Performance
by
The word performance is often traced to the twelfth-century Anglo-Norman and Middle French word parfournir, which means “to carry out,” “to fulfill,” “to accomplish,” or “to execute” (OED; Turner [1982] 1992, 13). Later, in the sixteenth century, the word became associated with mimesis, or bodily imitation, mimicry, or repetition. Today, the word performance carries the legacy of these apparently contradictory meanings. Performance can refer, in the older sense, to performing an action, to completing an operation—that is, to making something, to causing something to exist. We invoke this meaning when we speak of “performing one’s duties” or of a worker’s “high performance.” In the newer sense, however, performance can refer to theater, to acting. Performance scholar Richard Schechner (2013) has pithily described these distinct meanings as “making” and “faking” (Turner [1982] 1992, 93). Both these meanings—separately and together—have profound implications for the study of childhood. To think about childhood through performance in the newer, theatrical sense is to find a rich array of potential sites of analysis—many of which are understudied. Most obviously, of course, are children on the professional stage. Individual child stars, or prodigies, have been popular for hundreds of years: stars such as Shirley Temple or Michael...
This essay may be found on page 139 of the printed volume.