Acts of Gaiety

LGBT Performance and the Politics of Pleasure

Subjects: Theater and Performance, Sexuality Studies, American Studies, Cultural Studies
Paperback : 9780472035670, 292 pages, 11 B&W illustrations, 6 x 9, June 2013
Hardcover : 9780472118533, 296 pages, 11 B&W illustrations, 6 x 9, October 2012
Open Access : 9780472904129, 296 pages, 11 B&W illustrations, 6 x 9, June 2023

This open-access version is made available with the support of Big Ten Academic Alliance member libraries.
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The importance of pleasure, humor, and frivolity in shaping LGBT lives and activism

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Description

Acts of Gaiety explores the mirthful modes of political performance by LGBT artists, activists, and collectives that have inspired and sustained deadly serious struggles for revolutionary change. The book explores antics such as camp, kitsch, drag, guerrilla theater, zap actions, rallies, manifestos, pageants, and parades alongside more familiar forms of "legitimate theater." Against queer theory's long-suffering romance with mourning and melancholia and a national agenda that urges homosexuals to renounce pleasure if they want to be taken seriously by mainstream society, Acts of Gaiety seeks to reanimate notions of "gaiety" as a political value for LGBT activism.

The book mines the archives of lesbian-feminist activism of the 1960s-70s, highlighting the outrageous gaiety that lay at the center of the social and theatrical performances of the era and uncovering original documents long thought to be lost. Juxtaposing historical figures such as Valerie Solanas and Jill Johnston with more recent performers and activists (including Hothead Paisan, Bitch & Animal, and the Five Lesbian Brothers), Warner shows how reclaiming this largely discarded and disavowed past elucidates possibilities for being and belonging. Acts of Gaiety explores the mutually informing histories of gayness as politics and as joie de vivre, along with the centrality of liveliness to queer performance and protest.

Sara Warner is Faculty Fellow at Harvard University and an Associate Professor of Performing and Media Arts at Cornell.

"Acts of Gaiety is a rollicking ride. Sara Warner revises both lesbian feminist histories, emphasizing riotous, joyful action rather than earnest righteousness, and queer theoretical trends, stressing pleasurable politics over loss and the death drive. And who wouldn't want to spend the day reading about the Lavender Menace, Valerie Solanas, the Five Lesbian Brothers, and Hothead Paisan?" - Lisa Duggan, New York University

"Acts of Gaiety is a great read. Filled with excellent research that sets the various theater productions in context and accompanied by a compelling historical account of the conjunctions of riot and revelry in LGBT liberation movements, it will make an impact on a number of different fields."
—Judith Halberstam, USC

- Judith Halberstam, USC

"Acts of Gaiety is a rollicking ride. Sara Warner revises both lesbian feminist histories, emphasizing riotous, joyful action rather than earnest righteousness, and queer theoretical trends, stressing pleasurable politics over loss and the death drive. And who wouldn't want to spend the day reading about the Lavender Menace, Valerie Solanas, the Five Lesbian Brothers, and Hothead Paisan?" 
—Lisa Duggan, New York University

- Lisa Duggan, NYU

Winner: Association for Theater in Higher Education Outstanding Book Award 2013

- The Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) Outstanding Book Award

"Acts of Gaiety is a wonderful reframing of the politics of pleasure, away from self-indulgent negative affects, in contemporary queer studies." 
—Marcie Bianco, Lambda Literary Review

- Marcie Bianco

Honorable Mention: American Society for Theatre Research (ASTR) 2013 Barnard Hewitt Award

- ASTR Barnard Hewitt Award