Affects in 21st-Century British Theatre

This book explores the various manifestations of affects in British theatre of the 21st century. The introduction gives a concise survey of existing and emerging theoretical and research trends and argues in favour of a capacious understanding of affects that mediates between more autonomous and more social approaches. The twelve chapters in the collection investigate major works in Britain by playwrights and theatre makers including Mojisola Adebayo, Mike Bartlett, Alice Birch, Caryl Churchill, Tim Crouch and Andy Smith, Rachel De-lahay, Reginald Edmund, James Fritz, David Greig, Idris Goodwin, Zinnie Harris, Kieran Hurley, Lucy Kirkwood, Anders Lustgarten, Yolanda Mercy, Anthony Neilson, Lucy Prebble, Sh!t Theatre, Penelope Skinner, Stef Smith, Kae Tempest and debbie tucker green. The interpretations identify significant areas of tension as they relate affects to the fields of cognition, politics and hope. In this, the chapters uncover interrelations of thought, intention and empathy; they reveal the nexus between identities, institutions and ideology; and, finally, they explore how theatre can accomplish the transition from a sense of crisis to utopian visions.

Brings new theorisations of affect(s) to a wide range of contemporary performance

Engages with a broad scope of recent scholarship in the field of affect studies

Considers the potential for the lens of affect to interfere with categories and boundaries present in current theatre scholarship

Auteur

Mireia Aragay is Professor of English Literature, Drama and Theatre at the University of Barcelona and Principal Investigator of the Contemporary British Theatre Barcelona research group.

Cristina Delgado-García is Lecturer in Theatre and Performance at the University of Glasgow.

Martin Middeke holds the Chair of English Literature at the University of Augsburg, and is Visiting Professor of English at the University of Johannesburg.

Contenu
1 Introduction: Thinking-Feeling Our Way Mireia Aragay, Cristina Delgado-García and Martin MiddekePart I Affects and Cognition: Thought, Intention, Empathy2 Feel and Think, Think and Feel: Complicating Empathy in debbie tucker green's hang Mireia Aragay3 Moving Parts: Emotion, Intention and Ambivalent Attachments Clare Wallace4 Love and the Intentionality of Affect in Lucy Prebble'sThe Effect and debbie tucker green's a profoundly affectionate, passionate devotion to someone (-noun)Korbinian Stöckl5 Political Dramaturgies of Affect: Anthony Neilson's God in Ruins and The Wonderful World of Dissocia Liz TomlinPart II Affects and Politics: Identities, Institutions, Ideology 6 Black Lives, Black Words at the Bush Theatre: Art, Anger, Affect and ActivismLynette Goddard7 Feeling Feminism: Politics of Mischief in Contemporary Women's TheatreMarissia Fragkou8 Contemporary British Theatre, Democracy and Affect:States of FeelingCristina Delgado-García9 Affect and the Politics of Abstraction in British New WritingPhilip WatkinsonPart III Affects and Hope: From Crisis to Utopian Feelings 10 Vibrant Materials: Affective Arrangements, the Allure of Glamour and Architexture(s) in Penelope Skinner'sEigengrau and Mike Bartlett's GameMartin Middeke11 Entanglements: Transaction and Intra-action with the Devil in How to Hold Your BreathJulia Boll12 Theatre at the End of the WorldMark Robson13 Affects and the Development of Political Subjectivity: From Resilience to Agency in Kae Tempest's WastedClara Escoda