Performing Left Populism: Performance, Politics and the People

by Goran Petrovic Lotina (Editor), Théo Aiolfi (Editor), William C. Boles (Editor), Anja Hartl (Editor)

Overview

This interdisciplinary volume offers new insights into the connections between populism and performance. As a driving force of the contemporary left, the populist logic offers a way for progressive politics to radicalize actions against the elite, fostering greater democratization of societies at a time of socio-political and environmental crisis. Exploring the populist roots of a number of performances, the contributors to this study analyze the potentials and limits of the new forms of left populism for more democratic ways of living together.

Combining performance studies and political theory, Performing Left Populism demonstrates how various performance practices give rise to populism. It shows how both civic performances (including grassroots, civil movements, political speeches, state policies and media campaigns) and artistic performances (such as theatre, dance, music and artistic activism) contribute to these processes. By these means, the book examines the processes of constructing 'a people' through both the real/civic and imaginary/artistic perspectives.

Offering scholars and practitioners a thought-provoking analysis of the ways in which performance can be viewed politically, as a social practice capable of mobilizing alternative ways of living and invigorating democracy, this study expands the debate about left populism towards strategies of mobilization, collectivism and democratic politics.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781350347052
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	06/15/2023
Series:	Methuen Drama Agitations: Text, Politics and Performances
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	224
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Goran Petrovic Lotina is Research Fellow at the University of Warwick, UK, and Lecturer at Sciences Po: The Paris Institute of Political Studies, France.

Théo Aiolfi is a Marie Curie Cofund EUTOPIA Science and Innovation Fellow at CY Cergy Paris University, France.
Goran Petrovic Lotina is Research Fellow at the University of Warwick, UK, and Lecturer at Sciences Po Paris, France. He is an author, scholar and curator who has published widely on the interplay between art, politics, and theory. He is the author of Choreographing Agonism: Politics, Strategies and Performances of the Left
(2021)
Théo Aiolfi is a Marie Curie Cofund EUTOPIA Science and Innovation Fellow at CY Cergy Paris University, France. His interdisciplinary research is located at the intersection of politics and performance studies, focusing on the concept of populism as a political style.
William C. Boles is the Hugh F. and Jeannette G. McKean Chair of English at Rollins College, USA. He edited After In-Yer-Face: Remnants of a Theatrical Revolution and authored The Argumentative Theatre of Joe Penhall and Understanding David Henry Hwang. He is the director of the Comparative Drama Conference.
Anja Hartl is Assistant Professor at the Department of English at the University of Innsbruck, Austria. She is the author of Brecht and Post-1990s British Drama: Dialectical Theatre Today and editor of the Methuen Drama Student Edition of The Threepenny Opera. Her research focuses on contemporary British theatre, Victorian fiction and adaptation studies. She co-edits the Methuen Drama Agitations Series.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Notes on Contributors
Acknowledgements

Introduction: Performance and Left Populism
Goran Petrovic Lotina (University of Warwick, UK, and Sciences Po: The Paris Institute of Political Studies, France) and Théo Aiolfi (University of Warwick, UK)

I. Performance and Populism Theories
1. The Stylistic Approach to Populism: From Early Definitions to Interdisciplinary Hybridization
Théo Aiolfi (University of Warwick, UK)

2. American Paranoia: Trump, Sanders, and Theoretical Reflections on Researching Populism as Performance
Reid Kleinberg (University of Essex, UK)

II. Performance and Populist Leadership
3. The Democratic Productivity of Populist Bodily Representation
María Esperanza Casullo (National University of Río Negro, Argentina)

4. Performing the People: Discourses and Performances of Pablo Iglesias and Volodymyr Zelensky
Alina Mozolevska (Petro Mohyla Black Sea National University in Mykolaiv, Ukraine and UniGR-Center for Border Studies, Saarland University, Germany)

III. Performance, Populism and Artistic Practices
5. The Last Peronist Spectacle: The Argentina Pavilion at the Expo 2015 World's Fair
David M. K. Sheinin (Trent University, Canada)

6. Joyful Festivities: Happenings as a Populist Strategy in the Work of Alex Mlynarcík
Sam Cermák (Queen Mary University of London, UK)

7. Left Populism and the Revival of Demos Through Performance: Four Tasks for Practicing Democracy
Danae Theodoridou (Performance maker and researcher, Fontys University of Applied Sciences, the Netherlands)

IV. Further Perspectives on Performance and Populism
8. Populism and Populism Research. A Conversation with Yannis Stavrakakis
Goran Petrovic Lotina (University of Warwick, UK, and Sciences Po: The Paris Institute of Political Studies, France)

Index