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Slave Spectacles and Tragic Octoroons: A Cultural Genealogy of Antebellum Performance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 July 2009

Joseph R. Roach
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Extract

In recent critical theory, the word performance has undergone a significant expansion, some would say an inflation. As the Editor's Note to the May issue of PMLA (“Special Topic: Performance”) observes, “What once was an event has become a critical category, now applied to everything from a play to a war to a meal. The performative … is a cultural act, a critical perspective, a political intervention.” Theatre historians will perhaps greet such pronouncements with mixed emotions. On one hand, they may welcome the acknowledgment by the principal organ of the Modern Language Association that performance (as opposed to drama merely) can count for so much. On the other hand, they may wonder what exactly is intended by the conceptual leap that takes performance beyond the established theatrical genres to encompass armed conflict and comestibles.

Type
Research Article
Information
Theatre Survey , Volume 33 , Issue 2 , November 1992 , pp. 167 - 187
Copyright
Copyright © American Society for Theatre Research 1992

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References

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