"Introduction: Identity, Culture and the Performance Paradigm"

A short outline of the British contemporary literary and cultural scene is delineated, especially by highlighting the fruitful interconnections between literary, cultural and performance studies. The question of identity is mostly emphasised in relation to both the framework of postmodern theory (contemplating together with the death of the author that of the subject) and the latest ruminations around the possible recovery of a performative agency in a post-postmodern context. Identity as process and as performance, recuperating the individual’s bodily and affective dimension, is actually identified as a possible locus of resistance to pre-scripted discursive roles, while culture itself, likewise seen in its processual dimension, is proposed as a potential site of cultural efficacy and critique.