This course aims to forward your study of performance by foregrounding Philippine oral forms as its main object of inquiry. Performance will function as both a theoretical current and an embodied practice towards understanding and constructing communication, language, and oral culture. Despite historically being delegated to the study and performance of “oral literature”, we will occupy a contentious position in this course by problematizing both literature and literacy with the aim of liberating the concept of orality.
We will contextualize our discussions through scholarships on oral forms that can be categorized as regional, pre-colonial, indigenous, contemporary, performance art, and avant-garde. We will immerse ourselves in these oral performances and “performance texts” and try to (re)construct them through the intersections of colonialism, nationalism, race, gender, and class. These will be buttressed by broader theoretical discussions under the disciplines of performance studies, literature, anthropology, race studies, and gender studies.
Our pedagogical approach will be humanistic, critical, and creative. You will be tasked with the critique and analysis of oral forms and performances, as well as their artistic production. Here, we shall assert our roles as Filipino performance scholars and practitioners.
- Teacher: Rex Sandro Nepomuceno