New Publication: Theatricality and Performativity

23 April, 2018 by Teemu Paavolainen | 0 comments

New Publication: Theatricality and Performativity

"Theatricality and Performativity: Writings on Texture from Plato’s Cave to Urban Activism" is out with Palgrave Macmillan; of more interest still, note the publisher's general discount until 15 May.

This book defines theatricality and performativity through metaphors of texture and weaving, drawn mainly from anthropologist Tim Ingold and philosopher Stephen C. Pepper. Tracing the two concepts’ various relations to practices of seeing and doing, but also to conflicting values of novelty and normativity, the study proceeds in a series of intertwining threads, from the theatrical to the performative: Antitheatrical (Plato, the Baroque, Michael Fried); Pro-theatrical (directors Wagner, Fuchs, Meyerhold, Brecht, and Brook); Dramatic (weaving memory in Shaffer’s Amadeus and Beckett’s Footfalls); Efficient (from modernist “machines for living in” to the “smart home”); Activist (knit graffiti, clown patrols, and the Anthropo(s)cene). An approach is developed in which ‘performativity’ names the way we tacitly weave worlds and identities, variously concealed or clarified by the step-aside tactics of ‘theatricality’.

For more, please visit: https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783319732251#reviews   

 

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