Ghosts of Pre-Modernity: Butoh and the Avant-Garde

Some years ago after I had completed my M.A. in Asian Studies, was working full-time, raising a young child and starting on my second Masters, I discovered that someone in Germany had cited my  thesis on Butoh.  Elena Polzer had very generous words for it but also mentioned that it was difficult to obtain.   (You can find her excellent thesis here:  “Hijikata Tatsumi’s From Being Jealous of a Dog’s Vein“)

In 2006 I published a condensed version of it in Performance Paradigm# 2 essays on “Japan after the 1960s: the ends of the avant-garde” and via Academia.edu. I received notice that it had generated noticeable interest, particularly in Europe.  It was even cited in Laura Cull’s book: “Theatres of Immanence: Deleuze and the Ethics of Performance.”

I vowed to get my thesis published…the easiest method to get it out there in the meantime would be as a digital e-book on Amazon.com.