The Performer: Art, Life, Politics

An acclaimed sociologist’s exploration of the connections among performances in life, art, and politics
 
“A thought-provoking, essayistic and touchingly personal exploration of the ethics and aesthetics of performance from one of the leading intellectuals of our time.”—Lucasta Miller, The Spectator, “Best Books of 2024”
 
“Constantly fascinating and often illuminating.”—Simon Callow, New York Review of Books
 
In The Performer, Richard Sennett explores the relations between performing in art (particularly music), politics, and everyday experience. It focuses on the bodily and physical dimensions of performing, rather than on words. Sennett is particularly attuned to the ways in which the rituals of ordinary life are performances.
 
The book draws on history and sociology, and more personally on the author’s early career as a professional cellist, as well as on his later work as a city planner and social thinker. It traces the evolution of performing spaces in the city; the emergence of actors, musicians, and dancers as independent artists; the inequality between performer and spectator; the uneasy relations between artistic creation and social and religious ritual; the uses and abuses of acting by politicians. The Janus-faced art of performing is both destructive and civilizing.

Richard Sennett is the Centennial Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics and former University Professor of the Humanities at New York University. He lives in London and New York City.

ISBN: 9780300272901
Format: Hardback
Pages: 256
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: April 23, 2024

“Constantly fascinating and often illuminating.”—Simon Callow, New York Review of Books

“[Sennett] combines erudition with personal experience in this enjoyably meandering and timely study of the place of performance in society.”—The Guardian

“A thought-provoking, essayistic and touchingly personal exploration of the ethics and aesthetics of performance from one of the leading intellectuals of our time.”—Lucasta Miller, The Spectator, “Best Books of 2024”

“Sennett has the confidence to present a grand international cultural narrative peopled by detailed examples.”—Emma Smith, Times Literary Supplement

“Engaging. . . . Many details are unforgettable.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Urgent, penetrating, moving. Another masterwork from a master thinker.”—Ian Bostridge, author of Song and Self: A Singer’s Reflections on Music and Performance​

“A masterpiece from one of the most important cultural theorists of our time. The Performer is, at once, a memoir, an investigation, a sociological treatise, and a manifesto for rethinking humanity’s next act.”—Eric Klinenberg, Helen Gould Shepard Professor in the Social Sciences, New York University

“An inspiring essay on performance and ritual, packed with insights. Essential reading for anyone interested in public space and the city.”—Anna Minton, author of Big Capital: Who Is London For?

“Richard Sennett calls on his vast knowledge of theater and performance to argue for the social uses of civility—and against the degradation of public social space brought by demagogues such as Donald Trump. This is a book that ranges widely while speaking forcefully to our current needs.”—Peter Brooks, Yale University