Janelle Reinelt
Biographic Data
| ID | 231952 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Janelle Reinelt |
| GIVEN NAMES | Janelle |
| FAMILY NAME | Reinelt |
| SIGNATURE | REINELT J |
| AFFILIATIONS | California State University, Sacramento |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 36 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 47 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 34 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 2 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1979 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Remembering Jim Davis
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Zen Tea Practice as Mundane Performance
Chan tea practice is a Chinese Buddhist practice (Zen in Japanese and English) that stresses the value of simple utensils, humble spaces and anti-performative values such as avoidance of self-consciousness, display or theatrical effects. Since 2019 I have been practicing under the guidance of a Chinese monk, VK, within a group of sangha members from a local Buddhist priory. In this essay, I first describe the practice as I have learned it and in …
Remembering Thomas Postlewait 1941–2021
The picture of the group of scholars on the steps of the University of Helsinki in 1993 is typical of Thomas Postlewait and depicts at the same time an important moment in the history of the International Federation for Theatre Research (Fig. 1). Tom keeps in the background, furthest back in the top row, next to Selma Jeanne Cohen and Martine de Rougemont, then the vice president of IFTR. This position was in a way typical of Tom. He remained in …
Gendered Citizenship
What UK Spectators Know
This essay reexamines the role of empirical research in scholarship on spectators. Within the context of political debates in the UK about cultural value and, in particular, the value of the performing arts in relation to other claims on public funding, it reports on attempts to counter the historical battle between instrumental and intrinsic value with new information on what spectators actually value in their theatregoing experiences. After rev…
Herbert Blau
December 01 2013 Herbert Blau: 1926–2013 Sue-Ellen Case, Sue-Ellen Case Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Elin Diamond, Elin Diamond Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Jill Dolan, Jill Dolan Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Janelle Reinelt, Janelle Reinelt Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Richard Schechner Richard S…
Dossier
This dossier documents a research collaboration between members of the School of Art and Aesthetics at Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi, India, and members of the School of Theatre, Performance and Cultural Policy Studies at the University of Warwick, in Coventry, United Kingdom, between 2008 and 2010. This collaboration was dedicated to a cross-cultural inquiry into methods and topics of performance research that might serve to produce a rob…
David Edgar's Testing the Echo
David Edgar is Britain's leading anti-racist playwright and a prominent commentator. His contribution as a political writer and public social critic has been analysed by Janelle Reinelt and Gerald Hewitt in their forthcoming book, The Political Theatre of David Edgar: negotiation and retrieval (Cambridge University Press, 2011). The piece below is based on excerpts that focus on Testing the Echo, a recent play on Britishness by Edgar
Creative Ambivalence and Precarious Futures
Creative Ambivalence and Precarious Futures:Women in British Theatre Janelle Reinelt (bio) Is that cup half full or half empty? I find it hard to decide . . . When I wrote about Michelene Wandor for Lynda Hart's Making a Spectacle (1989), she was exemplary for connecting the women's movement to theatre in Britain through her multiple roles as critic, historian, playwright, and activist.1 At the time, I thought that her multi-vocal activity was no…
Is Performance Studies Imperialist? Part 2
September 01 2007 Is Performance Studies Imperialist? Part 2 Janelle Reinelt Janelle Reinelt Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Author and Article Information Janelle Reinelt Online ISSN: 1531-4715 Print ISSN: 1054-2043 © 2007 Massachusetts Institute of Technology2007 TDR/The Drama Review (2007) 51 (3 (195)): 7–16. https://doi.org/10.1162/dram.2007.51.3.7 Cite Icon Cite Permissions Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter…
The “Rehabilitation” of Howard Brenton
Janelle Reinelt explores playwright Howard Brenton's return to Britain's national stages after almost a decade's absence, discussing recent productions that address the fraught relationship between religious belief and human conduct. Joshua Chambers-Letson contemplates the queer politics of failure in regard to Nao Bustamante's Hero, which challenges the value of “normality” via the possibility of a communal being-in-failure for queers, people of…
Toward a Poetics of Theatre and Public Events
Looking at the murder case of Stephen Lawrence, and then at the art object made out of the event—the documentary play, The Colour of Justice—the interpenetration of performance codes and practices with “real life” demonstrates the explanatory power of performance to shape ideas, question truth claims, sway public opinion, and construct an aesthetics that might functions as an epistemology
National signs
