Performance: A Critical Introduction

The first survey to provide an overview of the modern concept of performance and how it has developed in various fields, it introduces the reader to the contested interpretations of performance art as a theatrical activity.

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Performance: A Critical Introduction is the first survey to provide an overview of the modern concept of performance and how it has developed in various fields. In a highly accessible style Marvin Carlson introduces the reader to the contested interpretations of performance art as a theatrical activity and to the ways that performance has been understood by ethnographers, anthropologists, linguists and cultural theorists. Some of the topics he discusses include:
* the evolution of performance art since the 1960s
* developments of performance as a concept within the various social sciences
* the relationships between performance, postmodernism and Ehe politics of identity
For any student of performance studies, visual and performing arts or theatre history, Performance: A Critical Introduction provides a vital insight into the diverse meanings and uses of performance