Synopses & Reviews
From the age of Aristotle to the age of AIDS, writers, thinkers, performers and activists have wresteled with what performance is all about. At the same moment, performativity--a new concept in language theory--has become a ubiquitous term in literary studies. This volume grapples with the nature of these two key terms whose traces can be found everywhere: in the theatre, in the streets, in philosophy, in questions of race and gender, and in the sentences we speak.
Synopsis
From the age of Aristotle to the age of AIDS, writers, thinkers, performers and activists have wresteled with what performance is all about. Suddenly, theatre studies has transformed itself the study of plays to the study of performance. At the same moment, performativity--a new concept in language theory--has become a ubiquitous term in literary studies. What do these transformations have to do with one another. Is performativity necessarily theatrical? Are performances necessarily performative'?
This volume of new work by leading scholars in a range of fields grapples with the nature of these two key terms whose traces can be found everywhere: in the theatre, in the streets, in philosophy, in questions of race and gender, in the sentences we speak.
Essays reexplore the classical definition of katharsis, its reinvention in the Renaiissance, performance in circum-Atlantic cultures and in African American literature, in Austin's language theory, ideas in twentieth-century performance, and the performative nature of language in activism and hate speech legislation.
Performativity and Performance takes stock of the uses, implications, reimagined histories, and new opportunities these changing concepts now embrace.
Contributors: Judith Butler, Elin Diamond, Andrew Ford, Timothy Gould, Stephen Orgel, Cindy Patton, Andrew Parker, Joseph Roach, Sandra L. Richards, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. [228]-237).
Table of Contents
The unhappy performative / Timothy Gould -- Culture and performance in the circum-Atlantic world / Joseph Roach -- Writing the absent potential : drama, performance, and the canon of African-American literature / Sandra L. Richards -- Traumatic awakenings / Cathy Caruth -- Kathasis : the ancient problem / Andrew Ford -- The play of conscience / Stephen Orgel -- The shudder of catharsis in twentieth-century performance / Elin Diamond -- Performativity and spatial distinction : the end of AIDS epidemiology / Cindy Patton -- Burning acts, injurious speech / Judith Butler.