'-1
PERFORMANCE
Critical Concepts in Literary and Cultural Studies
Edited by Philip A uslander
Volume IV
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I ONnON ANIl N I W ye lI(~:
CONTE NTS
VOLUME IV
ix
JI ck l1owledgcmenl-l'
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1
Idcntity and the self Fir,l pllblished 2001
by Routlcdgc
2 Park Squarc, Milton I'ark, Abingdon, Oxon, OXI4 4RN
Simllltancollsly publishcd in lhe USA and Canada
by Routlcdgc
270 Madison Ave, Ncw York NY 10016
RoUlledge is all
imprin/
o//he
/. / n1(~ pClforming sel/
IUCIIA RD POIR1 ER
Tay/or & f'í-Imcis Grollp
Transfcrrcd to Digital I'rinting 2009
3
M~ The performing self
()9
Presenting and re-presenting the self: from not-actiog to acting in African performance
Edilorial matler and selection ~) 2003 Philip i\uslandcr: individu,iI olVners rclain copyright in lheir o\Vn material
22
I'RANCES IIARD1NG
Typcscl in Times by Graphieraft Limitcd. Ilong Kong A/l rights rcscrvcd. No part 01' lhis book Illay he reprinled or reprodllccd or uliliscd in any forl11 nr by uny e!cclronü.:. nlcchanical , 01' other means. now knOWH or hcrearter inventcd. induding photocopying and recording. or in any inrormation storagc or rctricval syslem , withoul pcrmission in writing from the publishcrs. Bri/ish Lihrury Ca/a/oguing il1 Puh/ica/ioll J)a/a ¡\ catalogue record for this book is availablc frol1l ¡he Britis h Libnlry U/mil}' or COl1gress Ca/(¡/ogin[: il1 PlIhlim/;ol1 J)a/a A catalog record ror lhis hook has becn n:qucsted
ISBN 0-415 -25511-2 (Set)
ISBN 0-415-25 5 15-5 (Vol lime IV)
/.2 l'erjórming idenlily 42
711 Ooiug difference CAND AC L \VES... ANI) SU SA N FE N STLRMAKL R
71
74
Prologue: pcrforming blackness
KIMBERI.Y W . BHNSTON
72 Pcrl'ormativc acts and gender constitution:
llll
cssa)' in phenomeoology aod I'cmioist thcory
97
.J UDlIII 1IlI I'I. ER
PubJish~r'~
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Rcfcn:nec within ea eh cha pter are as th ev ;!J'pcar ill thc
ori¡'.in;iI l'Olllplctl' work
7:\ Churco~raphics
111
nr ~clldcr
Sll SAN 11'1\;\1 l'OS Il H
v
CU N 1'1, 1'1 l S
('O NTl i N TS
74 Pcrforming lesbian in the spllce of technology: part 1 SUE-EL LI ~N
14]
X4 "The eye l'inds no tixcd poin! on which to rest ..." C IIA N rA L PON TBllIA ND
C ASE
X5 l.istening to music: pcrformances and rccormngs
Visual art and performance art
163
i,l/'l
.l..? Pel/ór/11ll/lCe a/'ld lech/1.% gy
X6 Negotiating presence: performance aud neWtechnologies
165
75 Art and objecthood 76 The ob.iect of performance: aesthetics in the seventies
188
the space of tcchnology 2.2 Pel.!ór/11al1ce arl
381
MA 'I I' IIEW CAU SllY
X9 Thc art of interaction: intcractivity , performativity, 77 Performance and theatricaJi ty: the subject demystified
206
JOSETTE FÉ! R AL
and computers
395
DAVID '!.. SAL'!''!,
218
78 British live art
41 1
lndex
NICK KA YE
79 Performance art and ritual: bomes in performance
228
ERIKA FIS C lI ER-Ll C HT E
80 Women's performance art: feminism and postmoderuism
251
JE A NIE FORTE
81 Negotiating deviance and normativity: performance art, boundary transgressions, and social change BRITTA B.
365
STEYE T1LLlS
XX The screen test of tlle double: thc uncanny performer in
I lJi NR y SA YI{E
351
ANDRE W MlJRf'I-IIE
X7 Tlle art of puppetry in the age of media productioD
MIC II AIl L FR I ED
269
W IIJ.i EL W~
IJART 3
289
Media and technology 3. / Media lll/d m ediatizaÚol7
291
82 Fílm and theatre ::;U SA N SO NT¡\li
306
8] Thc prc."cncc of mc.'tIialion \(0( ;/' 1(
332
TIIEODORE GR ACY K
IJART 2
2./ Visual
323
( '()I' I· L,\N U
vi
VII
ACKN OW LEDGEMENT S
TIJe Publishers would like to thank tbe fol1 o wing for permission to reprint lhcir material: Oxford University Press for permission to reprint Richard Poirier, "The pcrfor1l1ing self", in TITe Perf{mning Scfl ( New Yo rk: O xford University Press, 1971), pp. 86- 111. The Massachusetts Institute of Teehnology Press for permission to reprint Frailees Harding, "Presenting éln d re-presenting the sel!': from not-acting to acting in Afriean performance" , Ti) R: 111C Jou/"I1af o/ Per/ormuncc SIl/di('\" 13(2) (1999): 11 8-135. © 1999 New York University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press. Sage Publications for permlsslon to reprint Candaee West and Susan Fenstermaker, " Doing difference", Gender (f/1{1 So!:ielv 9(1) (1995): 837. f) 1995 by Sociologists for Women in Society. Taylor & Francis Ltd for permission to reprint KimbeTly W . Benston, " Pro logue: perfor1l1ing blackness", in Pel,!órming B!ackncss: Enaclmenls o/Af/-ican American Modernisl1l (London : Routledge, 20(0), pp. 1- 21 . © 2000 Kimberly W. Benston. The Johns Hopkins University Press for permission to reprint .Judith Butler, "'Perfor1l1ative acts and gender eonstitution: an essay in phenomenology and fClllinist theory", Thealre Journal 40(4) (1988): 519- 5 31. © 1989 by The .Johns Ilopkins University Press. The University of Chieago Press ror permlSSlon to reprint Susan Leigh Foster, '"Choreographics 01' gendcr" , ~'';¡gl1s 24( 1) (1998): 1- 34, © 1998 by The 1!niversity of Chieago . 1I 1
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T lle Johns I-Iopkin s Universil y Press rO l' pcrl1l ission to reprint Suc-El1en ( 'ase, " Pcri órm ing Icshian in lhe spal.!c ur I c~ lirlll ln gy : Part 1" , Thmlrc .!ollrnaf '-17( 1) ( I'N'; ); 1 IX, (,'1 1\)\)5 hy l he JIl1lllS Il llpk ins 1! ni vcrsi ly Press.
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I\('K NOW LLlHil,M l'N TS
ArrForul// ror pennission to reprint Michael F ried , ";\rt and objecthood " , ArtForum 5(10) (1967): 12- n. T he autbor and The University of Geo rgia for perrnissio n to reprint Henry Sayrc, "The object 01' performance: aesthetics in the seventies" , The Georgiü Re view 37(1) (1983): 169- 188. © 1983 by The University of Georgia. Mo dern Drama for permission tl) reprint Josette Féral, " Performance and theatricality: the subject demystified ", translated by Terese Lyons, M odern Drama 25( 1) (1982): 171 - 181. Taylor & Francis L td (www .tandf.co.uk) for pennissi on to reprin l Nick Ka ye, "B ritish Jive art" ["Live Art: D efiniti on & Documenta.tion"], Conlem porary Thell tre Re view 2(2) (1994): 1--7. Cambridge Univer sity Press for permission lo reprint Erika fischer-Lich te, "Performance art and rit ua l: bodies in performance", Thea lre Resmrch I nler l1ariol1ul 22(1) (1997): 22·-37. © 199 7 International Federation for Theatre Rescarch , published by Cambridge University Press. The Johns H opkins University Press for pcrmission lo reprint Jeanie Forte, "Women 's performance art: feminism and postmodern ism", Thealre Journal 40(2) (1988): 217--235. «J 1988 by the John s Hopkin s University Press. Canadian Scholars Prcss ror permissioll to reprint Britta .B. W heeler, "Nego tiating deviance and normati vity: perfomlance art, boundary transgressions, and social change", in Marilyn Corsianos and Kelly Amanda Train (eds), Inrerrogatillg Social Juslice: Po!iúcs, Culture, anc! !dentity . (Toronto: Cana dian Scholars' Press , 1999), pp . 155- 179. © 1999, the editor and contributors.
K NOW 1. 1':1)(; r M EN TS
The Massachusclts Institute of T echnology Press for permission to reprint Steve Tillis, "The art of puppetry in the agc 01' media production", TD R : T he .Iol//"/wl uf Per/"ormance Sil/dies 43(3) (1999): 182- 19 5. © 1999 New Yo rk ti nivcrsity and the M assachusetts Institule of Teclmology. The .Iohns Hopki.ns University Press for permission to reprint Matthew ('ausey , "Screen test of the double: the uncanny performer in the space of tcchnology" , Thealre ] ourna! 51(4) (1999): 383-:194. © 1999 by Thc Johns Ilopkins Universi ty Press. Blackwell Publi shers for permission to re print David Z. Saltz, " T he aft of interaction: interactivity, performativity, a nd computers" , The Journa! o/ /lesrhetics and A rt Criticism 5(2) (1997): 117- 127. © 1997 T be America n Society for Aesthetics.
Disclaimer The publishers have made every effort to contact autllOrs/copyright holders 01' works reprinled in Per{ormante: Critica! COl1cepls in Lilerary and Cultural ,.. '. ruclies. This has not been possible in every case. however, and we would we1come correspondence from those individuals/companies who we have bl:en unabJc to trace .
Note Photographs induded in the original books I articles have not been reprinted I1cre.
T he f)ram a Rel'ieH' for permission to reprint Susan Sontag, " Film and thea tre " , The Drama ReJ'iew 11(1) (1 966): 24 ~ 37 . © 1966 Th e Drama Review . Massachusetts Institute ofTechnology Press for permission to reprint Roger Co peland, "The presenee of mediation '" Tf)R: The Journal of Per/órmance S rudies 34 (1990): 28 ~ 44.~) 1990 New York University ami lhe Massachu setts Lnstitute of Technology . Moc!ern f)rama ror permission lo reprint Chanta J Pon tbria nd , "T he eye finds no fixed poin t on which to rest . . .", translated by C. R. P arsons, Modan f)rama 25( 1) (1982): 154 - 162. Blackwell Publishers for permission to reprint Theodore G racyk , "Listening to music: performanees a nd reeordings", The Journal qf Aeslhelics Clnd Ar! Crilicism 55(2) ( 1997): 139- 151. © 1997 T he American Sociely for Aestheties. Luton University ror pennission lo reprint ;\nd rew Murphie, "Negotiating prescn cc: perfo rma nce ¡,¡nd ncw lcdlllo logic~ ", in Ph ili p Ilaywa rJ (ed.), Cu/ rl/r('. "[á/molo.'!,\' ,,~ ('/'I'a ¡¡" llirl'. ( LonJ~IO ' John Lihh"y, 1'.1990 ), pp. 209 226. 1/" )\)1)0 Jol1 11 Ubl1l'v IIIU.I ( 'tllllPOl IlY I tJ . \1
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68
THE PERFORMING SELF
Richard Poirier S""l n~: Richard Poiricr. Tlle Pe~/ormillg Selj; Ncw Yo rk: O x:fo rd Univcrsily Prcss. 1971 , pp . X(, 11 '1.
