Rita JĂşlia SebestyĂŠn, PhD
E-mail: rita.julia.sebestyen@gmail.com Portfolio: sebestyenrita.com
Teaching portfolio
1. Teaching philosophy (including: Subjects and materials developed and taught; Methodology and General duties and tasks as a lecturer; Future prospects) 2. Teaching experience 2.1.
Teaching in an academic environment
2.2.
Workshops, trainings, conferences
2.3.
Informal teaching, tutorial, curatorship
3. Courses designed and delivered recently 3.1.
Reading Art
3.2.
The Ancient Greek Tragedy, Our Contemporary
3.3.
Introduction into Comparative Literature and Comparative Studies
4. Research involvement and dissemination 5. Feedback and reflections from students and peers
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Rita Júlia Sebestyén, PhD
E-mail: rita.julia.sebestyen@gmail.com Portfolio: sebestyenrita.com
1. TEACHING PHILOSOPHY Specialized in Theatre Studies (MA), and Theatre Aesthetics and Philosophy (PhD), also continuously attending courses and workshops for further learning and development (CELTA and ERASMUS+), I have been teaching in academic and informal environment since 1996. Subjects and teaching materials developed and taught by me gravitate towards the following topics: • • • • • • • •
contemporary art in interdependence with recent social (political, economic, environmental) issues; Ancient Greek Tragedy in its contexts and connected with recent artistic and philosophic notions: how past theatre cultures become our contemporaries; art and philosophy: the existential and epistemologic aspects of art: how we exist, recognize, acknowledge, read, learn the world and ourselves in and through art; comparative studies through rhizomic, post-colonialist view; theatre/performing arts/performance art: notions and practices around an always evolving genre: comparisons and interferences with all the other art genres and fields; performing arts and their relation to different disciplines: humanities, social sciences, natural science; extra-text: creation in team of own, new narratives, texts, plays and ultimately performances; body-mind-soul experiences of diversity, differences and otherness: a holistic approach to diversity through experience design events, workshops, trainings.
Methodology: primarily, I seek to promote a co-learning environment in my university classes and workshops held for graduates, cultural leaders and entrepreneurs. A co-learning process consists of a theoretical-methodological frame that ensures academic accuracy and precision in using a set of notions, terms regarding the subject in question. Throughout 20 years of experience in both academic and informal teaching, my approach towards the learning process has evolved towards an interactive, collaborative methodology – mostly using the forms of Socratic debate and Socratic circle, and also the learning by doing method that mingles practice with theory. With students/participants representing a wide range of diversity regarding their cultural background, language, learning habits, I developed a couple of performative strategies of eliciting notions and connections between them through dialogical methods. We often follow the methodology of action-research, in which we establish a framework of notions, ideas; following this we take action – i.e. presentation, debate or a short lecture-performance – we give feedback, and finally draw conclusions. During my courses I encourage working in groups, team cohesion and a cross-disciplinary approach. Both written and oral communication and presentation, team presentation, and taking action are encouraged and analysed in depth, first by peers and second by the teacher/colearner.
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Rita Júlia Sebestyén, PhD
E-mail: rita.julia.sebestyen@gmail.com Portfolio: sebestyenrita.com
General duties and tasks as a lecturer: • • • • • • • •
develop learning strategies for students in cross-disciplinary fields; conceive the courses: material, main objectives, assessment criteria, oral/written assessment and feedback; assist in developing students’ assignments; develop teaching material – visuals, reading material, film, etc.; assist students in working out and implementing individual and/or team projects related to the course and part of the assessment; give guidelines for BA and MA research projects and dissertation writing; carry on continuous assessment and take part or organize and lead the written and oral examinations; attend examinations and dissertation defenses, take part in evaluation and grading.
Future prospects: Within the next 3 years I am focusing on working out cross-disciplinary methodologies in the following fields: • • •
conceive teaching material and courses that deal with arts and interact with many other areas, disciplines and even with science; working out methods and examples for cross-fertilization on these border-crossings; work out epistemologies for knowledge transfer and knowledge production within teaching art; conceive and participate in international and cross-disciplinary research networks on arts and society, arts and science.
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Rita Júlia Sebestyén, PhD
E-mail: rita.julia.sebestyen@gmail.com Portfolio: sebestyenrita.com
2. TEACHING EXPERIENCE
2016-present
Visiting lecturer in Ancient Greek Tragedy, Our Contemporary: a course that mingles aesthetics, anthropology and social studies, with a postcolonial perspective. Károli Gáspár University of the Reformed Church, Budapest, Hungary Theatre Studies – 8 hours/month, 40 MA students in Theatre Studies.
2014-2017
Visiting lecturer: Post colonialism in literature and society / Artistic approaches of the Other Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj, BA Comparative literature – 18 hours/month, 6 students in Literature.
2012/2013
Visiting lecturer in: Interdisciplinary approaches of performativity/ Theatre and written media / Creative writing University of Arts, Tîrgu Mureş, MA and BA: Theatre Studies and Theatre Management - 30 hours/month, 24 students.
