Description
Book Synopsis Upon the 25th anniversary of his passing, this collection addresses the wide application of Victor Turner’s thought to cultural performance in the early 21st century. From anthropology, sociology, and religious studies to performance, cultural, and media studies, Turner’s ideas have had a prodigious interdisciplinary impact. Examining his relevance in studies of performance and popular culture, media, and religion, along with the role of Edith Turner in the Turnerian project, contributors explore how these ideas have been re-engaged, renovated, and repurposed in studies of contemporary cultural performance.
Trade Review “This collection of writings dedicated to the Turners may sometimes contest the validity and morality of 'feelings and desires', but St John gives these elusive possibilities an enduring stage for becoming. Could the volume be conceived as an academic fissure inciting change?” · Australasian Drama Studies
“An impressive selection of analyses conducted through diverse disciplinary lenses (including media and communication, sociology, religion, and anthropology) explicates the need for a revival of Turner's multifaceted theory.” · The Canadian Review of Sociology
“This volume is a wonderful exercise in rethinking Turner through the lens of our increasingly digitalized and mediatized world. . . . The introduction by St John alone is worth the price of the book. Dense with the jargon of scholarship, freshly minted phrases, theoretical labels, and esoteric framings, as it need be to describe the work of Turner, who made a prodigious impact across a spectrum of disciplines." · JRAI
Table of Contents Victor Turner and Contemporary Cultural Performance: An Introduction
Graham St John
PART I: PERFORMING CULTURE: RITUAL, DRAMA AND MEDIA
Chapter 1. Toward a Unified Theory of Cultural Performance: A "Reconstructive Introduction" to Victor Turner
J. Lowell Lewis
Chapter 2. The Ritualization of Performance (Studies)
Ian Maxwell
Chapter 3. Performing "Sorry Business": Reconciliation and Redressive Action
Michael Cohen, Paul Dwyer and Laura Ginters
Chapter 4. Liminality in Media Studies: From Everyday Life to Media Events
Mihai Coman
Chapter 5. Social Drama in a Mediatized World: The Racist Murder of Stephen Lawrence
Simon Cottle
PART II POPULAR CULTURE AND RITES OF PASSAGE
Chapter 6. Modern Sports: Liminal Ritual or Liminoid Leisure?
Sharon Rowe
Chapter 7. Trance Tribes and Dance Vibes: Victor Turner and Electronic Dance Music Culture
Graham St John
Chapter 8. Backpacking as a Contemporary Rite of Passage: Victor Turner and Youth Travel Practices
Amie Matthews
Chapter 9. Walking to Hill End with Victor Turner: A Theatre-Making Immersion Event
Gerard Boland
PART III: CONTEMPORARY PILGRIMAGE AND COMMUNITAS
Chapter 10. Of Ordeals and Operas: Reflexive Ritualizing at the Burning Man Festival
Lee Gilmore
Chapter 11. "Shopping For A Self": Pilgrimage, Identity-Formation and Retail Therapy
Justine Digance and Carole Cusack
Chapter 12. Turner Meets Gandhi: Pilgrimage, Ritual and the Diffusion of Non-Violent Direct Action
Sean Scalmer
Chapter 13. Dramas, Fields, and ‘Appropriate Education’: The Ritual Process, Contestation, and Communitas for Parents of Special-Needs Children
Margi Nowak
PART IV: EDITH TURNER
Chapter 14. An Interview with Edith Turner
Matthew Engelke
Chapter 15. Woman/women in "the Discourse of Man": Edie Turner and Victor Turner’s Language of the Feminine
Barbara Babcock
Chapter 16. Faith and (Social) Science: Contrasting Victor and Edith Turner’s Analysis of Spiritual Realities
Douglas Ezzy
Chapter 17. Challenging the Boundaries of Experience, Performance, and Consciousness: Edith Turner’s Contributions to the Turnerian Project
Jill Dubisch
Notes on Contributors
Bibliography
Index
