Repetition in Performance
My monograph thinks about spectatorship and repetition and the precarious, incomplete and unpredictable pleasures that derive from such encounter. It proposes that an erotic, physical, urgent type of spectatorship is at stake here, one that enables returns to the site of performance through the force of repetition, that is always invisible.
“Beautifully written, this book lingers, leans in, and takes its time. Brimming with deep and precise probing, Kartsaki compels us to think again about what happens in the interval of a minor gesture, repeated. Back and forth, to the side and among media -- painting, performance, installation, dance, writing -- this book charts ricochet and makes a sustained critical and experiential contribution to the scholarly exploration of repetition essential to theatre and performance studies. For Kartsaki, repetition’s force is the force of desire, and she rides that desire through a rigorously visceral engagement with art, performance, and philosophy. As she says: “This discourse is personal, performative and wants stuff.” Fair enough. It gets the stuff that it wants. And we, as readers, find ourselves wanting more. If you like this book, as I do, read it twice. In her words, this time, “linger, lean in, take your time.”
- Professor Rebecca Schneider, Professor of Theatre Arts and Performance Studies, Brown University