2012 April
Seminar as visiting lecturer in: Contemporary staging of Ancient Greek plays/ Discovering the dramatic situation, actors and text University of Arts, Tîrgu Mureş. BA: Theatre Studies and Stage Directing 20 hours, 12 students.
2000/2001
Visiting lecturer in: Dramaturgy and creative writing/ Ancient Greek plays and their contemporary adaptations University of Pécs. BA: specialization in Theatre Studies 2 terms, 4 hours/week, 30 students.
1999/2000
Visiting lecturer in: Dramaturgy and creative writing/ Interpretations of texts and their on-stage versions University of Arts, Tîrgu Mureş. BA: Theatre Studies 20 hours, 12 students.
1995/1998
Assistant professor (holding seminars): History of European Theatre/ Dramaturgy and creative writing/Tendencies of contemporary performing arts Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj. BA: Theatre Studies 6 terms, 4 hours/week, 15 students.
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Rita Júlia Sebestyén, PhD
E-mail: rita.julia.sebestyen@gmail.com Portfolio: sebestyenrita.com
3. COURSES DESIGNED AND DELIVERED RECENTLY (note: the syllabi and bibliography are given in each case according to the requirements of the given university or higher-education institution)
3.1.
READING ART
40 hours This is an interactive, practice-based course that orientates students among theories and forms of arts and culture, with a special focus on contemporary art and performative practices, and their relation to recent, globalizing and fluid societies. By reading I mean here the active, discourse-creating process that enables us to approach, investigate, and engage in a dialogue with works of art and the analytical texts on them. For this purpose we will select texts and art pieces generally ranging from the dawn of modernism to the most recent movements, engage in a dialogue with them, and create own performative events inspired from them. Methodology and approach is based on a set of correlated notions, theories and methods of aesthetics and critical theory, anthropology, sociology, art history, poetics and performance theory. Teaching methodology: in a co-learning environment, oscillating between theory and practice, as a group we come to learn and further develop methods of reading, presentation, debate and creation through action-research, Socratic debates and circles, and creation of narratives for performative events. Students are expected to work 4 hours/week. Aims: • •
•
to provide students with a set of notions, theories, methods and examples that orientate them in the world of arts and culture; to offer opportunity for the students to discuss, present, defend, comment, create and recreate discourse about artistic and aesthetic value and their choices, developing their communication skills and analytical and critical thinking; to enhance creative thinking and encourage artistic exploration, raise intellectual and artistic awareness and perspective in their future work and career.
Assessment: • • •
continuous assessment based on the activity of the student during the course; capacity of individual presentation and participation in group learning and creating, team-player skills; active and creative participation in final presentations of the three modules.
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Rita Júlia Sebestyén, PhD
E-mail: rita.julia.sebestyen@gmail.com Portfolio: sebestyenrita.com
Module 1: Interrelations between arts, culture and society: constant (re)definition of art The constitutive, contemplative and creational act of reading. Reading the world. Reading art. Art, culture and society, and modes of their interaction and inter-relation. Definitions and roles of the artist. Mimesis – theories. Aletheia. Art form, genre, style. Concepts of the aesthetic: objects, judgment, attitude, experience. Western aesthetic categories (and the changing notions): beauty, sublime, tragic, comic, ugly, pretty. Arts, especially performing arts, as tools for social transformation: society – politics Rancière: The Politics of The Aesthetics – business – science – IT – education – environment. Drama teaching, Theatre in Education, Theatre and IT, Theatre and permaculture: View from the Green Room: The Kinsale Playhouse. Rhizomatic structures (Deleuze and Guattari). New relations in the globalized world: globallocal-glocal. Post-colonialism: de-hierarchization on the map and on the timeline. Comparative studies: the indiscipline. Cultural practices and art. Amateur art and professional art. Folk-art. Kitsch. Commonplace. Popart. The art of reframing and challenging social and cultural practices. Examples of folk-art brought by students. Pop-art: Robert Rauschenberg. Socially-politically engaged art: possibilities and limitations. (Ancient Greek Theatre) Piscator – Brecht – Boal. Community involvement and participatory art.
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Rita Júlia Sebestyén, PhD
E-mail: rita.julia.sebestyen@gmail.com Portfolio: sebestyenrita.com
OUT OF THE HOUSE: a 20 minute walk in the district and discussions (reading spaces, buildings, urban area, detecting cultural techniques, one possible way of description: ekphrasis). End of module: presentations in pairs on the topics above.
