Catherine G. Kodat, professor of English and director of the American Studies program, has contributed a chapter to A Companion to American Literary Studies.
"Performance Anxieties: The A-Literary Companions of American Literary Studies" discusses the effects that the concept of linguistic performativity and the emergence of performance studies have had on the study of American literature, in part through close readings of three related works: W. H. Auden's 1947 The Age of Anxiety; Leonard Bernstein's Symphony No. 2 (1949), subtitled The Age of Anxiety and directly inspired by Auden's poem; and Jerome Robbins' lost 1950 ballet, The Age of Anxiety, set to Bernstein's symphony and taking its action from Auden's work.
This chapter marks Kodat's third contribution to one of Wiley-Blackwell's popular Companion volumes, which offer "state of the field" essays on disciplines in the humanities, sciences, social sciences, and the arts.