Since Estonia is in the midst of a national redefinition and examination of past traditions and future aspirations, it makes an excellent case study for the potentiality of theatre as an arbiter of national identity. The changing value of the institution itself is part of the equation (will Estonians continue to appreciate and attend the theatre in coming years?). In addition, the historical role of Estonian theatre as a repository for national n…
Stuff Happens (review)
The Theatre Journal Auto Archive
Theatre Journal's invitation to write about my personal intellectual history and the decisions leading to my career path triggered that old, familiar tune—"There's no business like show business." But one day late last fall, after a particularly prickly day juggling my associate dean job with obligations to professional organizations and several publication deadlines, I posed myself this more sober, if rhetorical, question. "How did I ever get in…
A Forum on Theatre and Tragedy
In the immediate aftermath of September 11th, I invited a number of theatre and performance scholars to respond to the concept of tragedy in the context of these world-changing events. The following forum showcases the generosity of a wide range of scholars who signed on to this project with enthusiasm and conviction. More than ever, I believe that our intellectual labor can make a difference. The forum demonstrates much more than the vitality of…
The Politics of Discourse
When discourses are in flux (of course from one point of view they always are in flux), in periods of unsettled meanings, political struggles exist at various sites of contestation. This productive dissonance is currently the state of play within discourses of performativity and theatricality. Their relationship to each other, and their meanings and uses within their own terms are equally in question. In this essay, I will argue that volatility w…
It's the real thing’
Sju tre (1999) is the most controversial theatre production in Sweden in modern times. Lars Norén, a well-known playwright and director, staged a dialogue involving three real convicts, of whom two were outspoken Nazis. Shortly after the last performance, the latter two men were involved in a bank robbery in which two policemen were killed. These scandalous events are discussed from three different perspectives, all, however, revolving around the…
Performing Europe
In this essay, I will take up a kind of national formation, but one which is itself troubled when subject to scrutiny: the idea of a "New Europe." The quotation marks indicate the imagination of an entity that might become, replace, or perhaps parasitically inhabit the older Europe. This "Europe" is in the process of emerging--some think sufficient momentum now makes it inevitable--but it is to date an unfilled signifier, an almost-empty term cap…
Books
December 01 1998 The Politics of Alternative Theatre in Britain, 1968–1990: The Case of 7:84 (Scotland) The Politics of Alternative Theatre in Britain, 1968–1990: The Case of 7:84 (Scotland). By DiCenzoMaria . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996; 247 pp.; illustrations. $54.95 cloth. Janelle Reinelt Janelle Reinelt Chair of the Department of Theatre and Dance at University of California, Davis Search for other works by this author on: Thi…
Mourning Sex
Reviewed by: Mourning Sex: Performing Public Memories Janelle Reinelt Mourning Sex: Performing Public Memories. By Peggy Phelan. London and New York: Routledge, 1997; pp. x + 187. $17.95 paper. Mourning Sex in many ways follows Phelan's earlier book Unmarked: The Politics of Performance (Routledge, 1993), as is clear from her opening introduction. Phelan recalls that, as a child, she snatched a model of human anatomy out of her science book to cr…
Performativity and Performance, and
Reviewed by: Performativity and Performance, and: Performance and Cultural Politics Janelle Reinelt Performativity and Performance. Edited by Andrew Parker and Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick. Essays From the English Institute. New York: Routledge, 1995; pp. 239. $16.95, paper. Performance and Cultural Politics. Edited by Elin Diamond. London: Routledge, 1996; pp. 282. $18.95, paper. Routledge has published two collections of essays that illustrate, in the…
Exiles, Eccentrics, Activists
Critical Theory and Performance
Theory and presents a broad range of critical and theoretical methods, and applies them to contemporary and historical performance genres - from stage plays, dance-dramas, performance art, cabaret, stand-up comedy, and jazz to circus, street theater, and shamanistic ritual. As the first comprehensive introduction to critical theory's rich and diverse contributions to the study of drama, theater, and performance, the book has been highly influenti…
Staging the invisible
Recent influential books by performance theorists Judith Butler and Peggy Phelan treat visibility as a representational problematic. While Butler believes the performative nature of visible behavior provides a potential for refusing the stability and definition of both gender and more radically sex, Phelan believes that visibility itself is always a trap, doomed to promise knowledge it cannot deliver and to guarantee disappointment it cannot abat…
The Politics of Discourse
When discourses are in flux (of course from one point of view they always are in flux), in periods of unsettled meanings, political struggles exist at various sites of contestation. This productive dissonance is currently the state of play within discourses of performativity and theatricality. Their relationship to each other, and their meanings and uses within their own terms are equally in question. In this essay, I will argue that volatility w…
