an exploration of sound.

The sound of which we speak - and to which phōnē is connected - is there, but not yet completely manifest; in all evidence we should say that it is there, that it has always been there, immanent, yet not perceptible. It is in this sense that the background sound becomes a "vocation" - literally an emission of voice - that must be accepted: the sound is the matrix, while the voice is the way in which it gives itself as a memory of its first manifestation.

Here sound becomes a way of conducting the voice. Entering the voice - practising phōnē for the artists mentioned above - therefore means coming out of the partiality of one's own individual voice in order to bring it back to the whole, to the bed of that sound from which the cosmos moves and from which the body that emits it descends: every single voice is then a finite portion of an in-finite sound extension, which always exceeds every contingency. The poets of the scene we are talking about thus name the world, showing it as a radical representation. Here, vocal techniques become a form of self-care, a way of living and conducting existence.

 


Readings/Bibliography

Bibliography (12 CFU)

1)- E. Montanari, E. Pitozzi, Cellula. Anatomia dello spazio scenico, Macerata, Quodlibet, 2021.

2)- V. Valentini (a cura di), Drammaturgie sonore II, Roma, Bulzoni, (dicembre 2021).

3)- L. Amara, P. Di Matteo, Teatri di voce - numero monografico della rivista «Culture Teatrali», n. 20. Lucca, La casa Usher, 2011.

4)- un libro a scelta tra:

a)- L. Mancini, Luigi Rasi. La declamazione come scienza nuova, Milano-Udine, Mimesis Edizioni, 2021.

b)- L. Mancini, Carmelo Bene: fonti della poetica. Milano-Udine, Mimesis Edizioni, 2020.

c)- L. Cardilli S. Vallauri, L’arte orale. Poesia, musica, performance, Torino, Accademia University Press, 2020.

d)- E. De Martino, Morte e pianto rituale. Dal lamento funebre antico al pianto di Maria, Torino, Einaudi, 2021.

e)- I. Ferber, P. Schwebel (a cura di), Lament in Jewish Thought: Philosophical, Theological, and Literary Perspectives, Berlino, De Gruyter, 2017.

5)- Lesson notes

 

For students not attending the exam consists of an oral interview on the texts in the bibliography + one book among these:

a)- G. Manzella, La bellezza amara. Arte e vita di Leo De Berardinis, Lucca, La Casa Usher, 2010


Teaching methods

Frontal lessons, with analysis and deepening of the concepts treated, guided analysis of the audiovisual works of the theatre.

Other bibliographical indications, in a foreign language, will be provided and discussed during the course, so as to frame the issues raised in a broader analytical framework.
In-depth analyses and critical readings, as well as a card with an indication of the materials discussed during each lesson, will be uploaded to the "Virtuale" platform of the teaching.

Assessment methods

The evaluation of the course will be carried out according to the ways, timing and guidelines established by the course of study. It will be based on an oral interview. Students may also agree with the Lecturer to prepare an essay on the aspects developed within the module. The written text shall be approx 10 pages and shall be provided to the Lecturer one week before the oral test date. Evaluation will be according to the modes, timing and directive set up for the course and will be based on an oral test.

The final exam will be an oral one, with questions aimed to verify the student's knowledge of the themes discussing during frontal lectures (only for attending students) as well as those treated in the program's texts. Attending students may, alternatively, present a written work agreed with the teacher.

The assessment will concentrate particularly on the skill displayed by the student in handling the material in the exam bibliography and his ability to find and use information and examples to illustrate and correlate the various themes and problems addressed in the course.

The assessment will thus examine the student's:

- factual knowledge of the subject;

- ability to summarise and analyse themes and concepts;

- familiarity with the terminology associated with the subject and his ability to use it effectively.

Top marks will be awarded to a student displaying an overall understanding of the topics discussed during the lectures, combined with a critical approach to the material and a confident and effective use of the appropriate terminology (30 cum laude and 30).

Average marks will be awarded to a student who has memorized the main points of the material and is able to summarise them satisfactorily and provide an effective critical commentary, while failing to display a complete command of the appropriate terminology (29-27).

A mnemonic knowledge of the subject, together with the capacity for synthesis and analysis articulated in a correct language, but not always appropriate, will lead to discreet evaluations (26-24).

Gaps in training and/or imprecise language - albeit in a context of minimal knowledge of the examination material - will lead to sufficient marks (23-21).

Training gaps and/or imprecise language - albeit in a context of minimal knowledge of the examination material - will lead to just enough grades (20-18).

Insufficient training, inappropriate language, lack of orientation within the bibliographic material will be evaluated negatively (<18).


 

Teaching tools

Audiovisual material from theatre, digital archives; platforms and websites.

Office hours

See the website of Enrico Pitozzi

SDGs

Quality education Reduced inequalities Partnerships for the goals

This teaching activity contributes to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN 2030 Agenda.