“Performativity” refers to the emergent, ambiguous, and unexpected dimensions of any performance in the social, political, and artistic arena. The volume presents case studies of performativity in: linguistic translation; the city as stage of political performances; the theatricality of courtrooms and documentary film; contemporary theatre’s political inheritance; and the historically punctured fabric of festival time. Its contributions to performance and theatre studies, sociology, folklore, and German studies reflect this concept in a transdisciplinary and transatlantic dialogue.Contributions by Jonathan Bach (Associate Professor of Global Studies at The New Schoolin New York), Brad Prager (Professor of Film Studies and German Studies at the University of Missouri), Malgorzata Sugiera (Professor at the Jagiellonian University inKraków, Poland), Mimmi Woisnitza (Leuphana University in Lüneburg, Germany), and Margaret E. Wright-Cleveland (Florida State University).