THEORY TROUBLE

Towards a Manifesto for ‘Critical’ Feminism, Theory and Theatre Relations

Elaine Aston

Looking Back

Janelle Reinelt and Joseph Roach, Critical Theory and Performance

(1992)Sue-Ellen Case, Feminism and

Theatre (1988)The Feminist Spectator as Critic (Jill

Dolan, 1988)

‘The Race for Theory’ and the ‘Theory Machine’

Barbara Christian, ‘The Race for Theory’, Feminist Studies, 14:1 (Spring, 1988), 69-79

Nicole Ward Jouve, White Woman Speaks with Forked Tongue: Criticism as Autobiography (1991)

Michèle Barrett and Anne Philips, Introduction, DestabilizingTheory: Contemporary Feminist Debates

(1992)Janelle Reinelt, ‘Navigating Postfeminism: Writing Out of

the Box’, in Elaine Aston and Geraldine Harris, eds, Feminist Futures?(2006)

Jill Dolan, ‘Feminist Performance Criticism and the Popular: Reviewing Wendy Wasserstein’, Theatre

Journal, 60 (2008), 433-457Performance, Theory (2006)

A Manifesto for ‘Critical’ Feminism, Theory and Theatre Relations

Theoretical Hygiene – Loosen Up

Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Touching Feeling: Affect, Pedagogy and

Performativity (2003)

HOLD ON TO FEMINIST THEATRE AND PERFORMANCE

ENGAGE WITH THE CATEGORY ‘WOMEN’

Avtar Brah and Ann Phoenix, ‘Ain’t I a Woman?: Revisiting

Intersectionality’, Journal of International Women’s Studies, 5:3

(May 2004), 75-86

OLD AND NEW – DESTABLISE

resist ‘assuming that later theory is therefore better theory, and that the best theory of all is the position from which we happen at the moment to

be speaking’(Barrett & Phillips )

RECOVER THE CONTEXTS OF THEATRE AND THEORY

‘when theory is not rooted in practice, it becomes prescriptive,

exclusive, elitish’(Christian)

YOU IN THE THEORY

‘women (or men) making theory out of what they actually think about

difference or gender or sexuality in the light of their own experience, of

what and who they are’(Ward )

THINK ‘AUDIENCE’

Jill Dolan, ‘Making a Spectacle, Making a Difference’, Theatre Journal

62 (2010), 561-565

REPAIR THE ‘DRAMA’ OF FEMINISM

OUT OF THEATRE NOT THEORY

‘having to embody ideas and create the world, writers [and artists]

cannot merely produce “one way ’”

(Christian )

UNCOVER THE KNOWLEDGE OF PRACTICE

BEWARE THE LOSS OF THE POLITICAL THEATRE

Janelle Reinelt, ‘Generational Shifts,’ Theatre Research International, 35:3

(October 2010 ,)

288 – 90

LOOK TO MAKE A FEMINIST DIFFERENCE

how it might be possible to get out of the trouble caused by theory’s ‘transcendent’

position and the totalizing drive towards anti-essentialist theorizing ;

how to activate critical-theoretical practices, strategies and tactics that labour in the interests of progressing feminism and

increasing the visibility of feminist theatre ;and how to make a creative, critical and

political difference by working across the theory/practice divide.

ENDS OF FEMINISM NOT THE END OF FEMINISM

Manifesto

T HEORETICAL HYGIENE – LOOSEN UPH OLD ON TO FEMINIST THEATRE AND PERFORMANCE E NGAGE WITH THE CATEGORY ‘WOMEN’O LD AND NEW – DESTABILISE R ECOVER THE CONTEXTS OF THEATRE AND THEORYY OU IN THE THEORY   T HINK ‘AUDIENCE’R EPAIR THE ‘DRAMA’ OF FEMINISMO UT OF THEATRE NOT THEORYU NCOVER THE KNOWLEDGE OF PRACTICEB EWARE THE LOSS OF POLITICAL THEATREL OOK TO MAKE A DIFFERENCEE NDS OF FEMINISM NOT THE END OF FEMINISM