Performance: A Critical Introduction is the first textbook to provide an overview of the modern concept of performance and how it has developed in various fields. In a highly accessible style, Marvin Carlson introduces the reader to the contested interpretations of performance art as a theatrical activity and to the ways that performance has been understood by ethnographers, anthropologists, linguists, and cultural theorists. The topic he discusses include:

• the evolution of performance art since the 1960s
  
• developments of performance as a concept within the various social sciences
  
• the relationships between performance, postmodernism, and the politics of identity.

For any student of performance studies, visual and performing arts or theatre history, Performance: A Critical Introduction provides a vital insight into the diverse meanings and uses of performance.