111 illustrating what I mean by " the performing self " 1'11 be coneerncd m ostly with Robert Frost, Norman Mailer, and Henry James. I could almos! as prolitably consider the se\f as performance in Byron, in Yeats, or in Law Il'lICC, and 1'11 have something to say about Andrew Marvell as well as Thoreau . So that I'm less sure of the signifieance of all three 01' my principal illustrations bcing American than of the faet that each of them is of an l::\trcme if different kind 01' arrogance. Whether it be confronting a page of Ihcir own writing, an historieal phenomenon like the assassination of Robert Kcnnedy. a meeting with Khrushcbev, or the massive power of New York ( 'ity - all three treat any occasion as a "scene" or a stage for drama tizing the sdt' as a performer. I can ' t imagine a scene of whatever terror or pathos in which they would not at every step in their accouot of it be watching and 1l1casuring their moment by moment participation. And their participation would be measured by powers of rendition rather than by efforts of under standing: since the event doesn't exist except in the shape they give it, what dse should they be anxious about? I t's performance that matters pacing, ccnnomies, juxtapositions, aggregations of tone, the wholc condllct of the shaping presence. Ir this sounds rather more brutal than we imagine writers or artists to be, then that is becallse performance partakes 01' brutality. As hlwin Denby points out, dancing on points is an extraordinarily brutal - he uscs the word savage- business, regardless of the communicated effect of gracc and beauty. We can \carn a great deal "bout art by telling the dancer frorn the dance. Dancers thcmselves do; and \vriten, are always more anxious Ihan are their critics to distinguish between writing as an act and the book nI' pllem . Indccd . <.: al:h 01' the thn!t! writl.:r'i 1' 11 he Illostly disclIssing admits with unus ual candor Iha ! what cxciu:s him 11IW)I ill a wo rk i:; fina lly himscl f as a p Ul Ihrl1\CI'. Pe rform allce is un cxcn.. ise ,,1 p llWl.' f a vc ry curiDllS Dile. C uriollS
II)LNTI T Y ANO l i l E S U , I·
be¡;ausc it is at (irst so furi ously self-wnsultivc. so even na rcissistic, and later so eager for publicity, lo ve . and historical dimension oOut of an accumulation of secretive acts emerges at last a form that presumes to compete with reality itsell' fo r con trol of the minds exposed to it. Perform ance in writing, in painting, o r in dam:e is made up 01' thousands of ti ny movcments, ea eh m ade with a calculation that is also its in nocence. By inn ocence 1 mean th a t the movements have an utterly mor al neu trality- they a re designed to serve one an other and nothing else; and they are innoccnt, too , beca use contrived with only a vague general notion of what they migh t ultima tely be responsible for- the fina l thing . the acculllulation called " the work. " "The bridge span s the stream," as Henry James puts it , " after th e facl, in a pparently complete indepcndence of these properties, the prin¡;ipal grace 01' the original design o They were an illusion, for the necessary hour; but the span itself. whetber o f él si ngle arc h or of many. seems by the oddest cha nce in the world to be a rcality: since actually the rueful b uilder, passing under it , sees figures and hears sounds aboye: he makes out, with his heart in his throat, that it bcars a nd is posit ively being ' used. '" Ir James wants to believe that "they"- the original design and the a¡;ts of the builder prompted by it- prove in the end to have been an "illusio n" when measured against the reality of th e fi nishcd structure. then it has to be said that his Prel'aces are given almost wholly to an a¡;count of such "illusions. " Perhaps it would be better to say that their relationship is a dialecti¡;al one, that thcre exists a perpetua lly tensed antagonism bet\veen acts of local per formance. carried out in private delight and secretive plotting, amI those acts of presentation when the author, spruce, snúJing. now a public man, gives the finished work to the world. The gap bctween the completed work, which is supposed to constitute the writer's vision, amI the multiple acts of perform ance that \Vent into it is an image of the gap between the artist's self as he discovered it in performance amI the self, altogether less grimy, discovered afterward in the final shapc and the world's recep tion of it. The question , responded to quite differently by the writers ['11 be looking at, is sill1ply this : which kind o f power- of performance or of the contemplatable visions that can be deduccd from their end results- is the more illusory whcn it comes to understanding a literary work? There is no answer to this q uestion. Rather. it posits a condition within which any writer, and any ¡;ritic, finds hill1self working. It is a question not ofbeliefin meanings but ofbeliefin one kind of power and energy or another--one kind in the supposed act 01' doing, the other in the supposed result. Prost was as obsessed with power in its p ublic and in its private fo rms as an y writer in thi s century. which is why he ke pt prelcnding he wasn ' t. It made him resist, to the poin l 01' meélnness. Ihe weakcning pulls o f li beral h uman itarian isll1. In a Ictt er writlcn thrcc wl!eks a.fter Ronscvelt uefealcJ Lamlon in 19 1ó. he kcl:> compdlcu . by Ihe Il;¡t un: nI' a rCISIIII ;¡1 I,:nn!\;ss ion , lo assu re l ,I uis lJn lcrmcycl. Ih nt " 1d OIl ' , lucan ill s h' "II;llIll y 1101 lo I ~d Ihe su/Tcring
Tillo I'I :RIIORM I N{i SE I I:
nI' others.·' and he tllen pro¡;eeds to talk about the c1ection and the metaphors Ihat governed it: " 1 judge half the people that voted for his Rosiness were Ihose glad to be on the receiving end of his benevolence and half were those glaL! to be on the giving end. The national mood is humanitarianism. Nobly so I \Vouldn't take it away from them. 1 am con tent to lel it go at one philosophieal observation: isn 't it a poetical strangeness that whiIe the world was going full blast for the Darwinian metaphors of evolution , survival valucs and the Devil take tbe hindmost, a polemical Jew in exile \Vas working up the metaphor of the State's being Jike a family to displace them [Darwin ian metaphors] from the mind and give us a new figure to live by? Marx had Ihe strength not to be overawed by the metaphor in vogue . ... We are all loadies to the fashion a ble metaphor of the hour. Great is he who imposes Ihe metaphor. " Over against any such conviction about the historical reverberations of "working up the metaphor" has to be placeo F rost's own disavowals of any dcsire to be thought a poet of Western civilization . "EJiot and I ha ve our similarities and our differences ," he once wrote. "We are both poets and we hlHh like to play. T hat's the similarity. The difference is this: I like to pl ay cllchre. He likes to play Eucharist." When he talks about "wo rking up the I11ctaphor" in his own poetry, he seldom betrays any fantasies about the cllects of such work upon the direction 01' civiliza tion or even upon the con seiousness 01' his own times. lf poetry is an act of powe r for h im. then it 's of a power that daims a smaller sphere of inftuence than th at c1aimed by Yeats or Lawrence or James, the manipulator of continents. or Mailer, whose body, one gathers, is the body politic of America. "1 look upon a poem as a performance," Frost avows in the Puris Review interview. " (look on the poet as aman of prowess" but he then adds a clarification which is also a brake on sclf-aggrandizement- "just like an athlete." Not surprisingly, and with wnsequences for his poetry that I'I1 return to , h'ost speaks of this prowess in ways as nearly sex ual as athletic and that insist. in their freedom from metaphysical cant, on a difference crucial to my argul11ent: a difference between the mood or meaning that may be generated by the themc of a poem. on the one hand , an d , on the other, tlle efl'ect 01' the cncrgies expended by the writer in his acts 01' performance. 1n the sa llle intcrview, he talks about the first poem he ever wrote and then , more gener a!!y, ahoLlt wriling poetry: " ... 1 was walking home from school and 1 began to make it~~a March day and I was Illaking it all afternoon and making it so 1 was late at my ~ra!lJl11olher's fo r dinner. 1 finished it. but it burned right up, just burned I¡glll 111'. yOll kllow . Ane! what stml cu lhat? What burned it? So many talk, 1 W\lIH.lcr how fa lscly, a bou l wllal il Cl)~ls 111l:1\l . what agony it is to write. ¡'ve Ilnen b l!Cll quolcJ 'Nll lea n; in Ihc wri tc r \l O Icars in lhe reader. No surprise rl)r lile wlitCI . 11\) surpris0 r\lr Ihc 1ca d...·I But allolllcr u istinction r make is: I l owcvl.! r sad. 110 )'.1il!v allcc . ~.. kf \\Ii l 1111 11 1 " 1il·Vil ll...·C Il nw cl) lIld 1, how could
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AN I I 't' rll
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anyone have a good time with what it cost mc tun 1Tl1lch agony, how could thcy? W hat do I want to communicate but what a he/! 01' a good time I had writing it? T he whole thing is performance and prowess and feats 01' associ ation . Why don 't critics talk about those things- what a feat it was to turn that that way, and what a reat it was to remember that. to be reminded or lha t by this? Why don ' t they talk about that? Sco ring. You've got to SCo re. T hey say not but you 've got to score, in all the rea lms- theology, politics, astro nomy, history and the co untry Jife around yo u." In his list of " realms" wherein poetic " prowess" or "scoring" is exercised , there is cOIl SpicUOllsly a division rather than any confusi o n among them, and this self-restraining kind of discrimination extends even to a di visio n between the etTect ofthe poem a nd the efTect ofw riting it. IJ t he poem expresses grief, it also expresses- as an ac[ , as a co mposition. a performa nce, a " mak ing." the opposite 01' grier; it shows or expresses "what a he!! of a good time I liad writing it." This is a difficult distinction for /110s t critics to grasp, appare ntl y. It is what Yeats means when he says that "Tlamlet a nd Lear are gay"- " Ir worthy their prominent pan in the play, " H arnlet ami Lear, either on the t heatrical stage or the historical one, "do not break up their line~ to weep, " F rost would not have needed Yeats since he had Emerson, who could write in "The Poet" that "a n irnaginative book renders us rnuch more service at first, by stimulating us through its tropes, than afterwards when we arrive a t the precise sense 01' the autho!". " This is the sarne Emerson whose co mments on human suffering were sometirnes tougher than anything even F rost could sayo Ernersonian idealizations ofhuman power and energy in action , like any fascination for the purity 01' human performa nce, tend to toughen artists far more, 1 suspect, than we'd like to believe. " People grieve and bem oan themselves," he writes in "Experience," "but it is not halfso bad with lhem as th ey sayo There are rnoods in which we court suffering, in the hope that here at least we shall find reality , sharp peaks and edges oftruth. But it turns out to be scenepainting and counterfeit. The only thing grief has taught me is to know how shallo\V it is. That , like all the rest, plays about the surface, and never introduces me into the reality, for contact with which we \Vould even pay the costly price 01" sons and lovers ." I\n equivalent toughness, along with some of Eme rson's faith in huma n enterprise, informs a letter from Frost to an obscure American poet named Kirnball Flaccus. A n indifference, even a disdain for any preoccupation with social conditions, co-exists in the letter with a concern for the pri macy 01' personal perforrnance. It is significant that Frost at the same time recognizes that nothing he can do as a " perfolmer" can have much relevaoce to th e shapc 01' society. His seeming callous ness, like Jamcs's persistent relish for the " pi ct uresque" (orten mea nin g h uma n misery unde r gla-;s). is in parto at least, der ived fro m a feeling abo ut the essc ntial irn: lcvancc or litcrature lo the mO Vl:lllenls 01" uaily li fe , ll1Ul.: h k ss those 01' Iil l'}''': :;l)l'i :t1 lll'gil lJislIlS. Wh ic h la kes me lúr a mOf1ll: nlln a Iil o re llellera l rOill l. llill ll l'l 'y 111:11 li ll!rary tl::Ich t!rs 1,
