Description
Book SynopsisConventional notions of avant-garde art suggest innovative artists rebelling against artistic convention and social propriety, shocking unwilling audiences into new ways of seeing and living.
Viewers in Distress tells a different story.
Trade Review“This text maps a potential sea change in how we understand a work’s historical significance and ideological valence—a moment when ‘reliance on the formal qualities of an artwork’ has become not just problematic, but virtually useless. Even more troubling, it maps a collapse of the principles of Western liberalism. This is heady, thrilling, and, yes, deeply troubling stuff—and the epitome of critical scholarship.” —Mike Sell, Indiana University of Pennsylvania
“Thought-provoking and drawing effectively on a wide range of scholarship . . . the author’s reading of these performances (and their reception) provides nuance and detail that works well for someone familiar with those performances or encountering them for the first time.” —Susan Bennett, University of Calgary
Table of Contents
- Illustrations
- Introduction: “Can We All Get Along?”
- Chapter 1: The Radical Formalism of Suzan-Lori Parks and Sarah Kane
- Chapter 2: A Spectator Prepares: Forced Entertainment’s Theatre of Critical
- Feeling
- Chapter 3: The Behzti Riot as a Contemporary Avant-Garde
- Chapter 4: Feeling Bad about Being White: Young Jean Lee’s Theatre and
- the Progressive Avant-Garde
- Coda: The Liberal Individual’s Postmodern Return Bibliography
