Humanitarian performance : from disaster tragedies to spectacles of war / James Thompson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Thompson, James, 1966- author.

Series:

Enactments

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Theater and society.

War and theater.

Theater--Political aspects.

Theater.

Humanitarianism.

Physical Description:

xiv, 205 pages ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

London : Seagull Books, 2014.

Summary:

As the world is challenged by a state of constant conflict and by disasters natural and manmade, support communities endeavor through humanitarianism to overcome human suffering and help to build more peaceful and safe futures. 'Humanitarian performance' argues that the humanitarian project - from its history and rationale to its contemporary practice - can be productively explored through the critical lens of performance studies. Using the outpouring of international support for projects to benefit survivors of the Asian tsunami, the war in Kosovo, and the crisis in Darfur as case studies, this timely volume explores humanitarian attention to these narratives and the stories of tragedy and survival that emerge. With the peculiar focus and international audiences that the media brings to local tragedies, these contemporary disasters - and the humanitarianism that they elicit - become performance on the world's stage.

Contents:

Part 1 Humanitarian Performance

Introduction 3

Chapter 1 The Shape of the Show 28

Chapter 2 From Consequentialism to the Theatre of Bare Life 63

Part 2 Humanitarian Performance Events

Chapter 3 Kosovo: Simultaneous Truths and the Stages of War 87

Chapter 4 Darfur and the Unhappy Performative 120

Chapter 5 The Asian Tsunami: Photogenic Aid and the Pressure to Be There 153.

ISBN:

0857421093

9780857421098

OCLC:

838450465

Publisher Number:

99959258154