Fluxus Manifesto, 1963, by George Maciunas Module 2: Movements, concepts, notions and works of arts from the Modernity to recent days From Modernism to contemporary art: critical theories. An overview. Examples: Postcolonialism: alterity, diaspora, eurocentrism, hybridity, imperialism. Phenomenology and Hermeneutics: Dasein, intentionality, hermeneutic cycle. Post-structuralism and deconstruction: différance. From Modernism to contemporary art: artistic movements. An overview. Examples: The Salon des Refusés (Impressionism); ‘Masters of form’: avant-garde, arts and crafts, design, architecture and engineering (Bauhaus Movement). Indeterminacy in art, experimental art: John Cage. Futures. Manifestos: Futurism and Fluxus. Insertion, intervention, interruption. Duchamp (object trouvé). Happening, Performance Art, Viennese Actionism. Environment, happening, installation: Alan Kaprow. Experimental, multimedia modes, temporary communities and rituals: Hermann Nitsch. Author/audience, intertextuality: The Intentional Fallacy (Wimsatt-Beardsley), The Death of the Author (Barthes), Post-modernism (Lyotard) and Meta-modernism (Mee).
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Rita Júlia Sebestyén, PhD
E-mail: rita.julia.sebestyen@gmail.com Portfolio: sebestyenrita.com
Feminism. Main issues: matrix of domination, gender as a social construct, black and postcolonial ideologies, sexuality. Virginia Woolf, Simone de Beauvoir, Helene Cixous, Judith Butler. OUT OF THE HOUSE: a visit to the Louisiana museum – a 5-hour-long trip with discussions. End of module: presentations in pairs on the topics above.
Module 3: Theatre/ Performing Arts/ Performative techniques and all the blurry areas New poetics of theatre, drama, performing art, performance art. The legacy of Wagner and Goethe (Gesamtkunstwerk) from the 19th century. A couple of artists from the 20 th century (intersection with the course of history of the theatre): Konstantin Stanislavski, Vsevolod Meyerhold, Jacques Copeau, Edward Gordon Craig, Bertolt Brecht, Antonin Artaud, Peter Brook, Jerzy Grotowski, Augusto Boal, Eugenio Barba, Dario Fo, Keith Johnstone, Richard Schechner, Robert Wilson. Performative techniques. Reading, writing, walking, cooking as performance. The performative turn. Richard Schechner. The art to relate: dialogical, relational, environmental art and their performative aspects. Theory: Bourriaud and Kester. Artists: Olafur Eliasson, Terike Haapoja. Site specific and human specific performances. Space, body, action, interaction, narrative. Miwon Kwon and Cantabile 2. New Media and the Performing Arts: Mar Dixon: #LoveTheatreDay. Augumented/virtual reality and art; futures and scenarios: works of Sander Veenhof.
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Rita Júlia Sebestyén, PhD
E-mail: rita.julia.sebestyen@gmail.com Portfolio: sebestyenrita.com
Conceiving, planning, and designing the final event. OUT OF THE HOUSE: a visit of a genre-challenging performance or event, with follow-up discussions. End of course: a group assignment that tackles the topics above in one of the borderline genres: action, installation, performative reading/writing/walk, lecture performance, etc.
Bibliography: Theory: Agamben, Giorgio: What is the contemporary? http://www.afterall.org/2015/04/15/Peter_Pal_Pelbart_What_Is_the_Contemporary_Afterall_3 9.pdf Aristotle (1995). “Poetics.” The Complete Works of Aristotle: The Revised Oxford Translation. Vol. 2. Ed. J. Barnes. Princeton: Princeton UP. Or: former translation available on the net: http://pinkmonkey.com/dl/library1/gp016.pdf Auerbach, Erich (1953). Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature, trans. Willard R. Trask. Princeton, repr. 1974 Chapter 1 http://www.westmont.edu/~fisk/Articles/OdysseusScar.html Bourriaud, Nicolas (2002). Relational Aesthetics. Dijon: Les presses du reel: http://www.kimcohen.com/seth_texts/artmusictheorytexts/Bourriaud%20Relational%20Aesthetics.pdf Barthes, Roland (1967). “The Death of the Author.” Trans: Howard, R. http://www.tbook.constantvzw.org/wp-content/death_authorbarthes.pdf Butler, Judith (1990). “Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory.” S.-E. Case (ed). Performing Feminisms: Feminist Critical Theory and Theater. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 270–83. Also here: https://www.amherst.edu/system/files/media/1650/butler_performative_acts.pdf Deleuze, G. – Guattari, F. (2004) A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia (Continuum Impacts No. 21), 3-26: Rhizome. http://projectlamar.com/media/A-Thousand-Plateaus.pdf Lyotard, Jean-François (1979). The Postmodern Condition. A Report on Knowledge. publ. Manchester University Press, 1984. Excerpts: https://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/fr/lyotard.htm Kwon, Miwon: One Place After Another (2002). Site-Specific Art and Locational Identity. The MIT Press: Cambridge, Massachussets & London, England. https://monoskop.org/images/d/d3/Kwon_Miwon_One_Place_after_Another_SiteSpecific_Art_and_Locational_Identity.pdf The Postcolonial Studies Reader (1995). Ed by Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths and Helen Tiffin. Routledge. (Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak: Can the Subaltern Speak?; Edward W. Said: Orientalism; Homi K. Bhabha: Cultural Diversity and Cultural Differences) http://www.mohamedrabeea.com/books/book1_3985.pdf
