The Body as Performance

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue on The Body as Performance invites submissions that address and explore how the body is represented, experienced, politicised, and/or contested within performance. Whether as a site of discourse, a medium of expression, or a vehicle of language, the body in performance is a vital component of theatre and live work.

For years, artists have pushed the limits of their own bodies through performance. In The Explicit Body in Performance (1997), Rebecca Schneider explored how the body can be both a site of visibility and vulnerability, questioning the boundaries of explicitness in performance. In The Archive and the Repertoire (2003), Diana Taylor examined how embodied knowledge—the "repertoire"—is passed through performance, offering a contrast to more traditional forms of archived, written knowledge. Nearly 30 years since Schneider's seminal work, and more than two decades since Taylor's influential text, we ask how the representations and roles of the body have evolved in performance?

This Special Issue seeks to contribute to and extend the ever-evolving discussion of the body and looks at the body both as a site of performance and as its subject, aiming to question and unpack its role in an ever-shifting cultural and political landscape.

We hope to critically explore these questions by inviting traditional articles, practitioner dialogues, artist talks, and other forms of creative or scholarly investigation.

We welcome submissions that engage with, but are not limited to, the following themes:

• The Body in War;
• The Politicised Body;
• The (Mis)Represented Body;
• The Feminist Body;
• Queering the Body;
• The Contested Body;
• The Marginalised Body;
• The Body as a Site;
• The Archived Body;
• The Public Body;
• Disembodiment;
• The Posthuman Body;
• The Extended Body.

We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors initially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 200 words summarizing their intended contribution. Please send this to the Guest Editor Kerrie Reading (k.reading2@bathspa.ac.uk) or to the Arts Editorial Office (arts@mdpi.com). Abstracts will be reviewed by the Guest Editors for the purposes of ensuring proper fit within the scope of the Special Issue, and full manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer-review.

References

• Schneider, R (1997) The Explicit Body in Performance, Routledge, UK.
• Taylor, D (2003) The Archive and The Repertoire: Performing Cultural Memory in the Americas, Dune University Press, USA.

Dr. Kerrie Reading
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Arts is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• the body in war
• the politicised body
• the (mis)represented body
• the feminist body
• queering the body
• the contested body
• the marginalised body
• the body as a site
• the archived body
• the public body
• disembodiment
• the posthuman body
• the extended body