Performance Studies: The Interpretation of Aesthetic Texts

The Second Edition of Performance Studies: The interpretation of Aesthetic Texts, by Ronald J. Pelias and Tracy Stephenson Shaffer asks students to use performance as a means of understanding the artistic utterances of others. It functions as a practice-based bridge between the long respected tradition of oral interpretation and current trends in performance studies research. The content of the text is presented in four parts:

Part I: Performance Studies in Perspective - provides definitions of performance (including both human communication as performance and artistic performance), examples of performance throughout history, and a new chapter on everyday storytelling which includes discussions of myths, legends, folktales, oral history, personal narrative, and ethnography.

Part II: Exploring the Aesthetic Communication of Others - outlines methods for creating performance: dramatism, analytic voice and body work, and discussions of the role of empathy in performance.

Part III: The Nature of Aesthetic Texts in Aesthetic Transactions - explores the language and structure of aesthetic texts including literary devices, points of view, modes of speech, and character.

Part IV: The Audience and the Expanding Aesthetic - introduces the multiple roles of the audience in performance as well as offers a new chapter on performance art and the way it expands the texts and contexts of performance.

Features: 

• Each chapter includes Probes for the student. These may be formal assignments or simply tools for relating the theory to students' everyday lives.
• Each chapter also includes an updated Suggested Readings section.
• Encourages students to translate their literary insights from the page to the stage and in turn, will increase their knowledge of literature
• Describes the translation process as a communicative, artistic, therapeutic, and critical act
• Includes a DVD featuring sample solo performances of poetry, prose, auto performance, personal narrative, and oral history