Performance and the Medical Body
(Hardback)
Publishing Details
Performance and the Medical Body
By (Author) Dr Alex Mermikides
Edited by Dr Gianna Bouchard
Series edited by Professor John Lutterbie
Series edited by Prof Nicola Shaughnessy
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Methuen Drama
25th February 2016
United Kingdom
Classifications
Professional and Scholarly
Non Fiction
Pre-clinical medicine: basic sciences
792.01
Physical Properties
Hardback
272
Width 138mm, Height 216mm
463g
Description
This edited collection focuses on performance practice and analysis that engages with medical and biomedical sciences. After locating the biologization of theatre at the turn of the twentieth century, it examines a range of contemporary practices that respond to understandings of the human body as revealed by biomedical science. In bringing together a variety of analytical perspectives, the book draws on scholars, scientists, artists and practices that are at the forefront of current creative, scientific and academic research. Its exploration of the dynamics and exchange between performance and medicine will stimulate a widening of the debate around key issues such as subjectivity, patient narratives, identity, embodiment, agency, medical ethics, health and illness. In focusing on an interdisciplinary understanding of performance, the book examines the potential of performance and theatre to intervene in, shape, inform and extend vital debates around biomedical knowledge and practice in the contemporary moment.
Reviews
Anyone who keeps an open mind will be impressed by the potential of performance to both inspire and be inspired by debate around medical ethics and healthcare issues. -- Guy Glass * NYU School of Medicine's Literature Arts, and Medicine Database *
Author Bio
Dr Alex Mermikides is Senior Lecturer in Drama at Kingston University, London, UK. Her research interest is in contemporary performancemaking, with a particular focus on science-engaged devised performance. Publications include Devising in Process (2010, edited with Jackie Smart), and chapters in other collections. Dr Gianna Bouchard is Principal Lecturer in Drama at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, UK. Her research focuses on contemporary performance and live art in relation to medical science. She is co-editor of On Medicine, a special issue of Performance Research, and her work has been published in various edited collections.
