The authors introduce approaches to the examination and critique of performance. Each of the 3 following chapters deals with a specific area of critical theory; detailing the way in which they draw from knowledge across the social sciences and humanities, as well as offering an overview their origins and development of the practice.
Introduction to Postcolonial Studies - pp. 67-70
This area of critical theory investigates the impact of western imperialism and the cultural politics of relations between the coloniser and the colonised. With reference to the theories of cultural scholars such as Franz Fanon, Edward Said and Gayatri Spivak, the chapter assesses the problematic nature of interpellation in the creation of identities along racial and ethnic lines. In addition, the notion of ‘cultural tourism’ as a contemporary practise in the re-enactment of colonial histories and experiences is raised with regards to the tensions that it creates.
Introduction to Critical Race Theory - pp. 135-140
This section begins by tracing the origins of the term ‘race’ back to its roots in anthropological and anatomical classification. From these origins, the introduction progresses onto the notion of ‘hybridity’ as a disruption to this colonial interpellation and as a source of hyphenated identities. In relation to Benedict Anderson’s Imagined Communities, the introduction develops upon the notion of race as a social construction, leading into the problematic term of the ‘native’ and how its historical association is undermined by this social construction.
Introduction to Gender and Sexualities - pp. 311-316
Through a summary of the prominent areas of gender politics, this section explains how feminist and queers theories – in addition to the more recent “male studies” – came to be discussed and analysed together under the contemporary gender studies framework. Reference is made to Judith Butler’s theory that gender is a performative act and is not dependant on biological constitution.
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