,i ll': I'I: R H )H.MINCl SEII '
:lnd cntlcs sh ou ld stop flatteri ng the illlportance 01' th eir occu pations by hreast beating about the fact that literature and th e hUlllan ities did not sOlllehow prevent, say, The Bomb or the gas chambers. They had nothing to do with either one, shouldn't have, couldn't have, a nd the notion that they did, has been prompted only by self-serving d rea llls 01' the power of literature or of being a literary critic: the drea m of the teacher who g radually confuses Iris trap ped audienee of students with the general public. The value of a leHer like Frost 's is that jt helps clea nse us of pretensions ami vulgarities abo ut the political power 01' litera tu re, eveo whilc affirming the personal power that can be locked into it. "My dear Flaccus: The book has come and I ha ve read you r poems first. They are good. They have loveliness- they surely have that. They are carried high. What you long for is in them . You wish the world better th a n it is, more poetical. You are that kind of poet. 1 would rate as the other kind.1 wo uldn' t givc a cent to see the world , the U nited Sta tes or even New York much better. I want them left just as they are for me to ma ke poetical on papel'. I don 't ask anything done to them that 1 d on't d o to them myself. I ' m a mere selfish artist llIost orthe time. I have no quarrel with the matt;rial. The grief will be simply ir I can't transmute it into poems. I don ' t want the world made sarel' for poetry or easier. To hell withit. That is its own lookout. Let it stew in its o wn materialismo No, not to hell with it. Let it hold its position while r do it in art. My whole anxiety is ror myself as a performe.r. Am I any good? That's what l'tI like to know and all 1 need to know." Frost's distioction- between those poets who want to make the world poetical and those like himself who are content to reform it only on papel' -suggests why ht calls Marx a " polemical " and not a " poetical" Jew for "working up the metaphor" that transformed the political life 01' the twen ticth century. As a poet, Frost comments on the "poetical strangeness" of Marx not having been "overawed by the metaphol' in voglle," and this is , not accidentall y, what Frost often felt about his own eareer. But the analogy hetween Frost and Marx would hold in Frost's mind only for comparative pcrformances, not at a ll ror comparative res lllts. You do no{ "score" in o ne rl'alm by "scoring" in another, and the presumption that yOll do may mean tlrat you truly " score" in none at all, as sorne 01" our currently distinguished topical novelists \ViII eventllally discover. This tough self-knowlcdge makes Frost watchful 01' himsclf as a performer in his poetry and wry about himself as a sage for the world- as someone who can rest on the reslllLs 01' perform ance. Leavin g the world to stcw in its own materialism doesn ' t mean that he won ' t use the world; it means that he sees no way it might use hirn . llenee, his rdiccnce ami contempt, his playfulness about worldly wisdom or even other wllrldl y wj::¡Jo m. In Iris sKcrt.icisrn ,tbOUI lhe pOWCI 01' lil crature and his delight in his pn lWI!~S as .1 wrilCr. Fnl~ 1 rcrn':s\" l\ I:o. iI l'Ll lll plil:at ed aspl'ct 01' the sel f as a Iwrl'p nll l: 1 wlt id l call be I'lII' lltL:1 1.:111\.' 1":11\·<1 hv ~'( 'nlp;¡ rin l! hilll with T horcau
It> L N l 'I'I' y "N I> 1'1 11 ' SI' I ¡:
and with A ndrcw Ma rvdl aJld by t11cl1 contrasting all thrcc to a type differ ently illustratcd by Norman Mailer and I kmy Ja mes (1 take it as understood that 1 am trying to describe insta nces of a problem rather than trying to write any kind of as yet recognizablc literary history .) Frost. Thoreau, Marvell , Mailer, James-a1\ of them are preoccupied with the possibl e conjunc tions of ads of poetic with acts of public. sometimes even political power. But in MaiJer we have the case 01' a writer who rea lly beLieves that when he is " working up the metaphor" he is involved in an act of historical as well as o f self-transfonnation. " 1 am imprisoned with a perceptioll ," he has told US, "which wil\ settle fo r nothing less than making a revoluti on in the conseious ness of our time," and it is ind ica ti ve of wh at I' m saying about him here th at he is not " imprisoned in a perception ," for so a mere mortal would ordinaril y put it, but "with " one, both lodged in a prison lhat must be as la rge as it is mysterious in its location. In his desi re to literaüze his own hyperboles, Mailer is lcss a twen lieth-cenluly than a Renaissancecharacler, a Tamburlaine. a Coriol a nus. even Milton's Satan. As Thomas Edwards lucidly demonstrates in h is ncw book Imagina tion (lnd Power, all these figures have some d ifficulty distinguishing the energy of their personal performance as shapers of a world in words from that energy we might call God, the difference being that God got there firs t and is stabilized in forms called rcality, naturc, the world. To help distin guish between Satanic performers, on lhe one ha nd, ami performers Iike Frost, on the other, think of the matter of staging. For the one, all the world is literally a stage ami all the men and women mercly players o r, if you're a writer of this disposition, directors. Some critics are 01' this disposition , too. speaking o f al\ things as flction s and thercby questioning the legit imacy of di sting uishing novels from history , as if history were eq ual\y ficti ve. F or the other, the type of host, Thorcau , or Marvell , the world amI its people do not as often seem a specie 01' fiction; they seem , to use an old fashioned word , " real " . and even when they do seem no more than fiction s then the fictions are of a different status than those endowed by literature or by writers. At the very least Frost's kind of writer wants to make a distinction between the stage which is the world and those other stagcs that take up some space on it , with cUI·tains amI covers, under the names of plays amI poems amI novels. Marvell is especially sophisticated abollt these matters. He announces himself as an actor and scene-maker within a poem dcsigncd also to excite the envy of those actors trying to " ma ke it," in quite another sen se of lhe term , on lhe stage orthe world . He seems to say to them: since you are looking for "the palm , the oak , or ba ys," unl ess of course I take you too litcralJy (or you take yo urselr loo Iitera ril y). come to lhe ga rden, whc re yOU Gél n fi nd a ll these and mo re. "
T 11 r " U H ' () [{ M 1 N {i SI', 1 l'
Ihal il \Vas "not that 1 \Vantcd bcans to cal. for 1 am by nature a Pythagorean , ',o far as beans are concerncd. but perchance, as some must work in field s if ollly rOl" the sake of tropes and expression to serve a parable-maker one day. '· Whcn he says a bi t later that " 1 sometimes make a day of it," he is character I ~;lically punnin g in ravor of his role as poet and maker and Pllnning against '1Hlillary idiom. familiarity \Vith which can threaten lhe vitalities he finds in
la IIguage. The punning of Thorcau a nd Marvell , who are, after Shakespeare and \)ll llne, perhaps the most seriously intentioned punslers in En gLish befo re II)yee, is a way of showing that the word s by which the world carries on its w llsible business are loaded wi th a radical contento It is 'vvithin the subversivc (lower of the poet to re1case that radical content. This is power of a sort, but 1101 great, not the best kind perhaps even for a poet. lt wasn ' t his puns but his Il'fusal to pay taxes that put Thoreau in jail. amI it wasn' t Marvell's poetry, III11S1 of it published only after his death . that gave him his position so much as his being for twenty years the M ember of Parlia ment for H uJ1 , and a rather viulent politician. Ir Thoreau and Marvell satiri zc worldly power bcca uge it (.al1not control even the words by wh ich it tries to ma ke sense of itsel f, both writers can be cqually satirie about Iiterary performances, ine1uding their OWI1. which pretend to give a controlling shape to that wo rld . They are wary uf lhe cxpansive " 1" who performs in their works, just as is F rost of the " he" \Vho. in "The Most o f It," asks the world to give him back a poem: "He wo uld l'ry out on life, that what it wants/ Is not its own love back in copy speech,l Jlut counter-Iovc, original response. " What it gives back looks indiffcrent (' lIough and sounds. as Frost describes it , lik c a retaliation: " As a great buck il powerfull y appearedJ Pushing the crumpled water up a head,l And la nded pouring like a waterfall,l And stumbled throu gh the rocks with horny tread ,! And foreed the underbrush- élnd that was all. " Thc world performs itself in its own terms ami metaphors. M arvcll discovers I his in one of the most remarkable passages or Iiterary criticislll in English lih:rature from one of thc most remarkabl y neglccted of its masterpieces. .'I )pon Appleton House. " The poem is only incidentally a country house Jlocm. celcbrating, but as often ma king fun of, the efforts of Lord rairfax to huild él modcl "civilization" in retirement rather than , as he possibly mi ght have done , in the government of C romwell. The poem assertively rcfers to "scencs" as the placcs where mcn perform the acts that mak e civilization. J'h\:se inclulk the pocm itselr as a "scene," with Marvell as poet and as hllrlcsl(ucd fi gure of "easie philosopher. " His most self-exhilarating p\:rform allce is as pastoral poeL a dan gcrously smug role to take , given the other hislmi ca l "sccnery" of the pOCIll . Marvcll moves from the ga rdcn. described as ir il werc a mil ita ry hasti on, a m.I Imm 11IIllcntations about the devastations rll" Givil \Va r. l(.l the g,rcal n1 11Winr SL'c nc. " " SCCIIC " is wh a t he insisls it is. a "sI;CI1C" whclc Iu.· pc rfnnl1s a~ a Jltl~'I :lllt1 IS ~'X p(lscJ fo \" doin g so hy lhose olhcr clcll ll:nl s oC th¡; "'i~·c l lC" Wlll d l ~flll 11" \ ,dkd Ii k ; 'J
IIHNIIT Y ANI) 1 111: S Il !. I'
No scene that tUnlS with engines strange
Does oft'ner th a n these l11eadows chan ge:
For when the Sun the grass hath vexed ,
The tawny mo wers en ter next :
W ho setJl11 like Israelites to be
W alk ing on foot thJ'o ugh a green sea.
T o thel11 th e grassy deeps div ide,
A nd crowd a la ne to either side.
With whistling scythe and elbow strong,
These l11assacre the grass along;
W hile on e, unk no wing, carves the rail ,
Whose yet unfeathered qllills her fail.
T he edge all bloody frol11 its breast
Ile draws, and does his stroke de test;
Fearing the flesh llntimely mowed
To him a fate as black forbode.
But bloody Thestylis, that waits
To bring the mowing camp their cates.
Greedy as kites has trllssed it up,
And forthwith l11eans on it to sup;
When on another quick sbe Iights,
And cries, " He called us Tsraelites:"
But now to l11ake his saying true,
R a ils rain for quails , for manna dew.
