This interdisciplinary volume offers new insights into the connections between populism and performance. As a driving force of the contemporary left, the populist logic offers a way for progressive politics to radicalize actions against the elite, fostering greater democratization of societies at a time of socio-political and environmental crisis. Exploring the populist roots of a number of performances, the contributors to this study analyze the potentials and limits of the new forms of left populism for more democratic ways of living together. Combining performance studies and political theory, Performing Left Populism demonstrates how various performance practices give rise to populism. It shows how both civic performances (including grassroots, civil movements, political speeches, state policies and media campaigns) and artistic performances (such as theatre, dance, music and artistic activism) contribute to these processes. By these means, the book examines the processes of constructing 'a people' through both the real/civic and imaginary/artistic perspectives. Offering scholars and practitioners a thought-provoking analysis of the ways in which performance can be viewed politically, as a social practice capable of mobilizing alternative ways of living and invigorating democracy, this study expands the debate about left populism towards strategies of mobilization, collectivism and democratic politics.

List of IllustrationsNotes on ContributorsAcknowledgementsIntroduction: Performance and Left PopulismGoran Petrovic Lotina (University of Warwick, UK, and Sciences Po: The Paris Institute of Political Studies, France) and Théo Aiolfi (University of Warwick, UK)I. Performance and Populism Theories1. The Stylistic Approach to Populism: From Early Definitions to Interdisciplinary Hybridization Théo Aiolfi (University of Warwick, UK) 2. American Paranoia: Trump, Sanders, and Theoretical Reflections on Researching Populism as PerformanceReid Kleinberg (University of Essex, UK) II. Performance and Populist Leadership3. The Democratic Productivity of Populist Bodily RepresentationMaría Esperanza Casullo (National University of Río Negro, Argentina) 4. Performing the People: Discourses and Performances of Pablo Iglesias and Volodymyr ZelenskyAlina Mozolevska (Petro Mohyla Black Sea National University in Mykolaiv, Ukraine and UniGR-Center for Border Studies, Saarland University, Germany) III. Performance, Populism and Artistic Practices5. The Last Peronist Spectacle: The Argentina Pavilion at the Expo 2015 World's Fair David M. K. Sheinin (Trent University, Canada) 6. Joyful Festivities: Happenings as a Populist Strategy in the Work of Alex MlynarcíkSam Cermák (Queen Mary University of London, UK) 7. Left Populism and the Revival of Demos Through Performance: Four Tasks for Practicing DemocracyDanae Theodoridou (Performance maker and researcher, Fontys University of Applied Sciences, the Netherlands) IV. Further Perspectives on Performance and Populism8. Populism and Populism Research. A Conversation with Yannis Stavrakakis Goran Petrovic Lotina (University of Warwick, UK, and Sciences Po: The Paris Institute of Political Studies, France) Index