“Jean Genet and the Semiotics of Performance” in “Jean Genet and The Semiotics Of Performance”
This book has its roots in my doctoral dissertation, directed by Michel Beaujour and submitted to New York University in 1981. I am grateful to Professor Beaujour for his challenging guidance as teacher and scholar. I also thank Christian Metz, whose seminars at the Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales in Paris are a testing ground for state of the art research in semiotic study, and whose writing sets the standards for intellectual rigor. Furthermore, I am indebted to Professor Thomas Sebeok, both for bringing this book to the attention of the Indiana University Press and for his ongoing interest in and support of my work.
I thank Richard Avedon for generously allowing me to reproduce his protrait of Genet on the jacket of the book. The frame around the image seems to imprison Genet on the stage of photographic representation, calling attention to a performative dimension of photography which anticipates my own theoretical concerns.
My thanks go to John Aubrey and Karen Skubish of the Newberry Library of Chicago, who shared their fellowship and provided research support during the early stages of the book, and to the staffs of the Anthology Film Archive, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Northwestern University Library for their knowledgeable assistance. I thank Professors Carol Avins, Maria Breuer, and Tom Conley for their suggestions and encouragement.
Three of my students at Northwestern University, Deborah Finkelstein, Sarah Rich, and Nathalie Bullock, made important editorial comments on the final copy of the manuscript. Doreen Patterson Robinson cared for my children while I devoted substantial stretches of time to writing and research. And Melinda Oswald Kamick contributed valuable secretarial skills in preparing different stages of the manuscript.
And finally, my warm regards go to my friends, Sheila Lesensky, Priscilla Clark, and Diane Burgin, for lending an ear and sharing my enthusiasm for this work.
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