Women, Modernism, & Performance

Abstract

Penny Farfan's Women, Modernism, & Performance, six intricately woven essays about a handful of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century female artists, is an absorbing study centered on the premise that “the feminist-modernist aesthetics of key figures in the fields of dance and literature developed in part out of their engagement with dramatic literature and theatrical practice, making their lives and work a part of theatre history” (2). Employing broad definitions of both performance and modernism, Farfan casts a wide net, adopting what she describes as a “‘maximalist’ approach” (117) to construct her arguments about these artists' contributions to “the transformation of the representation of gender in both art and life” (119). Her consideration of public performances such as courtroom trials, lectures, and “the performance of gender in the practice of everyday life” (3) informs her analysis of literary, critical, and performance texts to intriguing effect. In the process, Farfan delineates the cultural landscape out of which these women and their work emerged.