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Rita Júlia Sebestyén, PhD
E-mail: rita.julia.sebestyen@gmail.com Portfolio: sebestyenrita.com
Rancière, Jacques (2004). The Politics of the Aesthetics. publ. by Continuum, 2011. Trans. Gabriel Rockhill. https://selforganizedseminar.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/rancic3a8re-jacquespolitics-aesthetics-distribution-sensible-new-scan.pdf Schechner, Richard (2002). Performance Studies. An Introduction. 3 rd edition. Routledge: London and NY, reprinted: 2013: http://samples.sainsburysebooks.co.uk/9781136448720_sample_494950.pdf Wimsatt Jr., W. K., and Beardsley, M. C. (1946). “The Intentional Fallacy.” The Sewanee Review, Vol. 54, No. 3., The Johns Hopkins University Press, 468-488: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27537676?origin=JSTOR-pdf&seq=1#fndtnpage_scan_tab_contents Artists, art pieces, projects: Cage, John: http://johncage.org/ Dixon, Mar: http://www.mardixon.com/ Duchamp, Marcel: http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/duchamp-fountain-t07573/textsummary Eliasson, Olafur: http://www.olafureliasson.net/ Haapoja, Terike: http://www.terikehaapoja.net Kaprow, Allan: http://www.allankaprow.com/ Mee, Charles: the (re)making project: http://www.charlesmee.org/ Nitsch, Hermann: http://www.nitsch.org/index-en.html Rauschenberg, Robert: https://www.sfmoma.org/rauschenberg-research-project/ Veenhof, Sander: http://sndrv.nl/ Bauhaus Movement: http://www.bauhaus-movement.com/en/ Cantabile 2: http://www.cantabile2.dk/ Fluxus Movement: http://www.fluxus.org/ Manifesto of Futurism: http://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2009/futurism/ Salon des Refusés: http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/history-of-art/salon-des-refuses.htm Theatre and Permaculture: https://transitionculture.org/wpcontent/uploads/VIEWFROM_01.pdf
For further orientation: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: http://plato.stanford.edu/index.html Modern Literary Theory: http://www.iep.utm.edu/literary/ The Art Story. Modern Art Inside: http://www.theartstory.org
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Rita Júlia Sebestyén, PhD
E-mail: rita.julia.sebestyen@gmail.com Portfolio: sebestyenrita.com
3.2.
THE ANCIENT GREEK TRAGEDY, OUR CONTEMPORARY
Participants: 40 students of MA in Theatre Studies 8 hours/month This is a dialogical course that tackles the Ancient Greek Tragedy; we approach it from different perspectives with various methodologies in order to make our subject comprehensible, accessible and easier to relate to. We regard Ancient Greek Tragedy and Theatre as a genre and try to grasp the form and meaning of this special genre first in its artistic, historical, social and human-geographical context. As a second step we seek interferences that help us reading these tragedies through contemporary methods and art forms. A flexibility in choosing methods – anthropology, art history, history of ideas, aesthetics, philosophy, sociology – intertwining them in order to orient our gaze towards the subject is a scope of this course. Each subject – a whole tragedy, a part of it, or internal-external references of mythology or other art forms – will require a slightly different approach, and we are to choose and justify our chosen tools and methods. The aim of this course is to enable us to approach, read and engage in a dialogue with aspects of performativity in various ways –this art being placed in the past or the present – to be able to analyse and synthetize the phenomena, find correlations among them and get inspired in our own artistic/research/critical work by the experience of the reading. Therefore, we will work with several, interdependent concepts of aesthetics, philosophy, theatre studies, etc., while reading a couple of chosen texts and their contemporary staging. Endowed with all these tools, the student is enabled and encouraged to work out their approach, underpinned by theoretical reasoning, and enter into a valid and viable dialogue with the Ancient Greek Tragedy. Within the framework of this course we take a closer look at three specific topics in three modules: We analyse several concepts of the (theatrical) space; a couple of texts and notions in different contexts; and finally, analysing the genre of Ancient Greek Tragedy and putting it into context with a series of performative events and genres. Module1: Space-concepts Athens in the 5th century B.C.: cults, communities, spaces. Existential geography: rhizomatic structures. The Pan-Hellenic festival and its temporary communities. The cult of Dionysus and the Great Dionysia. The role and meaning of space and the open-air space in art; the road that leads to the Acropolis and contemporary performative walks: environmental aesthetics and relational aesthetics. The Theatre of Dionysus in Athens: The auditorium, the orchestra and the skene building. Mapping spaces and meta-spaces by reading early tragedies.
