ABSTRACT
The introductory chapter ‘Performative Arts between Rules and Realities: The Adaptive History of Genre’ by Svein Gladsø and Randi M. Selvik presents the aims and the scope of the anthology. The authors point to recent developments in genre theory which have evolved in a more ‘constructivist’ direction compared to earlier theories which were concerned primarily with taxonomies, arguing that historical studies of performative arts (in this case music, dance, and theatre) will benefit from taking advantage of such a perspective. The emphasis on genres being not only ‘containers’ of content matter but contributing actively to the formation of meaning fits well with the study of the role of genres and artistic practice around 1800, where the performing arts constituted a distinctive context for collective and individual self-fashioning for the bourgeoisie, who rose to power and significance in the period. The authors sketch some of the earlier development of genre theory in music, dance, and theatre and the situation in the decades around 1800, focussing both on genres as dynamic and adaptive entities and on contextual changes pertaining to genre development. This review constitutes a frame for a short presentation and a reader’s introduction to the chapters of the volume.
