Liminal Acts A Critical Overview of Contemporary Performance and Theory

by Broadhurst, Susan

• ISBN13: 9780304705863
• ISBN10: 0304705861
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-12-01
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic

Summary

The term liminal refers to a marginalized space of fertile chaos and creative potential where nothing is fixed or certain. Liminal performance is an emerging genre which has surfaced only in recent times and describes a range of interdisciplinary, highly experimental, performative works in theatre and performance, film and music-performances which can be seen to prioritize the body, the technological and the primordial. Broadhurst argues that traditional and contemporary critical and aesthetic theories are ultimately deficient in interpreting liminal performance. This revolutionary work first surveys traditional aesthetics in the writings of Kant, Nietzsche and Heidegger and juxtaposes them with contemporary aesthetics in the writings of Foucault, Derrida, Baudrillard and Lyotard. A series of case studies follows and, Broadhurst concludes with a summary description of liminal performances as an emerging genre. Works discussed in detail include: Pina Bausch's Tanztheater, the innovative Theatre of Images of Robert Wilson and Philip Glass, the controversial social sculptures of the Viennese Actionists, Peter Greenaway's painterly aesthetics, Derek Jarman's queer politics, digitized sampled music, and neo-gothic sound.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	ix
Introduction	1	(11)
The Liminal: A Preliminary View	12	(14)
The Problem of Aestheticization: Kant, Nietzsche and Heidegger	26	(17)
Kant	26	(5)
Nietzsche	31	(4)
Heidegger	35	(8)
Contemporary Aesthetics	43	(26)
Foucault	43	(4)
Derrida	47	(6)
Baudrillard	53	(6)
Lyotard	59	(10)
Liminal Theatre	69	(40)
Tanztheater: a dancing across margins	69	(13)
`Theatre of images': Einstein on the Beach	82	(8)
`Synthetic fragments': Muller's Hamletmachine	90	(9)
`Social sculptures': Viennese Actionism	99	(10)
Liminal Film	109	(30)
`Painterly' aesthetics: Prospero's Books	109	(6)
Liminal politics: the `queer' aesthetics of Edward II	115	(6)
Transgressing borders: Der Himmel uber Berlin/Wings of Desire	121	(9)
Limits of fragmentation: Europa/Zentropa	130	(9)
Liminal Music	139	(29)
Digital sampling: the techno music scene	139	(10)
Digitized Performance: the `acid' rave	149	(3)
Destructive aesthetics: neo-gothic sound	152	(16)
Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds	152	(6)
Einsturzende Neubauten	158	(10)
Conclusion: Liminal Performance	168	(12)
References	180	(11)
Index	191