Autobiography And Performance » (First Edition)

DEIRDRE HEDDON is Senior Lecturer in Theatre Studies at the University of Glasgow. Her previous writing has been broadcast on BBC R4, has toured around Scotland, and has been published in anthologies of fiction and on the web. She is the author of Devising Performance: A Critical History (with Jane Milling).

What is the relationship between past and present in performance, given that the performing body is tangibly present in the here and now? What is the relationship between performance and authenticity? Between live, apparently 'confessional' performance and supposedly 'reality' television? Autobiography in Performance will provide a broad overview of the key concepts pertaining to 'autobiography' in the field of performance. Heddon's engaging style seamlessly blends the theoretical and the personal, raising and pursuing provactive questions around issues of 'truth', 'identity', personal history and political agency, confession, voyeurism and ethics. The book provides case studies of key international practitioners, including Tim Miller, Lisa Kron, Bobby Baker and Curious.

List of Illustrations

General Editors' Preface

Acknowledgements

Introduction 1

1 Politics (of Self): The Subject of Autobiography 20

2 History: Testimonial Times 53

3 Place: The Place of Self 88

4 Ethics: The Story of the Other 124

Conclusion: These Confessional Times 157

Notes 173

Bibliography 188

Index 210