Rebecca Schneider | Brown University (original) (raw)
Books by Rebecca Schneider
A public lecture delivered in Copenhagen in October 2022
Essays Published (selection) by Rebecca Schneider
Island Studies, 2020
This essay explores variant stories surrounding the 1803 'Igbo Landing' on St. Simons Island, Geo... more This essay explores variant stories surrounding the 1803 'Igbo Landing' on St. Simons Island, Georgia, in which a group of enslaved Africans mutinied against their captors and ran aground upon a shoal. Following Tiffany Lethabo King and other scholars of Black feminist thought, the essay explores not only the littoral fact of shoals in seafaring but also the concept of shoaling for troubling historical narratives oriented to settler colonial plot points. Following island studies scholar Jonathan Pugh, the essay asks what thinking with performance and the concept of liminality might offer attempts to account for sand, drift, and, in this case, accounts of Africans who fly. The essay also tells a story of its own regarding the author's attempt to approach the historical site of Igbo Landing by sea. An example of performative writing, the essay does not so much launch and unpack a singular argument as it explores the littoral zones among and between ideas, stories, arguments, facts, and fabulations in relation.
The Methuen Drama Companion to Performance Art, 2020
The following conversation aims to trace the role of gesture and gestural thinking in Rebecca Sch... more The following conversation aims to trace the role of gesture and gestural thinking in Rebecca Schneider's work, and to tease out the specific gestural ethics which arises in her writings. In particular, Schneider thinks about the politics of citation and reiteration for an ethics of call and response that emerges in the gesture of the hail. Both predicated upon a fundamentally ethical relationality and susceptible to ideological investment, the hail epitomizes the operations of the " both/and " —a logic of conjunction that structures and punctuates the history of thinking on gesture from the classic Brechtian tactic in which performance both replays and counters conditions of subjugation to Alexander Weheliye's reclamation of this tactic for black and critical ethnic studies. The gesture of the hail will lead us, then, to the gesture of protest in the Black Lives Matter movement. The hands that are held up in the air both replay (and respond to) the standard pose of surrender in the face of police authority and call for a future that might be different. Schneider's ethics of response-ability thus rethinks relationality as something that always already anticipates and perpetually reinaugurates possibilities for response. Lucia Ruprecht: Rebecca, my first question addresses how gestures in your work travel through time, and how these travels are inflected by a spectrum of political agendas. In The Explicit Body in Performance (1997) you write about a 1990 piece by the Native American group Spiderwoman Theater called Reverb-ber-ber-rations. Thinking through this performance's subversive mimicry of
Anthologies and Special Issues of Journals by Rebecca Schneider
Talks by Rebecca Schneider
A paper delivered at Duke University, April 20, 2017 for the conference "The Future of Reenactmen... more A paper delivered at Duke University, April 20, 2017 for the conference "The Future of Reenactment."
A public lecture delivered in Copenhagen in October 2022
Island Studies, 2020
This essay explores variant stories surrounding the 1803 'Igbo Landing' on St. Simons Island, Geo... more This essay explores variant stories surrounding the 1803 'Igbo Landing' on St. Simons Island, Georgia, in which a group of enslaved Africans mutinied against their captors and ran aground upon a shoal. Following Tiffany Lethabo King and other scholars of Black feminist thought, the essay explores not only the littoral fact of shoals in seafaring but also the concept of shoaling for troubling historical narratives oriented to settler colonial plot points. Following island studies scholar Jonathan Pugh, the essay asks what thinking with performance and the concept of liminality might offer attempts to account for sand, drift, and, in this case, accounts of Africans who fly. The essay also tells a story of its own regarding the author's attempt to approach the historical site of Igbo Landing by sea. An example of performative writing, the essay does not so much launch and unpack a singular argument as it explores the littoral zones among and between ideas, stories, arguments, facts, and fabulations in relation.
