I’ve just published a review essay in Theatre Survey, the academic journal connected to the American Society for Theatre Research. It looks at three books that strive to articulate the real costs of neoliberal governance for different kinds of people, including artists, across the UK and the US today: Jonathan Crary’s 24/7: Late Capitalism and the Ends of Sleep (Verso, 2013), Lauren Berlant’s Cruel Optimism (Duke UP, 2011), and Jen Harvie’s Fair Play: Art, Performance and Neoliberalism (Palgrave, 2013). It also examines the different audiences to which each book directs its arguments, and the different strategies that each book deploys (or not) to be as accessible as possible to a wide range of readers.
If you’re concerned about how the drift of capitalism today (austerity; post-crash economics; the banking sector’s global takeover; etc) is impacting people in your world, and if you don’t know these three books, please have a read. The link to the article is here.
Enjoy!
Kim