Final Paper Option

If you are considering the paper option, instead of the final exam, here are parameters:

The paper should be 8 pages in length on a topic that falls within the temporal and subject dimensions of the class. That is, it should engage a performance form from prehistorical, ancient, medieval, or pre-colonial global sites.
 

For the proposal, send your idea for a topic written in a paragraph or two (no more than one page). Please give me a preliminary bibliography -- words you plan to consult. Try and have at least three discovered sources

SHOULD YOU CHOOSE THE PAPER OPTION? 

The paper option is a good option to chose if you care to go into greater depth on one topic or one area of world performance. You could either take a part of the world we have explored or will explore -- India, Africa, Indigenous Americas, Egypt, Greece, Rome, or branch into a part of the world we have not studied: China, Japan, Indonesia, etc. etc. The goal would be to study performance in the context of its space and time. For those who chose a pre-colonial site, this will be more challenging given sometimes radically different notions of preservation and archive in pre-contact worlds,  so you would be allowed to use contemporary studies that explore "survivances" alongside other sources you may find.  That is, for some parts of the world there simply will not be as much in the library.

Your paper can be a report on your research. You would not need to engage comparatively, as we have done most of the semester, though you could if you so choose (that is, perhaps you would like to relate Balinese cockfighting to another form of choreographed fighting in the world, or perhaps you would want to contrast Yoruban ritual form to something you learn about Medieval Japan, etc).

If you care to go further than report on a performance form, you can certainly take up the class question and theorize: how is the performance form you study in any way a "sceneographic model of sociometric process" (Schechner)?  Or, how does the performance form allow those participating to "show or tell themselves to themselves" a la Geertz (if it does)?  Or, is the performance form a form of culture clash and if so, is it inequitable or imbalanced  (Soyica) or does it negotiate evenly (Schechner)? What are the modes of the form's "participatory hermeneutics" (Drewal)?  Or, how does the form relate to memory (Connerton or Stoller Miller)? There are lots of angles you could take.

Be sure to set out a thesis in the paper, and develop that thesis in the body of the paper, coming to a conclusion at the end. I am open to alternative forms to this report if you would like to discuss one with me. You should have at least three sources, and at least two of those should be from beyond the class syllabus. Feel free to includle footnotes, but be sure that your style is consistent. You can use either Chicago style or Turabian (if you need links, they should be on the blog but if you have difficulty let me know).