Performance

by Diana Taylor

¿Per for qué?
¿Es el performance o la performance? Finalmente un libro que introduce al público e investigador en el arte del performance y que además lo hace, por primera vez, desde la experiencia latinoamericana.
Su autora es sin dudas la máxima autoridad en esta materia a la que aborda desde múltiples ópticas: el teatro, la política, el feminismo, la teoría de géneros, la construcción de la memoria y el activismo social.

Genres: Art, Academic, Nonfiction

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

Diana Taylor is University Professor and Professor of Performance Studies and Spanish at New York University. She is the author and editor of several books, including Performance; The Archive and the Repertoire: Performing Cultural Memory in the Americas; and Disappearing Acts: Spectacles of Gender and Nationalism in Argentina's “Dirty War,” all also published by Duke University Press. Taylor was founding director of the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics from 1998 to 2020. In 2018 she was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Reviews

[Emma Morris]

Another assigned reading but I ended up really enjoying this book! From my Spanish discussion post: Me gustó cómo Taylor presentó la idea de su "Performance" como una perspectiva de "hacer" y "hecho". Está el momento de la actuación, que puede cambiar por muchas circunstancias, y la reflexión y impacto tras la actuación. Me recuerda a una visita guiada por un museo de arte, donde el guía te da el contexto de las obras para que puedas ser un espectador más informado.

[Anna]

interesting stuff

[Jowix]

Fajna powtórka z performatyki, podparta nieoczywistymi przykładami. Performatywność tekstu w moim odczuciu nie niosła znaczeń, ale uprzyjemniała lekturę. Taka sobie książeczka.

[Gui]

El cronograma de lectura decía que había que leer el libro entero y al final sólo era obligatorio el primer capítulo 🤠

[Aaron Thomas]

This is a super accessible text that is a very easy read. Taylor describes and defines some of the many debates among performance studies, and she offers helpful terms and ideas that help us make better sense of performances, especially activist performances. The book is especially interested in performance as a worldmaking practice.

I do confess to being occasionally annoyed by this book's frequently cheeky tone, but then I can tend to be a little cheekier than I should be in my own writing, so perhaps I ought to take my own note. My other complaint is that occasionally Taylor doesn't investigate or elaborate on some of the big claims she makes. Take "Breaking norms is the norm of performance". This sentence takes up a full page in Performance, but it mostly unexplored as an idea. Another example might be a Michel Melamed performance of endurance, pain, and audience complicity for which the chief takeaway (in bold type, no less) is "Maybe, this piece suggests, there is no such thing as a 'solo' or one-person performance". Huh?

Otherwise this is very accessible and will be an enormous asset to undergraduate classrooms.

[Guilherme Smee]

Me deparei com este livro garimpando na Livraria Paisagem e achei que poderia dar algum aporte para meus estudos sobre gênero, já que a performatividade de Judith Butler se aproxima de alguma forma da performance. A performance de Diana Taylor neste caso se aproxima mais da performance teatral e menos da performance social de Goffman, embora este também se inspire no teatro. A diferença é que Taylor traz os conceitos de arquivo e repertório, que achei bastante úteis para minha análise. Claro que o livro não traz somente isso, mas muitas outras abordagens sobre performance, inclusive diferenciando-a em outras disciplinas. Mas uma coisa que me incomodou no livro foi o seu projeto gráfico. Não me pareceu harmonioso, me pareceu datado e pouco funcional para a proposta e para os conteúdos apresentados. O conteúdo, por outro lado, é ótimo, uma belíssima introdução para os estudos da performance. Para mim, que nunca tinha lido exatamente sobre esse tipo de estudos, me abriu uma porta e uma janela de possibilidades.

[Thomaz Amancio]

Excelente introdução às teorias contemporâneas da performance. Esse campo tem uma qualidade rara, porque reúne conceitos filosóficos e antropológicos instigantes, efetividade política e interesse/prazer estético. Um congresso de performance congrega naturalmente artistas, acadêmicos e ativistas, todos envolvidos, em diferentes graus, na teoria-prática da perfomance. Isso dá ao campo uma energia que nem sempre está presente na academia (aliás nem na arte, nem na política) - e é também contagiosa, mesmo se você não tem o mesmo objeto de estudo.

[Anthony]

Performance studies has drastically influenced my interest in the last few months and in another life - I would’ve enjoyed continuing this work at the phd level. However, I still have a masters project to write so I’m really looking forward to invoking Taylor alongside others in my writing.

This, rather short!, book is a wonderful primer on performance studies and the lexicon surrounding it and how it flows and ebbs. A helpful resource for beginning conversations on what performance studies is and does and how to analyze it.

Love, love, love talking and reading about this.

[Charles]

S'alright. This book introduces the reader to a lot of theoretical frameworks surrounding performance but often comes really close to abstracting into nothingness. I don't really understand the aim of performance studies as a "postdisciplinary" discipline. If certain aspects of performance need to be better understood, why not study them within their respective branches? Why not work between branches to come to a better understanding of human behavior? And why do we keep needing to bestow words with the authority of "concepts" rather than like, explaining something??

I'm very sure these problems are alleviated in more advanced performance studies texts but they frustrated me a good bit.

[Gabiota]

Tal como he mencionado antes, esto es un metatexto, cercano a un manifiesto. Texto que explica la performance, siendo una performance de por sí. Utilizando su propia performatividad y a la vez definiciones académicas. A través de ejemplos y fotografías entrega varias respuestas ante el término, es de rápida lectura y definitivamente un aporte en esta área de estudio.

Amo la introducción al concepto de acadivista (académico/activista) y de paso le podemos meter entre medio artista. Me fascina.

[Prakash]

A very approachable and short introduction to performance studies situated in the Americas. The text is accompanied by illustrations from the Hemispheric Institute's archives that aid in exemplifying how performance and its various iterations (performatives, performatics, etc.) have been executed by various artists, activists, and other performers.

[Federico MGrande]

Hermoso libro para conocer un poco más sobre el mundo del performance y sus variantes. Quizá se me hicieron pesadas algunas partes pero la estética del libro es de lo mejor al igual que la profunda investigación de la autora.

[Nat Bleu]

Un libro interesante para introducir a las personas a lo que es una performance. Didáctico y rápido para leer.

[Julian]

dalej nie wiem co to performans

[Roxana Xamán]

Para una mirada general o texto introductorio al performance, viene muy bien.

No tiene un contenido teórico "fuerte".

[Iris]

literally just read this for school. it was fine idek

[Heloisa]

Livro introdutório incrível para entender melhor o que é performance.

[Emmy M]

A great first dive into performance studies.

[angie]

what does Diana Taylor think about r/MyBoyfriendIsAI

[TomsReaditAll]

Will b elaborating on this professionally, but overall it was quite well written. Photographs were very useful!

[Saadia]

Very readable

[Liz Xospa]

I loved the way the performance is explained, as a live experience with multiples forms. I find special interest in the discussion about repertoire and archive, and the way the performance can be written.

[Mills College Library]

700 T2396 2016