Terror And Performance

‘This work goes where other books fear to tread. It reaches the parts other scholars might imagine in their dreams but would neither have the international reach nor the critical acumen and forensic flourish to deliver.’ Alan Read, King's College London ‘This book is not only timely. It is overdue – and it is a masterpiece unrivalled by any book I know of.’ Erika Fischer-Lichte, Freie Universität Berlin ‘The first and only book that focuses on the intersections of performance, terror and terrorism as played out beyond a Euro-American context post-9/11. It is an important work, both substantively and methodologically.’ Jenny Hughes, University of Manchester ‘A profound and tightly bound sequence of reflections ... a rigorously provocative book.’ Stephen Barber, Kingston University London In this exceptional investigation Rustom Bharucha considers the realities of Islamophobia, the legacies of Truth and Reconciliation, the deadly certitudes of State-controlled security systems and the legitimacy of counter-terror terrorism, drawing on a vast spectrum of human cruelties across the global South. The outcome is a brilliantly argued case for seeing terror as a volatile and mutant phenomenon that is deeply lived, experienced, and performed within the cultures of everyday life.

‘This work goes where other books fear to tread. It reaches the parts other scholars might imagine in their dreams but would neither have the international reach nor the critical acumen and forensic flourish to deliver.’ Alan Read, King's College London ‘This book is not only timely. It is overdue – and it is a masterpiece unrivalled by any book I know of.’ Erika Fischer-Lichte, Freie Universität Berlin ‘The first and only book that focuses on the intersections of performance, terror and terrorism as played out beyond a Euro-American context post-9/11. It is an important work, both substantively and methodologically.’ Jenny Hughes, University of Manchester ‘A profound and tightly bound sequence of reflections ... a rigorously provocative book.’ Stephen Barber, Kingston University London In this exceptional investigation Rustom Bharucha considers the realities of Islamophobia, the legacies of Truth and Reconciliation, the deadly certitudes of State-controlled security systems and the legitimacy of counter-terror terrorism, drawing on a vast spectrum of human cruelties across the global South. The outcome is a brilliantly argued case for seeing terror as a volatile and mutant phenomenon that is deeply lived, experienced, and performed within the cultures of everyday life.

Using a performance studies lens, this book is a study of performance in the post-9/11 context of the so-called war on terror. It analyzes conventional theatre, political protest, performance art and other sites of performance to unpack the ways in which meaning has been made in the contemporary global sociopolitical environment.

Performance in the Time of Terror is an important investigation of the ways in which performance has given shape and form to "wars of terror," past and present, and as a strategy and tactic of violence. Focusing on an array of performances that caused a stir during the "war on terror" of the first decade of the twenty-first century, Hughes also explores the use of performance by counterinsurgents during the "war on terrorism" in Northern Ireland (1969-1998). Offering original discussions of the resurgence of political theater on London stages and the proliferation of anti-war activism during the war in Iraq (2003-2008), also documented are a series of theater productions targeting communities deemed vulnerable to ideologies of violent extremism. This book will appeal to researchers and students of contemporary theater and performance, especially those interested in the politics of performance. It will interest anyone researching wars on terror and terrorism from an interdisciplinary perspective.

"Every now and then a book comes along so startling in its ingenuity, so crisp and invigorating in its perception and argument, so revealing in its investigation of its subject matter, that one is forced to reevaluate, reconsider, and restructure one's understanding and one's perspectives on theatre, discourse, and history. Such a book is Anthony Kubiak's Stages of Terror." -- Theatre Studies ..". quite compelling. It is rich and complete while leaving plenty of room for further development... " -- Text and Performance Quarterly Using Aristotle's Poetics as its point of departure, Anthony Kubiak traces the forms or "stages" of terror as a cultural and performative principle through English Renaissance and Restoration plays, through the modern and postmodern, to contemporary terrorist "theatres."

American history as theater, and theater as the heart of American life

Richard Schechner is a pioneer of Performance Studies. A scholar, theatre director, editor, and playwright he is University Professor of Performance Studies at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University and Editor of TDR: The Journal of Performance Studies. He is the author of Public Domain (1969), Environmental Theater (1973), The End of Humanism (1982), Performance Theory (2003, Routledge), Between Theater and Anthropology (1985), The Future of Ritual (1993, Routledge), and Over, Under, and Around: Essays on Performance and Culture (2004). His books have been translated into French, Spanish, Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Serbo-Croat, German, Italian, Hungarian, Bulgarian and Polish. He is the general editor of the Worlds of Performance series published by Routledge and the co-editor of the Enactments series published by Seagull Books. Sara Brady is Assistant Professor at Bronx Community College of the City University of New York (CUNY). She is author of Performance, Politics and the War on Terror (2012).