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OverviewConventional notions of avant-garde art suggest innovative artists rebelling against artistic convention and social propriety, shocking unwilling audiences into new ways of seeing and living. Viewers in Distress tells a different story. Beginning in the tumultuous 1990s, after the fall of the Berlin Wall and in the wake of the Los Angeles riots, rebellious spectators in American and British theaters broke with theater decorum and voiced their radical interpretations of shows that were not meant to be radical. In doing so, audiences tried to understand the complex racial, gender, and religious politics of their times, while insisting that liberal societies fulfill their promise of dignity for all. Stefka Mihaylova argues that such non-conforming viewing amounts to an avant-garde of its own: a bold reimagining of how we live together and tell stories of our lives together, aimed to achieve liberalism’s promise. In telling this story, she analyzes the production and reception politics of works by Susan-Lori Parks, Sarah Kane, Forced Entertainment, Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti, and Young Jean Lee, as well as non-theatrical controversies such as the conflict over Halloween costumes at Yale in 2015. At the core of spectators’ discontent, this book suggests, is an effort to figure out how to get along with people different from ourselves in the diverse U.S. and British societies in which we live. Full Product DetailsAuthor: Stefka MihaylovaPublisher: The University of Michigan Press Imprint: The University of Michigan Press Weight: 0.272kg ISBN: 9780472076321ISBN 10: 0472076329 Pages: 216 Publication Date: 31 July 2023 Audience: Professional and scholarly , Professional & Vocational Format: Hardback Publisher's Status: Active Availability: Temporarily unavailable The supplier advises that this item is temporarily unavailable. It will be ordered for you and placed on backorder. Once it does come back in stock, we will ship it out to you. Table of ContentsIllustrations Introduction: “Can We All Get Along?” Chapter 1: The Radical Formalism of Suzan-Lori Parks and Sarah Kane Chapter 2: A Spectator Prepares: Forced Entertainment’s Theatre of Critical Feeling Chapter 3: The Behzti Riot as a Contemporary Avant-Garde Chapter 4: Feeling Bad about Being White: Young Jean Lee’s Theatre and the Progressive Avant-Garde Coda: The Liberal Individual’s Postmodern Return BibliographyReviews"""This text maps a potential sea change in how we understand a work's historical significance and ideological valence--a moment when 'reliance on the formal qualities of an artwork' has become not just problematic, but virtually useless. Even more troubling, it maps a collapse of the principles of Western liberalism. This is heady, thrilling, and, yes, deeply troubling stuff--and the epitome of critical scholarship."" --Mike Sell, Indiana University of Pennsylvania--Mike Sell ""Thought-provoking and drawing effectively on a wide range of scholarship . . . the author's reading of these performances (and their reception) provides nuance and detail that works well for someone familiar with those performances or encountering them for the first time."" --Susan Bennett, University of Calgary--Susan Bennett" Author InformationStefka G. Mihaylova is Associate Professor of Theatre Theory and Criticism at the University of Washington. Tab Content 6Author Website:Countries AvailableAll regions |