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This book asks what, if any, public role drama might play under Project Austerity - an intensification phase of contemporary liberal political economy. It investigates the erosion of public life in liberal democracies, and critiques the attention economy of deficit culture, by which austerity erodes life-in-common in favour of narcissistic performances of life-in-public. It argues for a social order committed to human flourishing and deliberative democracy, as a counterweight to the political economy of austerity. It demonstrates, using examples from England, Ireland, Italy, and the USA, that drama and the academy pursue shared humane concerns; the one, a critical art form, the other, a social enabler of critical thought and progressive ideas. A need for dialogue with emergent forms of collective consciousness, new democratic practices and institutions, shapes a manifesto for critical performance, which invites universities and cultural workers to join other social actors in imaginingand enabling ethical lives-in-common.
List of contents
Part I Neo-liberalism's Political and Moral Economic Project: The End of Public Life?.- 1. Introduction: Austerity and Drama's Public Role.- 2. The Public World: an idea under pressure.- 3. Drama in Public Worlds. -Part II Performance, the Academy, and the Politics of Austerity.- 4. Drama Worlds As Public Worlds.- 5. Confronting Corporate Neo-liberalism in Jim Nolan's Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye (2016).- 6. (Re)Public Worlds: Drama as Ethical Encounter.- 7. Beyond Deficit Culture: Conceptualising Collectives.- 8. Beyond Repair: A Critical Performance Manifesto.
About the author
Victor Merriman is Professor of Critical Performance Studies at Edge Hill University, UK. He is author of Because We Are Poor: Irish Theatre in the 1990s (2011). He was a member of An Chomhairle Ealaíon/Arts Council of Ireland (1993-1998), and chaired the council’s Review of Theatre in Ireland (1995-1996).
Summary
This book asks what, if any, public role drama might play under Project Austerity – an intensification phase of contemporary liberal political economy. It investigates the erosion of public life in liberal democracies, and critiques the attention economy of deficit culture, by which austerity erodes life-in-common in favour of narcissistic performances of life-in-public. It argues for a social order committed to human flourishing and deliberative democracy, as a counterweight to the political economy of austerity. It demonstrates, using examples from England, Ireland, Italy, and the USA, that drama and the academy pursue shared humane concerns; the one, a critical art form, the other, a social enabler of critical thought and progressive ideas. A need for dialogue with emergent forms of collective consciousness, new democratic practices and institutions, shapes a manifesto for critical performance, which invites universities and cultural workers to join other social actors in imaginingand enabling ethical lives-in-common.
