ENGL 233 / THEA 203, Performance History I (Anna Griffith)

A Cultural History of Theatre' presents an authoritative survey from ancient times to the present. The set of six volumes covers a span of 2,500 years, tracing the complexity of the interactions between theatre and culture. 1. 'A Cultural History of Theatre in Antiquity' (500 BC - 1000 AD) 2. 'A Cultural History of Theatre in the Middle Ages' (1000 - 1400) 03. 'A Cultural History of Theatre in the Early Modern Age' (1400 - 1650) 4. 'A Cultural History of Theatre in the Age of Enlightenment' (1650 - 1800) 5. 'A Cultural History of Theatre in the Age of Empire' (1800 - 1920) 6. 'A Cultural History of Theatre in the Modern Age' (1920 - 2000+). [From Publisher]

This book aims to offer a broad history of theatre in Africa, covering the entire continent. The roots of African theatre are ancient and complex and lie in areas of community festival, seasonal rhythm and religious ritual, as well as in the work of popular entertainers and storytellers. Since the 1950s, in a movement that has paralleled the political emancipation of so much of the continent, there has also grown a theatre that comments back from the colonized world to the world of the colonists and explores its own cultural, political and linguistic identity. A History of Theatre in Africa offers a comprehensive yet accessible account of this long and varied chronicle and is written by a team of scholars in the field. Chapters include an examination of the concepts of ‘history’ and ‘theatre’ in Africa; North Africa; Francophone theatre; Anglophone West Africa; East Africa; Southern Africa; Lusophone African theatre; Mauritius and Réunion; and the African Diaspora. [From Publisher]

In this story-within-a-story, Mabo Keita, a young boy living in contemporary Burkina Faso, receives a message from a traditional storyteller (griot) that he must “learn the meaning of his name.” Mabo is a descendent of Sundiata Keita, legendary founder of the Mali Empire and hero of The Epic of Sundiata. As Sundiata Keita comes to understand his role in Mandé history, so the younger Keita grasps the scope and significance of his heritage—a lesson that was not taught in his school’s Westernized curriculum. [From Website]

he papers in this volume focus on fiction and theatre in their traditional forms as well as in their encounters with novel and innovative forms and avenues of dissemination. As a cultural practice that emerged from a process of protest and contestation of hegemony, it is understandable that one main concern in African literature and literary criticism is the resistance against the emergence of marginalizing centers in formerly or currently marginalized societies with regard to discourses, aesthetics and media of creation. [From Publisher]

The son of Sogolon, the hunchback princess, and Maghan, known as "the handsome", Sundiata grew up to fulfill the prophesies of the soothsayers that he would unite the twelve kingdoms of Mali into one of the most powerful empires ever known in Africa, which at its peak stretched right across the savanna belt from the shores of the Atlantic to the dusty walls of Timbuktu. Retold by generations of griots, the guardians of African culture, this oral tradition has been handed down from the thirteenth century and captures all the mystery and majesty of medieval African kingship. It is an epic tale, part history and part legend. [From Publisher]

African popular culture is an arena where the tensions and transformations of colonial and post-colonial society are played out, offering us a glimpse of the view from below in Africa. This book offers a comparative overview of the history, social context, and style of three major West African popular theatre genres: the concert party of Ghana, the concert party of Togo, and the traveling popular theatre of western Nigeria. [From Publisher]