CULTURE CLASH
What is Quem Queritis? And why is it important?
Early troping practice in the tenth century set to music one biblical passage of key importance to Christians. It begins, “Quem Queritis in sepulchre, Christicolae,” meaning “Whom do you seek in the tomb, followers of Christ?” The words are those of an angel greeting the three Marys, including Jesus’s mother, who came to the tomb to which Christ had been taken after his crucifixion in order to properly anoint his body.
Who wrote the poetics?
Aristotle
What are the main themes in Death & The Kings Horsemen?
Colonialism, Corruption in Nigeria, Greek Tragedy.
What is critical theory?
History is stuff, and critical theory is how you build it.
What is a commemorative drama?
To enhance communication w/Gods, pacify cosmic forces, no clear author, build community, remembering important events. "Dramas" re-enacting some mythological, quasi-historical or cosmic event, created to enhance the relationship of a community of believers to the divine, understood as primarily religious in intent
What things affected Yoruban vs. Western culture? Bonus point if you recall the name of the diagram that was used to reflect Yourban culture.
Higher stakes, embodiment, everywhere is holy, immersive caution, more respectful of people, nature and animals.
Kalabash Gourd
What is the name of the crane responsible for flying Gods and heroes?
Mechane
What is the plot of Oedipus, and what overarching themes are presented?
Oedipus is in search of who killed his father, goes to an oracle to find out, and avoid a plague on his people. Told that he is the murder that he seeks. Turns out he is married to his mom, Jocosta, and stabs his eyes, and begs to be banished.
The need for leadership in the midst of political crisis.
What is the actor centered approach?
Participants experience, active engagement, doing things vs. receiving things. To interpret what the cultural actors experience, and how they engage in the moment of performance/practice.
Why do shamanistic ritual and performances involve crude humor, and obscene elements?
To release aggression against the ruling class in stratified or unjust societies.
Why is Rabinal Achi a commemorative drama, and not a historical drama?
A montage of fragments of royal stories from across 6 different generations.
What is a satyr play?
The satyr plays were farcical renditions of incidents from the same myth as the tragedies. These ribald pieces were named after the satyrs – the half-horse, half-human wine-drinking companions of Dionysus who constituted the chorus of these plays. Their costumes included a horse’s tail, an erect phallus, and a head-mask with pointed/equine ears, snubnose, and wild hair and beard. Only one satyr play survives: Cyclops by Euripides (c.480–407/6 B.C.E.). The satyr plays were characterized by broad physical sight-gags and scatological humor.
What is the importance of Ta’ziyeh to its audience?
To enhance or reinforce divine and or civic authority.
What is Speech Act Theory? What are the 3 acts, and what do each of them do?
To say something is to do something: J.L. Austin The intention of the speaker, and the effect of the speech on the listener are crucial in determining the meaning of a speech act.
Locutionary: Communicating by speech
Illoctuionary: Words meant to do something
Perlocutionary: How speech affects the listener
Why did drama flourish in the late middle ages?
Hint: 3 main reasons
Who wrote Love & Theft, what is it about?
Eric Lott, culture steals to be. Powerful cultures steal from poor cultures. Don’t romanticize things that aren’t yours. Minority culture create, majority culture takes/steals. Remember cultural influence, and where we come from. No culture is static.
List at least 3 spatial arrangements that the Ancient Greek dramas had
What is an example of a liturgical drama?
The play of David, any scenes re-enacting the bible, nativity plays.
What is cognitive spatial relations?
Allows us to conceive of future purposeful action, and to enjoy reading a narrative or following a piece of music with a beginning, a middle, and an end. Spatiality might include inside/outside, part-whole, center/periphery, balance, up/down, near/far, and link. The shapes we make is dependent upon behavior in all cultures.
Balance & symmetry dance, speech, ritual
Non-rigid performance, improv/play, structure within a lot of play.
How can you apply speech act theory to Korean Kut Shamanism?
In regards to locutionary, illocutionary, and perlocutionary acts, the Shaman uses these to protect, heal, or communicate. The effective combination of ritual speech (magic, spells, and incantations) with ritual actions (the manipulation of objects)
Define Theatron, Orchestra, And Thymele
Theatron: watching place,
Orchestra:Greek, "dancing place"; In ancient Greek theaters, the circular piece of earth with a hard and level surface on which the performance took place
Thymele: Center of the orchestra, placed over a flat stone. Serves as a prop alter, and provides a significant focal point.A flat stone embedded in the orchestra of Greek theaters that probably served as the central axis for the movement of the chorus.
How does cognitive studies help us understand Greek Drama?
It allows us to explore the contraction of narrative in drama, acting & audience response, and analyze the spatiality of a performance.
Apply Cognitive spatial relations to one of the plays that we have read
Death & The King’s Horsemen: applies to Egungun ritual, all rituals were community based, with masquerade spectacles. Since this play was written in modern time, it is okay to state that the likelihood of the spatial relations would reflect heavily on western cultural concepts due to the time period it was written. A production involving a proscenium, and western style spatial concept set up.
The Second Shepherd’s Play: This play was mounted on a pageant wagon, the wagon was higher up, and depicted the story of the shepherds in relation to Jesus’ birth. This was produced by the Church, and allowed everyone to see, and remember the bible when looking around town. Remembering certain cycle plays, and certain places in the town. The similarities between the feudal system, and the wagon plays is the main point. God, and the actors in the wagon are above everyone. This provides an unconscious cultural concept to remember how the feudal system was constructed. God was above all, and everyone else was below, just like the pageant wagons, and cycle plays.
The Ta’ziyeh: This play includes one main round stage, that was elevated from the ground. There were other stages around the main stage that where side stories, and dialogue would occur. The audience was spread throughout, in a theatre in the round sort of deal. The set up allows the participant-performers, and audience to make the past present for all. To relive the past, by remembering it, honoring it, and thus it becomes the physical locus of martyrdom.
Oedipus: The set up of Greek theatre allowed the audience to feel like what was being performed was actually occurring as apart of their life. Lack of western/modern architecture like the proscenium allowed the audience to fully experience the performance.
Define the difference between Theatre, Drama, and Performance
Theatre: live performances by skilled artists for the live audiences. Performances that engage the imagination, emotion, intellect, and cultural sensibilities.
Drama: To describe plays, collectively, or in the singular. Literary works/texts
Performance: Embodied representation, embedded in cultures. Ways in which humans represent themselves in embodied ways.