Philosophy of the Performing Arts

David Davies is Associate Professor of Philosophy at McGill University. He is the author of Art as Performance (Blackwell, 2004), Aesthetics and Literature (2007), and the editor of The Thin Red Line (2008). He has published widely in the philosophy of art on topics relating to the nature of art, artistic value, literature, film, music, theatre, and the visual arts.

“This is a remarkable and remarkably useful book, and for much the same reason … The other result is that professionals in the philosophy of art will have to rise to the challenge. Davies has set the bar very high.”  (Oxford Journals Clippings, 4 May 2012)"Philosophy of the Performing Arts is a careful and detailed study in analytic philosophical aesthetics ... Summing Up: Highly recommended. Graduate students through professional/practitioners." (Choice, 1 January 2012)

• Preface and Acknowledgments viiiPart One Performance and the Classical Paradigm 11 The Nature of Artistic Performance 31 Introduction 32 What is a Performance? 43 Institutional Theories of Artistic Performance 74 Aesthetic Theories of Artistic Performance 105 Artistic Performance and Artistic Regard 146 Overview 172 The Classical Paradigm I: The Nature of the Performable Work 231 Introduction: Berthold and Magda Go to the Symphony 232 The Multiple Nature of Performable Works 243 Performable Works as Types 294 Varieties of Type Theories: Sonicism, Instrumentalism, and Contextualism 325 Other Theories of the Performable Work 383 The Classical Paradigm II: Appreciating Performable Works in Performance 511 Introduction: Talking Appreciatively about Performable Works 512 Can Performable Works Share Artistic Properties with Their Performances? 533 The Goodman Argument 574 Answering the Goodman Argument 624 Authenticity in Musical Performance 711 Introduction 712 Authenticity in the Arts 723 Three Notions of Historically Authentic Performance 745 Challenges to the Classical Paradigm in Music 871 Introduction: The Classical Paradigm in the Performing Arts 872 The Scope of the Paradigm in Classical Music 903 Jazz, Rock, and the Classical Paradigm 944 Non-Western Music and the Classical Paradigm 1016 The Scope of the Classical Paradigm: Theater, Dance, and Literature 1031 Introduction: Berthold and Magda Go to the Theater 1032 Theatrical Performances and Performable Works 1053 Challenges to the Classical Paradigm in Theater 1124 Dance and the Classical Paradigm 1205 The Novel as Performable Work? 128Part Two Performance as Art 1337 Performances as Artworks 1351 Introduction: Spontaneous Performance in the Arts 1352 The Artistic Status of Performances Outside the Classical Paradigm 1383 The Artistic Status of Performances Within the Classical Paradigm 1438 Elements of Performance I: Improvisation and Rehearsal 1491 Introduction 1492 The Nature of Improvisation 1503 Improvisation and Performable Works: Three Models 1544 Improvisation and Recording 1605 The Place of Rehearsal in the Performing Arts 1649 Elements of Performance II: Audience and Embodiment 1721 Can There Be Artistic Performance Without an Audience? 1722 Audience Response 1813 The Embodied Performer and the Mirroring Receiver 18910 Performance Art and the Performing Arts 2001 Introduction 2002 Some Puzzling Cases 2013 What is Performance Art? 2064 When Do Works of Performance Art Involve Artistic Performances? 2095 Performance as Art: A Final Case 216References 219Index 226