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| Semester | fall semester 2018 |
| Course frequency | Once only |
| Lecturers | Till Förster (till.foerster@unibas.ch, Assessor) |
| Content | Discourse and performance are key concepts of the humanities and the social sciences. They are omnipresent in empirical research, analytical discussions as well as theoretical debates. However, their overwhelming success as scholarly concepts has made them almost meaningless. Today, nearly everything is called a discourse, and the original definition by Michel Foucault and also the later refinements and revisions by eminent scholars – among them Norman Fairclough, Jürgen Habermas, Jean-François Lyotard, Jacques Derrida, Ernesto Laclau, and many others – are often ignored. The same holds true for performance and performativity. The unreflected, often thoughtless use of the two terms has made them almost empty signifiers – although they were thoroughly theorised by brilliant scholars such as J.L. Austin, John Searle, Judith Butler, Erika Fischer-Lichte, and again Jacques Derrida. As all discursive enunciations are performed, performance and discourse have to speak to each other as concepts. This research seminar aims at exploring how this relationship may translate into novel social analyses and theory. Basically, the seminar raises three general questions: • What is discourse? • What is performativity? • How do the two concepts relate to each other? |
| Bibliography | Texts for the seminar will be accessible on the seminar’s workspace on Adam, the online resources system of the university. All students are expected to start with the excerpts accessible on Adam, but will need to read other publications and sometimes entire books, depending on the subject. They are also expected to search themselves for further publications in the field. Austin, J[ohn] L. 1962. How to Do Things with Words. Oxford: Clarendon. Butler, Judith. 1997. Excitable Speech: A Politics of the Performative. London: Routledge. Fairclough, Norman. 1992. Discourse and Social Change. Cambridge: Polity Press. Foucault, Michel. 1971. L’ordre du discours. Paris: Gallimard. Gee, James Paul. 2004. An Introduction to Discourse Analysis: Theory and method. London: Routledge. Kerchner, Brigitte, and Schneider, Silke (eds.). 2007. Foucault: Diskursanalyse der Politik: Eine Einführung. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften. Korom, Frank J. (ed.). 2013. The Anthropology of Performance. Wiley-Blackwell. Phelan, Peggy. 1993. Unmarked: The Politics of Performance. London; New York: Routledge. |
| Language of instruction | English |
| Use of digital media | No specific media used |
| Interval | Weekday | Time | Room |
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No dates available. Please contact the lecturer.
| Modules |
Modul: Fields: Media and Imagination (Master's degree program: African Studies) Modul: Interdisciplinary and Applied African Studies (Master's degree program: African Studies) Modul: Research Skills in Social and Cultural Anthropology (Master's degree subject: Anthropology) |
| Assessment format | continuous assessment |
| Assessment details | The seminar is organised in three parts. The first part looks at how discourse, performance and its sibling performativity were initially conceived. This part is mainly based on reading the respective, today classical literature and addresses MA students. Expected are short presentations of 25 to 30 minutes and a handout of about two pages, which should be submitted a week in advance of the respective class. Handouts will be made accessible to all students on the seminar’s workspace on Adam. The second part examines how the respective concepts were criticised and rethought in various disciplines and interdisciplinary fields. Advanced MA students and PhD candidates are invited to contribute to this discussion. Besides the themes and literature that the syllabus suggests, they can choose other strands of discussion if they relate to the overall topic of the seminar. Presentations can be longer but should not exceed 45 minutes. The third part tries to bring the two strands of theorising together and to develop a more comprehensive understanding of discursive formations and their performativity. Contributions to this part should only be considered by advanced PhD students. As discourse is method and theory at the same time, the seminar has two open classes where advanced PhD candidates may present and discuss the coupling of discourse and performativity on the basis of their own research. The length of presentations depends on the complexity of the subject. All students who want to write a seminar paper should do a presentation of about 45 to 60min., followed by a discussion of 30 to 45min. It is expected that the presenters writing a seminar paper will complement their reading of relevant literature after the presentation, based on the discussions in class. Papers should be c 8000 words long (approx. 20 to 25 pages, 12pt, 1.5 line spacing). Registration for papers is open until October 31, 2018. They are due on December 31 for those who will need the credits this semester. All others may submit their papers until the beginning of the spring term 2019, i.e. by February 15, 2019. All papers should be submitted as word- or pdffiles via e-mail to till.foerster@unibas.ch. |
| Assessment registration/deregistration | Reg.: course registration; dereg.: not required |
| Repeat examination | no repeat examination |
| Scale | Pass / Fail |
| Repeated registration | no repetition |
| Responsible faculty | Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, studadmin-philhist@unibas.ch |
| Offered by | Fachbereich Ethnologie |