Performing Feminisms: Feminist Critical Theory and Theatre / Edition 1

by Sue-Ellen Ellen Case, Sue-Ellen Case

Overview

Performing Feminisms is the first book to bring together theoretical works on the theater written from a feminist perspective. This pioneering work uses feminist critical theory, as it have been applied to fiction and the cinema, to explore dramatic tests and performances.

In an introductory essay, Sue-Ellen case provides an overview of the intersection between feminist critical theory and theater in the 1980s. The contributors consider a wide range of themes and strategies—psychoanalytic theory, Lacanian criticism, socialist feminism, lesbianism, history, even the folk theory of Aunt Jemima. Among the contributors, Teresa de Lauretis examines sexual indifference and lesbian representation. Elin Diamond and Sharon Willis use Lacan to dismantle notions of identity. Glenda Dickerson explores womanist attitudes in African-American theater. Yvonne Yarbo-Bejarano discusses the female subject in Chicago theater. Judith Butler destabilizes gender identity in her analysis of the performative act. The writers consider differences across time—from Shakespeare to contemporary performance art—and across ethnic and class boundaries.

The feminist critical practices of the 1980s present a challenge to women's studies and theater studies in the 1990s. Performing Feminisms introduces a relatively new field, one sure to provoke discussion in both disciplines.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801839696
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	02/01/1990
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Sue-Ellen Case is associate professor in the School of Drama, University of Washington. She is the author of Feminisim and Theatre and former editor of Theatre Journal.

Date of Death:

October 10, 2011

Table of Contents

Introduction
Part I. The Margins of Representation
Part II. Centering Class and Ethnicity
Part III. Reconfiguring the Fathers
Part IV. Performing Gender

Editorial Reviews

A valuable, provoking, important addition to any theatre scholar or practitioner's library, especially since feminist theory is a relative newcomer to the world of theatre.
—Ariel

From the Publisher

"A valuable, provoking, important addition to any theatre scholar or practitioner's library, especially since feminist theory is a relative newcomer to the world of theatre."

Ariel

A valuable, provoking, important addition to any theatre scholar or practitioner's library, especially since feminist theory is a relative newcomer to the world of theatre.

Ariel