Theatres of Immanence - by Kenneth A Loparo (Paperback)

About the Book

"Theatres of Immanence: Deleuze and the Ethics of Performance is the first monograph to provide an in-depth study of the implications of Gilles Deleuze's philosophy for theatre and performance. Engaging with a wide range of interdisciplinary practitioners including Goat Island, Butoh, Artaud, John Cage, the Living Theatre, Robert Wilson and Allan Kaprow, as well as with the philosophies of Deleuze and Guattari, Henri Bergson and Francois Laruelle, the book conceives performance as a way of thinking 'immanence': the open and endlessly creative whole of which all things are a part. Theatres of Immanence builds upon Deleuze's emphasis on immanence, affect, change and movement to provide new approaches to five key topics in theatre and performance: 1) authorship and collaboration, 2) voice and language, 3) animals in performance, 4) audience participation and 5) time or duration. The book provides an accessible introduction to Deleuze's ideas and draws attention to the ethical dimensions of performance, asking: 'what good is theatre, and particularly immanent theatre, anyway?' "--

Book Synopsis

Theatres of Immanence: Deleuze and the Ethics of Performance is the first monograph to provide an in-depth study of the implications of Deleuze's philosophy for theatre and performance. Drawing from Goat Island, Butoh, Artaud and Kaprow, as well from Deleuze, Bergson and Laruelle, the book conceives performance as a way of thinking immanence.

Review Quotes

'Laura Cull breaks with the mutual distrust between theater and philosophy that has kept both disciplines from recognizing their myriad entanglements. The result is a creative approach to contemporary theater that also sheds new light on Gilles Deleuze.' - Martin Puchner, Byron and Anita Wien Professor of Drama, Harvard University, USA

'Given Deleuze's growing prominence in performance analysis, this rigorous study of his philosophical notion of immanence is timely and valuable to the discipline... In addition to Cull's, often revisionary, analyses of the theatre practices themselves, which are valuable contributions to avant-garde scholarship in their own right, this is also an account of how performance can sometimes 'think' philosophically for itself, as Cull describes it, in addition to its capacity to draw on and exemplify existing theories.' - Liz Tomlin, NTQ

'In Laura Cull's book, Theatres of Immanence: Deleuze and the Ethics of Performance, complex Deleuzian concepts are injected with dramatic life and manipulated with great ease and originality. The book pays a beautiful tribute to the fact that Deleuze's concepts have also inspired artists and have brought some performances to life'. - Liza Kharoubi, Avignon University, France

University, France

About the Author

Laura Cull Ó Maoilearca is Head of the Department of Theatre & Dance at the University of Surrey, UK. Her most recent books are Theatres of Immanence: Deleuze and the Ethics of Performance (2012; 2015) and Encounters in Performance Philosophy (2014) co-edited with Alice Lagaay. Her other publications include Deleuze and Performance (2009) and Manifesto Now! Instructions for Performance, Philosophy, Politics (2013) co-edited with Will Daddario. She is core convener of Performance Philosophy and joint series editor of the Performance Philosophy book series with Palgrave Macmillan.