When the artist presents the human body in an explicit manner, who has the right to explicate that body and determine what it means? Schneider (drama, Dartmouth College) uses the phrase "explicit body" to address the ways in which recent feminist performance art and actions explicate bodies in social relation. After discussing historical precedents, she covers works ranging from Carolee Schneemann's Eye/Body of 1963 to the early 1990s works of Annie Sprinkle, Karen Finley, Ann Magnuson, Sandra Bernhard, and others. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.
The Explicit Body in Performance interrogates the avant-garde precedents and theoretical terrain that combined to produce feminist performance art. Among the many artists discussed are:
* Carolle Schneemann
* Annie Sprinkle
* Karen Finley
* Robbie McCauley
* Ana Mendieta
* Ann Magnuson
* Sandra Bernhard
* Spiderwoman
Rebecca Schneider tackles topics ranging across the 'post-porn modernist movement', New Right censorship, commodity fetishism, perspectival vision, and primitivism. Employing diverse critical theories from Benjamin to Lacan to postcolonial and queer theory, Schneider analyses artistic and pop cultural depictions of the explicit body in late commodity capitalism.
The Explicit Body in Performance is complemented by extensive photographic illustrations and artistic productions of postmodern feminist practitioners. The book is a fascinating exploration of how these artists have wrestled with the representational structures of desire.
An in-depth and accessible study of the controversial and often shocking issues which surround the use of the female body in performance art.
