85122 - The Italian Contemporary Performance Scene (1) (LM)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course, students will have acquired knowledge of the theoretical and critical reflections on the performing arts in Italy from the second half of the twentieth century to the first decade of the new millennium, with a particular focus on mise-en-scène and dance. Students will be capable of autonomously analysing critical, theoretical and poetic texts regarding the performing arts and will have acquired a series of tools for understanding pertinent iconographic and video documents.

Course contents

What is performance? How is it related to its cultural and historical context? Rather than searching for an ontological definition of the “Italian” performance scene, the course will focus on an historical reconstruction of the performative genres that developed in Italy since the Sixties, with a specific focus on theatre and dance performance.

After a short methodological introduction on theatre and performance studies, the connection between the aesthetic trends and the Italian changing cultural and political context will be illustrated, particularly with reference to the Sixties and Seventies. Finally, a special focus will be devoted to the social, urban and migrant theatre forms which developed in Italy from the Eighties onwards.

Readings/Bibliography

Attending students:

a. Valentina Valentini, New Theatre in Italy (1963-2013), Routledge, London and New York, 2017, selected chapters.

b. Reader: Italian Contemporary Performance: Methodology and case studies, 2022-2023, pp. 150 (available on the e-learning course page.).

C. Notes from class and extracts from primary sources shared in class.

Non-attending students:

a. Valentina Valentini, New Theatre in Italy (1963-2013), Routledge, London and New York, 2017, selected chapters.

b. Claudio Bernardi, Giulia Innocenti Malini (eds.), Performing the Social. Education, Care and Social Inclusion through Theatre, Franco Angeli, Milano, 2021 (chapters 4, 14).

b. Reader: Italian Contemporary Performance: Methodology and case studies, 2022-2023, pp. 150 (available on the e-learning course page.).

 

Teaching methods

The teaching will be carried out in presence.

 

 

 

 

Assessment methods

Attending students:

Students will have to pass an oral exam, with questions aimed at verifying the student's knowledge of the themes treated in the program's texts and in class. Questions will be aimed at testing both the student's ability in exposing with an appropriate language the topics tackled by the bibliographical material and their skills in making connections between the aesthetic forms and their cultural background. In order to do it, they will need to go over the videos, primary sources and iconographic material shared in class.

Attending students will also be encouraged to prepare a powerpoint presentation to share during class time. Their assessment will consider both this presentation and the overall participation to the class.

Students non attending classes (at least 80% of the course) will prepare a powerpoint presentation that they are expected to hand it in at least 8 days before the exam date. Their final exam will be completed by an individual conversation, moving from their powerpoint presentation to some topics from the full syllabus.

Assessment criteria:

Proper language and the ability to critically speak about the book and reader contents, as well as the capacity to make connections will lead to a good/excellent final grade.

Acceptable language and the ability to resume the books' content will lead to a sufficient/fair grade.

Insufficient linguistic proficiency and fragmentary knowledge of the bibliographical material will lead to a failure in passing the exam.

Teaching tools

Performances and artistic processes will be discussed in class with reference to a rich audio-visual documentation, primary and critical bibliography.

Office hours

See the website of Rossella Nancy Maria Mazzaglia