Social Performance: Symbolic Action, Cultural Pragmatics, and RitualJeffrey C. Alexander, Bernhard Giesen, Jason L. Mast Jeffrey C. Alexander brings together new and leading contributors to make a powerful and coherently argued case for a new direction in cultural sociology, one that focuses on the intersection between performance, ritual and social action. Performance has always been used by sociologists to understand the social world but this volume offers the first systematic analytical framework based on the performance metaphor to explain large-scale social and cultural processes. From September 11, to the Clinton/Lewinsky affair, to the role of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Social Performance draws on recent work in performative theory in the humanities and in cultural studies to offer a novel approach to the sociology of culture. Inspired by the theories of Austin, Derrida, Durkheim, Goffman, and Turner, this is a path-breaking volume that makes a major contribution to the field. It will appeal to scholars and students alike. |
Other editions - View all
Social Performance: Symbolic Action, Cultural Pragmatics, and Ritual Jeffrey C. Alexander,Bernhard Giesen,Jason L. Mast No preview available - 2006 |
Social Performance: Symbolic Action, Cultural Pragmatics, and Ritual Jeffrey C. Alexander,Bernhard Giesen,Jason L. Mast No preview available - 2006 |
Common terms and phrases
action actors aesthetic Alexander American Apartheid audience authenticity Axial Age background bad cop become Brandt Clinton cockfight collective identity collective representations complex conscience collective constitutive contemporary context contingent contract create critical cultural pragmatics democratic demonstration discourse Durkheim effect elements of performance emerged emotional everyday frame fusion Geertz German gesture Giesen Goffman Hawaiians Hobbes human individual interpretation kneefall mance means of symbolic memory metaphor metonymical mise-en-scène modern Monicagate move narrative paradigm participants performance art performative contradiction person perspective play political theatre present profane protest re-fusion reference religious represent Republicans ritual ritual performance role Ron Eyerman sacred Schechner script sense social drama social movements social performance social power societies sociological South African space speech act stage story structure successful Süddeutsche Zeitung symbolic production television terrorism terrorist theatrical performance tion transformation truth Turner victims Willy Brandt York
Popular passages
Page 33 - And just when they seem engaged in revolutionizing themselves and things, in creating something that has never yet existed, precisely in such periods of revolutionary crisis they anxiously conjure up the spirits of the past to their service and borrow from them names, battle cries and costumes in order to present the new scene of world history in this time-honoured disguise and this borrowed language.