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Rita Júlia Sebestyén, PhD
E-mail: rita.julia.sebestyen@gmail.com Portfolio: sebestyenrita.com
Module 2: Texts, structures, notions Greek mythology as a continuously rewritten mega-text. Meaningful differences in the narratives. The structure of the texts and their staging: prologos, epeisodion, parodos and stasimon, commos, dialogues, exodos. Notions and their meanings in Ancient and contemporary readings: aletheia, ekphrasis, epikairekakia, aion, topos, chora, metaxy. The power of words: imaginary spaces, actions and their descriptions. Narratives in the 5th century B.C. and in the 21st century: The Persians by Aeschylus // Oedipus by Sophocles // Alcestis or The Bacchae by Euripides. Versions of staging. Module 3: Greek Tragedy as a Genre Possible rules of the genre. Poetics by Aristotle. The chorus, the actor and the audience – a complex relationship for creation and reception. Tools of performativity. Community and community theatre: geographical, cultural, historical, social framework and approach. How can we regard Ancient Greek Tragedy as our contemporary? The Prometheus-topic: adaptations and performances. Presentations of the students. Assessement: 1. By the end of the second module: students should present a 5-minute-long speechpresentation in which they outline their chosen topic and methodology for their future essay; furthermore, they support each others’ presentations by questions, dialogues, giving input to the presenter. 2. By the end of the course: writing an essay of 2,000 words after coming to an agreement with the group and the teacher on the chosen topic and methodology. Note: both tasks are mandatory.
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Rita Júlia Sebestyén, PhD
E-mail: rita.julia.sebestyen@gmail.com Portfolio: sebestyenrita.com
Mandatory bibliography: Module 1 Deleuze, G. – Guattari, F.: A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia (Continuum Impacts No. 21), 2004. p. 3-26. Foucault, Michel: Of Other Spaces: Utopias and Heterotopias. In: Architecture, Movement, Continuité, Oct. 1984. (’Des Espace Autres’, March 1967, trans. by Jan Miskowiec). Module 2 Aeschylus: The Persians. Trans. by: Robert Potter http://classics.mit.edu/Aeschylus/persians.html Sophokles: Oedipus. Trans. by: Sir Richard C. Jebb http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/sophoclesthe-tragedies-of-sophocles Euripides: Alcestis. Trans. by: Richard Aldington http://classics.mit.edu/Euripides/alcestis.html Module 3 Aristotle: Poetics. Trans. by: S. H. Butcher http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/poetics.html Aeschylus: Prometheus Bound. http://classics.mit.edu/Aeschylus/prometheus.html
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Rita Júlia Sebestyén, PhD
E-mail: rita.julia.sebestyen@gmail.com Portfolio: sebestyenrita.com
Selected bibliography: 1. General bibliography for the Ancient Greek Theatre: Agamben, Giorgio: What is the contemporary?: http://www.afterall.org/2015/04/15/Peter_Pal_Pelbart_What_Is_the_Contemporary_Afterall_3 9.pdf Algra, Keimpe: Concepts of Space in Greek Thought. E. J. Brill, Leiden–New York–Köln, 1995. Arnott, Peter: Greek Scenic Conventions in the Fifth Century B.C. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1962. Ashby, Clifford: Classical Greek Theatre. New Views of an Old Subject. University of Iowa Press, Iowa City, 1999. Bain, David: Actors and Audience. A study of asides and related conventions in Greek drama. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1977. Bonanno, Maria Grazia: All the (Greek) World’s a Stage: Notes on (Not Just Dramatic) Greek Staging. In Edmunds, Lowell–Wallace, Robert W. (ed.): Poet, Public and Performance in Ancient Greece. The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore and London, 1997, 112–123. o. Burian, Peter: Myth into Muthos: the Shaping of Tragic Plot. In Easterling, P. E. (ed.): The Cambridge Companion to Greek Tragedy. Cambridge University Press, 1997, 178–208. o. Buxton, R. G. A.: Imaginary Greece. The context of mythology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1994. Csapo, Eric, and Slater, William J.: The Context of Ancient Drama. The University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, 1995. Dale, A. M.: Interior Scenes and Illusion in Greek Drama. In Dale, A. M.: Collected Papers. Cambridge University Press, 1969, 259–271. o. Dale, A. M.: Seen and Unseen on the Greek Stage. In Dale, A. M.: Collected Papers. Cambridge University Press, 1969, 119–129. o. Dale, A. M.: The Chorus and the Action of Greek Tragedy. In Dale, A. M.: Collected Papers. Cambridge University Press, 1969, 210–220. o. Easterling, P. E., and Knox, B. M. W. (ed.): The Cambridge History of Classical Literature. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1985. Foley, Helene: Choral Identity in Greek Tragedy. In Classical Philology, The University of Chicago Press, vol. 98, no. 1, 2003, 1–30. o. Goldhill, Simon: Reading Greek Tragedy. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1986. Green, J. R.: Theatre in Ancient Greek Society. Routledge, London and New York, 1994. Gregory, Derek: Geographical Imaginations. Blackwell Publishers, Cambridge MA and Oxford UK, 1994. Hall, Edith: The sociology of Athenian tragedy. In Easterling, P. E. (ed.): The Cambridge Companion to Greek Tragedy. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1997, 69–91. o. Heath, Malcolm: The Poetics of Greek Tragedy. Duckworth, London, 1987. Herington, John: Poetry into Drama. Early Tragedy and the Greek Poetic Tradition. University of California Press, Berkeley, Los Angeles, London, 1985.
