Performing Utopia

About this book

"In her landmark study Utopia in Performance: Finding Hope at the Theater, Jill Dolan departs from historical writings on utopia, which suggest that social reorganization and the redistribution of wealth are utopian efforts, to argue instead that utopia occurs in fragmentary 'utopian moments', often found embedded within a theatrical performance. While Dolan focuses on the utopian performative within a theatrical context, this volume expands her theories to encompass performance in public life - from diasporic hip hop battles, Chilean military parades, commemorative processions, Blackfoot pow-wows and post-Hurricane Katrina Mardi Gras to the Philadelphia Mummers Parade, Festas Juninas in Brazil, the Renaissance Fairs in Arizona and neo-burlesque competitions. How do these performances rehearse and enact visions of a utopic world? What can the lens of utopia and dystopia illuminate about the potential of performing bodies to transform communities, identities, values and beliefs across time? Performing Utopia not only answers these questions but offers a diverse collection of case studies focusing on utopias, dystopias and heteropias enacted through the performing body."