Staging Monstrous Bodies: Questioning Normative Orders brings together global perspectives from leading and emerging scholars to explore the intersections of monster studies and performances studies.
Divided into three parts, the volume explores the connection between monstrosity and performance, such as representations of violence, gender and sexuality contexts, disability studies perspectives, anti-racism and post-colonial issues, and monstrosity as an artistic practice and dramaturgical process, which discursively cross-pollinate the different sections of the book. The first section, The Mise-En-Scène of Monstrous Bodies, examines queer-feminist performance, bodybuilding as monstrous, monstrosity in costume-making and freak discourse in Latin America. Section two, De-Montage of the Monstrous, moves on to look at the historicization of medieval monsters and staging (in)justice and monstrosity. The third and final part, Monstrous Orders, includes messages on the rise of neo-Nazism in Europe, monstrosity in dance and an analysis of monstrosity in the writings of Diderot. Each section includes a roundtable discussion of what new theses, questions, and intellectual motifs are raised by the corresponding chapters.
With its global scope, Staging Monstrous Bodies is an essential book for theater, dance, and performance students at all levels, as well as for scholars in these fields.