Rancière and Performance

Jacques Rancière has been hugely influential in the field of political philosophy and aesthetics. This edited collection is the first to investigate the points of contact between the work of Rancière and the field of theatre and performance studies. Recent scholarly works in this discipline have drawn upon concepts from Rancières writing, from theatrocracy to emancipated spectators, to investigate problems of audience, participation, politics and aesthetics. Before these concepts and critical tools peel away from the works through which they emerged, this book seeks a detailed critical assessment of the works themselves and their implications for theatre and performance studies. The collection examines the critical and analytical interventions that have been made to date and looks forward towards challenges to the future uses of Rancières work in performance and theatre studies. It also considers a wide range of performance work, from a performance for the residents of a Victorian workhouse to the activist performances of Liberate Tate. This collection includes work by ten scholars and is an essential resource for researchers and academics working in areas of performance and aesthetics, performance and activism, and performance and philosophy.

Introduction

NIC FRYER - Rancières Theatrocracy Within and Beyond the Theatre

Section 1: Aesthetics and Politics, Politics and Aesthetics

1. RYAN ANTHONY HATCH - The Politics of Aesthetics, in a State of Disruption

2. LIESBETH GROOT NIBBELINK - Soft Shivers, Sweaty Politics: Dramaturgy and the Pensive Body

Section 2: The Role of Theatre and Performance

3. SHULAMITH LEV-ALADGEM - Performing Philosophy: Rancière as Playwright, Director and Performer inThe Ignorant Schoolmaster

4. ADRIAN KEAR - Staging the People: Performance, Presence and Representation

5. NIC FRYER - Apart, we are together. Together, we are apart: Rancières Community of Translators in Theory and Theatre

Section 3: Spectatorship and Participation

6. JENNY HUGHES - Nights of Theatrical Labour in the Victorian Workhouse

7. WILL SHÜLER - The Emancipated Educator: Chance, Will, and Equality in Higher Education Role-Immersion Pedagogies

Section 4: Performance as Political Disruption

8. JANELLE REINELT - Resisting Rancière

9. CAOIMHE MADER McGUINNESS - Dissensual Reproductions in You Should See the Other Guys Land of the Three Towers

10. STEPHEN SCOTT-BOTTOMS - The Paradoxes of Performing Activism: Art, Oil and Liberate Tate