Performance Ethnography : Critical Pedagogy and the Politics of Culture

by Norman K. Denzin

• ISBN13: 9780761910398
• ISBN10: 0761910395
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-06-24
• Publisher: SAGE Publications, Inc

Summary

Norman K. Denzin feels that now is the time to take stock of reflexive performance, ethnography, and autoethnography; to evaluate where each has been and where they are going, especially as they pertain to the study of democracy and racism in postmodern America. In Performance Ethnography, one of the worlda??s most distinguished authorities on qualitative research, established the initial published connection of performance narratives with performance ethnography and autoethnography; the linkage of these formations to critical pedagogy and critical race theory; and the histories of these formations, and shown how they may be connected. Performance Ethnography is divided into three parts. Part I covers pedagogy, ethnography, performance, and theory as the foundation for a performative social science. Part II addresses the worlds of family, nature, praxis, and action, employing a structure that is equal parts memoir, essay, short story, and literary autoethnography. Part III examines the ethics and practical politics of performance autoethnography, anchored in the post-9/11 discourse in the United States. The amalgam serves as an invitation for social scientists and ethnographers to confront the politics of cultural studies and explore the multiple ways in which performance and ethnography can be both better understood and used as mechanisms for social change and economic justice.

Author Biography

Norman K. Denzin is Distinguished Professor of Communications, College of Communications Scholar, and Research Professor of Communications, Sociology and Humanities at the University of Illinois.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
Acknowledgments	xv
PART I. PERFORMANCE ETHNOGRAPHY	1	(130)
The Call to Performance	3	(22)
Race and the Call to Performance	4	(2)
Indigenous Voices and Anticolonialist Discourse	6	(1)
Performance, Pedagogy, and Politics	7	(4)
Toward a Performative Cultural Politics	11	(3)
The Move to Performance Ethnography	14	(6)
Performance Art	20	(1)
The Pedagogical as Performative	21	(2)
Conclusion	23	(2)
The Language of Performance	25	(32)
A Genealogy of the Performance Text	27	(5)
Interpretive Assumptions	32	(5)
A Critical Postmodern Performance Vocabulary	37	(5)
The Mystory Text and Its Performance	42	(11)
Ethics for a Performative, Pedagogical Cultural Studies	53	(3)
Conclusion	56	(1)
The Cinematic Society and the Reflexive Interview	57	(20)
The Postmodern, Cinematic Society	59	(2)
The Birth of Cinematic Surveillance	61	(10)
Studying the Interview in the Cinematic Society	71	(6)
Toward a Performative Social Science	77	(29)
Interpretive Framework	80	(4)
Performing the Interview, Performing Society	84	(4)
Anna Deavere Smith's Project	88	(7)
Performing Racial Memories	95	(9)
Conclusion	104	(2)
Reading and Writing Performance	106	(25)
A Caveat	107	(1)
Setting Criteria for Performance Ethnography	108	(3)
Feminist, Communitarian Criteria	111	(5)
Performative Norms and Criteria	116	(2)
Literary and Aesthetic Criteria	118	(4)
Performative Understandings in the Seventh Moment	122	(2)
Trauma, Race, and the Politics of Interpretation	124	(4)
Into the Future	128	(3)
PART II. PERFORMANCE TEXTS: BONE DEEP IN LANDSCAPES	131	(90)
Two-Stepping in the `90s	137	(6)
Mother and Mickey	143	(5)
Performing Montana	148	(16)
Red Lodge, Montana	149	(1)
Experience and Performances	150	(12)
Performing Montana	162	(2)
Rock Creek History	164	(11)
Rock Creek Stories	166	(2)
Alicia's Horses	168	(7)
Cowboys and Indians	175	(9)
Reflexive Afterword	180	(1)
A Writing-Story	181	(3)
Redskins and Chiefs	184	(29)
Prologue	184	(1)
Act 1	185	(5)
Act 2	190	(13)
Act 3	203	(10)
Searching for Yellowstone	213	(8)
PART III. PEDAGOGY, POLITICS, AND ETHICS	221	(42)
Critical Performance Pedagogy	222	(20)
The Critical Imagination and Pedagogies of Hope	225	(5)
A Performative Cultural Studies	230	(5)
A Reflexive Critique of Reflexive Critical Ethnography	235	(2)
Critical Performance Pedagogy	237	(4)
Conclusion	241	(1)
Performance Ethics	242	(21)
Cultural Politics and an Indigenous Research Ethic	242	(6)
The Biomedical Model of Ethics and the Belmont Principles	248	(9)
An Indigenous Feminist, Communitarian Ethic	257	(1)
A Red Pedagogy	258	(5)
Notes	263	(14)
References	277	(28)
Index	305	(10)
About the Author	315