James McMaster | University of Wisconsin-Madison (original) (raw)
Papers by James McMaster
Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism, 2021
“Virtue signaling” is widely derided on the Left as a kind of “performative allyship,” as an inau... more “Virtue signaling” is widely derided on the Left as a kind of “performative allyship,” as an inauthentic and unproductive way to challenge injustice. Against this view, this brief provocation mounts a partial defense of “virtue signaling” by reading the practice both through Erving Goffman’s work on stigma and impression management as well as within the larger context of the 2020 uprisings for racial justice. The piece suggests that virtue signaling should not be so easily dismissed, arguing that the practice contributes to a larger, counterhegemonic project aimed at reversing the currents of stigmatization to the benefit of minoritarian political movements.
Journal of Asian American Studies, 2021
Women & Performance: a journal of feminist theory, 2019
Thinking with this special issue's group of feminist thinkers – some artists and others scholars ... more Thinking with this special issue's group of feminist thinkers – some artists and others scholars – this introduction makes a strong case for co-authorship and a more collaborative humanities, while also insisting that the couple form – that stalwart object of queer and feminist theory – is neither a known quantity nor an exhausted entity, but rather, a field ripe for analysis. Situated squarely within performance studies, this introduction pivots away from questions of ontology and toward method and performativity, in order to ask: what modes of intellectual practice, erotic exchange, political work, and aesthetic experimentation happen uniquely within couple forms, in their most capacious and non-self-same iterations? What queer and feminist work can they do? What, in other words, is possible in the infinity, if indeed it is an infinity, between one and two?
Journal of Asian American Studies, 2019
This article performs a psychoanalytic reading of Julia Cho’s Office Hour, a play inspired by the... more This article performs a psychoanalytic reading of Julia Cho’s Office
Hour, a play inspired by the Virginia Tech massacre, in order to forward a method
for mitigating Asian American isolation and attrition. Attending to the relationship
between the play’s primary characters—a Korean American adjunct instructor and
her student, a stand-in for the Virginia Tech shooter, Seung-Hui Cho—the author
positions spaces of academic and theatrical encounter as potential “racialized
holding environments,” environments often cultivated by coerced, feminine labor
that nevertheless hold the potential to nourish minoritized subjects through a
performance and provision of good-enough, racially attuned care.
Book Reviews by James McMaster
TDR/The Drama Review, 2019
Popular Writing by James McMaster
Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism, 2021
“Virtue signaling” is widely derided on the Left as a kind of “performative allyship,” as an inau... more “Virtue signaling” is widely derided on the Left as a kind of “performative allyship,” as an inauthentic and unproductive way to challenge injustice. Against this view, this brief provocation mounts a partial defense of “virtue signaling” by reading the practice both through Erving Goffman’s work on stigma and impression management as well as within the larger context of the 2020 uprisings for racial justice. The piece suggests that virtue signaling should not be so easily dismissed, arguing that the practice contributes to a larger, counterhegemonic project aimed at reversing the currents of stigmatization to the benefit of minoritarian political movements.
Journal of Asian American Studies, 2021
Women & Performance: a journal of feminist theory, 2019
Thinking with this special issue's group of feminist thinkers – some artists and others scholars ... more Thinking with this special issue's group of feminist thinkers – some artists and others scholars – this introduction makes a strong case for co-authorship and a more collaborative humanities, while also insisting that the couple form – that stalwart object of queer and feminist theory – is neither a known quantity nor an exhausted entity, but rather, a field ripe for analysis. Situated squarely within performance studies, this introduction pivots away from questions of ontology and toward method and performativity, in order to ask: what modes of intellectual practice, erotic exchange, political work, and aesthetic experimentation happen uniquely within couple forms, in their most capacious and non-self-same iterations? What queer and feminist work can they do? What, in other words, is possible in the infinity, if indeed it is an infinity, between one and two?
Journal of Asian American Studies, 2019
This article performs a psychoanalytic reading of Julia Cho’s Office Hour, a play inspired by the... more This article performs a psychoanalytic reading of Julia Cho’s Office
Hour, a play inspired by the Virginia Tech massacre, in order to forward a method
for mitigating Asian American isolation and attrition. Attending to the relationship
between the play’s primary characters—a Korean American adjunct instructor and
her student, a stand-in for the Virginia Tech shooter, Seung-Hui Cho—the author
positions spaces of academic and theatrical encounter as potential “racialized
holding environments,” environments often cultivated by coerced, feminine labor
that nevertheless hold the potential to nourish minoritized subjects through a
performance and provision of good-enough, racially attuned care.