Theories of Performance: Critical and Primary Sources offers a comprehensive collection of key writings on a subject which has come to permeate fields as diverse as theatre, comparative literature, philosophy, law, history, English, and science and technology studies, in what has been termed the transdisciplinary 'performative turn'. The collected essays draw upon writing from these diverse disciplines - and more - together illustrating how performance has become an ever more vibrant and plastic discursive practice. It includes a wide range of historical and more contemporary perspectives from the northern and southern hemispheres, with writing drawn from South and Southeast Asia, East Asia, Europe, Russia and the post-Soviet context, the Americas, Africa and the Caribbean. Expansive in their representation, the four volumes address current questions of protest culture, race and gender politics, biopolitics, indigenous studies and perspectives, postcolonialism and decoloniality, and language/translation, among others.

Each volume is introduced by the editor and arranged thematically, so that the development of ideas can be traced within a theme. The set includes 90 essays covering the following major areas: discipline, method, documentation, and body politic.

Together the four volumes of Theories of Performance present a major scholarly resource for the field.