The questions investigated are: what is a sacred place? Is a place inherently sacred or does it become sacred? Is it a paradigm, a real location, an imaginary place, a projected condition, a charged setting, an enhanced perception? What kind of practices and processes allow the emergence of a sacred place in human perception? And what is its function in contemporary societies?
In exploring these questions and more, Silvia Battista challenges the conventional understanding of sacred places in contemporary contexts and sparks lively new debate on the roles of religiosity and spirituality.
Table of Contents
Introduction
The Performances of Sacred Places: an Introduction
Silvia Battista
Part I – Crossing
Chapter I
A Place that Stands Apart – Emplacing, re-imaging and transforming life-events through walking-performance in rural landscapes
Louise Ann Wilson
Chapter II
Bordering the Sacred: the Labyrinth as Non-Site
Kris Darby
Chapter III
In Peril & Pilgrimage: Exploring the Experience of Suffering in Journeys Endured
Simon Piasecki
Part II – Breathing
Chapter IV
Acting atmospheres: the theatre laboratory and the numinous
Ilaria Salonna
Chapter V
Holding Out: The Sacred Space of Suspense and Sustainable Ethics
Annalaura Alifuoco
Chapter VI
The Introspective Theatre of Spirits Read Foucault: The Digital Space, the Inner Gaze and the Sacred Landscape
Silvia Battista
Part III – Resisting
Chapter VII
Performing on the Tightrope: Sacred Place, Embodied Knowledge and the Conflicted History of Colonial Modernity in the Welsh and Khasi Relationship
Lisa Lewis
Chapter VIII
Performing Memorials as Intervening Grounds
Ruth L. Smith
Chapter IX
Sacred space and occupation as protest: Jonathan Z Smith and Occupy Wall Street
Joshua Edelman