Skip to main content
  • Book
  • © 2017

Performing Utopias in the Contemporary Americas

Palgrave Macmillan
  • Creates a necessary discussion on the topic of rethinking the current relevance of utopia, in a climate of global instability

  • Compiles reflections of academics in dialogue with artists and community organizers on the subject of utopia

  • Focuses on crucial, pioneering research being conducted by leaders in the academic and artistic field in order to create a discourse on utopia

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check for access.

Table of contents (16 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xix
  2. Mapping Utopias in Performance: Cross-Cultural (Dis)locations

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 23-23
    2. A New (Anti) Manifesto for the Americas. Version 2015

      • Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Saul García López, Michèle Ceballos Michot
      Pages 25-42
  3. Indigenizing Utopian Performances: Colonial Legacies and Contemporary Challenges

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 87-87
    2. Writing. First. Contacts?

      • Ayumi Goto, Peter Morin
      Pages 89-97
    3. Colonial Blanket for Peoples Who Refuse to Vanish

      • Afuwa Granger, Aerlyn Weissman
      Pages 99-109
  4. Utopia and the Performance of Social Identities: Negotiating Collective Subjectivities

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 239-239

About this book

This book offers an innovative examination of the utopian impulse through performance as a proposition of practical engagement in the contemporary Americas. The volume compiles unique multidisciplinary and exploratory texts, applying diverse critical and artistic approaches. Its contributors reconceptualize utopia as a creative and theoretical method based on a commitment to sociopolitical transformation. Chapters are organized around notions of mapping utopias, indigenizing practices, political manifestations, and the construction of social identities.

Reviews

“Utopia is performed here: this books brings together essays and performances that show that ‘utopia’ is not just a distant ideal, but an everyday practice. That vision and ethos is enacted in this volume.” (Diana Taylor, New York University, USA)

“This inspiring, hopeful volume reinvigorates the potential of utopia as a concept, noting its operation in performance and representation in the Americas. These vivid essays—by artists and scholars alike—trace utopian impulses and performatives across a breathtaking range of work, illuminating the political possibilities of both performance and performatives. A necessary, transformative collection.” (Jill Dolan, author of “Utopia in Performance: Finding Hope at the Theater”)

Editors and Affiliations

  • University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada

    Kim Beauchesne, Alessandra Santos

About the editors

Kim Beauchesne is Associate Professor at the University of British Columbia, Canada.

Alessandra Santos is Assistant Professor at the University of British Columbia, Canada.

Bibliographic Information

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access