Performance : A Critical Introduction

Performance: A Critical Introductionwas the first textbook to provide an overview of the modern concept of performance and its development in various related fields. This comprehensively revised, illustrated edition discusses recent performance work and takes into consideration changes that have taken place in the study of performance since the book's original publication in 1996. Marvin Carlson guides the reader through the contested definition of performance as a theatrical activity and the myriad ways in which performance has been interpreted by ethnographers, anthropologists, linguists and cultural theorists. Topics covered include: --The evolution of performance art since the 1960s --The relationship between performance, postmodernism, the politics of identity and current cultural studies --The recent theoretical developments in the study of performance in the fields of anthropology, psychoanalysis, linguistics and technology With a fully updated bibliography and additionalglossary of terms, students of performance studies, visual and performing arts or theatre history will welcome this new version of a classic text.

Marvin Carlson is the Sidney E. Cohn Professor of Theatre and Comparative Literature at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.