The Drama of Social Life (eBook)

Jeffrey C. Alexander is the Lillian Chavenson Saden Professor of Sociology at Yale University and Co-Director of the Center for Cultural Sociology at Yale.

Preface and Acknowledgements

Introduction: A New Theory of Modernity from Ritual to Performance

1. Seizing the Stage: Mao, MLK, and Black Lives Matter Today

2. Revolutionary Performance in Egypt: The 2011 Uprising

3. Political Performance in the U.S.: Obama?s 2012 Re-Election

4. Dramatic Intellectuals

5. Social Theory and the Theatrical Avant-Guard

Notes

"From Mao to Martin Luther King, Mubarak's Egypt to Obama's America, the ritual roots of social structure to the performativity of postmodern everyday life, Alexander shows how we live and act today. This book is a necessary update on Erving Goffman and Victor Turner, a brilliantly illuminating must-read for all humanists, social scientists, and dramaturges."
Richard Schechner, Tisch School of the Arts, New York University

"Jeffrey Alexander's -- The Drama of Social Life -- reveals the ability of this essential American social theorist to unpack and explain the dynamic dramas of large-scale change. Ranging from Tahrir Square to the Black Lives Matter movement to the Obama White House, Alexander connects these world-shaking political events to their essential performative qualities, a core feature of modernity. Some books are designed to be read, while others demand to be read and discussed. This book is one of the latter."
Gary Alan Fine, Northwestern University