Overview

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.

Full Product Details

Author:   Dr Alex Mermikides (King's College London, UK) ,  Dr Gianna Bouchard (University of Birmingham, UK) ,  Professor John Lutterbie (Stony Brook University, USA) ,  Prof Nicola Shaughnessy (University of Kent, UK)
Publisher:   Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Imprint:   Methuen Drama
Dimensions:   Width: 14.40cm , Height: 2.00cm , Length: 21.80cm
Weight:   0.460kg
ISBN:  

9781472570789

ISBN 10:   1472570782
Pages:   272
Publication Date:   25 February 2016
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  College/higher education ,  Professional & Vocational ,  Tertiary & Higher Education
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.

Table of Contents

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

Reviews

Anyone who keeps an open mind will be impressed by the potential of performance to both inspire and be inspired by debate around medical ethics and healthcare issues. -- Guy Glass NYU School of Medicine's Literature Arts, and Medicine Database

Author Information

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.

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