Overview

The erosion of trust in politicians and political institutions is a major challenge in early twenty-first-century democratic politics, not least in the United States. This book argues that, rather than being a flaw or corruption, the potential for political distrust must be understood as an essential feature of representative democracy because representation works through performance. The book explores performance as a constellation of factors: scripts, embodiment, ideas of selfhood, and historical norms and ideals. It draws on key scholarship of political representation, rhetoric, and populism; on theories of performativity, theatricality, and acting; and on interviews the author conducted with political speechwriters spanning presidential administrations and campaigns from Ronald Reagan to Barack Obama to demonstrate both that distrust is inherent in representative politics and that in mainstreamed populism distrust becomes a focal point around which the theatre of politics revolves.

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9781399509992

Table of Contents

Reviews

"Going beyond well-worn and simple theatrical metaphors to describe political action, Julia Peetz's new book offers a sophisticated - and genuinely interdisciplinary - blend of performance and political analysis. Readers will find compelling new approaches to, and arguments about, crucial factors in political life, from legitimacy and representation to distrust, authenticity and populism. The book's in-depth engagement with the past and present of US presidential performance is both illuminating and insightful.-- ""Michael Saward, University of Warwick"" In an impressive feat of cross-disciplinary scholarship, this book combines insights from theater and performance studies with political studies and interviews with presidential speechwriters to understand modern US politics and the rise of Populism. [...] Recommended.--J. R. Vile, Middle Tennessee State University ""CHOICE, January 2024"""

Going beyond well-worn and simple theatrical metaphors to describe political action, Julia Peetz's new book offers a sophisticated - and genuinely interdisciplinary - blend of performance and political analysis. Readers will find compelling new approaches to, and arguments about, crucial factors in political life, from legitimacy and representation to distrust, authenticity and populism. The book's in-depth engagement with the past and present of US presidential performance is both illuminating and insightful.-- ""Michael Saward, University of Warwick"" In an impressive feat of cross-disciplinary scholarship, this book combines insights from theater and performance studies with political studies and interviews with presidential speechwriters to understand modern US politics and the rise of Populism. [...] Recommended.--J. R. Vile, Middle Tennessee State University ""CHOICE, January 2024""

Author Information

Julia Peetz is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in the School of Theatre and Performance at the University of Warwick. She has previously lectured at Goldsmiths, University of London; the Royal Central School for Speech and Drama; and the University of Surrey. Her work, which has been awarded the Asako Ukukubu Prize (2019) and James Thomas Memorial Prize (2017) and been nominated for the Theatre and Research Association’s Early Career Prize, addresses questions of political representation, democracy, and performance – particularly in the context of the U.S. presidency and in Anglo-American relations. Previous work has been published in Contemporary Theatre Review, Performance Research, Contemporary Political Theory, Studies in Theatre and Performance, and in the Oxford Handbook of Politics and Performance.

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