Performing Europe
In this essay, I will take up a kind of national formation, but one which is itself troubled when subject to scrutiny: the idea of a "New Europe." The quotation marks indicate the imagination of an entity that might become, replace, or perhaps parasitically inhabit the older Europe. This "Europe" is in the process of emerging--some think sufficient momentum now makes it inevitable--but it is to date an unfilled signifier, an almost-empty term cap…
The Performance of Power
What UK Spectators Know
This essay reexamines the role of empirical research in scholarship on spectators. Within the context of political debates in the UK about cultural value and, in particular, the value of the performing arts in relation to other claims on public funding, it reports on attempts to counter the historical battle between instrumental and intrinsic value with new information on what spectators actually value in their theatregoing experiences. After rev…
Staging the invisible
Recent influential books by performance theorists Judith Butler and Peggy Phelan treat visibility as a representational problematic. While Butler believes the performative nature of visible behavior provides a potential for refusing the stability and definition of both gender and more radically sex, Phelan believes that visibility itself is always a trap, doomed to promise knowledge it cannot deliver and to guarantee disappointment it cannot abat…
A Forum on Theatre and Tragedy
In the immediate aftermath of September 11th, I invited a number of theatre and performance scholars to respond to the concept of tragedy in the context of these world-changing events. The following forum showcases the generosity of a wide range of scholars who signed on to this project with enthusiasm and conviction. More than ever, I believe that our intellectual labor can make a difference. The forum demonstrates much more than the vitality of…
Critical Theory and Performance
Theory and presents a broad range of critical and theoretical methods, and applies them to contemporary and historical performance genres - from stage plays, dance-dramas, performance art, cabaret, stand-up comedy, and jazz to circus, street theater, and shamanistic ritual. As the first comprehensive introduction to critical theory's rich and diverse contributions to the study of drama, theater, and performance, the book has been highly influenti…
Beyond Brecht
Bertolt Brecht's theory and practice have had a strong influence on the British theatre, dating from the first visit of the Berliner Ensemble in 1956 and the English publication in 1964 of John Willett's compilation of the theoretical writings, Brecht On Theatre. Political theatre practice in England had benefited from the socialist movement as well as the impact of the Beveridge Report on the arts. Following Beveridge's mandated university grant…
The Central Event in David Storey's Plays
Like most authors, David Storey writes novels and plays which reflect his dominant experiences (working class background, art school, professional rugby). He has attempted to define a style which suits his material while avoiding the traditional solutions to problems of form provided by preceding generations. In his novels, Storey has striven to treat the gap between inner and outer experience without resorting to either of two popular solutions:…
The Central Event in David Storey's Plays
Like most authors, David Storey writes novels and plays which reflect his dominant experiences (working class background, art school, professional rugby). He has attempted to define a style which suits his material while avoiding the traditional solutions to problems of form provided by preceding generations. In his novels, Storey has striven to treat the gap between inner and outer experience without resorting to either of two popular solutions:…
To Brecht and Beyond
Beyond Brecht
Bertolt Brecht's theory and practice have had a strong influence on the British theatre, dating from the first visit of the Berliner Ensemble in 1956 and the English publication in 1964 of John Willett's compilation of the theoretical writings, Brecht On Theatre. Political theatre practice in England had benefited from the socialist movement as well as the impact of the Beveridge Report on the arts. Following Beveridge's mandated university grant…
In Brief
In Brief
The politics of form
The Performance of Power
Throughout the development of anthropological thought, the concept of ‘power’ has dynamically evolved theoretically and ethnographically. As preliminary explored within works of anthropologists such as; Radcliffe-Brown, Fortes and Evans-Pritchard in predominately the 1940s, anthropologists have consequently debated the origins and foundational context of power in society. As suggested by Radcliffe-Brown (1940); ‘the State, in this sense, does not…
The Los Angeles Theatre Festival. Summer 1990
The Performance of Power
Critical Theory and Performance
Critical Theory and Performance
Theory and presents a broad range of critical and theoretical methods, and applies them to contemporary and historical performance genres - from stage plays, dance-dramas, performance art, cabaret, stand-up comedy, and jazz to circus, street theater, and shamanistic ritual. As the first comprehensive introduction to critical theory's rich and diverse contributions to the study of drama, theater, and performance, the book has been highly influenti…
