Bryan Reynolds

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Western Critical Theory
21st-century
Name
Bryan Reynolds
Birth 1965 (Scarsdale, New York, United States of America)
School/tradition Performance Studies, Post-structuralism, Shakespeare
Main interests Performativity, Shakespeare, Critical theory, Theatre
Notable ideas Transversal poetics: a socio-political and historical, aesthetic and phenomenological methodology
Influenced by Gilles Deleuze, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Julia Kristeva, Jacques Lacan

Bryan Reynolds (born 1965) is an American critical theorist, performance theorist, and Shakespeare scholar who developed the combined social theory and research methodology known as transversal poetics. He is also a playwright and cofounder of the Transversal Theater Company, which has produced several of his works. Reynolds received his bachelor degree in English Literature at the University of California, Berkeley, and his master's and doctoral degrees in English and American Literature and Language at Harvard University. He is currently Professor, Chancellor’s Fellow, and Head of Doctoral Studies in the Drama Department at the University of California, Irvine.

Contents

[edit] Critical works

  • “The Devil’s House, ‘or worse’: Transversal Power and Antitheatrical Discourse in Early Modern England” (1997)

“The Devil’s House, 'or worse’” is the first published text for Reynolds’ transversal theory. In this article, transversal theory is delineated through an analysis of early modern English theater, both on the public stage and as in social performances in society at large. The article argues for the power of theater to simultaneously alter subjectivity and social identity as well as the political, economic, and social conditions under which they operate. Using spatial and temporal models for both abstract and material relations within and between individuals and groups, as well as in relation to things, transversal theory explains changes in human cognition, perspective, and experience, particularly those that move subjectivity away from habit, singularity, and stasis.

  • Becoming Criminal: Transversal Performance and Cultural Dissidence in Early Modern England (2002)

Becoming Criminal shows how the dissident activities and idiosyncratic languages of gypsies, rogues, vagabonds, and cutpurses interacted with normative society and culture. Reynolds argues that the real and imaginary “criminal culture” on the streets and in popular minds has been overlooked or misunderstood by scholars. He traces the affect of criminal culture to its emergence in the sixteenth century, when this community related daily with dominant aspects of English ideology and culture and modeled its own cultural characteristics in response to the conventions of the time. According to Reynolds, their behavior and thought is most evident in the period’s commercial literature, such as in pamphlet literature and the works of Shakespeare, Jonson, Fletcher, and Brome, and in its material and symbolic relationships to the public theatre.

  • Performing Transversally: Reimagining Shakespeare and the Critical Future (2003)

Reynolds’ transversal poetics project, expanded from his early works, is used in Performing Transversally to discuss historical and contemporary examples. He discusses the applicability of the critical concept, ranging from the sociology of Erving Goffman to the feminism and psychoanalytics of Julia Kristeva to the dramatic and theatrical criticism of Antonin Artaud and Herbert Blau. Performing Transversally navigates the ever-increasing cultural cartography of Shakespace, a term invented by Reynolds and Donald Hedrick in Shakespeare Without Class: Misappropriations of Cultural Capital, to designate past, present, and future Shakespeare influenced spaces of text, performance, and culture. Throughout the book, Reynolds emphasizes the importance of accountability, whether in the classroom, in academic research, on the stage or screen, or in everyday lives.

  • Transversal Enterprises in the Drama of Shakespeare and his Contemporaries: Fugitive Explorations (2006)

In Transversal Enterprises, with a number of collaborators, Reynolds analyzes plays by early modern English dramatists in the context of shifts in English history. He relates transversal poetics to other academic disciplines, including science and theology, to explore a transformation in views on space and place in relation to subjectivity and consciousness. Witches, werewolves, occultists, academicians, transvestites, baboons, moors, and gypsies, among other creatures, all reflect, for Reynolds, a metamorphic and intersubjective phenomenology for which art or artifice is requisite.

[edit] Recent honours

2006: Honored as a Distinguished Alumnus of Scarsdale High School, New York. [1]

2005: “Chancellor’s Fellow” by the University of California [2]

2004: Honored by the University of Alabama’s Hudson Strode Program in Renaissance Studies, directed by Gary Taylor, as "one of the six most brilliant Renaissance scholars in the world under 40," "for work on ‘transversal poetics.’" [3]

[edit] Publications

[edit] Books written

  • Transversal Enterprises in the Drama of Shakespeare and his Contemporaries: Fugitive Explorations (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006).
  • Performing Transversally: Reimagining Shakespeare and the Critical Future (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003).
  • Becoming Criminal: Transversal Performance and Cultural Dissidence in Early Modern England (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002).

[edit] Books edited

  • Rematerializing Shakespeare: Authority and Representation on the Early Modern English Stage, Co-Editor, with William West (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005).
  • Shakespeare Without Class: Misappropriations of Cultural Capital, Co-Editor, with Donald Hedrick (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2000).

