The Figure of the Monster in Global Theatre

Bringing together international perspectives on the figure of the “monster” in performance, this edited collection builds on discussions in the fields of posthumanism, bioethics, and performance studies. The collection aims to redefine “monstrosity” to describe the cultural processes by which certain identities or bodies are configured to be threateningly deviant, whether by race, gender, sexuality, nationality, immigration status, or physical or psychological extraordinariness. The book explores themes of race, white supremacy, and migration with the aim of investigating how the figure of the monster has been used to explore representations of race and identity. To these, we add discussions on gender, queer identities, and how the figure of the “monster” has been used to explore the gendered body to finally understand how monstrosity intersects with contemporary issues of technology and the natural world. Navigating the fields of disability studies, performance-centered monster studies, and representation in performance, editors Michael M. Chemers and Analola Santana have brought together perspectives on the figure of the “monster” from across a variety of fields that intersect with performance studies. This book is essential reading for Theatre and Performance students of all levels as well as scholars. It will also be an enlightening text for those interested in monstrosity and Cultural Studies more broadly. Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Table of Contents List of Figures List of Contributors Introduction: A Global Epistemology of the Monster in Performance 1. Gender and Performing a Spider Spirit in Jingju (Beijing Opera) Pansidong (Cave of the Silken Web) 2. Yakshi: A Bizarre Double from South Asia 3. TheResignification of La Llorona in Mexican and Chicano Culture 4. Spectral Monster/Haunting Presence: Decolonial Reimaginings of Sycorax 5. Cuentos de la Tumbona: A Teatro-cabaret Tale of Trans Monstrosity and Resistance 6. When is the Time of No More Deaths?: Forced Migration, Untimely Ghosts, and the Sounds of Haunting Performance 7. Blood, Sweat, and Fears: The Values of Work and Community in the Haunting Profession 8. The Ghost at the Top of the Stairs: Apparitions of Trauma and White Supremacy in Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ Appropriate 9. More than Monsters: Black Horror and the Whole Humanity of Her (1925) and Nope (2022) 10. A Tale of Golem Democracy 11. “Something Coming to Eat the Whole World”: The Monstrous Nostalgia of Little Shop of Horrors 12. The Ghosts of War: Trauma and the Supernatural 13. “In the Puppet or in the God”: Annie Baker’s John, Numinous Dread, and Unknowable Others 14. Snapchat Filters, Dissonant Cockatoos, and Total Blackouts: Conjuring Monsters in Australian Gothic Theatre 15. The Wicked Witch of the Web: Technology and Monstrosity in The Builders Association’s Elements of Oz Index