ABSTRACT
Performance is, of course, fundamental to reenactment; to reenact is to perform again. Notions of performativity are thus crucial to examining the many practices that can be considered reenactment. Performance and performativity are, however, equivocal words and concepts, with diverse connotations in different fields and contexts. Perceptions of reenactment’s performativity, both within the practice and in academic and news media representations of it, thus vary considerably. Although perhaps most commonly associated with costumed history buffs restaging a historic battle or playfully competing in a tourney, reenactment actually encompasses a range of performance styles and methods, facilitating different ways of engaging with history.