"1 T he metaphor-making of the poet here is equivalent to the machinery for a R ena issance masq ue referred to in the first line. The poet's language "changes" the meadow into sorne equivalent ofthe real sea that really did part, so we 've been told, at the behest of a real (an d active) politicalleader, Moses; and the poet's mctaphor-making tries also to change the mowers into " Israclites " after which he wi ll talk ofthis "scene withdrawing" to reveal the "table Rase" for what he ca1Js other " pleasant Acts." The effect is of cocky play-acting, something Chaplinesque in the sad and zany \Vay the poet becomes so zealous in his " working up the metaphor" that he burlesques his own stylishness,just as he has before burlesqued Fairfax's. But his over-extension doesn ' t go unreprimanded . In a moment unique in the history of poetry, the girl he has invented as something better than she is. tUnlS on him , looks out of the " scene," out of rhe poem , one l11ight sayo She cast~ off her role as a pas to ra l fig ure in an hi~torical-Biblical ma sque and rejccts his performa nce· " /le called us Isracl itcs." shc rem arks. Hcrre p udia tion is implici t whcllwr u ne 1;l kcs her lone as HI1¡"'Ty UI" mcrcly shrugging . !\ppa ren tly Olle 1\::'111 1 llI" Ih¡; Civ il W~l r is I (¡ al 1I1l' lowc r dás~es wo n't cól silv lakc uj l'~CIIOII,~ f1'0111 pa ti" ' lidisls nr IlI yl ho lllVill'lS wllo wri k IH)clry III
1111 :' PE R JlORM IN Ci Sl d ¡:
ill rctircmcnt. Neither the poem nor the performance is thereby deflected t"rom the theatrical path on which they've been moving, however. Indeed, both have been all along satirica l o f their own procedures. even while these llave managed to satiriz e sorne of the tra nsition a l aspects of contempor ary English lite and politics , Loss of poise is lhe least 01' lhe poet's worries as he surveys the many other k inds of losses to E ngland and to civilizarion in the poem , amI besides he has already hedged hi s bets on T hestylis by suggesting tha t she was a " bloody" camp fo Ilower even before she turned o n him. With aristocratic good will he kno ws how io make the most of a diminished thing. Such a poet a s M arvell or F rost can be proud of his power as a performe r beca use the "scene " of the poem is in fact far more precario us and ullstabil ized than is the " scene" which is the world . One cannot depend , as Marvell discovers, even on li lerary convention to keep fie ld hands in their pastoral places. In a way, perfonnances in poetry can prove no t that the world is too tough for the performer but thal he is too tough for the world. The scene of (he poem is more expanded and expansive than the scene which is the world, and the poet's relationship to the scene 01' tibe poem is necessarily dynamic , exploratory, coolly exccuted to a degree that no comparable "scene" in lite could very well bear. Frost's sonnets of1'e[ a coovenient illustration. Take "Putting in the Seed": You come to fetch me from my work to-night When supper's on the table , and \Ve 'l1 see If I can leave off burying the white Soft petals fallen from the apple tree (Soft petals, yes, but not so barren quite, Mingled \Vith thcse, smooth bean amI wrinkled pea,) And go along with you ere you lose sight Of \Vhat you carne ror and beeome like me, Slave to a springtime passion ror the earth. H ow Love burns through the Putting in the Seed 011 through Lhe watching for tha! early birth When, just as the soil tarnishes with weed, The sturdy seedling with arched body comes Shouldering its \Vay amI shedding the earth crumbs. Thc excitement here is in th e voice finding its way from the homey, jocular afTectio ns orthe {irst lines to the high ceremonious tone ofthe last five. That change, and the way it registers as a perfo rmance 01' self-discovery, is what Ihe pocm is a bout. As he discovc r$ tha l t he lite ral dcscript ion , if it can be called that, of his day-tilllc occtl pa t i\)11 is a mctapho ric desc ription of his nighl -time love-mak ing allll thal 00111 hd l'V lifl: out nf the ca rt h, he is sud de nl y Irailsl"nrnll'd into snnllllh intLo lhcl , 11; 111 Ihe IlIan w.: knew a l lhe nulsct. 1I
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His vo iee beco mes 01' no agc or place or time ¡;elebrating its liberation into myth even as the man , the farmer ano husbano , wntinucs expertly to wrap ano plant the seeo. Or take thc final q uest ion in ' T he Oven Biro"--of"what to ma ke of a oiminished thing. " Only the poet as a " maker" can answer the qucstion , ano not the bird. a " most explanatory biro," as Reuben Brower points out, " Who makes tlle solio tree trunks so uno again." The answer is implkit in the performa nce of the pocm , as in t he steady iambic push against the troehaie fa1ling: "He says rhe early petal-fa1l is past,/ When pear ano chcrry bloom went down in showers. " The metrical performan¡;e shows what it is like to meet and answer the " fall ," both the season a nd the eonoition . Biros are always a kind ofwonoer to Frost be¡;a use like poets they sing but arc not, as are poets, in the same neeo ofbeing noti¡;ed. T hey sing, but they 00 not in Frost's sense " perform " : rcm ember that "One hao to be versed in co untry thingsl Not to believe the ph oebes wept" for thc human dcsolati on a ro und them. One would be a bao poet ofnature ifhe th ought that birds were poeb at a1l. W anting to be noti¡;co is wanting to be loveo, ano finally Fros t's l'rnphasis on the poet as aman of prowess refers us to "realms" of ena¡;tment more c1cmcntary tha n the world of public affairs whieh he woulo "Iet stew in its o wn materialism. " 1t refcrs to the ¡;reative thrust of love. ¡>oetieally, this means a thrust 01' the voi¡;e against the " fall " in a ll conceivable sen ses 01' that woro. We kn ow about the fal\. its relation to the souno 01' birds and poets, a nd the co n nc¡;ti o n of a1l of these to sexuallove partl y btX:ause of the opening lines o fthe beautiful sonnct " Nevcr Again Would Diros ' Song Be the Same": He woulo oeclare ano eoulo himscJf believe That the biros there in all thc garden round Frorn having hearo the oaylong voice of Eve Hao aooeo to their own an oversound , Her tone of rneaning but without the woros. F rost's oread is that there wiU only be silcnee, no so uno at all, in response to his voiee as it tries to perform with Eve in nature ("As vain to raise a voiee as a sighl In the tUnlult of free Ieaves on high ," he writcs in "O n Going Unnotieeo ") or \Vith Eve in love (as in "Beren," or in " Aequainteo \Vith the Nighf' where "an interrupteo ¡;ryl Came over houses from another street,l Aut not to ¡;all me ba¡;k or say goooby") or in "Subverted F lower" where , faeco by a woman 's frigioity that is turning him into a beast " ... with every \Voro he spokel His lips were suekcd ano blownl Ano the effort maoe hirn ¡;hokcl Like a tiger at abone. " When Frost uses so strong a \Voro as "anxiety" in saying that "my whole a nxiety is for myself as a pcrformer" I ~uspee t that he is talking abo ul hi mself as he exiSls in so und ano lhat no l bc ing listenco to and no t bcing ans wcred in sOllno is eq ui valcn t lo 11ll: horror ortoss e realive pow\J1". In lh is lighl we mig ht hes! IIlHlc rsl¡¡ nd hull l lit e clllhanassmenl and s lru n~cncss 0 1" hi¡, 11111."1: wlilill l,! In WillÍt11l1 Stllllll-y Ut ai lhwaik. Ihl: 131m;"
or
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pllct-criti¡;-anthologist, that "I t would seem absuro to sa)' it (ano you mustn ' t quotc me as saying it) but I suppose the faet is that my conscious interest in pcnple was at first no more th an ,ln almost technical interest in their speech in what I useo to eall their sentence sounds." Thc ¡;onnection between lhe mak ing of souno ano the oiscovery o f human rdatconess, between , eventually, poetie prowess and sexual prowess, is impli cit in more poems by F rost than 1 can mention here , a nd is exem plified witb parti¡;ular force and wit in "AII Re velation ," where the sex ual, phallic. orgasrnic punning is the most notable aspect of his performance: A head thrusts in as for a view,
But where it is it thrusts in from
Or what it is it thrusts into
By what Cyb'laean avenue,
And what can of its ¡;oming come ,
Ano whithcr it "viII be withorawn,
A no what take henee or leave behind ,
These things the mino has ponoereo on
A moment and still asking gone .
Strange apparition of the mind!
But the impervious geooe
Was entered , and its inner ¡;rust
Of crystals with a ray ca thooe
A t every point ano fa¡;et gloweo
In answer to the mental thrust.
Eyes seeking the response of cycs
Aring out the stars, bring out thc flowers,
Thus coneentrating earth and skies
So none neeo be afraio of size.
/\11 revelation has becn ourS.
Responses to the thrusts 01' love are even more mysterious here lhan are answers to mental thrusts , but it is clear that the "revelations" he sceks come from perfonnan¡;es for which sex is a wholly proper metaphor. Ano this scxual performance, like poetic performance, is very mu¡;h the thing in itsc1f (" ... what ¡;an of its ¡;oming come" ) without the attenoant metaphysics of (lther poets who also think of themse1ves as men of " prowess" like Lawrence, I kll1ingway. ami Ma iler. Which lakes me JlO W. Ill Qre brietly. first to Mailer ano Ihen to Henry .l ames. I d100~C the~e two bccause tliey an.: ll ot oriO llS sc1r-aovcrtiscrs whcn it Cll l1lCS lo litcrury perform a nce : Mlli kl in n\!i1 r1 y ¡;wrylhing he'::; written si nce ¡ k a ¡'urÁ , Ih e lhird nrt'(lllrlccn hUlI"" ,IIII I.I:1I11eS in his Ii lerury cTiticisl11. his
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Note!Jook.l'. some n f his Ir¡wcl wriling, espcciall y h is sland-off confrontation with Ncw York Ci ty. a nd in lhe Pn:f~lccS , lhosc unahashed reconstruetions and contemplations 01' a performing self. It is worlh noting parenthetically thal self-conscious pcrformers, writers who Ii ke to find themselves in acts of composition , are o ften more than ordin ari1y prolific. T hink , for another example, of D ickens. Dickens is best identified for me in Robert Garis's indispensably origina l study, Th e Dickens 1'llelltre, am} sorne of the criticisms 1'11 be making of Ja mes a nd Mailer are encouraged by Garis's hrillian t discussion s of the aesthetics 01' performance. M y criticisms dependo as well, on the hope tha t having written at length on James a nd having been o ne 01' the few who hon ored tbe ver)' large daims made by A n Am erican J)ream and Why Are We in Vietnam? I needn ' t be unduly ca utious about using either of lhese writers in an illustralively negati ve way- as examples of sorne of lhe da ngers inherent in literary self- perform a nL:e. In any case, the failures I' JI be discussing occur at an extremity 01' heroic effort in verbal dexterity: the confrontation of the writer's performing self \Vith the irreducible power of dea lh. Those with a relatively greater confidence in their powers of self performance as against the resistant or indifferent powers of history show a L:orrespond ingly greater theatricality in the faL:e of death than would writers of the type 01' F rost or Marvell or Thoreau . T hus, in the "Horatian Ode, " as Thomas Ed wards shows , Charles is a successful performer beca use he is so fine an aelor while being so entirely unhistrionic: " He nothin g common did o r meanl Upon that memorable scene,l But with his keener eyel The ax 's edge did try ." Appropriate to his magnificent balance at the juncture of life and death is a pun that balances both lJonditions in one word: the keenn css of lhe eye a nd of the ax are fused in the Latin derivative ofaxe, ucies, which can mean both eyesight and blade. Eye and blade will indeed soon meet and share inanimateness; but, before that, the keenness orthe axe in no way Icssens and is indeed excelled by the answering life of the K in g's eye. As against this kind of performance 1 want to consider a passage from Mailer and one from James where there is something like enviousness at work in the tace 01' the magnitude of death, a violent and unsuccessful magni f1cation of the se\f through language in the effort to meet and overwhelm the phenomenon of dcath. Mai1cr, who is surely one of our most astute Iiterary critics, shows his awarelless of these issues whenever he talks of Hemingway. In an interview printed in Presidelltia! Papas he makes a remark to which 1'11 return later- that " the first art work in an artist is the shaping of his own personality." An d he then gocs on directly to talk about Hemingway and death : "Hemingwa y was o n the onc hanu a ma n 01' magnificent sense!;. T here was a q uiL:k lilhc anim al in him. I le was also :.hac kh.:d lO a sl unled ape, a cripple, a parliclll arly wild Jirly litl lu dwarf' \'. ilhi n himsl: lf' wllo wall lcd o nly lo kili I kl lllll )!Wny, 1 in: as a Clln i(H\lIl1isl.' WilS il11 posSlhh' Sil 1" 111' ns Ilclll ingway 1;1
1'111 ' I'I ' RFORMING SU . I:
.lid not tcst himsc1f, push hi mself beyond his own dares, flirt with , engage , ,lIId finally embrace death , in other words so long as he did not propitiate the dwarf, give the dwa rf its chance to Iive and reel emotio!1 , an emotion which 1'lHl1d come to lite only when one was close to death . Hemingwa y and the dwa rf were doomed to dull and deaden one another in the dungeon of the psyche. Everyday life in such circumstances is a plague. The p roper comment 1111 Ilemingway's sty1e of life ma y be not that he dared death too much o but IlIolittle, that brave a~ he was . he was not brave enough. a nd the dwarffinally won . One d oes not judge Hemingway , but one ca n sa y that the sickness in hilll was not his love of violencc but his inability to Iive as close to it as he had too His proportions were tragic, he was all-but-doomed , it is possible
hl' would have had to have been the bravest ma n who ever lived in order to
propitiate the dwarf."
