Staging Cultural Encounters

"In Staging Encounters, Goodman mimics her subject, becoming a goual, a raconteur, telling the story of a play that critiques neoliberalism from the standpoint of a nation emerging from a traumatic civil war, Algeria's "dark decade." But when Goodman accompanies the actors on a United States tour, they become aware of all that had been implicit in their theater. Ironies abound. And Goodman brings them to the fore, in the voices of the actors (who are being used as tools of cultural diplomacy) and in her own incisive observations. This is a ground-breaking and beautifully written work in the anthropology of performance as well as an intervention in experimental anthropology, wherein theater play is both ethnographic subject and method. The book is accompanied by a detailed website of audio-visual examples, making this a hyper-text, a multi-modal way of knowing. It is a tour de force."—Deborah Kapchan, author of Theorizing Sound Writing

"The Algerian theatre troupe Istijman takes a play on tour to the US, as part of a cultural diplomacy program. Jane Goodman goes with them, and in this engrossing ethnography she brings to life the excitements, hopes and disappointments of their staged cultural encounter. We are shown in fascinating detail what lies behind and before the tour: the actors' intense disciplined dedication to avant garde theatre practices, the political and economic constraints of contemporary Algeria, the labour of translation, the performance traditions of the Algerian market place. The text is paired with online video recordings of Istijman performances – illuminating, and wonderful for teaching. Subtle, searching and empathetic, with touches of wry humor, Goodman's study will become an instant classic in anthropology, theatre and performance studies."—Karin Barber, London School of Economics, author of A History of African Popular Culture