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Rita Júlia Sebestyén, PhD
E-mail: rita.julia.sebestyen@gmail.com Portfolio: sebestyenrita.com
Hogan, James C.: A Commentary on the Complete Greek Tragedies. Aeschylus. University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London, 1984. Hurwitt, Jeffrey M.: The Athenian Acropolis. History, Mythology, and Archeology from the Neolitic Era to the Present. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1999. Padel, Ruth: In and Out of the Mind: Greek Images of the Tragic Self. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 1992. Padel, Ruth: Making Space Speak. In Winkler, John J., and Zeitlin, Froma I (ed.): Nothing to Do With Dionysos? Athenian Drama in Its Social Context. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 1990, 336–365. o. Peters, Francis E.: Greek Philosophical Terms. New York University Press, New York, 1967. Pickard-Cambridge, A. W.: Dramatic Festivals of Athens. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1953. Pickard-Cambridge, A. W.: The Theatre of Dionysus in Athens. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1946. Rehm, Rush: Greek Tragic Theatre. Routledge, London and New York, 1994. Rehm, Rush: The Play of Space. Spatial Transformation in Greek Tragedy, Princetion University Press, 2009. : https://muse.jhu.edu/book/30102 Rocco, Christopher. Tragedy and Enlightenment: Athenian Political Thought and the Dilemmas of Modernity. University of California Press, Berkeley, Los Angeles, London, 1997. Stanford, W. B.: Greek Tragedy and the Emotions. An introductory study. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1983. Taplin, Oliver: Greek Tragedy in Action. Routledge, London and New York, 1995. (első kiadása: Methuen & Co. Ltd., London, 1978). Vernant, Jean-Pierre: Mythe et pensée chez le Grecs. Études de psychologie historique. Nouvelle édition revue et augmentée, Éditions la Découverte, Paris, 1985. Vernant, Jean-Pierre: Mythe et religion en Grèce ancienne. Édition du Seuil, Paris 1990. Vernant, Jean-Pierre, and Vidal-Naquet, Pierre: Mythe et Tragédie en Grèce Ancienne. Éditions la Découverte, Paris, 1986. Webster, T. B. L.: Greek Theatre Production. Methuen and Co. LTD, London, 1956. Wiles, David: Greek Theatre Performance. An Introduction. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2000. Wiles, David: Tragedy in Athens. Performance space and theatrical meaning. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2001. 2. General bibliography for the contemporary approach of Ancient Greek Tragedy Berleant, Arnold: The Aesthetics of the Environment (1995): https://muse.jhu.edu/book/9509 Bishop, Claire: Antagonism and Relational Aesthetics (2004): http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic641765.files/6%20c%20Bishop_Antagonism%20an d%20Relational%20Aesthetics_October.pdf Bourriaud, Nicolas: Relational Aesthetics. Dijon: Les presses du réel, 2002. Gablik, Suzi: The Reenchantment of Art. Thames & Hudson, 1991.
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Rita Júlia Sebestyén, PhD
E-mail: rita.julia.sebestyen@gmail.com Portfolio: sebestyenrita.com
Gadamer, H. G.: Philosophical Hermeneutics. Trans. and ed. by D. E. Linge. Second edition, Berkeley, University of California Press. 2004. Heidegger, Martin: Art and Space. In: Man and World. Trans. by Charles H. Seibert, February 1973, vol 6., issue 1, pp. 3-8. Heidegger, Martin: Building, Dwelling, Thinking. In: Poetry, Language, Thought, translated by Albert Hofstadter, Harper Colophon Books, New York, 1971. http://www.wwf.gr/images/pdfs/pe/katoikein/Filosofia_Building%20Dwelling%20Thinking.p df Hepburn, Ronald: Contemporary aesthetics and the neglect of natural beauty, In: A. Carlson and A. Berleant (eds.), The Aesthetics of Natural Environments (broadview Press), pp. 43–62. First published in B. Williams and A. Montefiore (eds.), British Analytical Philosophy (London: Routledge and Paul Kegan, 1966). Kester, Grant : Conversation Pieces: Community and Communication in Modern Art. University of California Press. 2004. Kwon, Miwon: One Place After Another. Site-Specific Art and Locational Identity. The MIT Press: Cambridge, Massachussets & London, England, 2002.: https://monoskop.org/images/d/d3/Kwon_Miwon_One_Place_after_Another_SiteSpecific_Art_and_Locational_Identity.pdf Zanny Begg & Lee Stickells (eds.): The Right to the City. Tin Sheds Gallery, Sydney University. 2011.
3.3.
