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Introduction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2007

Extract

In the past decade and a half, feminism and gender studies have undergone a process of critical self-scrutiny and re-assessment. Presently, the fields of theatre and performance studies are undertaking a similar project of self-evaluation, as evidenced by recent calls to assess the ‘state of the field’ as well as its future directions. Elaine Aston and Geraldine Harrison suggest in their recent co-edited volume, Feminist Futures? Theatre, Performance, Theory, that any attempt to envision the future must begin by examining the present, which in turn entails looking to, and reflecting on, the legacies and remains of the past. In her article for this issue of TRI, ‘A Critical Step to the Side: Performing the Loss of the Mother’, Aston does precisely this, asking, ‘in what ways it might be critically productive to come back to the maternal as a subject for feminism’.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © International Federation for Theatre Research 2007

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References

Notes

1 See, for example, the November 2006 issue of Theatre Survey, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the American Society for Theatre Research.

2 Aston, Elaine and Harris, Geraldine eds., ‘Feminist Futures and the Possibilities of ‘We'?’ in Feminist Futures? Theatre, Performance, Theory (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006), pp. 116CrossRefGoogle Scholar

3 Sue-Ellen, Case, ‘Classic Drag: The Greek Creation of Female Parts’, Theatre Journal, ‘Staging Gender’, 37, 3 (1985), pp. 317–27Google Scholar.

4 Shannon, Jackson, ‘Theatricality's Proper Objects’ in Davis, Tracy C. and Postlewait, Thomas, eds., Theatricality (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002), p. 186. Original emphasisGoogle Scholar.

5 Aston and Harrison, ‘Feminist Futures’, p. 9. Also see Elin Diamond, Unmaking Mimesis (New York: Routledge, 1997)Google Scholar.

6 Aston and Harrison, p. 1.

7 See Sue-Ellen Case, ‘The Screens of Time: Feminist Memories and Hope’ (pp. 105–117) and Janelle Reinelt, ‘Navigating Postfeminism: Writing Out of the Box’ (pp. 17–33) in Elaine Aston and Geraldine Harrison, eds., Feminist Futures? Theatre, Performance. Theory.

8 See Judith, Butler, ‘Subjects of Sex/Gender/Desire’ in Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (New York: Routledge, 1999), pp. 344Google Scholar.

9 Aston and Harrison, ‘Feminist Futures’, pp. 12–13.

10 Aston and Harrison, ‘Feminist Futures’, p. 8.

11 Aston and Harrison, p. 9; Shannon Jackson, ‘Theatricality's Proper Objects’, p. 189.

12 Jackson, Ibid. Also, see Shannon, Jackson, Professing Performance: Theatre in the Academy from Philology to Performativity (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004), p. 37Google Scholar.

13 Jill, Dolan, The Feminist Spectator as Critic (Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1988), p. 18Google Scholar.

14 Jackson, ‘Theatricality's Proper Objects’, p. 186.