The Methuen Drama Companion to Performance Art, 2020
The following conversation aims to trace the role of gesture and gestural thinking in Rebecca Sch... more The following conversation aims to trace the role of gesture and gestural thinking in Rebecca Schneider's work, and to tease out the specific gestural ethics which arises in her writings. In particular, Schneider thinks about the politics of citation and reiteration for an ethics of call and response that emerges in the gesture of the hail. Both predicated upon a fundamentally ethical relationality and susceptible to ideological investment, the hail epitomizes the operations of the " both/and " —a logic of conjunction that structures and punctuates the history of thinking on gesture from the classic Brechtian tactic in which performance both replays and counters conditions of subjugation to Alexander Weheliye's reclamation of this tactic for black and critical ethnic studies. The gesture of the hail will lead us, then, to the gesture of protest in the Black Lives Matter movement. The hands that are held up in the air both replay (and respond to) the standard pose of surrender in the face of police authority and call for a future that might be different. Schneider's ethics of response-ability thus rethinks relationality as something that always already anticipates and perpetually reinaugurates possibilities for response. Lucia Ruprecht: Rebecca, my first question addresses how gestures in your work travel through time, and how these travels are inflected by a spectrum of political agendas. In The Explicit Body in Performance (1997) you write about a 1990 piece by the Native American group Spiderwoman Theater called Reverb-ber-ber-rations. Thinking through this performance's subversive mimicry of
A paper delivered at Duke University, April 20, 2017 for the conference "The Future of Reenactmen... more A paper delivered at Duke University, April 20, 2017 for the conference "The Future of Reenactment."
Performance Philosophy, 2017
The following conversation aims to trace the role of gesture and gestural thinking in Rebecca Sch... more The following conversation aims to trace the role of gesture and gestural thinking in Rebecca Schneider�s work, and to tease out the specific gestural ethics which arises in her writings. In particular, Schneider thinks about the politics of citation and reiteration for an ethics of call and response that emerges in the gesture of the hail. Both predicated upon a fundamentally ethical relationality and susceptible to ideological investment, the hail epitomises the operations of the �both/and��a logic of conjunction that structures and punctuates the history of thinking on gesture from the classic Brechtian tactic in which performance both replays and counters conditions of subjugation to Alexander Weheliye�s reclamation of this tactic for black and critical ethnic studies. The gesture of the hail will lead us, then, to the gesture of protest in the Black Lives Matter movement. The hands that are held up in the air both replay (and respond to) the standard pose of surrender in the fa...
The Opera Quarterly, 2015
post(s), 2019
Este ensayo analiza una serie de performance fotográficos de Emilio Rojas titulada Instrucciones ... more Este ensayo analiza una serie de performance fotográficos de Emilio Rojas titulada Instrucciones para convertirse (2019). La serie de Rojas rinde homenaje a la artista Laura Aguilar y, pensando en el homenaje, este ensayo considera el gesto, así como al llamado y la respuesta, como técnicas de performance, mediante las cuales los cuerpos y las obras de arte saltan cuerpo a cuerpo, miembro a miembro. A través de otra obra de Rojas, Heridas Abiertas (A Gloria), el ensayo luego se mueve para discutir la obra Fringe, de la artista anishnaabe Rebecca Belmore, que se puede leer junto a la amalgama Rojas/Aguilar. La aparición de Belmore en el capítulo marca el comienzo de un trabajo que hace gestos hacia mundos ancestrales, en su caso indígenas, para presentar alternativas a la marcha miope de los registros del tiempo capital-colonial. Acto seguido, hago un contrapunto entre Viaje a Italia, de Roberto Rossellini, y lsa obras de Belmore, Aguilar y Rojas. La película de Rossellini, así como ...
