Performance: A Critical IntroductionPerformance: A Critical Introductionis the first survey to provide an overview of the modern concept of performance and how it has developed in various fields. In a highly accessible style Marvin Carlson introduces the reader to the contested interpretations of performance art as a theatrical activity and to the ways that performance has been understood by ethnographers, anthropologists, linguists and cultural theorists. Some of the topics he discusses include: * the evolution of performance art since the 1960s * developments of performance as a concept within the various social sciences * the relationships between performance, postmodernism and the politics of identity For any student of performance studies, visual and performing arts or theatre history, Performance: A Critical Introductionprovides a vital insight into the diverse meanings and uses of performance |
Contents
what is performance? | 1 |
anthropological | 13 |
sociological and psychological | 34 |
linguistic approaches | 56 |
Performance in its historical context | 79 |
Performance | 100 |
Performance and the postmodern | 123 |
Performance and identity | 215 |
Resistant performance | 246 |
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Common terms and phrases
action activity aesthetic analysis ance anthropological approach argues attempt audience Austin avant-garde Bakhtin Banes behavior body Caillois called carnival Carolee Schneemann central chapter characterized communication complex concerns Conquergood consciousness contemporary context costume critical cultural performance Dell Hymes Derrida developed discourse emphasis Erving Goffman essay ethnography everyday example experience experimental exploring feminism feminist feminist performance formance frame function gender Goffman human Hymes Ibid identity illocutionary important interest involved Kostelanetz Kristeva language Laurie Anderson liminal linguistic literary modern performance modernist operations orientation particular performance art performance artists performance theory physical play political popular postmodern dance present recent relationship representation Richard Foreman Richard Kostelanetz Richard Schechner ritual role Schechner seeking semiotic sexual social performance sort Spalding Gray specific spectacle speech acts speech-act theory strategies structure suggests theatrical theorists traditional theatre trans Turner University Press utilized utterance variety visual women writing York Yvonne Rainer