ABSTRACT
This project is the culmination of research undertaken, over the last ten years, into the recalibration of identity politics, feminism and gender studies in contemporary Western performance. It responds to a perceived tension between the now established discourses of performing failure, postmodernism and intersectional feminism. The praxis of performing failure has come to exemplify postmodern and postdramatic performance and as a result can be seen to replicate postmodern theories of human subjectivity and agency. Many contemporary identity theorists writing in the area of feminism, trans* and disabled subjectivities find they are loath to renounced fixed identities and subject positions because, for better or worse, they directly inform lived experience and provide a crucial concept around which to build activist communities. Postmodernism, however, rejects essentialising subject categories and champions fluid and indeterminate queer subjectivities. The publication is entitled Women in Performance: Repurposing Failure because it takes the work of a number of female, trans* and non-binary artists who borrow techniques from the praxis of postmodernism and performing failure. I use the term ‘woman’ in an inclusive sense and argue that my chosen artists are repurposing failure because they borrow recognised stylistic techniques from postmodern practice but choose strategically to occupy a defined subject position, in tension with postmodern theories of subjectivity. Featured artists include Rachael Young (see cover); Young Jean Lee; Lauren Barri Holstein; GETINTHEBACKOFTHEVAN; Selina Thompson; Bryony Kimmings; Project O; Lucy McCormick; Lucy Hutson, Kate Bornstein; Lois Weaver; Hester Chillingworth, Curious, Haranczak/Navarre, Bridget Christie; Lolly Adefope; Shazia Mirza; and Hannah Gadsby.
