48
Performing Arts
UNIVERSITÀ DEGLI STUDI DI NAPOLI "L'ORIENTALE"
Overview
Date/time interval
Syllabus
Course Objectives
At the end of the lessons and study the student should have acquired: 1. The overall knowledge of the history of the theater in its different moments; 2. The ability to read through history not only the succession of events but the development of cultural lines 3. The ability to analyse the dramatic structure of theatrical texts 4. The ability to relate the dramatic text to the spectacular context to which interior was produced 5. Having well-defined correspondence between the different moments of the history of the theater and the cultural and historical context of reference 6. The methodological specificity of the study of the theater and in particular of the dramatic texts 7. Learning tools critical in relating to sources and historical information to be applied, beyond the specific disciplinary, also to other subjects but above all to the analysis of the own historical and cultural context
Course Prerequisites
The necessary prerequisites are an adequate knowledge of the partition of cultural history (what is the Renaissance, what Romanticism, for example) and its chronological arrangement. It’s also important to have a knowledge of history in the socio-political sense. hese are notions that high school preparation is able to guarantee and that are recoverable, if they are lacking, with individual study.
Teaching Methods
The course is basically developed through lectures, using, where necessary, visual and audiovisual materials. During the lessons, students will be invited to provide them with points of view on some of the issues dealt with and will be asked to discuss specific topics to create a dialectical learning path through which to be in an active position in the process of knowledge acquisition. Special attention is given to the students' ability to analyze dramatic structures and spectacular ones
Assessment Methods
The exam will be oral. During the exam the student will have to demonstrate mastery of the theoretical historical notions and ability to critically, independently and organically organize the topics, also making use of iconographic materials and dramatic and theoretical texts studied, which may, indeed, must be consulted to support the argument.
The examination program has a biennial value: it can be taken from the examination sessions of 2025-26 to all the exam appeals of a.a. 2026-27 .
Language of the exam: Italian
Evaluation criteria: Consistency in the exposition, ability to contextualize history, ability to analyze the dramatic structures of texts (using the same to support the examination), completeness of information, mastery in the use of terminology, both as regards the technical and the linguistic heritage of Italian.
Texts
- Luigi Allegri, History of theatre. The ideas and forms of entertainment from antiquity to today, Carocci publisher
- Jean Racine, Fedra, Rizzoli
- William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Feltrinelli
- Henrik Ibsen, Dollhouse, Rizzoli
- Anton Chekhov, The Seagull, Einaudi
- Bertolt Brecht, Mother Courage, Einaudi
- Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot, Einaudi
- Among the teaching materials on Teams page of the course, that will be open at the beginning of the lessons, are available files of images useful in the study of the course for the historical part
- During the academic year, in order to take the exam, the student is required to attend at least two live shows (excluding, therefore, videos and video-recorded works), which can be chosen freely according to taste and individual possibilities. On the selected performances the student must be able to briefly report to the exam, indicating the characterizing elements of view, regarding the scenic layout, the acting, the organization of the dramatic story.
Contents
TITLE OF THE COURSE: The Theatre and its Hisotry
The lessons face the study of the history of the theatre, focusing on its different historical moments and cultural and artistic models. The aim is to reconstruct the aesthetic, poetic, and linguistic identity of some of the most important moments of European theatre.
The course will face the different elements that form the theatrical work of art - dramaturgy, acting, directing scenography - that are studied in the system of relationships that they set up. During the course will be analyzed dramatic texts, considered emblematic of a historical moment, for understanding their internal structure, narrative dimension, relationship with the historic context, and its scenic language.
Special attention will be posed to Modernity in theatre, between the end of XIX and the beginning of the XX century.
Course Language
Italian
More information
During the course, the dramatic texts included in the syllabus will be analyzed in detail, and visual materials will be shown and discussed. For both reasons, attendance is strongly recommended.