Crucible Bodies: Postwar Japanese Performance from Brecht to the New Millenniumis a collection of essays covering a wide range of historical and theoretical topics, from Brecht in Japan to 'children's' bodies in postmodern Japanese performances, from the notion of beauty in contemporary cultural theory to practical and theoretical readings of more recent intercultural performances, involving not only Japanese but also other Asian theatre practitioners. It is one of the first full-length studies of Japanese performance culture written in English by a Japanese native. This work is an important contribution to the developing academic arena of Performance Studies.
is Professor of Performance Studies at the Department of Interdisciplinary Cultural Studies, University of Tokyo. His publications include
The Melodramatic Revenge: Theatre of the Private in the 1980s(1996) and
From Melodrama to Performance: The Twentieth Century American Theatre(2001). He is also a contributing editor for
TDR(MIT Press).
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Chapter 1
Political Displacements: Towards Historicizing Brecht in Japan, 1932-98
Chapter 2
Images of Armageddon: Japan's 1980s' Theatre Culture
Interlude 1
From 'Beautiful' to 'Cute': A Note on Beauty in Modern and Postmodern Japan
Chapter 3
Deconstructing 'Japaneseness': Towards Articulating Locality and Hybridity in Contemporary Japanese Performance
Chapter 4
Playing Betwixt and Between: Intercultural Performance in the Age of Globalization
Interlude 2
Fictional Body versus Junk Body: Thinking Through the Performing Body in Contemporary Japan, or Why is ancient Greek Drama Still Produced?
Chapter 5
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