Acts of Gaiety

Acts of Gaiety LGBT Performance and the Politics of Pleasure - Triangulations: Lesbian/gay/queer Theater/drama/performance

Hardback (30 Oct 2012)

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Publisher's Synopsis

Acts of Gaiety explores the mirthful modes of political performance by LGBT artists, activists, and collectives that have inspired and sustained deadly serious struggles for revolutionary change. The book explores antics such as camp, kitsch, drag, guerrilla theatre, zap actions, rallies, manifestos, pageants, and parades alongside more familiar forms of ""legitimate theatre."" Against queer theory's long-suffering romance with mourning and melancholia and a national agenda that urges homosexuals to renounce pleasure if they want to be taken seriously by mainstream society, Acts of Gaiety seeks to reanimate notions of ""gaiety"" as a political value for LGBT activism.

The book mines the archives of lesbian-feminist activism of the 1960s-70s, highlighting the outrageous gaiety that lay at the center of the social and theatrical performances of the era and uncovering original documents long thought to be lost. Juxtaposing historical figures such as Valerie Solanas and Jill Johnston with more recent performers and activists (including Hothead Paisan, Bitch & Animal, and the Five Lesbian Brothers), Warner shows how reclaiming this largely discarded and disavowed past elucidates possibilities for being and belonging. Acts of Gaiety explores the mutually informing histories of gayness as politics and as joie de vivre, along with the centrality of liveliness to queer performance and protest.

Book information

ISBN: 9780472118533
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
Imprint: The University of Michigan Press
Pub date:
DEWEY: 792.086640973
DEWEY edition: 23
Language: English
Number of pages: 263
Weight: 620g
Height: 229mm
Width: 152mm
Spine width: 30mm