400009 SE Cultural Performance: Local Identities and Global Flows (2017S)

The seminar will focus on theoretical perspectives and ethnographic studies for the analysis of cultural performance in diverse social and political contexts. Cultural performances comprise a wide range of media and ritualizations that are closely linked to the construction and representation of local identities. At the same time they constitute an important element of global cultural flows, they shape processes of cultural transfer and hybridization, and are in turn shaped by them.
The seminar will be based on reading and discussing theoretical texts in combination with diverse case studies from the fields of ritual and performance, indigeneity and cultural heritage, transcultural processes, and globalization.