INTRODUCTION TO COMPARATIVE LITERATURE AND COMPARATIVE STUDIES
General aim of the subject: introduction into theories and methodology of comparative studies. Specific aims of the subject: This course deals with literary and other cultural ways of expression and representations and the ways we can approach, read, analyse and compare them. We regard this course as a dynamic, contextualized series of experiences; a process in which comparative studies appear as a(n) (in)discipline posing a series of questions even regarding its own methodology and research area, endlessly renewing itself in the science and art of questioning. First we will have a closer insight into the genesis and methodology of comparative studies: the dialogical relationship of different approaches and tools, and the possibilities of extension of this emerging subject. Then we read, analyse, and engage in a dialogue with texts, translations, adaptations, performances and films and continue the discourse on the art/science to compare across languages, cultures and different media. 1. 2.
Short historical overview: from the 17th century to the early 20th century in the French, English, German speaking world. (in Hungary: Melztl Hugo and Brassai Sámuel). First concepts and notions, first debates (Goethe and his context). Basic questions of the comparative studies in the 21st century: 1. Borders of the (in)discipline and interdisciplinary issues (Zepetnek and Ferris)
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Rita Júlia Sebestyén, PhD
E-mail: rita.julia.sebestyen@gmail.com Portfolio: sebestyenrita.com
3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14.
Basic questions of the comparative studies in the 21st century: 2. The close and the remote, past and future. (Bassnett és Boldrini) Canons. Genres, disciplines, cross-disciplinary approaches. Translation studies 1: “Nothing is translatable, everything is translatable” (Apter). Translation studies 2. Shakespeare: language, culture, society, aesthetics, space, time. Adaptations. Heiner Müller: The Hamletmaschine. Literature and other arts. Hamlet meeting the Ghost on the screen (Olivier, Zefirelli, Branagh) and onstage (the scene in 4-5 contemporary stagings). A nomadic topos throughout ages and cultures: e.g., the garden (based on the examples brought by the students). Post-colonialism (Said). Feminist critique (Spivak, Butler). Eastern-Europe and post-colonialism (Babkou, Skórczewski and Rjakcsuk). Imagology: Fried. Kutatások és kísérletek: inter- és multidiszciplináris, nemzetközi és kultúraközi projektek. Művészet, bölcsészet, tudomány (Secret Hotel, Soundscapes, Sensescapes, Global Hamlet). Discussions on the examples and questions brought by the students.
Mandatory bibliography: Susan Bassnett, ’Reflections on Comparative Literature in the Twenty-First Century’, Comparative Critical Studies vol. 3, no 1, Comparative Literature at a Crossroads,ed. Robert Weninger, 2006, 3-11. Walter Benjamin, Selected Writings: Volume 4: 1938-1940. Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2006. Lucia Boldrini, 2010. ’Comparative literature and translation, historical breaks and continuing debates: Can the past teach us something about the future?’ Diacrítica. Dossier Literatura Comparada, 24(3), 181-199. http://research.gold.ac.uk/5537/ David Ferris: ’Why Compare?’, A Companion to Comparative Literature, First Edition, ed. Ali Behdad and Dominic Thomas, Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2011, 29-44. Heiner Müller: The Hamletmaschine (1979), trans. by Denis Redmond, 2001.: http://members.efn.org/~dredmond/Hamletmachine.PDF Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek, ’The New Humanities: The Intercultural, the Comparative, and the Interdisciplinary’ Globalization and the Futures of Comparative Literature, ed. Alfred J. Lopez and Adetayo Alabi, special issue, The Global South 1.2, 2007, 45-68. Note: all the theoretical texts will be accompanied by the analysis of literary texts, performances, films that we choose together as a group. Selective bibliography: Emily Apter, The Translation Zone: A New Comparative Literature, Princeton, NJ and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2006. Susan Bassnett, Comparative Literature: A Critical Introduction, Oxford: Blackwell, 1993.
