Theories of Performance invites students to explore the possibilities of performance for creating, knowing, and staking claims to the world. Each chapter surveys, explains, and illustrates classic, modern, and postmodern theories that answer the questions, "What is performance?" "Why do people perform?" and "How does performance constitute our social and political worlds?" The chapters feature performance as the entry point for understanding texts, drama, culture, social roles, identity, resistance, and technologies. Written specifically for the undergraduate classroom, performance theories are explained in ways accessible to students, relevant to their lives, and richly illustrated with examples that encourage students to think more, to think harder, and to think differently about performances around them. The text incorporates a variety of pedagogical strategies to encourage students to demonstrate, apply, extend, and share their discoveries about theory. Each chapter provides student-centered exercises, activities, and prompts. From Aristotelian tragedy to on-line avatars, Dramatism to performativity, cultural performance to public protest, canon wars to virtual reality, Theories of Performance brings classic, modern, and postmodern theories to life in the classroom. "Elizabeth Bell has done a prodigious, expert, and original synthesis of the new work in performance studies here, by grounding performance in communication theory and practice. Students reading this book will more readily see how and why performance is a way of communicating, empowering them to critically participate in producing and consuming the myriad texts and performances in which we are immersed. The 'Act Out' and other boxes present effective and innovative learning activities; they move performance from a display of competence to participation in bodily knowing. In short, Theories of Performance is an exceptional accomplishment. " - Kristin M. Langellier, University of Maine "Theories of Performance is the BEST synthesis of performance studies issues, concepts, and methodologies that yet exists. This textbook is invaluable and will make performance studies classrooms 'smarter' and more sophisticated both in terms of content and in practice. What a treat it will be to offer students a text that takes the best thoughts, practices, and examples and presents it to them in an engaging, surprising, and provocative format!" - Keith Pounds, Hofstra University
Elizabeth Bell (Ph.D., University of Texas, 1983) has taught Performance Studies for thirty years in three departments of communication (University of Texas at Austin, University of North Carolina, and University of South Florida). Her graduate courses include Performance Theory, Feminism and Performance, Texts in Performance, and Performance of Nonfiction; undergraduate offerings are Oral Tradition (a theory-based, large lecture class), performance classes in literary genres (poetry, prose fiction, poetic drama), and group performance. She is the co-editor of From Mouse to Mermaid: The Politics of Film, Gender, and Culture (Indiana 1995).
Chapter 1: Introducing Theories of Performance Theory in Perspective: Can You See the Forest for the Trees? What Is Theory? Theory Questions: What? Why? How? Kinds of Theory Questions Assumptions about How Language Operates in Theory Two Models of Communication Performance as a Communicative Form Assumptions about Performance: Mimesis, Poiesis, and Kinesis Performance as a Key Term Definitions of Performance Claims about Performance: Constitutive, Epistemic, and Critical Rethinking Theory and Performance Chapter 2: Constituting Performance Theory in Perspective: What Makes a Performance? The "Nature" of Performance Constituting Performance through Framing Constituting the Performance Frame through Keying Constituting Performance through the Performer Constituting Performance through Audience Rethinking Performance Chapter 3: Performing Texts Theory in Perspective: What Is a Text? Humans and Symbol Use: Text Me Later. OK? From Orality to the Page to the Screen Interpreting the World as "Text" When Text Meets Performance Drama, Script, Theater, and Performance Assumptions about Texts: Canon, Textuality, and Materiality Interpreting Texts Text Versus Performance Rethinking Texts Chapter 4: Performing Drama Theory in Perspective: How Is the World a Stage? The Drama of a Roller Coaster Ride Reigning Metaphor: Life as Drama What Is Aristotelian Drama? Audience and Dramatic Form Kenneth Burke's Dramatism: Life Is Drama Performing Tragic and Comic Attitudes From Dramatism to Social Drama Analyzing Social Dramas Social Drama: Raw Material for Performances Rethinking Drama Chapter 5: Performing Culture Theory in Perspective: How Do Cultures Perform? What Is Culture? Approaches to Studying Culture From Studying "Man" to Theorizing Movement and Play Rites of Passage: Moving through Culture Homo Ludens/Playing Man Characteristics of Ritual Rituals Are Performed From Great Tradition to Cultural Performance The "Performance Turn" in Study of Culture Performing History Performing Others Rethinking Culture Chapter 6: Performing Social Roles Theory in Perspective: Who Am I? Don't Play Games with Me! "What's Wrong?" "What's Right?" Teams: Performing Together Regions: Performing Spaces When Good Performances Go Bad Impression Management Misrepresentation Role Distance and Discrepant Roles Stigmas and "Spoiled" Identities Passing Genders and Races Performing Disability Rethinking Social Roles Chapter 7: Performing Identity Theory in Perspective: How Am I a Subject? Do Social Roles Assume a Foundational Self? Performativity's Rejections and Projects Performativity Project 1: Identity Constitution as Material and Historical Performativity Project 2: A Strategy for Identity Critique From Philosophy to Speech Act to Laws Performativity Project 3: A Political Practice of Identity Rethinking Identity Chapter 8: Performing Resistance Chapter 8: Performing Resistance Theory in Perspective: How Can Performance Change the World? From Aristotle to Postmodernism Bertolt Brecht on Performing Resistance Alienation Effects of Epic Theater Brechtian Techniques as Critical Lenses From Brecht to Boal Why Do People Take to the Streets? Models of Protest Public Events through an Aristotelian Lens Carnival and Protest From Traditional to Radical Dramaturgy Analyzing Protest Events as Performances The Body Politic: How Do Bodies Intervene? Resistance in Everyday Life: Foucault's Productive Power Resistance in Everyday Life: de Certeau's Strategies and Tactics Rethinking Resistance Chapter 9: Performing Technologies Chapter 9: Performing Technology Theory in Perspective: What Exists? Caveat Emptor: Buyer Beware of Old and New What Is Technology? Extending Human Bodies and Powers From Deus ex Machina to Flash Mobs: Extending, Enabling, and Accessing Performance Performance Presence: An Ontology Six Types of Theatrical Presence Losing the Aura of Presence Simulacra: There Is No Original Cyborg Bodies: Human and Machine Performing Cyborgs Musical Performance: Is it Live or Is It Memorex? Interactivity: From "Poke and See," Cyberpoetry, to Computer Art Environments Reach Out and Perform Someone: Five Kinds of Mediated Presence Rethinking Technologies References
Beautifully designed for an undergraduate audience in both content and layout. -- Caren Neile
