The Future of Ritual: Writings on Culture and Performance

"Events today are recorded, replayed, ritualized, and recycled. . . . A long neo-medieval period has begun. To recycle, reuse, archive and recall, to seek roots, explore and maybe even plunder religious experiences to make art, is to ritualize. The relatively tight boundaries which locked the various spheres of performance off from each other, separating ritual from aesthetics, popular entertainments from 'high art' have been punctured. . . . This book builds on the emergence of a post-colonial world where cultures are colliding, interfering with, and fertilizing each other." --From the Introduction How is performance used in politics, medicine, religion, popular entertainments and individual interactions? In The Future of Ritual, Richard Schechner explores the nature of ritualized behavior and its relationship to performance and politics. Schechner studies the interactions, sometimes easy, sometimes tense, among authors, directors, performers, andspectators--the performance quadrilog. A brilliant and uncontainable examination of cultural expression and communal action, The Future ofRitualasks pertinent questions about art, theatre and the changing meaning of "culture" in today's intercultural world.