In a world undergoing constant media-driven change, the infrastructures, materialities, and tempo... more In a world undergoing constant media-driven change, the infrastructures, materialities, and temporalities of remains have become urgent. This book engages with the remains and remainders of media cultures through the lens both of theater and performance studies and of media archaeology. By taking "remain" as a verb, noun, state, and process of becoming, the authors explore the epistemological, social, and political implications
Island Studies Journal, 2020
This essay explores variant stories surrounding the 1803 ‘Igbo Landing’ on St. Simons Island, Geo... more This essay explores variant stories surrounding the 1803 ‘Igbo Landing’ on St. Simons Island, Georgia, in which a group of enslaved Africans mutinied against their captors and ran aground upon a shoal. Following Tiffany Lethabo King and other scholars of Black feminist thought, the essay explores not only the littoral fact of shoals in seafaring but also the concept of shoaling for troubling historical narratives oriented to settler colonial plot points. Following island studies scholar Jonathan Pugh, the essay asks what thinking with performance and the concept of liminality might offer attempts to account for sand, drift, and, in this case, accounts of Africans who fly. The essay also tells a story of its own regarding the author’s attempt to approach the historical site of Igbo Landing by sea. An example of performative writing, the essay does not so much launch and unpack a singular argument as it explores the littoral zones among and between ideas, stories, arguments, facts, an...
Cambridge Opera Journal, 2004
I am happy to strive to add an appoggiatura if my comments might be considered a minor bridge t... more I am happy to strive to add an appoggiatura if my comments might be considered a minor bridge towards a deferred conclusion to the very stimulating set of articles by Michelle Duncan, David Levin and Fred Moten that appear in this issue. It struck me that these three articles can ...
Hacer Historia Reflexiones Desde La Practica De La Danza 2010 Isbn 9788461428021 Pag 12, 2010
Women & Performance: a journal of feminist theory, 2005
Women & Performance: a journal of feminist theory, 1988
... She adapted Beckett's short novel The Lost Onesto the stage a year before Mabou Mine... more ... She adapted Beckett's short novel The Lost Onesto the stage a year before Mabou Mines' famous 1974 version, and produced her own work with TSL as early as ... Benjamin, Walter 1969 "Thesis on the Philosophy of History." In Illuminations, edited by Hannah Arendt, 253-264. ...
Http Dx Doi Org 10 1162 1054204042442071, Mar 13, 2006
TDR/The Drama Review, 2015
Performance Research, 2001
TDR (1988-), 1989
Dress Suits to Hire won Holly Hughes the distinction of having authored her own genre. When the p... more Dress Suits to Hire won Holly Hughes the distinction of having authored her own genre. When the play opened in May 1987 at PS I22 in New York City, C. Carr of The Village Voice heralded Hughes as queen of her own "Dyke Noir Theatre" and broadcast her reputation as bad ...
Theatre Journal, 1997
"positive possibility"-the space that emerges be-tween ideology and utopia and engender... more "positive possibility"-the space that emerges be-tween ideology and utopia and engenders "resist-ance, novelty, or change" (4). While Sieg and Dion demonstrate clearly how performance affects soci-ety, Lynne Conner illustrates-in the anthology's only article on dance-the ...
TDR/The Drama Review, 2000
McKENZIE: I've always admired how CAE produces works and events with strong critical current... more McKENZIE: I've always admired how CAE produces works and events with strong critical currents, and theory that involves a certain formal experimenta-tion. Can you tell us about the self-organization of CAE as a group, its forma-tion, its modes of production, and about ...
TDR/The Drama Review, 2000
When an audience member enters the performance space for Critical Art Ensemble's... more When an audience member enters the performance space for Critical Art Ensemble's Flesh Machine, she might think she's stumbled upon a lecture in some Biology Hall of her past, except for the fact that the information is ex-tremely up-to-date and delivered by artists. Dressed ...
TDR/The Drama Review, 2004
These are times marked and marred by Homeland Security measures, ter-rorist attacks, preemptive &... more These are times marked and marred by Homeland Security measures, ter-rorist attacks, preemptive "just" wars, and non-denial denials regarding the le-gality of torture and unrecorded detentions. The most pressing question is perhaps not "Are you paranoid?" but rather, ...
