Dialogue, Conversation and Performance

This module explores conversation and dialogue both as performative practices and as the means to conduct enquiry into significant issues within the realm of Performance Studies, including the nature of democratic discourse in a ‘post-democratic’ era.
The module seeks to open up these issues via the practice of dialogue understood itself as a particular kind of performance in its own right, one which is subject to processes and constraints of rehearsal, preparation, training and production, but which is rarely made the explicit focus of investigation today, compared with the centrality of the study of rhetoric in the academy during earlier historical periods. In addition to studying performance events and processes outside of their own immediate experience, students will thus engage with the ethical and performative nature of their own learning process – namely talking, reading and writing – as dialogical activities.
Students selecting the module should be prepared to participate fully in extended periods of concentrated, seminar-based conversation and willing to share their own experiences and test their own values in relation to the topic. Written work will depart substantially from the typical essay form and students will be required to engage with each other in the development and critique of their own writing.