Performance, Feminism and Affect in Neoliberal Times

317 Pages·2017·4.2 MB·English

by  Elin Diamond

Performance,
Feminism and
Aff ect in
Neoliberal Times
Edited by Elin Diamond, Denise
Varney and Candice Amich
Contemporary
Performance
InterActions
Contemporary Performance InterActions
Series Editors
Elaine Aston
Institute for the Contemporary Arts
Lancaster University
Lancaster, United Kingdom
Brian Singleton
School of Drama, Film and Music
Trinity College Dublin
Dublin, Ireland
“The four keywords that organize this important and timely collection evoke the
most compelling intellectual and political issues of our time. The global reach of
sites considered and the range of state power expertly examined illustrate each
essay’s significance and impact. An excellent, lively, engaged, and inspiring read.”
—Jill Dolan, Princeton University
“This timely anthology examines how contemporary performance and intersec-
tional feminism display complex affective responses to gendered life in neoliberal
times. Arguing there is no resistance without affect, the book is also significant
for its cross-cultural analysis and diverse case studies. Offering insightful essays by
leading scholars and new critical perspectives.”
—Peter Eckersall, The Graduate Center CUNY
Theatre’s performative InterActions with the politics of sex, race and
class, with questions of social and political justice, form the focus of the
Contemporary Performance InterActions series. Performative InterActions
are those that aspire to affect, contest or transform. International in
scope, CPI publishes monographs and edited collections dedicated to the
InterActions of contemporary practitioners, performances and theatres
located in any world context.
More information about this series at
http://www.springer.com/series/14918
Elin Diamond • Denise Varney • Candice Amich
Editors
Performance,
Feminism and Affect
in Neoliberal Times
Editors
Elin Diamond Denise Varney
Department of English School of Culture and Communication
Rutgers University University of Melbourne
New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA Victoria, Australia
Candice Amich
Department of English
Vanderbilt University
Nashville, Tennessee, USA
Contemporary Performance InterActions
ISBN 978-1-137-59809-7 ISBN 978-1-137-59810-3 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-59810-3
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017935966
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017
The author(s) has/have asserted their right(s) to be identified as the author(s) of this work
in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of
translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on
microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval,
electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now
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The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are
exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information
in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the pub-
lisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the
material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The
publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institu-
tional affiliations.
Cover image © Photograph of the performance Quando todos calam (2009) by Berna Reale
Printed on acid-free paper
This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature
The registered company is Macmillan Publishers Ltd.
The registered company address is: The Campus, 4 Crinan Street, London, N1 9XW,
United Kingdom
A
cknowledgements
This volume is made possible by the courageous and daring feminist artists
whose performance and activism inspire our contributors’ research. We
thank the artists for their generous support for our scholarly work. We also
acknowledge the intellectual and political energy of members and friends
of the Feminist Research Working Group, which is part of the International
Federation for Theatre Research (IFTR). We are immensely grateful to
the organizers of IFTR conferences in Osaka, Santiago, Barcelona, and
Warwick where the research for this volume was developed.
The editors would also like to acknowledge the research support of their
institutions: Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA; the
University of Melbourne, Australia; and Vanderbilt University, Nashville,
Tennessee, USA. We also acknowledge the intellectual support and friend-
ships of our colleagues, especially Harriet Davidson and Carolyn Williams
at Rutgers University; Rachel Fensham, Paul Rae, Sarah Balkin, and Lara
Stevens at Melbourne; Pavneet Aulakh, Marzia Milazzo, and Haerin Shin
at Vanderbilt University; and Nimanthi Rajasingham at Colgate University.
We would like to thank the editors of this series, Elaine Aston and Brian
Singleton. Elaine is a former convenor of the Feminist Research Working
Group and the co-editor with Sue-Ellen Case, also a former convenor, of the
group’s last volume, Staging International Feminisms (2007). To the Palgrave
production team, especially Jen McCall and April James, a big thank-you.
Finally, to family and friends—Robert Lowe, Hannah Diamond-Lowe,
Wendy Salkind; Jules O’Donnell, Chris Hudson, Vic Marles, Geoff
Westcott; and Dominic Didiano—we extend our gratitude.
v
c
ontents
1 Introduction 1
Elin Diamond, Denise Varney, and Candice Amich
Part I Affect, Performance, and the Neoliberal State 13
2 The Affective Performance of State Love 15
Sue-Ellen Case
3 ‘Not Now, Not Ever’: Julia Gillard and the Performative
Power of Affect 25
Denise Varney
4 Performing Sovereignty Against Jurisprudential Death
in an Australian State of Exception 39
Sandra D’Urso
5 Imagining Love in a Neoliberal Japan: Yanagi Miwa’s
Elevator Girl 51
Nobuko Anan
vii
viii CONTENTS
6 Nisti Stêrk’s Affective Spaces in For Sweden – With the 
Times (För Sverige i tiden!) 65
Christina Svens
Part II Violence and Performance Activism 75
7 R aging On: The Politics of Violence in the Work of Jesusa
Rodríguez and Liliana Felipe 77
Diana Taylor
8 T he Limits of Witness: Regina José Galindo
and Neoliberalism’s Gendered Economies of Violence 91
Candice Amich
9 P rotesting Violence: Feminist Performance Activism
in Contemporary India 105
Bishnupriya Dutt
10 My Cunt, My Rules! Feminist Sextremist Activism
in Neoliberal Europe 117
Tiina Rosenberg
Part III Global Spectacles 131
11 Mapping Abramović, from Affect to Emotion 133
Marla Carlson
12 Virtuosity: Dance, Entrepreneurialism, and Nostalgia in 
Stage Irish Performance 147
Aoife Monks
CONTENTS ix
13 Neoliberal Postfeminism, Neo-burlesque, and the 
Politics of Affect in the Performances of 
Moira Finucane 161
Sarah French
14 Buy One, Get One Free: The Dance Body for the Indian
Film and Television Industry 175
Urmimala Sarkar Munsi
15 Affecting the Apparatus: Queer Feminist Re/Decodings
in the Digital Dramaturgy Lab, Toronto 189
Antje Budde
Part IV Resistance and Theatre Politics 201
16 When Will They Hear Our Voices? Historicizing Gender,
Performance, and Neoliberalism in the 1930s 203
Charlotte M. Canning
17 Voices of the 880,000 Won Generation: Precarity
and Contemporary Korean Theatre 215
Jung-Soon Shim
18 Female Actors in Swaang: Negotiating the Neoliberal
Performance Scenario in Post-1991 India 229
Vibha Sharma
19 A Woman Artist in the Neoliberal Chilean Jungle 239
María José Contreras Lorenzini
x CONTENTS
Part V Affect and Site-Specific Performance 253
20 Feminism, Assemblage, and Performance: Kara Walker
in Neoliberal Times 255
Elin Diamond
21 Feeling Out of Place: The ‘Affective Dissonance’
of the Feminist Spectator in The Boys of Foley Street 269
Shonagh Hill
22 The Flesh and the Remains: Looking at the Work of 
Berna Reale 283
Ana Bernstein
23 Precarity, Performance, and Activism in Recent Works
by Ito Tari and Yamashiro Chikako 297
Rebecca Jennison
Index 309