The Explicit Body in Performance [Paperback]

Rebecca Schneider (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 26, 1997 | ISBN-10: 0415090261 | ISBN-13: 978-0415090261

The Explicit Body in Performance interrogates the avant-garde precedents and theoretical terrain that combined to produce feminist performance art. Among the many artists discussed are:
* Carolle Schneemann
* Annie Sprinkle
* Karen Finley
* Robbie McCauley
* Ana Mendieta
* Ann Magnuson
* Sandra Bernhard
* Spiderwoman
Rebecca Schneider tackles topics ranging across the 'post-porn modernist movement', New Right censorship, commodity fetishism, perspectival vision, and primitivism. Employing diverse critical theories from Benjamin to Lacan to postcolonial and queer theory, Schneider analyses artistic and pop cultural depictions of the explicit body in late commodity capitalism.
The Explicit Body in Performance is complemented by extensive photographic illustrations and artistic productions of postmodern feminist practitioners. The book is a fascinating exploration of how these artists have wrestled with the representational structures of desire.

Editorial Reviews

Review

I would...encourage people to take the time to read it. It will give them and insight into the world of feminist performance art and a knowledge of contemporary radical ideas in the deconstruction of gender.
–Lesbian Sex Scandals

...gives in-depth analyses and explorations of the works of explicit body artists..and..provides valuable historical back-round on the movements and artists that inspired thier work.
...this is a valuable addition to the library of anyone interested in feminism and performance art..
–D.C. Culbertson, Baltimore Alternative

...undoubtedly an important contribution to performance studies...
–Lesbian Review of Books

About the Author

Rebecca Schneider is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Drama Department at Dartmouth College.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Routledge (January 26, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0415090261
• ISBN-13: 978-0415090261
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,265,823 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Exquisite Performance, December 16, 2000

By 

"skawest" (New York, New York USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Explicit Body in Performance (Paperback)

A great survey of the 1980s performance art scene, the era of Annie Sprinkle, Karen Finley, Carolee Schneeman, even Sandra Bernhard and RuPaul. Scheider's book is both personally compelling and theoretically rich. She was obviously in New York City for the 80s, catching the downtown performances that launched a thousand Jesse Helms speeches. Wonderful observations from the front line and the front row, a perspective too often missing from academic works about performance. Schneider is also an expert guide through the theoretical precedents for the body as stage; the book offers original and relevant readings of Walter Benjamin, Judith Butler, and Jaques Lacan. Explicit Body is illustrated with a terrific photographs, invaluable documentation of a vital and dynamic period. (The juxtaposition of Cindy Sherman's gross-out work with a Gianfranco Ferre advertisement had me laughing out loud.) Highly recommended for anyone interested in the performative side of gender studies, commodity fetishism, and queer theory.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant combo of theory and practice, February 3, 2001

By 

Richard Burt - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Explicit Body in Performance (Paperback)

What I love most about this brilliant, original work is the way Schneider manages to think beyond the usual programmatic feminist notions that have become so dated, even reactionary, and yet do so without sacrificing her passionately held feminist politiccs. It really is a tour de force, and will interst anyone intersted in the representation of the female nude in art, pornography, and in theatrical performance.

4 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Explicitly Misleading?, December 10, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Explicit Body in Performance (Paperback)

Schneider's topic is both controversial and compelling, and for that I applaud her efforts. Her strongest areas of analysis and discussion in "The Explicit Body in Performance" include performance vs. pornography and the artists Carolee Schneeman and Annie Sprinkle. Schneider is far less effective in examining the tenuous topic of race and the explicit body in performance--and perhaps understandably so. Race is a difficult area to tackle on its own, and much moreso when it is paired with the notion of the explicit, racially-marked body in performance. Much stronger analyses of this nature do exist--coming from such performance theorists and cultural critics as Coco Fusco and bell hooks. Still, "The Explicit Body in Performance" is a book worth reading, particularly for avid fans, students, and scholars of women's performance art.