Performance Studies : An Introduction

by Schechner, Richard

• ISBN13: 9780415146210
• ISBN10: 0415146216
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-05-10
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

This important new introductory textbook by a prime mover in the emergent field of Performance Studies is a defining moment for the discipline. It provides a lively and accessible overview of the full range of performance for undergraduates at all levels and beginning graduate students in performance studies, theatre, performing arts and cultural studies.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
What is Performance Studies?	1	(21)
Introducing this book, this field, and myself	1	(1)
The boxes	1	(1)
What makes performance studies special	1	(3)
Literacies, performatives, and texters	4	(1)
Many players, few departments, one emergent field	5	(6)
The Victor Turner connection	11	(5)
The Centre for Performance Research and PSi	16	(1)
Northwestern's brand of performance studies	17	(2)
The ``inter'' of performance studies	19	(1)
Ethical questions	19	(2)
Conclusion	21	(1)
Things to think about	21	(1)
Things to do	21	(1)
Suggested readings	21	(1)
What is Performance?	22	(23)
What Is ``To perform''?	22	(1)
Performances	22	(2)
Bill Parcells wants you to perform	24	(1)
Eight kinds of performance	25	(3)
Restoration of behavior	28	(1)
Caution! Beware of generalizations	29	(1)
``Is'' performance	30	(2)
``As'' performance	32	(3)
Make believe versus make belief	35	(2)
Blurry boundaries	37	(1)
The functions of performance	37	(4)
Conclusion	41	(2)
Things to think about	43	(1)
Things to do	44	(1)
Suggested readings	44	(1)
Ritual	45	(34)
Ritual, Play, and performance	45	(1)
Varieties of ritual	45	(2)
Sacred and secular	47	(2)
Structures, functions, processes, and experience	49	(1)
Rituals as actions, as performances	50	(1)
Human and animal rituals	51	(6)
Rituals as liminal performances	57	(1)
Limens, lintels, and stages	58	(4)
Anti-structure and communitas	62	(1)
Ritual time/space	63	(1)
Transportations and transformations	63	(2)
Asemo's initiation	65	(1)
Social drama	66	(3)
The pig-kill dancing at Kurumugl	69	(2)
The efficacy-entertainment dyad	71	(1)
Origins of performance: if not ritual, then what?	71	(1)
Changing rituals or inventing new ones	72	(2)
Using rituals in theatre, dance, and music	74	(3)
Conclusion	77	(1)
Things to think about	77	(1)
Things to do	77	(1)
Suggested readings	77	(2)
Play	79	(31)
The Joker In The deck	79	(2)
What is play? What is playing?	81	(1)
Some qualities of playing	82	(1)
Seven ways to approach play	83	(1)
Types of playing	84	(1)
Play acts, play moods	85	(3)
Flow, or experiencing playing	88	(1)
Transitional objects, illusions, and culture	89	(1)
An ethological approach to play	90	(1)
The message, ``This is play''	91	(2)
Bateson's Othello	93	(2)
Philosophies of play	95	(6)
The bias against play	101	(1)
Maya-lila	102	(3)
Deep play, dark play	105	(4)
Conclusion	109	(1)
Things to think about	109	(1)
Things to do	109	(1)
Suggested readings	109	(1)
Performativity	110	(33)
A Term Hard to pin down	110	(1)
Performatives and speech acts	110	(4)
Postmodernism	114	(3)
Simulation	117	(7)
Poststructuralism / deconstruction	124	(4)
The diffusion of poststructuralism	128	(1)
Problems with poststructuralism	129	(1)
Constructions of gender	130	(3)
Constructions of race	133	(4)
Performance art	137	(4)
What the gravedigger knew about the performative	141	(1)
Conclusion	141	(1)
Things to think about	142	(1)
Things to do	142	(1)
Suggested readings	142	(1)
Performing	143	(45)
The Broad spectrum of performing	143	(3)
Acting	146	(3)
Realistic acting	149	(3)
Brechtian acting	152	(3)
Codifed acting	155	(5)
Codified acting and the avant-garde	160	(2)
Codified acting and ritual	162	(1)
Trance acting	163	(5)
Trance acting and shamanism	168	(3)
Masks, puppets, and other performing objects	171	(2)
Hybrid acting	173	(1)
Performing in everyday life	174	(3)
Trials and executions as performance	177	(3)
Surgery as performance	180	(1)
Belief in the role one is playing	181	(2)
How realistic is realistic acting?	183	(3)
Conclusion	186	(1)
Things to think about	186	(1)
Things to do	186	(1)
Suggested readings	187	(1)
Performance Processes	188	(38)
The Earliest performances?	188	(3)
Performance process as a time-space sequence	191	(1)
Proto-performance	191	(1)
A note on ``text''	192	(1)
Training	193	(5)
Imitation as a way of acquiring performance knowledge	198	(1)
Workshop	198	(3)
Rehearsal	201	(3)
Warm-up	204	(1)
Public performance	205	(4)
Larger events and contexts	209	(1)
Cooldown	210	(1)
Aftermath	211	(3)
Rules, proto-performance, and public performance	214	(1)
The performance quadrilogue	215	(3)
From performance montage to desktop theatre	218	(5)
Experimental in one context, ordinary in another	223	(1)
Conclusion	224	(1)
Things to think about	225	(1)
Things to do	225	(1)
Suggested readings	225	(1)
Global and Intercultural Performance	226	(47)
Globalization's throughline	226	(1)
Scenarios of globalization	227	(3)
Cultural impositions and appropriations	230	(1)
Is globalization good or bad?	230	(2)
Colonial mimicry	232	(3)
Tourist performances: leisure globalization	235	(3)
The Olympics: globalism's signature Performance	238	(6)
Grotowski's vertical transculturalism	244	(1)
Barba's horizontal interculturalism	245	(6)
Integrative intercultural performances	251	(6)
Guillermo Gomez-Pena: border wars	257	(4)
Answering globalization: new genre public art	261	(4)
Terrorism and performance	265	(4)
Conclusion	269	(4)
Things to think about	273	(1)
Things to do	273	(1)
Suggested readings	273	(1)
References	273	(10)
Index	283