Performance Studies
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Performance studies is a growing field of academic study focusing on the critical analysis of performance and performativity. The field or post-discipline engages performance as both an object of study and as a method of analysis. Examining events as performance provides insight into how we perform ourselves and our lives. And understanding the performative nature of speech-acts introduces an element of reflexivity and critique to otherwise descriptive accounts of social phenomena.
Performance Studies as an academic field has multiple origin narratives. One account stresses the research collaborations of director Richard Schechner and anthropologist Victor Turner. This origin narrative emphasizes a definition of performance as being "between theatre and anthropology" and often stresses the importance of intercultural performances as an alternative to either traditional proscenium theatre or traditional anthropological fieldwork. Bryan Reynolds has developed a combined performance theory and critical methodology known as “transversal poetics” to bring historical analysis in conversation with current research in a number of fields, from social semiotics to cognitive neuroscience, the effect of which has been to expand the relevancy of performance studies across academic disciplines. Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett has contributed an interest in tourist productions and ethnographic showmanship to the field, and Diana Taylor has brought a hemispheric perspective on Latin American performance, and has also theorized the relationship between the archive and the performance repertoire.
An alternative origin narrative stresses the development of speech-act theory by philosophers J.L. Austin and Judith Butler and literary critic Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick. Performance studies has also had a strong relationship to the fields of feminism, psychoanalysis, and queer theory. Theorists like Peggy Phelan, Butler, Sedgwick, José Esteban Muñoz, and Rebecca Schneider have been equally influential in both performance studies and these related fields.
Performance studies incorporates theories of drama, dance, art, anthropology, philosophy, cultural studies and sociology. More can be found out by reading Schechner's book: Performance Studies: An Introduction. The first performance studies department was created at NYU. But, there is some debate that the joint-cradles of Performance Studies are Northwestern University and NYU. In the United States, the field has spread to Brown, UC Berkeley, and elsewhere.
In the United Kingdom the University of Wales, Aberystwyth offers a degree scheme in performance studies.
In Australia, the Queensland University of Technology offers a degree majoring in performance studies, and also a masters and Phd in performance innovation.
Performance studies has a long-standing and complex relationship to the practice of performance art, also known as live art, also known as visual art performance.
Some key companies and practitioners who are widely considered to be working within this field include: Robert Lepage Ariane Mnouchkine and the Theatre du Soleil Robert Wilson Forced Entertainment (UK) Pina Bauch The Wooster Group (New York) Anne Bogart and The Siti Company (New York)
Performance Studies in some countries is also an A-level (AS and A2) course consisting of the integration of the discrete art forms of Dance, Music and Drama in performing arts.
