James VanOosting

A paradigm for performance studies

This article (1) surveys research exemplars of performance studies by tracing their epistemological claims and methodological assertions through discussions of text, event, performer, and audience and (2) claims a paradigmatic relationship between oral interpretation and performance studies.

The use of imaginative literature for communication theory construction: Some precautions

This essay argues against an easy logic that views imaginative literature as empirical data for the construction, proof, or refutation of communication theories. In support of this position, the essay examines the theoretical justification underlying “Soliloquy as Self‐Disclosure” by Lawrence W. Hugenberg, Sr. and Mark J. Schaefermeyer, analyzes the methodological problems of reversibility and verisimilitude, considers the theoretical problem of abstraction from aesthetic structures, and offers four position statements prescribing the use of literature in empirical communication research.