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Chapter 10 - Fieldwork as Method in Theatre and Performance Studies

from Part II - Doing

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2024

By
Jonas Tinius
Edited by
Tracy C. Davis  and
Paul Rae
Tracy C. Davis
Affiliation:
Northwestern University, Illinois
Paul Rae
Affiliation:
University of Melbourne
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Summary

This contribution addresses fieldwork as an anthropological method. It discusses the surprising lack of a systematic conversation between anthropology and performance as well as theatre research since the ‘performative turn’. Seeking to clarify terminological distinctions between ethnography, fieldwork, and method, Jonas Tinius draws upon his fieldwork with a theatre in the western German Ruhr region to discusses how a complex understanding of the field and the commitments we make to fieldwork may offer possibilities for working across anthropology, performance, and theatre. It concludes with a sketch of three practical ways to think about the mixing of anthropological methods in performance research.

Keywords

fieldworkethnographyanthropologyparticipant-observationmigrant theatremakers
Type
Chapter
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The Cambridge Guide to Mixed Methods Research for Theatre and Performance Studies , pp. 190 - 212
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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