Aims

The general objective is to understand the nature of academic works and to view at close quarters the production of academic texts about the performing arts. To this end, students will learn how to identify the main functional characteristics of an academic text (and especially to determine the position of the author with regard to the theses he alludes to), to adapt their reading strategies to this type of discourse, to reformulate arguments accurately, to problematise a subject, to combine and synthesise multiple sources, to organise an argument and to control its development.

Main themes

This course relates more to skills to be developed and practised rather than to specific subject areas. Each exercise is based on academic articles selected from recent work devoted to different questions relating to the performing arts, and especially to contemporary dramatic art.

Content and teaching methods

The method that is used is the inductive one. This takes as the starting point students' viewpoints, comparisons of academic texts and the collective analysis of students' productions (in particular the report compiled during the entrance examination, which will be returned to on several occasions). Reflections are synthesised, organised and revalidated in various reception and production exercises (individual or collective). Special attention is given to metacognition, although a 15-hour course cannot really hope to resolve the various problems involved. The primary objective is therefore to achieve an awareness of the various issues.
An attempt will be made to establish a methodology that is suited to the area of theatre studies in the examples and models that are used.

Other information (prerequisite, evaluation (assessment methods), course materials recommended readings, ...)

Students are evaluated during course sessions. The criteria relate to attendance, commitment and the performance of exercises, some of which have to completed at home. The underlying idea, however, is that of teacher accompaniment, and students are therefore permitted to interact with the teacher during the evaluation exercises, in order to promote metacognition.

Other credits in programs