What is a live performance? And why is semiotics the best approach for the analysis and interpretation of the performing arts?
Drawing on semiotic developments of the past five decades, this book introduces students to the semiotic analysis of live performances and provides them with a clear method for untangling the multimodal complexity of performance from the spectator’s point of view.
Presenting live performances as two-way communication processes, social events, and cognitive and affective experiences, each chapter of this highly accessible book begins first with an overview of the basics. This is followed by a case study, and moves through to a more advanced discussion, accompanied by suggestions for exercises and further reading. Diagrams and flow charts help to clearly illustrate the conceptual tools used in the analytical process, and a companion website contains recorded extracts from the live performances discussed in the book, which students can use to put their knowledge into practice. The book explores a broad range of performance types from across different cultures, including music, opera, ballet, theatre, circus, mime, improvisation, and immersion. It offers a guide for understanding the way in which a performance is produced, from an initial idea through to the final presentation in front of a live audience, and provides the reader with the tools and understanding they need for a successful semiotic analysis of live performance.
By:
Professor Emeritus Paul Bouissac (University of Toronto Canada)
Imprint: Bloomsbury Academic
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 234mm,
Width: 156mm,
ISBN: 9781350372658
ISBN 10: 135037265X
Pages: 184
Publication Date: 06 February 2025
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Primary
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
List of Figures Preface Introduction: The Real-Life Experience of Attending a Live Performance 1. Performance as Communication Process 2. Performance as Creative Process 3. The Construction of Performing Identities: From Person to Persona 4. Performance as Social Process 5. Performance as Affective Experience 6. Performance as Cognitive Experience: Narrative Structures and Relevance 7. Performance as Text: Description and Interpretation of Ephemeral Events 8. Performance as Metaphor: Performing Roles in Everyday Life 9. Beyond Performance: Social Impact, Reflexivity, and Transformative Experience 10. The Rules of Performance: The Felicity Conditions Index
Paul Bouissac is Professor Emeritus at Victoria College, University of Toronto, Canada. He is a world renowned figure in semiotics and a pioneer of circus studies. He runs the Semioticon, an Open Semiotics Resource Center, which has a global readership.
Reviews for The Semiotics of Performances: An Introduction to the Analysis, Interpretation, and Theory of the Performing Arts
A balanced, clear introduction, with semiotic, linguistic, sociology and communication perspectives, and close practical analysis of performances and performer comments, in a wide range of types (drama, dance, circus, music). This is an invaluable education text, and wide ranging tool for performers, theatre students and scholars, and general arts readers. * Geoffrey Sykes, Editor Southern Semiotic Review, Australia *
