Performance Studies: The Basics

Performance Studies: The Basics offers an overview of the multiple, often overlapping definitions of performance, from performance art, performance as everyday life, and rituals, to the performative dimensions of identity, such as gender, race and sexuality.

This book defines the interdisciplinary field of performance studies as it has evolved over the past four decades at the intersection of academic scholarship and artistic and activist practices. It discusses performance as an important means of communicating and of understanding the world, highlighting its intersections with critical theory and arguing for the importance of performance in the study of human behaviour and social practices.

Complete with a helpful glossary and bibliography, as well as suggestions for further reading, this book is an ideal starting point for those studying performance studies as well as for general readers with an interest in the subject.

Andreea S. Micu is an Associate Researcher at the Mahindra Humanities Center, Harvard University. She has taught classes in performance, culture and communication at Northwestern University, where she also obtained her doctoral degree in Performance Studies. Her writing about performance has appeared in both scholarly and general publications such as pARTicipatory urbanisms, Performance Philosophy and The New Alphabet School.