The culture of play : Kabuki and the production of texts

In this essay, I will make a case that performance in Japan has been a catalyst for the artistic production of physical objects, both visual and literary texts. Furthermore, I shall argue that it is more useful to consider such physical texts not simply as representations of performance. They, of course, may have been created directly in response to a performance (or in anticipation of a performance), but as physical objects they became something entirely distinct and of a different genre. Such objects (texts) existed on their own and usually served various functions, one of the most important of which was to stimulate new performances.Issue title: Performance Literature II