🔵 🔴 🟡 Course description

🇬🇧 [The course is taught and examined in English] 🇬🇧

The course examines the concepts of utopia and dystopia in their historical context in relation to the Performance. Starting with excerpts from Aristophanes' "The Birds", we will read and critically analyze mainly the British utopian and dystopian drama and performance of the twentieth century. The dystopian works of Caryl Churchill (Far Away, A Number), Harold Pinter (Mountain Language), Dawn King (Foxfinder) and Edward Bond (The Tin CanPeople) will be examined in terms of the expression of utopian hope in the text. The texts will be framed by contemporary theories of utopianism and in particular by Jill Dolan's definition of performance as an expression of utopian hope through the experience shared by the audience and the performers. We will also examine the phenomena of TAZ (Temporary Autonomous Zone) and DIY Culture (Do it Yourself) as forms of utopian protests. Some of the questions we will seek to answer are the relationship between utopia and dystopia, the viewer and the performance, as well as the anti-utopian turn in the 21st century.

After the end of the course, students are able to

• Critically analyze the academic texts they read

• Apply academic techniques for writing a research paper

• Combine research material to create an original argument

• Present work in an effective way

• Organize information for writing papers and bibliography

🔵 🔴 🟡 Theory (3 hours)

1. Introduction to the concepts of Utopia and Dystopia

2. Aristophanes, Birds

3. William Shakespeare

4. Margaret Cavendish

5. Howard Brenton

6. TAZ/Performance/Protest

7. Mid-Term Project

8. Harold Pinter

9. Caryl Churchill

10. Edward Bond

11. Dawn King

12. Project Presentation

13. Project Presentation

Language of assessment: English 🇬🇧

🔵 🔴 🟡 Evaluation method:

• Continuous Evaluation (10%)

• Presentation Creative Project (40%)

• Research Paper (50%)

• Face-to-face
• Use of PowerPoint and audio-visual examples (13 lectures)
• Support of the learning process through eClass with weekly provision of audiovisual material, links, photos, extra bibliography and related information (exhibitions, cultural institutions, etc.)

http://eclass.uop.gr/courses/PDA164/ 

🔵 🔴 🟡 Course Textbooks [Eudoxus]

• The Tempest, William Sykespeare (33153647)
• State (86193576)

Extra Bibliography

• Adeshesiah, Sian. Theatre and Utopia: In Search of a Genre (2022)
• Billington, Michael. State of the Nation: British Theatre Since 1945 (2007)
• Braga, Corin. From Eden to Utopia, A Morphology of the Utopian Genre
• Bubor, Martin. Paths in Utopia (1958)
• Dolan Jill. Utopia in Performance. Finding Hope at the Theatre (2005)
• Dolan, Jill. Presence and Desire: Essays on Gender, Sexuality and Performance (1993)
• Ferns, C.S. Narrating Utopia: Ideology, Gender, Form in Utopian Literature
• Ferguson, John. Utopias of the Classical World (1975).
• Fortunati, Vita. Dictionary of Literary Utopias (2000)
• Kumar, Krishan. Utopia and Anti-Utopia in Modern Times (1987)
• Lacey, Stephen. British Realist Theatre: The New Wave in its Context, 1956-1965 (1995)
• Levitas, Ruth. The Concept of Utopia (2010)
• Levitas, Ruth. Utopia as Method: The Imaginary Reconstitution of Society (2013).
• Manuel, Frank Edward. Utopias and Utopian Thought (1966)
• Marin, Luis. Utopics: Spatial Play (1984)
• Milling, Jane. The Cambridge History of British Theatre (2004).
• Moore, Sir Thomas. Utopia (1516/1965)
• Moylan, Tom and Raffaella Baccolini. Dark Horizons: Science Fiction and the Dystopian Imagination (2003)
• Mumford, Lewis. The Story of Utopias (1962)
• Plato. The Republic
• Patterson, Michael. Strategies of Political Theatre: Post-War British Playwrights.
• Sargent, Lyman Tower. “The Three Faces of Utopianism Revisited”
• Sargent, Lyman Tower. Utopianism: A Very Short Introduction (2010)
• Sayer, Karen. Science Fiction: Critical Frontiers (2000),
• Darko Suvin Shelard Dominic. British Theatre Since the War (1999)
• Trussler, Simon. The Cambridge Illustrated History of British Theatre (2000)
• Vakoch, Douglas A. Utopias and Dystopias on Earth and Beyond: Feminist Ecocriticism of Science Fiction
• Zamalin, Alex. Black Utopia: The History of an Idea, from Black Nationalism to Afrocentrism https://theatroedu.gr/Portals/0/main/images/stories/files/Books/2019_praktika_8h_sundiaskepsh_ALL_WEB.pdf?ver=2020-04-29-195944-420 (Conference Proceedings: Theatre and Performing Arts in Education – Utopia or Necessity? Theatre/Drama and Performing Arts in Education: Utopia or Necessity? 2018/2019 Athens