For those wh o persist in being mean-spirited about Mailer's 8Olf advcrtisements and promotions , his fascination with Hemingway, even in so splendidly written a passage as tbjs , will seem little more than competitive vulgarity, part of a ]jttle boy obsession with physical bravery and with bein g Ihe biggest man in town . If Mailer is gui.lty of an y kind of vulgarity it is on ly 01' lhe kind essential to any work of arl- works of art do, after aH , aspire lo popularity. When Mailer says that the "first art work in an artist is the shaping of his own personality," he is saying something the reverse of what is normaHy considcred vulgar, He is saying that he cannot take the se1f in him for granted and that he cannot look outside himsc1f for an acceptablc ~dr.. image. The self is shaped, he says, " in" the artist , and this shaping he l'alls "work "- - no easy job, nothing anyone can do for you and indeed made 1II0re difficult by the fact that some of the material " in" yOll has insinuated ilsclf from outside. Hemingway is a writer who has done this shaping with such authority, has given such accent <:tnd prominencc to the " first art work" which is himself that he can count on getting the kind of attention l'or subsequent art works- for his books , that is- that Mailer wOllld like for his own. From all such enterprise Mai1cr is lookin g for a ruther simple and decent rcward : he wants to make sure lhat he will be read with care borderin g on I~ar, with cxpectation bordering on shame. Dcscribing his efforts as he worked on Dca Park. to twist his phrases so that they could be read well onl y when rcad slowly (similarities are obviolls to James , and especially to Frost wilh his prefercncc for cal' rather than eye readers) , he has to admit the cosl: "Once yOIl write that way , the quiL:k reader (who is nearly all your alldience) will stumblc and fall against the vocal shifts of your prose. Then you had best ha ve lhe ca n d of a Helllingwa y, hCC
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one wondered, until he emerged as lhe star Aquarius, the sign under which he wal> bo rn- · Mailer bcgins \Vith a quotation from Hemingway about dealh and then evokes his loss as if it removed the one shield between himself and the ovcrpowering force of technology: "now the greatest li ving romantic was dead . Oread was loose. The giant had not paid his d ues, and dread was in the air. Technology wo uld fil1 the pause. 1nto the silences static would enter ." Static, th a t is, were it not for th e performing voice ofyou-know-who, making it sti l1 conceivab1e that man is " ready lo share the dread o f the Lord," to visit the craters of the mOOIl , which is death , and still to exert the imagination however much it seems overl1latched in power by tech nology. There's someth ing 10vabJy, even idealisúcal1y youthful in Mailer's aspíra tion for fame. He wa nts to make himsclf an " art work" which wiU provide the protective and iUumina ting context for all the other works he will prod uce. But the habits thus engendered can and do lead to s0l1lething Iike over-self production. Mail er's \Vay of letting everything come lo Jife within that work 01' art which is hi rnself means that he must be extraordinarily ruthJess in appropriating through metaphors any experience that threatens to remain illdependent of him . He's a surprising victim of the academic-cuJtural yearn ing ror organicisl1l discussed in the previous chapter. W henever he feels eve n possibly " overawed by the metaphor(s) in vogue" for a given situation , he doesn ' t replace them so much as try to appropriate them to himselfby arare blend of emulalion and mimicry. T he consequence, as in his writing about th e assassination of Roben Kennedy in M iami une! Ihe Siege 0./ Chicago. can be at times a bit terrified , extemporised in a frantic way, and tasteless. Yet he is slIch a totally serious writer that some discriminations are in order. Armies o/Ihe Nir:lu is full of beautifully accomplished accounts 01' Mailer's efforts to seize actual control of public occasions. These efforts are made by Mailer as a public act on the spot and later described by that other acting self who is Mailer the writer. Very often the writer succeeds in the writing by admitting that he failed as a participant. History and the writing ofhistory are not confused as actions. Miami amI Ihe Siege o/Chicogo is quite a dilTerent book . To do the writing at all , on a deadline from l/arper·.I' Magazine, he had to sta y away from the real action , a\Vay from the cops and out ofjail. The burden on the writing, the burden of a self determined to force its c1aims upon history beca me, as a result, too much for lhe style to bear. Especially so when Mailer inserts himself as a bargaincr between Kennedy and God , and does this in ways that protect him from Fa ustian absurdity only by his becoming él version of Hugh Heffner, even if a somewhat Hawthornean version:
A fe w nighls a rtcr this debate. lhe repo rter WH s a W
1'111 : f>CRFORMIN(i SI : 1.1:
Ihol ill1age, ((S (/il C((/11e lo hi/'/1 he!óre he heord II/CLl Kel1nedy Iwd heen in Ihe heod, and note (lIso Iha! Ihe nighll11are ¡,sel/, i.\' u sign o/ premonilory p()lvers we are nol mea/1.t lo lhink accidenwl.]* "What d o you mean by calling at three A .M .?" "Look," said the friend , "get the television on. 1 think you oughl to see il. Bobby Kennedy ha s just been shot.· "No," he bellowed. " No, No! No! " his voice railing wi th an ugli ness and pain reminiscent to his ear [AmI here /he sel(-wolch(ulness hegins, as he moves lo Ihe cenIa 01" Ihe occasiol1.] of the wild grunts of a wounded pig. (Where he had heard that cry he did not at the moment remember.) He felt as if he were being d ispoiled of a vital part of himself [Per/¡aps his /Jrain? lIis 011'11 skull as (( match j ór Rohert Kennel~Y 's?] and in th.e middle ol" this horror [o vague re(erence. and nol lo Ihe as.\'((ssination] noted that he screamed like a pig, not a \ion, nor a bear. The reporter had gone for years on the premisc that one must balance every moment between the angel in onesclf and the swine- the sound ofhis own voice shocked him lherefore profollndly. The balance was not what he thought it to be . He watched television for the next hours in a state which driJted rudderless between two
horrors. Then , knowing no good answer could come for d ays. if at
all, on the possible recovery of Bobby Kennedy, he went back to bed
and lay in a sweat of complicity [From duplic(lling Ihe "horror" o( /he
(/ ,\',\'assination lVil/¡ ol1e (Ir /¡is 011'11 . he 1I0l\! !11Ol'es inlO posilion lo slwre
/)(/,.1 0./ Kennedy's.] , as if his own lack of moral lVilness (to the sllbtle
heroism of Bobby Kennedy's attempt to run for President) could be
found in the dance of evasions his taste for a merry lite and a married
\lne had become. as if this precise lack had contributed (in the vast
architectronics ofthe cathedral ofhistory) to one less piton ofmoor
ing for Senator Kennedy in his lonely aseent to those vaulted walls,
as ir tinally the erforts of brave men depended in part on the pro
tcction of other men who saw thel1l selves as at leaSl provisionally
braveo or sometimes brave, or at least- if not brave--balanced at
Icast on a stability belween selfishness and appetite and therefore-
by practical purposes ··-decent. But he was close to having become
lpo IllLlch of appetite- he had spcnt the afternoon preceding this
night 01' the assassination in enjoyin g a dalliance --Iet LIS leave it at
Ihal a not uncharacteristic \Vay to have spent his time [ril e lalk
(1{"lIrcl1il('chll"Onic,\' of/he call1edral (~//¡is[ory." o/"/he lonely aseen/ "
1/1 ¡N}\l"('r Il'ilh r('specl lo Kelll1edy is /1wlcll ed here by /he tone ol1.d
I'(I/'II!,/t!(/rv /101 0./ ti sporl huI 0./ (/ spor/ (JI" royal hlood en¡oy ing ti
t!(/I!i(//u '('" clm! privi!ege " 11'1 liS {¡'(/I'C' il al [halo ., 110 1\1 else ('(In he
.1'1101
111:ll' , a nd 111 111.: suhs~qlll'1I1 pass:!!'.\" f tlltll 1 .1l 11i·~'" N"/," ,¡!",,.\", lIIy COl1llllcnts \\lI lltl l' wlll :IPlw ar hr:Il'\..ch;d alld tl :dt. t/ " '¡ W llll1l1 l ile l(lIIIlaliot\ . '- '1
Otl Ihe
IOIIN r I I VAN !) '1''' 1 ~l:II '
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imagine lhal h;'I' ,\'u/J.I'equel/l ol/á lo I//(' Lord \I',ni/e/ Il'eigh .I'ulfif'ienl/y ill lhe balance'!] . .. . he prayed lhe Loro to take lhe pricc on his own
