Deleuze and Performance

The vitality of Gilles Deleuze's enduring influence is nowhere more apparent than within the folds of performance. Laura Cull's own precision of thought on these matters is given exquisite, seamless form in this indispensable collection by a first rate cast.Alan Read, Professor of Theatre, King's College LondonThis is a welcome addition to the fields of both performance studies and Deleuze studies, one that is sure to stimulate productive research and practice across many domains for years to come.Ronald Bogue, Professor of Comparative Literature, University of GeorgiaWas performance important to Deleuze? Is Deleuze important to performance; to its practical, as well as theoretical, research? What are the implications of Deleuze's philosophy of difference, process and becoming, for Performance Studies, a field in which many continue to privilege the notion of performance as representation, as anchored by its imitation of an identity: 'the world', 'the play', 'the self'? Deleuze and Performance is a collection of new essays dedicated to Deleuze's writing on theatre and to the productivity of his philosophy for (re)thinking performance. This book provides rigorous analyses of Deleuze's writings on theatre practitioners such as Artaud, Beckett and Carmelo Bene, as well as offering innovative readings of historical and contemporary performance including performance art, dance, new media performance, theatre and opera, which use Deleuze's concepts in exciting new ways. Can philosophy follow Deleuze in overcoming the antitheatrical tradition embedded in its history, perhaps even reconsidering what it means to think in the light of the embodied insights of performance's practitioners? Experts from the fields of Performance Studies and Deleuze Studies come together in this volume and strive to examine these and other issues in a manner that will be challenging, yet accessible to students and established scholars alike.Laura Cull is a PhD candidate in Drama at the University of Exeter, a part time lecturer in Performance at Northumbria University and Chair of the PSi Performance and Philosophy working group. She is also an artist, exhibiting internationally as an individual and as a member of the collective, SpRoUt.Cull, Laura is the author of 'Deleuze and Performance', published 2009 under ISBN 9780748635030 and ISBN 0748635033.