Connecting you with the University of Missouri’s innovative research and creative activityPerforming the Self
A visit with M. Heather Carver , Associate Professor, Theatre Department
Performative writing
Topics:
reader
audience
Performative writing is a way of writing about performance that engages the reader as one would engage the audience when performing in theatre: “So instead of performing over here and then writing about it over there, writing about the work as if the reader were not involved in any kind of audience relationship, performative writing takes the combination of audience, performer, and text and moves that into the writing of performance.” By involving those different levels, Carver suggests, writing “is more accessible to people.”