Book excerpt: "This volume explores, from the perspective of several academic disciplines, the role of the performing arts in American culture, as much as the many ways in which American culture itself can be considered as performed, as created in individual and collective acts of cultural performance." "Americanist scholars from Europe and the United States deal with several different aspects of how American cultural identity(ies) is (are) staged: from public spectacle to the performative text, from ritual, popular theater, and home theatricals to communal festivities and celebrations. The book's focus is on widely different areas of political and cultural life and on different phases of American cultural history from the revolutionary period to the present."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved