Jacques Ranciere has been hugely influential in field of political philosophy and aesthetics. This edited collection is the first to investigate the points of contact between the work of Ranciere and the field of theatre and performance studies. From theatrocracy to emancipated spectators, recent scholarly works in this discipline have drawn upon concepts from Ranciere's writing to investigate problems of audience, participation, politics and pedagogy. Before these concepts and critical tools peel away from the works through which they emerged, this book seeks a detailed critical assessment of the works themselves and their implications for theatre and performance studies. The collection examines the critical and analytical interventions that have been made to date and looks forward, towards challenges to the future uses of Ranciere's work in performance. This book project includes work by fourteen scholars and is an essential resource for researchers and academics working in all areas of performance and identity, performance and activism, and performance and philosophy.
Colette Conroy is director of the Institute of Arts, University of Cumbria, UK. Nic Fryer is senior lecturer and course leader of the MA in performing arts at Bucks New University and a director.
Introduction Section 1: Aesthetics and Politics, Politics and Aesthetics RYAN HATCH - The Politics of Aesthetics, in a State of Disruption LIESBETH GROOT NIBBELINK - Soft Shivers, Sweaty Politics: Dramaturgy and the Pensive Body COLETTE CONROY - Ranciere and Disability Performance Section 2: The Role of Theatre and Performance SHULAMITH LEV-ALEDGEM - Performing Philosophy: Ranciere as Playwright, Director and Performer in The Ignorant Schoolmaster ADRIAN KEAR - Staging the People: Performance, Presence and Representation NIC FRYER - 'Apart, we are together. Together, we are apart': Ranciere's Community of Translators in Theory and Theatre Section 3: Spectatorship and Participation JENNY HUGHES - Nights of Theatrical Labour in the Victorian Workhouse WILL SHUELER - The Emancipated Educator: Chance, Will, and Equality in Higher Education Role-Immersion Pedagogies GARETH WHITE - Scenes From The Aesthetic Regime Of Game Theatre Section 4: Performance as Political Disruption JANELLE REINELT - Resisting Ranciere CAOIMHE MADER McGUINNESS - Dissensual Reproductions in You Should See the Other Guy's Land of the Three Towers STEPHEN SCOTT-BOTTOMS - A Drop in the Ocean: The Paradoxes of Performing Activism Index
This timely collection of new essays provides a fascinating survey of the work of Jacques Ranciere and its impact on cutting-edge thinking in theatre and performance studies. In a series of provocative and inspiring engagements, theatre and performance are offered here as sites for destabilising the hierarchies of expertise and experience, exploding myths of the passive spectator, and framing some of the most urgent political questions of our time.--Sophie Nield, senior lecturer in drama, Royal Holloway, University of London Although a decade has passed since the English publication of the Emancipated Spectator, Ranciere's thought has lost none of its power to unsettle preconceptions regarding art and politics. Fryer and Conroy's timely volume proves the point. Its judicious selection of essays probe the potentialities and - yes - frustrations for theatre and performance scholars engaging with the dissensus at the heart of Ranciere's project.--Tony Fisher, reader in theatre and philosophy, Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London
