Theories of Performance
- Elizabeth Bell - University of South Florida, USA
Theories of Performance invites students to explore the possibilities of performance for creating, knowing, and staking claims to the world. Each chapter surveys, explains, and illustrates classic, modern, and postmodern theories that answer the questions, "What is performance?" "Why do people perform?" and "How does performance constitute our social and political worlds?" The chapters feature performance as the entry point for understanding texts, drama, culture, social roles, identity, resistance, and technologies.
Written specifically for the undergraduate classroom, performance theories are explained in ways accessible to students, relevant to their lives, and richly illustrated with examples that encourage students to think more, to think harder, and to think differently about performances around them. The text incorporates a variety of pedagogical strategies to encourage students to demonstrate, apply, extend, and share their discoveries about theory. Each chapter provides student-centered exercises, activities, and prompts.
From Aristotelian tragedy to on-line avatars, Dramatism to performativity, cultural performance to public protest, canon wars to virtual reality, Theories of Performance brings classic, modern, and postmodern theories to life in the classroom.
"Elizabeth Bell has done a prodigious, expert, and original synthesis of the new work in performance studies here, by grounding performance in communication theory and practice. Students reading this book will more readily see how and why performance is a way of communicating, empowering them to critically participate in producing and consuming the myriad texts and performances in which we are immersed. The 'Act Out' and other boxes present effective and innovative learning activities; they move performance from a display of competence to participation in bodily knowing. In short, Theories of Performance is an exceptional accomplishment. "
– Kristin M. Langellier, University of Maine
"Theories of Performance is the BEST synthesis of performance studies issues, concepts, and methodologies that yet exists. This textbook is invaluable and will make performance studies classrooms 'smarter' and more sophisticated both in terms of content and in practice. What a treat it will be to offer students a text that takes the best thoughts, practices, and examples and presents it to them in an engaging, surprising, and provocative format!" – Keith Pounds, Hofstra University
Companion Web site: www.sagepub.com/bellstudy/
Beautifully designed for an undergraduate audience in both content and layout.
Fantastic resource for teaching performance. However this is beyond A-Level students.
Excellent, accessible text that covered a range of theories comprehensively.
There was not an angle to incorporate social work and performativity
The book provides excellent textual bases and is very current in terms of content and examples.
The overall structure of the book is excellent and its length well-suited for student use. However, the constant encouragement of in-class performance is not practical nor feasible for my class. Furthermore, a number of the study questions remain too vague. They would profit from employing concrete examples for discussion, instead of asking students to look for examples themselves.
This is an essential text for undergraduate students in their debate and analysis of performance in its many facets. The text offers suggestions for debate across practices and offers clear contextual briefing to surround the nature of the debate and further discussion.
This feedback is based on my discipline of fine art, and how it incorporates live/performance based practice and theory. To that end it would be supplemental reading for fine art students, but I will use the text for discussions on the relevance of text and theory. The publication's meaty analysis of this area will be of great use, as it of regular debate in taught sessions.
This is an excellent book even though it's not within the conventionally recognized lineage of Performance Studies. Perhaps this is what makes is a compelling text and one that's excellent for comparative study.
An excellent book that explains and analyses performance theory. A very good teaching resource in theoretical sessions.
The book will be an essential instructional material especially the third chapter for my class in Hum 3. This will be helpful in discussing technology and performance as a mediated and communicated social aspect in this very modern age. The book however, needs to adds a chapter that discuss performance as a global and interconnected critical concept that bridges culture and societies. This will help non-American societies to adapt the book and use it to scrutinize cultural and communicative aspects in their own local experience. Overall, the book is an essential guide that students can easily use, with its jargon-free discussion of critical terms (and yet, it maintains an academic voice appropriate for classroom and research discussion). I would like to order several copies for my library.
Sage College Publishing