nI' a novel like ¡he ,'>'poi/s ol PoynlOn exists pleasingly rol' him only when it 1\ Illost miniseule- a merc ten words- and the rest of wbat his informant IIt 'iists on telling him represents on ly "dumsy Li fe again at her stupid \Vork ." J'lIe less given by Life the greater will be his a uthority over what he takes, and 1\11 Ihe " master b uilde r," thi s sense of "authority" is " the treas ure 01' treasLlres. Ilr alleast thejoy ofjoys. " It " renews in the modern alchemist something like IlIl' old oream 01' the secret 01' Ii fe. " It isn't surprising that James's efforts to dea l with the dea th of those lI\:arcst to him in his famil y- his efforts to do so as a writer, th at is. which are lile only efforts I'm concerned with here -co nstitute a n extreme challenge to his élutnority as a shaper of life. Death is uLi fe again al her stupid work." ,'spcciall y for a writer for whom " the sense o f the state of the oeao is b ut part lit' lhe sense of the state of the living, " It is, however, "stupio \York " of a Illlloriously irresistible kind; it can't be disposed of even by a rt as the merely wasteful part 01' a "germ " that was, dearly, more than a "germ " of sugges lilln . No wonder that for all his marvelolls suppleness in the management of lil'tional death- thinl of the timing 01' the final conversation between R alph ami Isabel in The Porlraü ola Lady- James should be so severe1y challengeo hy the real deaths in his life; no wonder his tone when meeting the graves lit' his mother, fatner, sister, ano most cherished brother should lurch into a discomfortin g theatricality. He is describing a visit to the family grave in ( ';[mbridge Ccmetery, and lhe fad that the writing occurs in the Notebooks, not in tended for publication , makes the self-eonsciousness about perfo rm ;IIICC all the more remarkable. Thc self-consciousness isn 't merely implicit in verbalmannerisms; it is also a 1I1atter 01' his aetually reterring to writing as an ad barely possible against IlIl' pressures he encountcrs as he proceeds, the problem, literally, of holdin g IlIl' pen : "' Isn't the highest oeepest note of lhe whole lhin g the never-to-be-Iost IIll'JllOry of that evening hour at Mount Auburn- at the Cambridge Cem l'Icry when I took my way alone-after much waitin g for the favourin g 1I11ur- to that unspeakable grollp of graves. It was late, in November; the IIl'cs all bare. the dusk to fall early, th e air all still (at Cambridge, in general, ,lO slill), \Vith the weslern sky more and more turning to the terrible, deadly, pme polar pink that shows behind American winter wooos. But I can't go llwr Ihis I can only, oh, so gently, so tenoerly, brush it and breathe upon 11 brcathe upon it and brush it. It \Vas the moment: it was lhe hour; it \Vas lile hlcsscJ Ilood of cmotion that broke out at the toueh 01' one's slloden 1'1,00/1 ano carricd me away. 1 scemed then to know why 1 nao donc lhis: I ',l'(' llICO lhcn to know why , had ( 'O l//(' ami to fecl how not to have come wt,.t1d h'lve hccn IIliscra bl y, Iwrri bly lo l1liss it. [Tlle 'it' is Ih e upparenl , 'IIlIjlllli'1io// nf' t'irl'l/!l),\'/lI l1 l'f'.I' 1/"11 /l/II/it· 11 ',1"" ' //(" (/1/(/ a liOlI' I fU' il/creasing 1It",UfÚ ', d 1//(//1/('11111/1/ uf' 1/'" If/, ('(I /II /I I 111<' 11\01111 was therc ca rl y, whitc amI y illl1 I¡!, ,111.1 ~I.:cllled Idk,"'e~ 1 in 1111" wlll ll I¡II I.' 111' lile grcal l'mrl y Slad illlll,
poor mortal self (since he hao flesn in s urfeit to ofrer) he beggeo tnat G od spare Senalor Ke nnedy's lite, ano he woukl givc up sometning, give up wnat? gi ve up some ofthe magic he could bring to bear on som e one or another of the women, yes, give up that if the lite wouJd be sa ved, and fell back into lhe horror oftrying to rest wi th the sense that his offer might ha ve been given too late and by the wrong vein [Tlle pun is too la.l'le/ps.l' lo need exp/icalion.]- eonfession lo his wife was wllat tne moral press ure had first demandcd - and so fell asleep with some gnawing sense 01' the Devil tnere to snatch his offering after tlle angel hao moveo 0 11 in disgu sL" The energy that goes astray in this passage is the samc energy that can elsewhere manitest itself as genius. And one wishes. fol' Ma iler's sale, as one has so often for Lawrence's , that tnere existed the kino of eritieism James calleo fol' at the beginnings ofthe century, In his Preface to Wil1g.l' o/the Dove he expresseo the still vain hope that "surel y so me acute mino ollght to have workeo out by this tim e tne 'la\\" of the degree to whieh the anist's energy fairly oepends on his fallability. How much and how often, and in what connections and with what almost infinite variely. musl he be a dupe, that of his prime object, to be at all measurably a master, that ofhis actual sllbstitllte for il - or in other words at all appreciably to exist?" James is the great theorist ano exponent of "composition," both as a form of art and a mooe of existence. He speaks of the " thrilling lIpS and downs, the intrieate ins ano outs of the compositional problem ... becoming the ques tion at isslIe and keeping the aLlthor's heart in his mouth ," and daims that "one's work should have composition , beca use eomposition alone is pos itive beauty." Howe"er familiar this insistence. only a few critics have taken James strenuously at his woro. Quentin Anderson , Lawrence Holland and Leo Bersani. To 00 so raises quite disturbing problems about the nature 01' the human meanings we ean legitimately extraet from what might be, on James's part, a prior ano more intense commitment to the shapeliness of human actions . Tlle final seene of 711e Amhassadors has evokeo a vast effort 01' interpretation that almost wholly ignores James 's to me astonishing admis sion that he faeeo the problem 01' "how and where and why to make M iss Goslrey's false eonnection carry itself, under a due high polish . as a real one. No\-vhere is it more 01' an artful expeoient for mere consistency of form , to mention a case. lhan in the last 'scenc ' 01' the book ... " "Composit ion" in James is never a matter of mcrely mecha nical consis t em.:y of fonn. BlI t uespitc his talk abOllt "I'n:co om ," unJ his dramalizations in 'The Turn 0 1' lhe $crcw" 0 1' thc horrors thal n:sull rrnm viola tiOlls 01' it, Jam\!s 's a nntllllll,:CU prCtlCClIpaliol1 wilh r(III1Il"OI I ~til lltcs a killd nI' f'carso mcl y hl.!nicll c"t:r~IS\! n I' 1t 1a1l;¡I~e n h..·11 1 !lnd l'O llll lll ll ltl ,")III IIIWIl 'iO Ih al lile " llCI nJ" / 1,
I I1
I IJ E N T 1 l' Y i\ N U '\ 111: S I: L1 '
forming one 01' lhe boundaries 01' Soldiers' rield, that looked over at me, stared over at me, through the dear twilight, from across the Charles. Every th ing was there, cverything came; the recognition, stillness, the strangeness, the pity and the sanctity and the terror, the breath-catching passion and the di vine relief of tears. Willia m 's inspired transcript, on the exquisite little Plorentine urn 01' A licc's ashes, W illiam 's divine gift to us. a nd to her, 01' the Dantean Iines- 'Dopo {ungu exilio e marliro{ Vien.e aquesta pace'- took me so at the throa t by its penetrating righlness, that it was as if one sank down on one's knees in a kind of anguish of gratitude befo re something for which one had waited with a long, deep ache. But why do I write of lhe a ll unutterable and th e all abysmal? W hy does my pen not drop from my ha nd on approach ing the infinite pity and tragedy 01' all the past? It d oes, poor helpless pen , with what it meets of the ineffable, what it meets of the cold Medusa-tace o f lile, ol' all the lite {ived, on every side. Basta, hasta'" Evcrywhcre in this ena ctment, in this recollection of what it was li ke to arrange the scene theatrically, in this report ofwhat it fec\s li ke to write wha t is being written ("wh y do I wri te," "why does my pen not drop")- at every italics, every allusion , every patterned repetition there is what Prederick D lIpee notes as James's "characteristic passi on and idiom. " But there is dist urbingly more than that. Por one thing there is what James once de scribed when feeling a physical chill at the recollection ol' a dead friend : "the power of prized survival in personal signs." He is lIsing language designed lO rem inu himsell' ol' how fully alivc he is. For another, there is an imperialism \Vith respect not only to the fami.ly but to the ambience, to the weather itsell' as a contributory theatrical factor. Without blin king, the imperialism looks l'orward to its hallucinated form in those terribly pathetic last da ys of James himselfwhen, in delirium , his dictations to Theodota Bosanquet exposed his deep identifications with Napoleon Bonaparte, inc\uding a letter signed in that name by James about the redecoration ol' the Louvre and the Tuilcries, and another, this one also addrcssed to " my dear brother and siste r" but signed in his own name, in which he apportions them "your young but so highly considcred Republic" as an opportunity for " brilli ant fortune ." Such was a way of facing, " at last, the distinguished thing. " But Iest we be carried away by the poignancy of a ll this, let me insist that James, like Frost, probably had, at the terrible depths 01' creative power, "a hell of a good time doing it" - - there at his desk, there at the cemetery arrang ing the scene for the desk, there even in his room dying \vhen he dictated his last ruminations . What is literary criticism to do wilh something so wonderful , with writing as an aCl of keeping alive rather than an image ol' lil'e or ofli ving? O r let's forgcl lilcrary erit icism ami ask what in the tcaching 0 1' Iiteralure one can do wil h l he phel1()m Cf1(ln 01' pcrlormanl:e. Il scems lo mc thal one \Vay lilcra llln: eal1 ¡( /1d Sh Olfld be Inllghl is i/1 cO/1junclion wilh other kin ds nI' p llrfornlll/lCC wilh dLlf1ell, fll ll Sic. tilr ll. SPC)) Is :md Ihal a com pa ru liw LI/1 :¡/Y'¡<¡ 11 1' molles llr pl' f r Ol IllllflL'l' IlUl y imlccd k(,;cf'l li tcrary
'0
I U 1.: l' BR F o R M 1 N {I S In 1
sludy alive in the face 01' the competition now hefore it. W e must begin to IK~gin again with the most elementary and therelore the tOllghest questions: what must it have fel l ljke to do this- not to mean anyth.ing, but to do jI. 1 1hink anyway that that's where the glory lies: not in tbe tragedy but in the .'.ayety of Hamlet and Lear and 01' J ry-eyed ShakespeaJe. lndeed wh o knows ir ror Shakespeare there was e ven any d read to be transfigured . M aybe he Illok él beginning and jt took him , as " germs" will d o, and off rhey went.
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69
PR ESE N TI N G AN D RE -PR ES ENT I NG T H E SELF From not-acting to acting in African performance Frances Harding Sou rce: TD R. T/¡c Jou/'nal o! l'er/ól'/}UII/CC SI ¡¡dies 4:1(2) (1 ')9'.)): ) ) 8- ) 35.
¡,v'ha¡ is unil'er.l'ul in /JeI.!órma!1ce is ¡he (,OI1SciUlIS/les.\' pcr/r)/'Il/a!1i·e.
