The Disintegration of a Critic

Collected texts by cultural critic, auto/biographer, and lesbian icon Jill Johnston.Jill Johnston--cultural critic, auto/biographer, and lesbian icon--began her career at the Village Voice as a critic of dance and performance, writing about Merce Cunningham, Martha Graham, the activities at Judson Church, Allan Kaprow and Happenings, Fluxus, and the downtown New York art scene. The column eventually became more personal than critical, allowing her to discuss her life, her sexuality, and her politics. This book brings together thirty texts Johnston wrote for the Voice between 1960 and 1974, beginning with her early dance coverage and continuing though the time when, as she put it, the column moved "from the theatre of dance and happenings toward the theatre of my life."As Johnston abandoned an objective critical standpoint, her column interwove forms and formats, and political, literary, art-historical, and critical perspectives, taking turns and loops, reflecting its time and contexts-