A Mirror and a Razor Lay Crossed

comparatist methodology for future work in theatre and performance studies. Rare, after all, is the book in this field that can stretch its illustrative canvas across several periods, geographies, and generic affiliations with the sprightly spirit at work here. All the same, rather than her case studies, it is Walker’s five-step heuristic – ultimately in serious need of further elucidation and exemplification – that is likely to become the book’s central node of critique for scholars, both in her field and in the neighbouring disciplines of intellectual history, philosophy, and sociology. The extent to which mechanics of cultural change can be transhistorically schematised remains an open-ended question. But Walker has thrown down a bold gauntlet for performance scholars to take up in considering some answers.