(JI
- Herberl B/au (/990. 259)
Introduction This artide forms part 01' a \Vider study of the performer in African contexts in which I am less concerned with the intention, bcliefs, and putative efficacy 01' any given performance- a focus that receives continual attention from m any scholars-than \Vith the tech oiques, methods, and oecasions ofbehavior lhat distinguish the two types of perfo rming: not-acting and (/cting. Some studies of African theatre and perfonnance (see Drewal 1992) have made Use 01' the performance theories of Richard Schechner, Herbert Bla u, and others. T he eollection of essays eclited by Phillip Zarrilli, ACling ( Re)Col1.1'idered, has brought together theories of acting which have been dcveloped over several decades. Among the most useful 01' these for the purposes 01' this articlc has beeo Miehael Kirby's methodical exposition 01' the subtle differences in performing bet\Veen not-acting and acting ((1972J 1995). This article attempts to apply to performers in Africa the tirst seetion 01' Kirby 's not-acting to acting continuum- - the nrst three stages. which deal wilh non-acting-- and to note how it shades into "acting" with a change of context, even when not initiated by the perfo rmers. Fi rst are those roles tha t req ui re minim al ski lls a nd are performed by person:; whom I sha ll rcf'er to as " stagehands," recognizi ng tha t whilc in Westcrn lhca lrc lh is dcs igna tion reler::; lo ufrstagc anu l;t rgcly u nsec l1 act iv ir y th¡11 111 11 Y fl nl rClJ lli rí! speci<J1 sldlls, tltis is 110l urways so in iln Af'riClI lI C()lI lc\1. /l 1~' ~il llJ'l'J I;llId i ~. ho wcvl!r
R E-I'IU~SFN II N (i
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always in a supporting role and cannol sustain a performance independent of ;1 kading character. Whilc they occupy a conspicuous status for the duration ot' a perfo lm ance , ·.tagchands are not themsel ves perceived primarily as performers but simply liS support for the central character. Although they predominantly fulfi1l a t1I1Il"tional role within a perfo rmance and thus are "non-matrixed " - to use Kirby's term- in respect to the reasons why they a re in a staged relationship lo a performer, they are, as we shall see, " matrixed ." To thi s extent. they may he dcscribed as performers with a bit parl or a walk-on part, as th.is kecps "pen the possibility of some deliberate intention on their pa rt to present I hemselves as perforrners, albeit in a limited way. Even when the " stage11and perrormer" Jeliberately presents her- or him selfl as a performer, the prim ary 'Ihjcctive and responsibility 01' the slagehand is to enabll' the leading actor lo pClform appropriately, and without worry or concern about the mechanics 01' ('ostume, location , or timing. 111 seeking to ascribe feaLmes of reality and pretence as proposed by K irby lo Ihe presentations of performers in Africa, there are, however, two further dilllensions that need to be taken into account: The first is tbe audien ce pl!rrormer relationship in which the intcraction between them is a suspension .,1' rile ordinary rather than a suspension of reality amI thus constitutes more nI' a heighlenillg of reality in which it is recognized that ordinary people can hl.!come extra-ordinary ror a period of time. The second feature foUo ws from this and constitutes a prcference for multilayered performances whcreby any ,11Ie performer may , within a single perfo rmance. be at one point " acting" .llId at another "presenting the self." Neither the audience nor the perform er ('xpcriences any difficulty in accol1lmodating a movemcnl. between the two. A ',lIslained, unintcrruptcd representation is not required in order to convince Ihe spectators of the presence 01' an "other. " It is more a case 01' recognizing Ihal some people have- albeit temporarily (i.e., for the duration of the I'c rformance)- the power to move between the presentation 01' self amI the pll'sl~lltation of an " other. " In lhe case 01' those whom-- in order to emphasize their functional role I have called stagehands. the notion of an "aside-in-reverse" might help the I l'a~ler to comprehend the q uality of change inherent in playing this role. Ily Ihis I mean that the percentagc 01' time, within a single performance, that thc stagehand-perfo rmer is interacting directly with thc audience as himself I as in a conventional Western aside) is considerab.Jy greater than the time IIl' is playing a role. In thcse roles, while the stagehand does not " pretend" ltl bc somcone e1sc. he is, nevertheless, in several performance forms (the Ihd1io p up pct thea tre, the Sa po masks. the Chamba mask) , engagcd in aet I Vllics Ihal are "ma kc- bel ieve" and Ihcrcro re can be said lo shade slightly IlIl n ¡Ieling. This cXl~ rn rl ifi es Ihe cl' uci:1I po int within such performances: the I oI;I Yi!1 S J lí nol ncu:ssuri ly lII ailll aill :1 "I lItdc mull e 0 1' perflmning throu gh ,,"1 ;1 r cr l'\)11I1lI nn:, hll l lII uy 1I l\\W 111 11 le" 111"1 1"1'111 Iy hclWCC Il " prelc llcc" and
1') "(
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'1
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reality. While this Illight seelll Bn.~ehlia n in il s I'jj/'C(, in faet it does not serve to relllind lhe spcelator that whal Ihey a re seeing is just a fiction and the character is in rcality just an onJinary person , but rather lo dClllonstrate that an ordinary person can becollle ex tra-on.linary, In the seco nd Illodality I place th ose perforlllances which have no aspira tion to " pretence," focus on presenting an intensificat ion of self, require a high degree 01' perforllling skill, ami may be eithcr suppo rt or !ead roles , The absence ofany aspiration to acting and the presence ofhighly developed skills di stinguish this modality from the first, a lbeit in the case o f suppo rt roles, th ey are still parlo/' e/ahorating the central a ct o r c haracter. These support performers, reeognized as skillful and entertai ning in their own right, often use the opport un ity to present the mscJves in such a wa y as lo gain recogn ition and applause for their skills. Howeve r, like the stageha nu perforlller, they prim a rily support the central characters and do no t upstage ce ntral perfo rmers, W hile they may even perfo rm separately- spatially 0 1' sequcntially- frOlll them, their presence relllains dependent on that of the Icad pcrrormer. This is .vhat distinguishes them from the lead perfo rme rs, 'r ucia l1y, Ihey are nol acting- i.e .. they do not attempt to imply that they are a nyol1e (llher lhan thcmselves nor that they are in any " time or place different rrom Ihe speclator" (Kirby [1972J 1995: 43), Lead performers in this modality are lhose whose acts, displays of skill , 01' presentations of self are the prim ary focus 01' the cntertainment. A mong them are acrobats, dancers, anjm al tamers , storylcJ1ers, m usicians. sna ke charmers, strongmen , a nd pra ise singers whosc performance draws an audience irrespective of any other performers. Kirby sets out a basic definition of acting: "To act means to feign , to simulate, to represent, to impersonate" ([1972J 1995: 43), He makes a primary distinction between acting that is " active" on the part of the performer, and the manner in which " other qualities lhat define acting may also be applied lO the performer" by onlookers (44), This posits an elementary birurcation between the active intention 01' lhe perpetrator-performer and the active perception of the reeipient-spectator. It recogn izes a distinction between performers who are deliberately seeking to present the self as " other" and those whose acti vi ties are not intended to ha ve any of the connotations of Kirby's definition of acting but wh o may nevertheless be perceived as acting, This is what Kirby calls "received aeting" and precedes t\Vo further, more intense, and -cruciaJ1y- intentiol1a/ degrees 01' acting which he names as "simple" acting and "comp1cx" acting. These latter categories 01' per forming emphasize the dcliberate presentation 01' an " other" rather than the "self"- in essence, actil1g, I shall consider these stages in detail clsewhcre and will here just briefly refer to simple acting. 1 wiJ1 conc1 udc tbis a rticle with an analysi s of lhe p resenta tion o f self as other a mong Ih e N uba men 01' S udan . My cxample, Nuba person al art, t~t1ls al Ihe lh ird poinl o n K irby's con lin uLl fll , rccci ved aCli ng, In ils orig in a l con ll;:~I . N uha nC l's~ln al al'! rOmlCU pa rl 01' a d LJ ~ I Cr 01' scusll nul aClivilies bltl , 11 1Itkl COIIIl'III(lorary "::<1\.'1'1 1<1 1
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Kir by's continuum " Irhy has named fi ve stages of the t ransition from not-acting into aeting to t!I'sLTibe the range of human behavior that constitutes the pTesentation of the "dI' "in a special way" : " [ WJe can follow a continuous inc rease in the degree ,.1 rcpresentation from nonmatrixed performing through symbolized matrix, Il.'cc ived acting and simple acting to complex acting" ([1 972] 1995: 51). Thcse concepts 01' performing as representation concentrate on the indi \ ídllal experience 1'01' both the perpetrator and the recipient, i,e., perrormer ;lIld spectator. Applying Kirby's framework and methodology to perfo rm ,IIIL'L' in Ahíca enables an ana lysis of the attitudes and expectations of the I','rl'ormer in relation to perform a nce to be developed without reference to lit,' degree of belief involved, In t he essentially phenomenological experience 1.1' pcrrormi'ng, belief is not a measure 01" q uaJjty of performance, even if it is .,1' socio-spiritual effkacy: Bclief may exist in either the speclator 01' the perrormer, but it does not affect objective c1ussitication according to out' acting/nol-acting s¡;a1e, Whether atl actor reels what he or she is doing to be " real " or a spectator really " believes" what is seen , does not change the c1assi licalion of the perrormance [ . , , j , (51) By addressing the phenomenon of performing within él continuum of Ilol-acting" to "acting:' Kirby 's framework avoids the sociological overlap helwcen "sacred" and "secular," " old" and " new" , "ritual " and "drama," and IIIL'lISCS inslcad on lhe craft of perrorming in its several modes ,
Rcconciling dL'Sirc and ability Nol evcryom: who would likc I() J i:.pb y Ih e sel r as .I'kill"c1 ha.s cqual co m illli.l gíllatinll . \ )r lalc lI l , ,lIId 1111 , 1I 1.'~' Lssil al l.!S sume peo plc occ upyin g killl " I\lk ~ w lllh' Il llIl.'lS t ;J~ 1.' Il Jl ',11/1111111 11 11' " fll k\ , RCC\)g llili ll ll uf lile
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relative nature 01' sk ill and talent is cvident in the widespread use of strue tured competition in many soeieties throughout Afrka (Horton 1960; Ottenberg 1975). Even within kin-based organ izations with responsibility for funerary or other ceremonial rites such as hun lers' dan ces , blacksmiths ' dances, or masquerades. there is room for flex ibility regardi ng the extent and nature of individual involvement in performance. How then is the desire to displ ay the sel f a nd ambi¡ion to perform recon ciled with ahilily within a performance? Happily. in the production of a performance. there a re many tasks, functions , and roles to be fulfiJled. all necessary but not all req uiring cqual skills or sharing equal responsibility. Those wi th lhe talent and the in terest may o pt to take up a lead ing role, while those with interest and less ability can opt to take up a supporting role. Pcer and commllnity preSSllre enable the rank ing to takc place informally at a pri vate. socia llevel and publicl y at a competiti vc leve!. I have seen a disabled ()ung man d a nce his rightful share 01" a funerary da nce and stiJJ be openly la ughcd at ror daring to get up and dance in public.
