The performance studies pendulum

Abstract

This essay argues that performance studies in communication (PSC) is approaching a point of “nowhereness.” It examines the implications of the 1990s framing of performance studies as an “antidiscipline,” particularly insofar as antidisciplinarity disrupts the concept of disciplinary methodologies such as aesthetic performance. It offers an exemplar case that demonstrates how one familiar, established, perhaps keystone performance studies theory/method/practice–dialogic performance has all but disappeared in PSC research. Finally, it offers a corrective but ultimately invitational call to bolster the communities of practice in PSC, especially in terms of performance-methodological and aesthetic research.

Department(s)

RCASH

Document Type

Article

DOI

10.1080/10462937.2024.2399768

Keywords

aesthetic performance, critical theory, dialogic performance, performance methods, Performance studies

Publication Date

1-1-2025

Journal Title

Text and Performance Quarterly

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