Performance and the Medical Body
Published on 25. February 2018
Book
Paperback/Softback
288 pages
978-1-4725-7077-2 (ISBN)
Description
This edited collection focuses on performance practice and analysis that engages with medical and biomedical sciences. After locating the `biologization' of theatre at the turn of the twentieth century, it examines a range of contemporary practices that respond to understandings of the human body as revealed by biomedical science.
In bringing together a variety of analytical perspectives, the book draws on scholars, scientists, artists and practices that are at the forefront of current creative, scientific and academic research. Its exploration of the dynamics and exchange between performance and medicine will stimulate a widening of the debate around key issues such as subjectivity, patient narratives, identity, embodiment, agency, medical ethics, health and illness. In focusing on an interdisciplinary understanding of performance, the book examines the potential of performance and theatre to intervene in, shape, inform and extend vital debates around biomedical knowledge and practice in the contemporary moment.
In bringing together a variety of analytical perspectives, the book draws on scholars, scientists, artists and practices that are at the forefront of current creative, scientific and academic research. Its exploration of the dynamics and exchange between performance and medicine will stimulate a widening of the debate around key issues such as subjectivity, patient narratives, identity, embodiment, agency, medical ethics, health and illness. In focusing on an interdisciplinary understanding of performance, the book examines the potential of performance and theatre to intervene in, shape, inform and extend vital debates around biomedical knowledge and practice in the contemporary moment.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Target group
Professional and scholarly
College/higher education
Dimensions
Height: 216 mm
Width: 138 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-4725-7077-2 (9781472570772)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Dr Alex Mermikides is Senior Lecturer in Drama at Kingston University, London, UK. Her research interest is in contemporary performance-making, with a particular focus on science-engaged devised performance. Publications include Devising in Process (2010, edited with Jackie Smart), and chapters in other collections.
Dr Gianna Bouchard is Principal Lecturer in Drama at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, UK. Her research focuses on contemporary performance and live art in relation to medical science. She is co-editor of `On Medicine', a special issue of Performance Research, and her work has been published in various edited collections.
Dr Gianna Bouchard is Principal Lecturer in Drama at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, UK. Her research focuses on contemporary performance and live art in relation to medical science. She is co-editor of `On Medicine', a special issue of Performance Research, and her work has been published in various edited collections.
Content
Introduction - Alex Mermikides (Kingston University, UK) and Gianna Bouchard (Anglia Ruskin University, UK)
Part 1: Performing the Medical
1. A Cabinet of (Medical) Performance Curiosities - Professor Jennifer Parker-Starbuck (University of Roehampton, UK)
2. The Diagnostic Gaze: Nineteenth Century Contexts for Medicine and Performance - Associate Professor Kirsten Shepherd-Barr (University of Oxford, UK)
3. The Bluer Flowers of the Medical Theatre: Visiting with Aliens, Poppies, and Antipodean Spas - Professor Petra Kuppers (University of Michigan, USA)
4. Performing Surgery - Professor Roger Kneebone (Imperial College London, UK)
Part 2: Performing Patients
5. DOC: The narrative performance of expertise - P. Solomon Lennox (Northumbria University, UK) and Fiona Pettit (independent scholar, UK)
6. Cough, Bitch, Cough: Reflections on Sickness and the Coughing Body in Performance - Martin O'Brien (freelance artist, UK)
7. Fun with Cancer Patients: The Affect of Cancer - Brian Lobel (University of Chichester, UK)
8. The Patient Performer: Embodied Pathography in Contemporary Productions - Emma Brodzinski (Royal Holloway, University of London, UK)
Part 3: Performing Body Parts
9. Clod Ensemble: An Anatomie in Four Quarters. Some rehearsal notes - Suzy Willson (Clod Ensemble)
10.The Pain of Specimenhood - Gianna Bouchard (Anglia Ruskin University, UK)
11.On the emergent properties of death: When words fall apart - Helen Pynor (freelance artist, Australia)
12.Performing the Microscopic: beyond eye and brain - Alex Mermikides (Kingston University, UK)
13.Copy, Cut, Paste - Humans (Re-)Printed: Lynn Hershman Leeson's The Infinity Engine (2014-) - Professor Gabriella Giannachi (University of Exeter, UK)
Notes
Bibliography
Notes on Contributors
Index
Part 1: Performing the Medical
1. A Cabinet of (Medical) Performance Curiosities - Professor Jennifer Parker-Starbuck (University of Roehampton, UK)
2. The Diagnostic Gaze: Nineteenth Century Contexts for Medicine and Performance - Associate Professor Kirsten Shepherd-Barr (University of Oxford, UK)
3. The Bluer Flowers of the Medical Theatre: Visiting with Aliens, Poppies, and Antipodean Spas - Professor Petra Kuppers (University of Michigan, USA)
4. Performing Surgery - Professor Roger Kneebone (Imperial College London, UK)
Part 2: Performing Patients
5. DOC: The narrative performance of expertise - P. Solomon Lennox (Northumbria University, UK) and Fiona Pettit (independent scholar, UK)
6. Cough, Bitch, Cough: Reflections on Sickness and the Coughing Body in Performance - Martin O'Brien (freelance artist, UK)
7. Fun with Cancer Patients: The Affect of Cancer - Brian Lobel (University of Chichester, UK)
8. The Patient Performer: Embodied Pathography in Contemporary Productions - Emma Brodzinski (Royal Holloway, University of London, UK)
Part 3: Performing Body Parts
9. Clod Ensemble: An Anatomie in Four Quarters. Some rehearsal notes - Suzy Willson (Clod Ensemble)
10.The Pain of Specimenhood - Gianna Bouchard (Anglia Ruskin University, UK)
11.On the emergent properties of death: When words fall apart - Helen Pynor (freelance artist, Australia)
12.Performing the Microscopic: beyond eye and brain - Alex Mermikides (Kingston University, UK)
13.Copy, Cut, Paste - Humans (Re-)Printed: Lynn Hershman Leeson's The Infinity Engine (2014-) - Professor Gabriella Giannachi (University of Exeter, UK)
Notes
Bibliography
Notes on Contributors
Index