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Theory Trouble

Towards a Manifesto for ‘Critical’ Feminism, Theory and Theatre Relations Elaine Aston . Theory Trouble . Looking Back. Janelle Reinelt and Joseph Roach, Critical Theory and Performance (1992) Sue-Ellen Case, Feminism and Theatre (1988)

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Theory Trouble

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  1. Towards a Manifesto for ‘Critical’ Feminism, Theory and Theatre Relations Elaine Aston Theory Trouble

  2. Looking Back • Janelle Reinelt and Joseph Roach, Critical Theory and Performance (1992) • Sue-Ellen Case, Feminism and Theatre (1988) • The Feminist Spectator as Critic (Jill Dolan, 1988)

  3. ‘The Race for Theory’ and the ‘Theory Machine’ • Barbara Christian, ‘The Race for Theory’, Feminist Studies, 14:1 (Spring, 1988), 69-79 • Nicole Ward Jouve, White Woman Speaks with Forked Tongue: Criticism as Autobiography (1991) • Michèle Barrett and Anne Philips, Introduction, DestabilizingTheory: Contemporary Feminist Debates (1992) • Janelle Reinelt, ‘Navigating Postfeminism: Writing Out of the Box’, in Elaine Aston and Geraldine Harris, eds, Feminist Futures?(2006) • Jill Dolan, ‘Feminist Performance Criticism and the Popular: Reviewing Wendy Wasserstein’, Theatre Journal, 60 (2008), 433-457Performance, Theory (2006)

  4. A Manifesto for ‘Critical’ Feminism, Theory and Theatre Relations

  5. Theoretical Hygiene – Loosen Up • Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Touching Feeling: Affect, Pedagogy and Performativity (2003)

  6. HOLD ON TO FEMINIST THEATRE AND PERFORMANCE

  7. ENGAGE WITH THE CATEGORY ‘WOMEN’ Avtar Brah and Ann Phoenix, ‘Ain’t I a Woman?: Revisiting Intersectionality’, Journal of International Women’s Studies, 5:3 (May 2004), 75-86

  8. OLD AND NEW – DESTABLISE • resist ‘assuming that later theory is therefore better theory, and that the best theory of all is the position from which we happen at the moment to be speaking’ (Barrett & Phillips)

  9. RECOVER THE CONTEXTS OF THEATRE AND THEORY • ‘when theory is not rooted in practice, it becomes prescriptive, exclusive, elitish’ (Christian)

  10. YOU IN THE THEORY • ‘women (or men) making theory out of what they actually think about difference or gender or sexuality in the light of their own experience, of what and who they are’ (Ward)

  11. THINK ‘AUDIENCE’ • Jill Dolan, ‘Making a Spectacle, Making a Difference’, Theatre Journal 62 (2010), 561-565

  12. REPAIR THE ‘DRAMA’ OF FEMINISM

  13. OUT OF THEATRE NOT THEORY • ‘having to embody ideas and create the world, writers [and artists] cannot merely produce “one way”’ (Christian)

  14. UNCOVER THE KNOWLEDGE OF PRACTICE

  15. BEWARE THE LOSS OF THE POLITICAL THEATRE • Janelle Reinelt, ‘Generational Shifts’, Theatre Research International, 35:3 (October 2010), 288 – 90

  16. LOOK TO MAKE A FEMINIST DIFFERENCE • how it might be possible to get out of the trouble caused by theory’s ‘transcendent’ position and the totalizing drive towards anti-essentialist theorizing; • how to activate critical-theoretical practices, strategies and tactics that labour in the interests of progressing feminism and increasing the visibility of feminist theatre; • and how to make a creative, critical and political difference by working across the theory/practice divide.

  17. ENDS OF FEMINISM NOT THE END OF FEMINISM

  18. Manifesto T HEORETICAL HYGIENE – LOOSEN UP H OLD ON TO FEMINIST THEATRE AND PERFORMANCE E NGAGE WITH THE CATEGORY ‘WOMEN’ O LD AND NEW – DESTABILISE R ECOVER THE CONTEXTS OF THEATRE AND THEORY Y OU IN THE THEORY T HINK ‘AUDIENCE’ R EPAIR THE ‘DRAMA’ OF FEMINISM O UT OF THEATRE NOT THEORY U NCOVER THE KNOWLEDGE OF PRACTICE B EWARE THE LOSS OF POLITICAL THEATRE L OOK TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE E NDS OF FEMINISM NOT THE END OF FEMINISM

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