Staging the invisible
Recent influential books by performance theorists Judith Butler and Peggy Phelan treat visibility as a representational problematic. While Butler believes the performative nature of visible behavior provides a potential for refusing the stability and definition of both gender and more radically sex, Phelan believes that visibility itself is always a trap, doomed to promise knowledge it cannot deliver and to guarantee disappointment it cannot abat…
A feminist reconsideration of the Brecht/Lukács debates
Exiles, Eccentrics, Activists
Performativity and Performance, and
Reviewed by: Performativity and Performance, and: Performance and Cultural Politics Janelle Reinelt Performativity and Performance. Edited by Andrew Parker and Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick. Essays From the English Institute. New York: Routledge, 1995; pp. 239. $16.95, paper. Performance and Cultural Politics. Edited by Elin Diamond. London: Routledge, 1996; pp. 282. $18.95, paper. Routledge has published two collections of essays that illustrate, in the…
Books
December 01 1998 The Politics of Alternative Theatre in Britain, 1968–1990: The Case of 7:84 (Scotland) The Politics of Alternative Theatre in Britain, 1968–1990: The Case of 7:84 (Scotland). By DiCenzoMaria . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996; 247 pp.; illustrations. $54.95 cloth. Janelle Reinelt Janelle Reinelt Chair of the Department of Theatre and Dance at University of California, Davis Search for other works by this author on: Thi…
Mourning Sex
Reviewed by: Mourning Sex: Performing Public Memories Janelle Reinelt Mourning Sex: Performing Public Memories. By Peggy Phelan. London and New York: Routledge, 1997; pp. x + 187. $17.95 paper. Mourning Sex in many ways follows Phelan's earlier book Unmarked: The Politics of Performance (Routledge, 1993), as is clear from her opening introduction. Phelan recalls that, as a child, she snatched a model of human anatomy out of her science book to cr…
It's the real thing’
Sju tre (1999) is the most controversial theatre production in Sweden in modern times. Lars Norén, a well-known playwright and director, staged a dialogue involving three real convicts, of whom two were outspoken Nazis. Shortly after the last performance, the latter two men were involved in a bank robbery in which two policemen were killed. These scandalous events are discussed from three different perspectives, all, however, revolving around the…
Performing Europe
In this essay, I will take up a kind of national formation, but one which is itself troubled when subject to scrutiny: the idea of a "New Europe." The quotation marks indicate the imagination of an entity that might become, replace, or perhaps parasitically inhabit the older Europe. This "Europe" is in the process of emerging--some think sufficient momentum now makes it inevitable--but it is to date an unfilled signifier, an almost-empty term cap…
A Forum on Theatre and Tragedy
In the immediate aftermath of September 11th, I invited a number of theatre and performance scholars to respond to the concept of tragedy in the context of these world-changing events. The following forum showcases the generosity of a wide range of scholars who signed on to this project with enthusiasm and conviction. More than ever, I believe that our intellectual labor can make a difference. The forum demonstrates much more than the vitality of…
The Politics of Discourse
When discourses are in flux (of course from one point of view they always are in flux), in periods of unsettled meanings, political struggles exist at various sites of contestation. This productive dissonance is currently the state of play within discourses of performativity and theatricality. Their relationship to each other, and their meanings and uses within their own terms are equally in question. In this essay, I will argue that volatility w…
The Theatre Journal Auto Archive
Theatre Journal's invitation to write about my personal intellectual history and the decisions leading to my career path triggered that old, familiar tune—"There's no business like show business." But one day late last fall, after a particularly prickly day juggling my associate dean job with obligations to professional organizations and several publication deadlines, I posed myself this more sober, if rhetorical, question. "How did I ever get in…
National signs
Since Estonia is in the midst of a national redefinition and examination of past traditions and future aspirations, it makes an excellent case study for the potentiality of theatre as an arbiter of national identity. The changing value of the institution itself is part of the equation (will Estonians continue to appreciate and attend the theatre in coming years?). In addition, the historical role of Estonian theatre as a repository for national n…
Stuff Happens (review)
Toward a Poetics of Theatre and Public Events
Looking at the murder case of Stephen Lawrence, and then at the art object made out of the event—the documentary play, The Colour of Justice—the interpenetration of performance codes and practices with “real life” demonstrates the explanatory power of performance to shape ideas, question truth claims, sway public opinion, and construct an aesthetics that might functions as an epistemology
Art (25 works) · History (20 works) · Sociology (20 works) · Theatre and Performance Studies (20 works) · History (17 works) · Political science (17 works) · Law (14 works) · Politics (14 works) · Aesthetics (11 works) · Law (11 works)