{"product_id":"trickster-theatre-the-poetics-of-freedom-in-urban-africa-paperback-softback-9780253016539","title":"Trickster Theatre; The Poetics of Freedom in Urban Africa (Paperback \/ softback) 9780253016539","description":"\u003cfont face=\"Georgia\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"6\"\u003eTrickster Theatre\u003c\/font\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003cfont size=\"5\"\u003eThe Poetics of Freedom in Urban Africa\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"4\"\u003eJesse Weaver Shipley (Author)\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e9780253016539\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003ePaperback \/ softback, published 22 June 2015\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e300 pages, 16 b\u0026amp;w illus.\u003cbr\u003e22.9 x 15.2 x 2 cm, 0.499 kg\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"\u003ci\u003e Trickster Theatre\u003c\/i\u003e is a tremendously valuable contribution to the growing literature on Ghanaian and African theater and to performance studies in general.\"—\u003ci\u003eAmerican Ethnologist\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"Thoroughly researched, and supplemented by Shipley's own remarkable fieldwork as both chronicler and performer within the history, this is one of the most sophisticated and thorough volumes on African performance in recent memory. With its rich discussion of millennial Ghanaian performance, this rich primary source is a model of scholarship. . . . Essential.\"—\u003ci\u003eChoice\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"\u003ci\u003e Trickster Theatre \u003c\/i\u003enot only appeals to scholars of theatre, anthropology, African performance, and Ghanaian and Nigerian history and politics, it also speaks to scholars of colonialism, postcolonial studies, and the cultural politics and legacies of the Cold War. It highlights the ways in which colonial education shaped ideas about the arts in national development.\"—\u003ci\u003eThe Drama Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"Skillfully argues that trickster narratives and aesthetics continue to frame the tensions between a nationalist ideology of the collective good and a neoliberal ideology of individualism.\"—Debra Klein, \u003ci\u003eGavilan College\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"A rich primary source for urban anthropology in early 21st-century Accra. Effectively shows that theater arts and the National Theatre in particular have been central to Ghana's cultural and political history.\"—Benjamin Talton, author of Politics of Social Change in Ghana: The Konkomba Struggle for Political Equality\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eTrickster Theatre \u003c\/i\u003etraces the changing social significance of national theatre in Ghana from its rise as an idealistic state project from the time of independence to its reinvention in recent electronic, market-oriented genres. Jesse Weaver Shipley presents portraits of many key figures in Ghanaian theatre and examines how Akan trickster tales were adapted as the basis of a modern national theatre. This performance style tied Accra's evolving urban identity to rural origins and to Pan-African liberation politics. Contradictions emerge, however, when the ideal Ghanaian citizen is a mythic hustler who stands at the crossroads between personal desires and collective obligations. Shipley examines the interplay between on-stage action and off-stage events to show how trickster theatre shapes an evolving urban world.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eIntroduction: Poetics of Uncertainty\u003cbr\u003e Part I. History and Mediations in Making Theatre\u003cbr\u003e 1. Making Culture: Race, History, and a Theory of Performance in the Gold Coast Colony\u003cbr\u003e 2. The National Theatre Movement: Urban Art Infrastructures and a Contested National Culture in Independence-Era Accra\u003cbr\u003e 3. Revolutionary Storytelling: Pan-African Theatre and Remaking Lost Futures in 1980s Ghana\u003cbr\u003e 4. A Man of the People: Mohammed Ben Abdallah as Artist-Politician\u003cbr\u003e Part II. Stagings in Millennial Ghana\u003cbr\u003e 5. Total African Theatre: Language, Reflexivity, and Ambiguity in The Witch of Mopti\u003cbr\u003e 6. \"The Best Tradition Goes On\": Audience, Consumption, and the Structural Transformation of Concert Party Popular Theatre \u003cbr\u003e 7. Fake Pastors and Real Comedians: Doubling and Parody in Miraculous, Charismatic Performance \u003cbr\u003e 8. Copying Independence: Backstage at the Fiftieth-Anniversary Reenactment of Nkrumah's Independence Speech\u003cbr\u003e Conclusion: Unfreedom as Critical Theory\u003cbr\u003e Notes\u003cbr\u003e Bibliography\u003cbr\u003e Index\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003c\/font\u003e","brand":"Indiana University Press","offers":[{"title":"Brand New","offer_id":52520711586072,"sku":"9780253016539","price":25.45,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/freshlyprintedbooks.co.uk\/products\/trickster-theatre-the-poetics-of-freedom-in-urban-africa-paperback-softback-9780253016539","provider":"Freshly Printed Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}