Performance in South Asia and its Diaspo

This class provides students with a broad perspective on South Asian  performance from classical  theory to contemporary traditional practice. We use the second century B.C.E. text  the Natyashastra as the foundational treatise for understanding the aesthetic principles and  practices of the South Asian subcontinent. We will see how the theoretical premises of  the Natyashastra have been received and reconstructed in modern times and  affected performances as varied as Sanskrit drama, Bharatnatyam, Ramlila, and Chhau.  We also study many diasporic performances, including theatre in New York, music hall in Britain, and global tours of SA comedians.

Students are encouraged to develop a basic familiarity with the two epics  the Ramayana and Mahabharata so as to better follow and experiment with the narratives and  storytelling repertoires of these genres. Throughout the course we will place these modes of  performance in conversation and contrast to familiar Western dramatic theory such as  Aristotle’s Poetics to gain a global perspective on the development of dramatic and bodily  practices around the world.