Universität Wien
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170215 UE Exercise Course "Body Practices and Gender Presentations" (2025S)

towards a poor theatre - How much self-exploitation can art tolerate? Myths, misunderstandings and detours in experimental theater of the 20th and 21st centuries.

5.00 ECTS (2.00 SWS), SPL 17 - Theater-, Film- und Medienwissenschaft
Continuous assessment of course work
Fr 07.03. 13:15-14:45 Seminarraum 1 2H316 UZA II Rotunde

Details

max. 40 participants
Language: German

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

The course takes place in blocks. On the first date, there will be a brief introduction to the subject areas and the literature that can be used to be able to prepare for the following dates.

  • Friday 04.04. 13:15 - 18:15 Seminarraum 1 2H316 UZA II Rotunde
  • Saturday 05.04. 09:45 - 14:45 Seminarraum 1 2H316 UZA II Rotunde
  • Friday 13.06. 13:15 - 18:15 Hörsaal 2H510 UZA II Rotunde
  • Saturday 14.06. 09:45 - 16:30 Hörsaal 2H510 UZA II Rotunde

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

This course aims to provide an insight into how “free” experimental theater makers and so-called theater revolutionaries, such as Jerzy Grotowski, Peter Brook, Ariane Mnouchkine, Augusto Boal and others, developed concepts of reduction that often looked or were confusingly similar to existential material poverty. In fact, this state was usually deliberately provoked in order to bring the associated provocation into play as a creative moment. Many of these poor theaters often had not so few financial resources, but usually demanded a great deal of self-sacrifice or dilettantism (cf. Christoph Schlingensief) from the performers in order to achieve their goals. This course will therefore attempt to approach certain clichés, mystifications and social requirements and at the same time provide a rough overview of how certain images have developed in recent decades.
It may well be true that special creative works always emerge from confinement, hardship, oppression and poverty, and perhaps we can go so far as to claim that many a desperation was important and led to so-called revolutions in art, but this assumption is no longer really up to date. We are seeing more and more that our complex forms of co-existence and the demands of our planet require safe spaces and healthy bodies for the extremely high demands of creative work. Funding bodies, festivals, theaters, etc. still require a high degree of self-exploitation, higher than in almost any other professional field. There is hardly any other field in which the legal boundaries are as blurred as in the field of art and culture.
For this reason, current examples will be shown in the course and contrasted with historical and theater-historical developments.

Assessment and permitted materials

Short text on a self-selected area of the course (1-5 pages) before the first block unit (4.4.) (30%). Joint development (approx. 4 persons) of a topic area and presentation of the research question (4.4.-5.4.) (30%). Elaboration of the question defined in the group and presentation in the form of a paper, video, performance or installation on the last two dates (13.6.-14.6.) (40%).

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Note from the Director of Studies: We want to ensure fair conditions for all students. Plagiarism software (Turnitin in Moodle) may be used in the course of the assessment. The use of AI tools (e.g. ChatGPT) for the production of texts is only permitted if this is expressly requested. All information on your rights and obligations can be found in the statutes, https://satzung.univie.ac.at/studienrecht/.

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

Maximum absence without consequences: 180 minutes. For a positive overall grade, it is assumed that all partial performances have been completed. The focus of the assessment is on the ability to work independently and to deal comprehensibly with aspects of the humanities and the arts.

Examination topics

Reading list

Adorno, Theodor W. & Horkheimer, Max: Dialektik der Aufklärung. Philosophische Fragmente. Fischer Taschenbuch Verlags GmbH: Frankfurt am Main, 2004.

Agamben, Giorgio: Homo sacer; Die souveräne Macht und das nackte Leben. Suhrkamp: Frankfurt am Main, 2002.

- Profanations. Übersetzt von Jeff Fort. ZONE BOOKS: New York, 2007.

- Profanierungen. Suhrkamp: Frankfurt am Main, 2005.

Anzaldúa, Gloria: Borderlands; La Frontera; The New Mestiza. Aunt Lute Books: San Francisco, 4. Auflage (1.Auflage 1987), 2012.

Artaud, Antonin: Das Theater und sein Double. Erweiterte Neu-Ausgabe. Matthes & Seitz Verlag: München, 1996

Cortina, Adela: Aporophobia. Why We Reject the Poor Instead of Helping Them. Princeton University Press: Princeton, New Jersey, 2022.

Grotowski, Jerzy: Towards a Poor Theatre. Towards a Poor Theatre. Hsg. von Eugenio Barba. Erstauflage 1968 Odin Teatret Forlag. Nachdruck Methuen, London 1975.

Keating, Ana Louise [Hg]: The Gloria Anzaldúa Reader. Duke University Press: Durham und London, 2009.

Mader, Elke: Anthropologie der Mythen. Facultas Verlag: Wien, 2008.

Richards, Thomas: Theaterarbeit mit Grotowski an physischen Handlungen. Alexander Verlag: Berlin, 1995.

Schneider, Rebecca: The Explicit Body in Performance. Routledge; London, 1997.

Barba, Eugenio: Kulturelle Identität und Professionelle Identität. In: Flamboyant. Schriften zum Theater. Das
Lernen zu lernen. ISTA. Internationale Schule für Theateranthropologie. Heft 3. Frühjahr 1996. S 8-14.

Barba, Eugenio: Wiederkehrende Prinzipien. In: Der sprechende Körper. Texte zur Theateranthropologie. Hrsg. v. Walter Pfaff, Erika Keil, Beat Schläpfer. Museum für Gestaltung Zürich, Berlin 1996/1997. S 77-98.

Benjamin, Walter: Kapitalismus als Religion. In: ders.: Gesammelte Schriften; Bd. VI. Suhrkamp: Frankfurt am Main, 1985. S 100-102.

Association in the course directory

Last modified: Th 16.01.2025 17:06