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Rita Júlia Sebestyén, PhD
E-mail: rita.julia.sebestyen@gmail.com Portfolio: sebestyenrita.com
Stanley Corngold, ’Comparative Literature: The Delay in Translation’, Sandra Berman and Michael Wood (eds.) (2005), Nation, Language, and the Ethics of Translation, Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2005, 139-145. Michael Cronin, Translation and Globalization, London: Routledge, 2003. Itamar Even-Zohar, ’The Position of Translated Literature Within the Literary Polysystem’, The Translation Studies Reader, ed. Lawrence Venuti, 2nd ed., New York and London: Routledge, 2000, 199-204. Guillén, Claudio, The Challenge of Comparative Literature, trans. Cola Franzen, Cambridge, Mass., and London: Harvard University Press, 1985. The Comparative Reader: A Handlist of Basic Reading in Comparative Literature, ed. Kohn T. Kirby, New Haven: Chancery P, 1998. Edward Said, Culture and Imperialism, London: Chatto and Windus, 1993. Comparative Literature in an Age of Globalization, ed. Hauhn Saussy, Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006. Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty, Death of a Discipline, New York: Columbia University Press, 2003. Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek, Comparative Literature: Theory, Method, Application. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1998. Comparative Literature and Comparative Cultural Studies, ed. Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek, Purdue University Press, 2003
5. FEEDBACK AND REFLECTIONS FROM STUDENTS AND PEERS I had been a student of Rita Julia Sebestyén at Babes-Bolyai University between 1995-1997, at Theatre Department, specializing in Teatrology. She was running the seminars for Theatre History, Drama Theory and Aesthetics. We were a small group of 7 students. I remember her being devoted to every student’s professional development and being attentive to differences and different interests of everyone. She was demanding and rigorous in the work she expected from students and carefully advised all of us not only on the material she was teaching but also on our own side projects. I admired her pedagogical skills which made all her seminars interesting and also motivating all of the students to read a lot, write a lot, and think about theatre performances in a complex, interdisciplinary way. I also participated in a Summer School/workshop she organized in 1997, which offered me a chance to work in small teams (this kind of work has not been part of the academic curricula), and I gained important experience as well as friendships that were and still are milestones of my professional career. I am especially grateful for that. Kinga Kelemen former Assistant Professor at Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj, RO Artistic Manager at GroundFloor Group/Fabrica de Pensule
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Rita Júlia Sebestyén, PhD
E-mail: rita.julia.sebestyen@gmail.com Portfolio: sebestyenrita.com I have worked with Rita as a colleague for a workshop, which we ran at Time Festival 2016 in Copenhagen – which we taught in the theatres world approach to time i.e. the actors and in historical context, to help people with other professionals with other professions approach time in their daily work. To work as a colleague instead of a student and teacher approach, was delightful. That I have the possibility to work in a professional context beside my school is a wonderful way of getting experience of any sort for my own future professionally and personally. Working with Rita by primarily building a workshop up from the ground, creating and sharing ideas in a theoretical, practical and spiritual context was a delight. You get a sense of flow working with Rita which is in thanks to her relaxed approach to her work, yet having the complete professional overview where she and her co-workers are supposed to go is a wonderful gift, that very few people is inhabited within the theatre world. Rasmus Cortzen Actor, Copenhagen Rita Sebestyén has been my professor at the University of Arts Targu Mures (Romania) where she very capably taught us creative writing and history of the press. She is to be commended for her professionalism and efficiency on giving lectures or keeping workshops about theatre and drama arts. Her concern for her students is very praiseworthy, her self-confidence and sensibility help students to find their own interests. Rita Sebestyén is a really versatile person, and due to her various cross-cultural and crossdisciplinary experiences she is capable of teaching each of her students individually. She is uniquely adaptive and devoted; she is open to new teaching methods. Her assignments and exams are exciting and instructive. In addition to the above, I consider that Rita Sebestyén was one of my most significant professors, who helped me launch my career. Her passion for theatre is admirable, and her work ethic is a great example to follow. Beáta Lídia László Dramaturge at the ‘Tamási Áron’ Theatre, Sfintu Gheorghe, RO Editor at Játéktér/Playing Area The course of teaching encourages students to study together in an active way. When interpreting basic concepts, Rita Julia Sebestyen always starts with practical assignments including the questions and thoughts raised by students. Then, she connects these concepts by embedding them into theoretical hypotheses and models. She introduces students not only to the axioms of literary studies but also to aesthetic, anthropologic, intellectual history and social science studies and methods. This way, by understanding the basic concepts and statements about associated arts and sciences, students can develop their own concept and vision about the topic in question. Their ideas are then tested in two ways in order to shed light upon any deficiency, inaccuracy or error and to provide an opportunity for further development and even implementation. Students are first asked in an individual task to write down their ideas about the subject of their study in an essay. This is followed by working in groups to try to harmonize thoughts and implement them in practice. For example, students have created an informative website in a topic using their own texts, their own research and related examples. In another project, by creating a text-based virtual gallery, they contributed to the exam performance of acting students in Copenhagen, crossing together cultural, language and disciplinary boundaries in the meanwhile. István Berszán Ph.D. Head of Department Associate Professor Babes-Bolyai University, Faculty of Letters, Department of Comparative Literature, Cluj
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Rita JĂşlia SebestyĂŠn, PhD
E-mail: rita.julia.sebestyen@gmail.com Portfolio: sebestyenrita.com I originally met Rita Sebestyen in July 2015, after having heard about her work for some time. She was leading a group of colleagues who were focusing on the theme of "otherness". I noticed her dynamic presence and gentle grace as a leader. I live in the USA and also work in East Africa and Europe. In these fields I am constantly aware of the dynamics of identity politics. Of those I've come across, Rita's Otherness project is most effective at rendering complex material comprehensible to a broad range of people and groups. Moreover she employs the ancient art of theatre. This allows access to subtle nonverbal cues that govern communication and impact relationships far beyond our everyday awareness. Mecca Antonia Burns Drama Therapist and Director PRESENCE Center for Applied Theatre Arts, Charlottesville, Virginia
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