[edit] Plays

  • Unbuckled (play), The Anthology of Contemporary Plays 2004 (Sibiu, Romania: Annual Publication of the Sibiu International Theatre Festival, 2004).
    • Productions: The Flight Theatre, Hollywood, California, July 2004; Andrei Muresanu Theatre, Sfântu-Gheorghe, Romania, June 2004; Ariel Theatre, Târgu Mureş, Romania, June 2004; The National Theatre, Cluj, Romania, June 2004.; Sibiu International Theatre Festival, Romania, June 2004
  • Woof, Daddy (play),
    • Productions: Director Amanda McRaven, Linhart Theater, New York City, August 2007. Director Amanda McRaven, Exit Theatre, San Francisco, September 2006. Director Eli Simon: Rampa-Teatr Na Targówku, Warsaw, Poland, April 2005; Teatr Polski-Malarnia, Poznan, Poland, April 2005; Teatr Kana, Szczecin, Poland, April 2005.
  • Railroad (play), Plays International (London: The Performing Arts Trust, October, 2006).
    • Productions: Director Robert Cohen: Sibiu International Theatre Festival, Romania, June 2006, The National Theatre, Cluj, Romania, May 2006.
  • Blue Shade (play), in English and Romanian (Cluj: Babes-Bolyai University of Cluj Press, 2007).
    • Productions: Director Robert Cohen: Teatr Lalek, Wrocław, Poland, June 2007; Teatr Modjeska, Legnica, Poland, June 2007; Teatr 77, Łódź, Poland, May 2007; Divadlo DISK, Academy of Performing Arts (DAMU), Prague, Czech Republic, May 2007; National Theatre Festival, Teatrul Mic, Bucharest, Romania, November 2007.


Unbuckled Los Angeles 2004

Woof, Daddy Poland 2005 Tour

Railroad Romania 2006 Tour

Woof, Daddy San Francisco 2006

Blue Shade Czech Republic 2007 Tour

[edit] Selected articles

  • "The Devil’s House, ‘or worse’: Transversal Power and Antitheatrical Discourse in Early Modern England," Theatre Journal 49:2 (May 1997).
  • "The Transversality of Michel de Certeau: Foucault's Panoptic Discourse and the Cartographic Impulse," with Joseph Fitzpatrick in Diacritics 29:3 (Fall 1999).
  • "Transversal Acting," with Chris Marshall in Semiotic Review of Books 17.1 (2007).

[edit] Reviews of his works

  • Shakespeare Without Class
    • Worthen, W.B. Review of Hedrick and Reynolds, Shakespeare Without Class. “Recent Studies in Tudor and Stuart Drama,” Studies in English Literature. 42.2 (2002) 399-448.
    • Taylor, Mark. Review of Hedrick and Reynolds, Shakespeare Without Class. Renaissance Quarterly 56:3 (Autumn 2003): 936-39.
  • Becoming Criminal
    • Beier, A.L. Review of Reynolds, Becoming Criminal. Modern Philology. (May 2005) 102:4: 550-7.
    • CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries. Review of Reynolds, Becoming Criminal. August 2006 v43 i11-12 p1995(1).
    • Cohen, Stephen. Review of Reynolds, Becoming Criminal. The Sixteenth Century Journal. 35:2 (Summer 2004): 576-577.
    • Cunningham, Karen. Review of Reynolds, Becoming Criminal. Theatre Survey, 45:1 (May 2004): 149-151.
    • Engel, William. Review of Reynolds, Becoming Criminal. Seventeenth-Century News, Volume 61, 3&4 (Fall-Winter 2003): 286-289.
    • Hodgdon, Barbara. Review of Reynolds, Becoming Criminal. Studies in English Literature. 43:2 (Spring 2003): 501-502.
    • Steve Mentz, Review of Reynolds, Becoming Criminal. CLIO: A Journal of Literature, History, and the Philosophy of History. 33:1 (Fall 2003 ): 73-77.
    • --- Review of Reynolds, Becoming Criminal. The Shakespeare Newsletter (Spring 2003): 9-10.
    • Mowry, Melissa. Review of Reynolds, Becoming Criminal. Journal of British Studies. Jan 2005 v44 i1 p178(9).
    • Nesvet, Rebecca. “Review of Reynolds, Becoming Criminal. EMLS 2004.
    • Pollard, Tanya. Review of Reynolds, Becoming Criminal. Renaissance Quarterly. 57:2 (Summer 2004): 750-51.
    • Review of Reynolds, Becoming Criminal. Reference & Research Book News. Feb 2004 v19 i1 p237(1).
  • Performing Transversally
    • Berek, Peter. Review of Reynolds, Performing Transversally. Renaissance Quarterly. 57:4 (2004), 1527-29.
    • Cartelli, Thomas. Review of Reynolds, Performing Transversally. Theatre Journal. May 2005 v57 i2 p329(3).
  • Transversal Enterprises
    • Cefalu, Paul. Review of Reynolds, Transversal Enterprises. Shakespeare Quarterly. 58.2 (2007) 257-260.
  • Other works
    • Interview in Curtain Rising Magazine
    • Donovan Sherman, Review of Blue Shade. Theatre Journal. Vol. 60.1 (March 2008): 137-9.
    • Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out New York
    • Jose Zayas, New York Theatre
    • Jerry Portwood, Backstage
    • Rob Lester, Edge New York
    • Jeffrey Lo, New University
    • Nathaniel Eaton, San Francisco Weekly
    • Fernie, Ewan. “Terrible Action: Recent Criticism and Questions of Agency.” Shakespeare. Volume 2, Number 01 / June 2006.
    • Genosko, Gary. Felix Guattari: An Abberant Introduction. 57-9. (Continuum Press, 2002).
    • Guibbory, Achsah. “Recent Studies in the English Renaissance.” Studies in English Literature, Vol. 45, 2005.
    • Lanier, Douglas. “Shakespeare and Cultural Studies: An Overview,” Shakespeare. 2:2 December 2006).
    • Munro, Lucy. The Year’s Work in English Studies. 81:1 (Oxford University Press, 2006).
    • McManus, Clare. The Year’s Work in English Studies. 81:1 (Oxford University Press, 2006).
    • Nesvet, Rebecca. “Vagabonds, Players and Shakespeare,” Literature Compass. 1:1 (January 2003 - December 2004).

[edit] External links