Precarious Spectatorship : Theatre and Image in an Age of Emergencies

This book is about the ways in which western spectators are bombarded with ‘emergencies’ by our press and political institutions. It examines the effect that this has on us and how theatre and performance can try to counteract that effect. Precarious spectatorship is about the relationship between emergencies and the spectator. In the early twenty-first century, 'emergencies' are commonplace in the newsgathering and political institutions of western industrial democracies. From terrorism to global warming, the refugee crisis to general elections, the spectator is bombarded with narratives that seek to suspend the criteria of everyday life in order to address perpetual 'exceptional' threats. The book argues that repeated exposure to these narratives through the apparatuses of contemporary technology creates a 'precarious spectatorship', where the spectator's ability to rationalise herself or her relationship with the object of her spectatorship is compromised. This precarity has become a destructive but too-often overlooked aspect of contemporary spectatorship Introduction : Emergencies And Spectatorship -- Enemy/ Image -- Two Tales Of My Dying Neighbours -- 'in The Grip Of The Monster' -- Theatre, Exposure And The Exterior -- Epilogue -- Appendix : A Brief History Of Emergencies. By Sam Haddow. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Electronic Reproduction. Baltimore, Md Available Via World Wide Web. Front matter Dedication Contents Acknowledgements Note on images and content Introduction: Emergencies and spectatorship Enemy/image Two tales of my dying neighbours ‘in the grip of the monster’ Theatre, exposure and the exterior Epilogue Appendix: A brief history of emergencies References Index This volume is about the ways in which Western spectators are bombarded with 'emergencies' by our press and political institutions. It examines the effect that this has on us and how theatre and performance can try to counteract that effect