Abstract
An introduction to the book, The Self in Performance, this chapter begins by contextualizing therapeutic autobiographical theatre within the framework of other western and non-western self-referential art forms. The authors then examine terminology within the fields of theatre and drama therapy for autobiographical theatre that has therapeutic intentions, and analyze the complex relationship between healing and artistic aims in such productions. Finally, the authors provide an overview of the chapters in The Self in Performance, and suggest issues warranting further investigation - including the role of the audience and the role of the director/therapist in intimate theatrical performances.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Anderson, L. (2011). Autobiography. Abingdon and New York: Routledge.
Beglau, N. (2012). Self-story drama therapy: Healing through autobiographical stories in action. Unpublished MA thesis, Pacifica Graduate Institute.
Claycomb, R. (2012). Lives in play: Autobiography and biography on the feminist stage. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
De Man, Paul. (1979). Autobiography as de-facement. MLN, 94(5), 919–930. http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0026-7910%28197912%2994%3A5%3C919%3AAAD%3E2.0.CO%3B2-K
Emunah, R. (1994). Acting for real: Drama therapy process, technique, and performance. New York: Taylor & Francis.
Emunah, R. (2015). Self-revelatory performance. A form of drama therapy and theatre. Drama Therapy Review, 1(1), 71–85. https://doi.org/10.1386/dtr.1.1.71_1
Emunah, R., & Johnson, D. R. (1983). The impact of theatrical performance on the self-images of psychiatric patients. Arts in Psychotherapy, 10, 233–239.
Emunah, R., Raucher, G., & Ramirez-Hernandez, A. (2014). Self-revelatory performance in mitigating the impact of trauma. In N. Sajnani & D. Johnson (Eds.), Trauma-informed drama therapy: Transforming clinics, classrooms, and communities (pp. 93–121). Springfield, IL: Charles C Thomas.
Forte, J. (1988). Women’s performance art: Feminism and postmodernism. Theatre Journal, 40(2), 217–235.
Grace, S. (2003). Performing the auto/biographical pact: Towards a theory of identity in performance. Accessed August 11, 2015, from http://www.english.ubc.ca/faculty/grace/thtr_ab.htm
Heddon, D. (2008). Autobiography and performance. Hampshire and New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Helland, J. (1992). Culture, politics, and identity in the paintings of Frida Kahlo. In N. Broude & M. Garrard (Eds.), The expanding discourse: Feminism and art history (pp. 397–408). New York: HarperCollins.
Langellier, K., & Peterson, E. (2004). Performing narrative: Storytelling in daily life. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Martin, C. (2013). Theatre of the real. Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Miller, L., Taylor, J., & Carver, M. H. (Eds.) (2003). Voices made flesh: Performing women’s autobiography. Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press.
Miner, E. (1968). The traditions and forms of the Japanese poetic diary. Pacific Coast Philology, 3, 38–48. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1316671
More-Gilbert, B. (2009). Postcolonial life-writing culture, politics and self-representation. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.
Oakdale, S. (2005). I foresee my life: The ritual performance of autobiography in an Amazonian community. Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press.
Park-Fuller, L. (2003). A clean breast of it. In L. C. Miller, J. Taylor, & M. Carver (Eds.), Performing women’s autobiography: Voices made flesh (pp. 215–236). Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press.
Pearlman, L. (2015). ‘Dissemblage’ and ‘truth praps’: Creating methodologies of resistance in queer autobiographical theatre. Theatre Research International, 40(1), 88–91.
Pendzik, S. (2013a). The poiesis and praxis of autobiographical therapeutic theatre. Keynote speech, 13th Summer Academy of the German Association of Theatre-Therapy (DGFT), Remscheid, Germany. https://www.academia.edu/12635258/The_Poiesis_and_Praxis_of_Autobiographical_Therapeutic_Theatre
Pendzik, S. (2013b). The 6-Key Model and the assessment of the aesthetic dimension in dramatherapy. Dramatherapy, 35(2), 90–98.
Rycroft, C. (1983). Psychoanalysis and beyond. London: Chatto & Windus – Hogarth Press.
Sajnani, N. (2012). The implicated witness: Towards a relational aesthetic in dramatherapy. Dramatherapy, 34(1), 6–21.
Saldaña, J. (2003). Dramatizing data: A premier. Qualitative Inquiry, 9(2), 218–236.
Saldaña, J. (2011). Ethnotheatre: Research from page to stage. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press.
Sandhal, C. (2003). Queering the crip or creeping the queer? Intersections of queer and crip identities in solo autobiographical performances. GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies, 9(1–2), 25–56.
Schechner, R. (2013). Performance studies: An introduction (3rd ed.). London: Routledge.
Schmor, J. B. (1994). Confessional performance: Postmodern culture in recent American theatre. Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism, 9(1), 157–172.
Smith, S., & Watson, J. (1998). Introduction: Situating subjectivity in autobiographical practices. In S. Smith & J. Watson (Eds.), Women, autobiography, theory: A reader (pp. 3–51). Madison, Wisconsin: The University of Wisconsin Press.
Smith, S., & Watson, J. (2010). Reading autobiography: A guide for interpreting life narratives. Minneapolis, MN: Minnesota University Press.
Snow, S., D’Amico, M., & Tanguay, D. (2003). Therapeutic theatre and well-being. Arts in Psychotherapy, 30(2), 73–82.
Spry, T. (2001). Performing autoethnography: An embodied methodological praxis. Qualitative Inquiry, 7(6), 706–732.
Spry, T. (2010). Call it swing: A jazz blues autoethnography. Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies, 10(4), 271–282.
Spry, T. (2011). Body, paper, stage: Writing and performing autoethnography. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press.
Stephenson, J. (2012). After the apple: Post-lapsarian realism in Garden//Suburbia—An autobiographical site-specific work. In R. Barker & K. Solga (Eds.), New Canadian realisms: New essays on Canadian theatre volume 2 (pp. 68–86). Toronto: Playwrights Canada.
Thompson, J. (2009). Ah pava! Nathiye: Respecting silence and the performance of not-telling. In S. Jennings (Ed.), Dramatherapy and social theatre: Necessary dialogues (pp. 48–62). London: Routledge.
Walker, J. (1994). Reading genres across cultures: The example of autobiography. In L. Lawal (Ed.), Reading world literature: Theory, history, practice (pp. 203–236). Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.
Wallace, C. (2006). Monologue theatre, solo performance, and self as spectacle. In C. Wallace (Ed.), Monologues: Theatre, performance, subjectivity (pp. 1–16). Prague: Litteraria Pragensia.
Weber, A. (1990). Teresa of Avila and the rhetoric of femininity. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2016 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Pendzik, S., Emunah, R., Johnson, D.R. (2016). The Self in Performance: Context, Definitions, Directions. In: Pendzik, S., Emunah, R., Read Johnson, D. (eds) The Self in Performance. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-53593-1_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-53593-1_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-54153-6
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-53593-1
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)