Fall 2024 Theatre UN3127 section 001

ZORA NEALE HURSTON & BLACK PERFORMANCE

ZORA NEALE HURSTON & BLK

Call Number 00318
Day & Time
Location
R 2:10pm-4:00pm
LL105 Diana Center
Points 4
Grading Mode Standard
Approvals Required None
Instructor Alice A Reagan
Type SEMINAR
Course Description

This course begins with focused attention on select plays of Zora Neale Hurston and her critical writing on performance, then takes ZNH’s aesthetics, politics, and provocations as a lens to study Black performance, broadly defined.  We will consider the contexts in which Hurston pursued a career as playwright and theatremaker, and the influences that found their way into her plays including spiritual narratives and voodoo.  We will turn our attention to key writers of the Harlem Renaissance to learn where ZNH first made her mark, and the milieu to which she ultimately turned her back.  Each week’s reading/viewing will include primary sources (ZNH’s plays and dramaturgical statements) as well as scholarly criticism of those works or genre.  The final weeks of the course will take up Black performance in the realms of dance and song from the early 20th century, and finish with more recent plays and visual art.  In addition to short weekly response papers, students will complete a long-form research paper that may, if they choose, include a creative element.

Web Site Vergil
Department Theatre @Barnard
Enrollment 11 students (12 max) as of 11:06AM Saturday, December 7, 2024
Subject Theatre
Number UN3127
Section 001
Division Barnard College
Open To Barnard College, Columbia College, Engineering:Undergraduate, General Studies
Section key 20243THTR3127V001