TDR/The Drama Review, 2010
Tribe's Port Huron Project takes the promise of fugitive time quite literally. Orchestrating... more Tribe's Port Huron Project takes the promise of fugitive time quite literally. Orchestrating the live reenactment of six protest speeches delivered between 1965 and 1971 by a variety of antiwar activists, Tribe disperses or circulates one time (1960s) across or within another time ...
Performance Research, 2018
'Lending an Ear' is a reflection on audition that accompanies 'Extending a Hand', a partial trans... more 'Lending an Ear' is a reflection on audition that accompanies 'Extending a Hand', a partial transcript of a public lecture by Rebecca Schneider. Schneider's transcribed talk asks about the geologic time of climate change in relationship to the human time of racialization and other damaging by-products of the Capitalocene. If Schneider's talk performs a call, Rae's companion commentary performs a response that is, simultaneously, a reflection on the ways and means of academic labour on and as performance. In Schneider's talk, Paleolithic negative hand stencils are read beside contemporary protest acts and both are considered as ‘hails’, suggesting a reverberatory, ongoing, and even ‘live’ duration to gesture. Call and response is thus considered both in terms of geologic time and in terms of human time. ‘Extending a Hand’ was delivered as a keynote address to the 2016 Performance Studies international (PSi) conference in Melbourne, Australia, the theme of which was ‘climate change’. In order to recover and examine aspects of the ‘climate’ of its initial presentation and reception, the format overlays portions of the initial transcript of the talk with the interpolative interjections made by the speaker, as well as a series of thumbnails drawn from the accompanying PowerPoint presentation. In ‘Lending an Ear’, Rae offers a parallel commentary on where and how Schneider, as speaker, departed from the written text, and considers what this tells us about the oral qualities of academic presentation, and how these in turn inflect the issues raised by the paper.
SNSF Performance: Conservation, Materiality, Knowledge, 2021
This is a two-day colloquium gathering leading voices in the field of performance theory and care... more This is a two-day colloquium gathering leading voices in the field of performance theory and care.
--------This event aims at advancing the knowledge on this topic within the discipline of conservation on the one hand, while, on the other, locating the discourse of conservation within a broader field of the humanities disciplines concerned with the theories and practices of performance— performance studies, anthropology, art history, curatorial studies, heritage studies and museology.
---------We propose to contest the common-sense understanding of performance as a non-conservable form and ask questions concerning how, and to what extent, performance art and performance-based works can be conserved.
---------Keynotes: Prof Rebecca Schneider (Brown University), Prof Pip Laurenson (Tate/Maastricht University), Prof Gabriella Giannachi (University of Exter), Prof Barbara Büscher (University of Music and Theatre Leipzig).
--------Speakers: Hélia Marçal, Kate Lewis, Lizzie Gorfaine, Ana Janevski, Martha Joseph, Erin Brannigan, Brian Castriota, Farris Wahbeh, Louise Lawson, Rachel Mader, Siri Peyer, Sooyoung Leam, Karolina Wilczyńska, Iona Goldie-Scot, Claire Walsh and Ana Ribeiro.
-------The colloquium will feature two performance interludes by artists Frieder Butzmann (May 29) and Gisela Hochuli (May 30). We invite you to contribute to Gisela Hochuli’s performance by May 22 (please see the PDF for instructions).
------This colloquium is a part of the ongoing research project Performance: Conservation, Materiality, Knowledge funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation at Bern University of the Arts. The project focuses on the questions of conservation of performance-based works, their temporal specifics, the involvement of the human and non-human body, the world of their extended trace history, memory, and archive. Explored are notions of care, the ideals of traditional conservation and their relations to tacit or explicit knowledge, skill and technique. Taking as a starting point the necessity for conservators to access and deepen this area of study, and unlike queries that situate these questions within other disciples, in this project, we approach performance as a necessarily conservable form.