Manchester University Press Foucault’S Theatres (Theatre: Theory – Practice – Performance)

Michel Foucaults work is immensely influential in theatre and performance studies. This volume is the first to offer a critical appraisal of this groundbreaking thinker from the perspective of contemporary theatre and performance scholarship. It will be of vital interest to scholars and students concerned with the way Foucaults work enables us to examine the multiple intersections of theory, philosophy, politics, power, history and aesthetics in relation to theatre. It also offers dynamic new readings of Foucaults work of interest to Foucault scholars in other fields. With cutting edge studies by established and emerging writers in areas such as dramaturgy, film, music, cultural history and journalism, the volume aims to be accessible for advanced students encountering Foucaults work for the first time. The introduction sets out a thorough and informative assessment of Foucaults relevance to theatre and performance studies and to our present cultural moment. Indeed, while Foucaults work has long been celebrated for incisively critiquing structures of power and discipline, gender and discourse, a new body of work published over the last decade has shed considerable new light on the complexities and, importantly for this volume, the theatricality inherent to his thought. Unique to this volume, is the discovery of this theatrical Foucault - the profound affinity his thinking has methodologically with questions of performativity. This discovery makes accessible the performance turn to readers of Foucault and, in doing so, opens up ways of reading Foucaults philosophy theatrically. Review This book comes at a time when Foucaults concerns with power, truth and knowledge could not be more pressing. So the focus here is on Foucault as a theatrical thinker. Taking the philosopher at his word, essays deploy the tropes and optics of theatre to examine Foucaults own methods and the practices of governance and workings of power he made it his lifes work to engage with. Demonstrating different ways of responding to the question that underpinned so much of Foucaults project: What are the practices that permit the daily work of desubjugation? the possibilities voiced here could not be more pertinent; a fortification against the perils of the day. --Jane Rendell, Professor of Critical Spatial Practice, The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL. From the Inside Flap Michel Foucaults work is immensely influential in theatre and performance studies. This volume is the first to offer a critical appraisal of this groundbreaking thinker from the perspective of contemporary theatre and performance scholarship. It will be of vital interest to scholars and students concerned with the way Foucaults work enables us to examine the multiple intersections of theory, philosophy, politics, power, history and aesthetics in relation to theatre. It also offers dynamic new readings of Foucaults work of interest to Foucault scholars in other fields. With cutting edge studies by established and emerging writers in areas such as dramaturgy, film, music, cultural history and journalism, the volume aims to be accessible for advanced students encountering Foucaults work for the first time. The introduction sets out a thorough and informative assessment of Foucaults relevance to theatre and performance studies and to our present cultural moment. Indeed, while Foucaults work has long been celebrated for incisively critiquing structures of power and discipline, gender and discourse, a new body of work published over the last decade has shed considerable new light on the complexities and, importantly for this volume, the theatricality inherent to his thought. Unique to this volume, is the discovery of this theatrical Foucault - the profound affinity his thinking has methodologically with questions of performativity. This discovery makes accessible the performance turn to readers of Foucault and, in doing so, opens up ways of reading F