Presence and Resistance by Philip Auslander

Presence and Resistance by Philip Auslander

This study sheds light on the political nature of postmodern performance, the understandings of postmodern culture that underpin it, and the particular strategies it employs. The first three chapters are devoted to a discussion of postmodern culture, which Philip Auslander sees as "mediatized" culture (borrowing Baudrillard's term), and to the general positioning of political art and performance within it. The five subsequent chapters are devoted to comparative discussions of issues raised by this positioning and by the critical strategies within specific performance practices drawn from both the avant-garde and popular performance, and to resistant representations of race and gender and performance's engagement with an information-saturated culture. Presence and Resistance will interest readers in theater, drama, and performance studies as well as those concerned with issues in postmodern theory, cultural theory, feminism, popular culture, and media theory.

This clearly and closely argued book summarizes in style as well as content some of postmodernist criticism's major tics and traitsThis book is not for those who are resistant to or undecided about postmodernism." —Choice

"...a lucid and eloquent counter to the prevailing notion of postmodernism as apolitical..." —Linda Hutcheon, University of Toronto

"...sophisticated and carefully considered readings of a wide range of performance texts. A good and important book." —David Savran, Brown University

Philip Auslander is a Professor in the School of Literature, Communication, and Culture of the Georgia Institute of Technology where he teaches Performance Studies, Media Studies, and Popular Music. He is a contributing editor to the US-based TDR: The Journal of Performance Studies and the Journal of American Drama and Theater, as well as the UK-based Performance Research and Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media. He contributes regularly to these and other journals and has published five books, including Presence and Resistance: Postmodernism and Cultural Politics in Contemporary American Performance (University of Michigan, 1992), From Acting to Performance: Essays in Modernism and Postmodernism (Routledge, 1997), and Liveness: Performance in a Mediatized Culture (Routledge 1999). He received the prestigious Callaway Prize for the Best Book in Theatre or Drama for Liveness. His most recent book is Performing Glam Rock: Gender and Theatricality in Popular Music (University of Michigan, 2006). Auslander is the editor of Performance: Critical Concepts, a reference collection in four volumes published by Routledge in 2003 and, with Carrie Sandahl, co-editor of Bodies in Commotion: Performance and Disability (University of Michigan Press, 2005). In addition to his scholarly work on performance, Prof. Auslander writes art criticism for ArtForum and other publications.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780472082780
ISBN 10	0472082787
Title	Presence and Resistance
Author	Philip Auslander
Series	Theater: Theory Text Performance
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	University Of Michigan Press
Year published	1994-08-31
Number of pages	216
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.