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This module explores the cultural history of madness through a variety of artistic forms. The module seeks to explore the relationship between psychiatric and artistic accounts of 'mad' experience. Through a close examination of texts, films, plays, and art, students will examine philosophical and political questions about the mind, the self, and experience. This module, therefore, aims to introduce students to the area of madness and representation. The module will primarily explore twentieth and twenty first century examples of theatre, film, and literature that seek to represent mental ill health. Students will explore a range of theoretical, philosophical, historical, sociological and medical texts that attempt to understand alternative experiences. Students will place these theoretical works in dynamic dialogue with performance practice that is concerned to explore madness through aesthetic practice. We will ask not only what is 'madness', but how and why one might choose to represent it. This module aims to offer students a rigorous introduction to the relationship between representation, pathology, and ethics.  
This module explores the relationship between identity and performance through a variety of artistic forms. The module will examine a range of practices from biographical drama to live art to stand up comedy in order to interrogate questions of selfhood, otherness, and identity. The module synthesises critical discourse with practical experimentation in order to better understand how and why we represent ourselves and others. Moreover, we will question what it means to have a 'self' to represent. We will examine questions of truth, authenticty, alterity, ethics, and antitheatricality. The module will begin by exploring key examples from different modes of performance (both practically and theoretically) and then, in the Spring Term, move towards developing devising skills and creating small group and solo practice-based projects. Throughout the course of the module we will not only investigate how and why people have sough to represent 'true' lives but consider the role of performance within the our everyday identities. The module, thus, aims to offer an engaging and challenging introduction to the politics of identity and performance.