The first modaüty: the stagchand T his ambivalcnt category 01' performer flllfills a very necessary role in many perfo nnances in African socicties--althollgh the skills requ ircd may not be 01' a very dcmanding natllre. These persons are seen onstage. but may not be considered to be either acting or performing. They may not even consider themselves to be "performing. " but rather just carrying out a task. They are clearly outside the "informational structure of the narrative" (Kirby [1972] 1995: 44) according to the visual evidence of costuming or masking, yet their presence cannot be ignored and is essential to the performance. This con stitutes Kirby 's first category of "perceived" performer. whjch he calls "non matrixed" (44). These are those stage persons who: " Eveu if the spectator ignores them as people [ ... ] they are not invisible. They do not act, and yet they are part 01' the visual presentation " (44). In sorne instances, they are " supporters" ; in others , their task is as " minders" or " attendants. " protecting both the pcrformer and the audience (Bravmann 1977: 52). Often , the central performer--for example. the masked figure , the stilt walker, 01' the concealed puppeteer- may have his vision limited by the costume. In such instances, there are guides who lead or conduct performers safely around or out of a pcrforming area . Alternatively, performers may be in an altered state ofmind or a trance. amlnced to be "brought back" or fenced around so that they do not harm themselves. For example, in the hori possession cult 01' the Hausa people 01' northern Nigeria , several women are designated as assistants (O nwuejeogwu 1969: 28 3). Evcry performance requircs technical élss islalll.:l' and Icchnicu l ass istanls whosc t<J sk is lo makc possih k lhe pcrrUllnCI 's IilSk or l·ll h: rtain ing. Such pcople ure "sia.gchand,," a dc.'icripI illJl rd kd íl1 J' Ilk'JI snppoll lvc. Jl oncni\ac.cU 1¡,
I'ltI Sl i N I IN
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wll.!. Thcy are therc to prepare for the performance and to cnsure that it runs ·, lIIoolhly. They rcmove obstacles so that nothing will distract the audience's .llh'nlion from the performer. They have tasks to fulfill throughout the per IlIn nam:e, before. d uring. and arter:
The preparations for lsinyago begin some days before the actual da y or performance. The ani mals are made in the bush preferably in a n arca where there is plenty 01' bamboo and grass . When the makers are satisfled with their wor k, they prepare a square ncar the village 01' homestead where the pe rforma nce will take place. This square is joined to the actual village square by a c1ean , stump-free "road ." [sic] T hi s is important. Dancing during a dark night and dressed in their masks. the danceTs eannot see their way. Their path must be clear to avoid caJa mities. (Wembah-Rashid 1971: 40) Such activities rep resent the extreme end 01' the functional aspect 01' being slagehand. They also represent the least visi ble aspect o f the stagehand 's work. Bul not all stagehands carry out their work invisible to the audiencc . Nor do they always play sllch clearly backstage and offstage roles , but rather IIslIally make a morc creative contribution onstage in a number 01' ways. I )l'snibing, for example, a 1914 Ibibio puppet theatre constructed from hlallkcts stretched loosely across posts, Percy Amaury Talbot noted the role ..1' slIch attendants in setting the scene and creating "atmosphcre":
.1
In front stood three men, armed \Vith brushes 01' palm flbre, with which they continually beat the screen 01' blankets causing them to quiver. and thus hide any rnovement made by lhe real performers as Ihey passed up and down behind . The practical purpose ofthis little picce of byplay \Vas disguised from the credulous onlookers [ ... ] by the pretext that it was part 01' the powerfu l Broom Juju and neces sary for the manifestation of the spirits 01' the play. (1923: 76·-77) Wltat Ámaury Talbot refers to as "byplay," is in ract a key task. The ·.I/pport perrormers arc essential to the reinforcement of the illlplicit narrat IV\.' 01" the performa nce, regardless of how purely functional their role may ,IPIK'ar. Their role is a bridge between the nonhuman world 01' the puppets !llId Ihe Ituman world 01' the spcctators. Ir the movernents 01' the puppeteers Illside alld III1J crncath the slage WCIC not screencd. spectators would have to I'lIhl idy ad.llmvlcd ge th e prcs\!n~c llr hllm a n beings as t lle a.ctive agency Illllhili /.ing Ihl! puppCls. In lhe Ihihi ll pll p pcl lhca lrc. hccausc lhei r actions a re ~ llll h:x t ll ali lcd as Ituving mCil ll tll p IlIl" 1,1.llI kl'l -bcatcrs·' bccolnc part 01' the 1111 11 1111:1 Ii, 'lIa I Sl llll'l m e o r llw pctfp1tllll l1 ~l' ,/11\1 :/1 e Ihcrclú n: ma l rixed .
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Ncverthcless, however essentiallhcy are to the performance, it is never the "custodian " (Fardon 1990: 156), "guide," or "atten dan t" (Bra vmann 1977: 52) that the auuienee comes to see, fo r the role ofthe stagehand is to reinforce the role of the central character. Although K irby has pointed out that tht! Japa nese kab uki attendants a re not within the " informational structure 01' the narrative" (45), when we turn to the stagehand in Africa n performance, wefind that he is- sometimes implicitly and often ambiguously, as with the [bibi o - incorpora ted in tbe str ucture of the narrative. One key lies in the perception of tbe performance. Within kabuki performance, there is public reeognition that a fiction is bein g enacted , whereas within ma sked or puppe t performance in the A frican context, the specta tor may be interacting with the p uppet performer o r the masked figure as bringing a partic ular kind of reality briefty into being. The spectators' part in the enacted world of the performers is-publicly a t least - -to acknowledge the puppets or masked figures as spií'its, deities. or ancestors. The hidden manipulators in puppet performances require external assist ance, as do many masqucrade performers. [n these performances, the sup port performer often interacts \Vith lead masked performers so that they can fulfill their more specialized roles, as for example when the sightlines of the masked figure are partially restricted by costuming. fn order to ensure that the maskeu figure is able lO move around safely, that its costume remain s secure, and that it does not exceed the behavior appropriate to its charac terization, it may need to be guided by another person , a stagehand. Further more, as a masquerade performance can last throughout the day, this stagehand/guide m ust abo fan the masked figure to keep it cool , lead it to a place where it can rest and drink , and generally protect it during and between acts. In performance, the stagehand may tic a ro pe around the middle of the masked figure and then hold onto the end so that both the masked figure and the spectators are protected from each other's Cxcesses. The stagehand however essential to the s uccess of the performance - is lIsually uncostumed and relates directly to the masked figure . making no attempt to draw the attention 01' the auJ ience to himself and often, in fact , ignoring the crowd: The masked figure is accompanied by a custodian who kads it ¡nto the performing area while striking a sma1l double hand gong. Occasiona1l y he may speak to the creature to coax it into dancing 01' to warn it against unruly conduet. [ . . . ] I ts dance finished , the mask is led out 01' the crowd by its custodian [ ... ]. ( Fétrdon 1990: 156 57) W hilc rll lfll hng the 11Isk IIr g llidillg Ihe l11a ~"cd lif lll C, Ihe stagchu nd is SCCI1 as:ln nrdillllry. l'wryduy pCl'son , ill CPlll r:I'l1 111 1111 ' 1IIII Iaslkal nt a:;kl'd
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In this way, the sc1f-effacing performalll;e contributes to the mystique
.It I he masquerade ch aracter, which purports to beha ve unpredictably. 111 IlI"dcr to be perceived as possessing the unpredictab[e quality associated wlth supernatural status, the masked figure must be seen to /leed to be
, IIlItrn1led: Within the context of Lo Gue [ ... ] it is incumbent o n the directors
01' lhis masking organisation to control these potentially dangerous dements 01' its personali ly [ . .. T10 this end a host 01' talismans will be tucked into the hamba-da, the ta1l peakcd white caps worn by the \cad griots who play and dance for Gy in/1a-G)'illna and tied to the waist 01' the attendants of these masked figures. Only tbe Gyinna G)'illlla require human guides , two stron g young men who hold onto a slurdy ro pe tied to the waist of lhe djinn. N o other Lo G ue mask requires such attention for no other has the independence ofmind or the inherent power to lash out at the living \Vho come to observe this honorific performance. (Bravmann 1977: 52) !hus, in spite 01' the deliberate absence of visual signals (costuming, beha vior, etc.) the stagehand is drawn into the "i nformational structure" of the
pe rformance . Why then is it useful to caH him a "stagehand," suggesting a Il'dlllical, unseen role, if he is in fact obliquely part 01' the narrative o r , haracterization'! Firstly and crucially, the possibility 01' unruly behavior is n~lIl~ the masked figure in certain circumstances is at liberty to behave in an 11 r alional manner and to cause, perhaps, actual physical harm to people (I) n:wal 1992: 98). Secondly, the masked figure's vision is restricted. Th us, I 'Iuggcst that the primary function of the stagehand is practical and the ¡I\.,!)thetic or spiritual interpretations follow the need for such a figure onstage \V II h lhe masked figure . tlowever, the aggressive characteristics of the masked hglll'l~, the central performer, may be extended to its atlendants \Vith " real ," III1I1H:diate effects on the audiences, as among the Chamba: " A braided rope, tlll' lail 01' the creature, may be woro down lhe back of the masked figure or d "l.' \.'arried by an attendant who uses it as a whip to strike al bystanders" ti ardon 1990: 151 ; plate 1) . Whilc the functional and spiritual combine on occasion in the role of tlll' sta gchand. there is abo a further layer of meaningful personal activity IIlvolved. In those instances where the stagehand 's task as guide , protector, 111 a lfl.:nd anl has heen ac\.'ollllllodated within the inforlllational structure, the 0 11 11 1:'- Im.: n \Vilo are lhe su pporlers 01' thcse masks are themsclves delllon ,11 a t in)!, pcrsol1 ul ultrib utcs. such llS sll -:nglh l) r!i k ill. T hcy are simultaneousl y h" I/lg IL'trl plo tccto lS lInu disp/((I 'itlg lit,· sl'l{ in :In advan lHgeo us m anner. In m ll ll cl ins l;IIICC an: tlrcy l/c /i/l,!: 111 11 11' ~l'll'l' 111 adll pl lllg a chara.clcr other tlr ,llI "Il' 1I tl W II h llt t!ley alc / 1¡'I /"II/ II/lI'
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Sapo daytime masks, which ¡¡ re controlleu by associations 01' young warríor-agc men, are said to be "pulled" that is takcn from the forest and brought to town for festi ve occasiollS d uring the dry season. The ability to control these a nthropomorphic bush creat ures dcmonstrates
¡he ohysica/ powers (1/1(1 prOlVess r!! /he young n/en ¡n \lo/ved. (Lifschi tz J988: 223; íla lics added) A link to speech is another o ption for these non-acting performers: The "bush" spirits orate, recite poetry amI sing, all in self-disguised voices. They may have a "speaker" or assistant accompanyj ng them who repeats their wo rus in normal specch [ . .. J. (Lifschi tz J988: 223) Describing the perfo rmances of four masked figures among the G a de peo ple 01' northern Nigeria, Shuaibu Na ' ibi notes that: None of these four [ .. • ] speak in such a way that people can lInderstand what they are saying, but they p ut someth ing in their mouths which makes them sounu like a bird whistling. Whenever they appear, their follo\Vers accompany them, showing them the way and transJating what they are saying- for they do not like the people to know that jt is only aman in side t he [ ... ] costume. (Na'ibi 1958: 297)
The second modaJity: support pcrformers and lead perforrncrs So far [ have considered those persons whose onstage roles have largely been restricted to heing /here anu being either self-effacing 01' supporti,-c: to restraining violence in the masked figure or even dispJaying potentiaJ violence themselves, There is however a second category 01" support performer. While these roles requirc more hig hly developed skills, the primary I"ocus 01" the performance rema ins with the Iead characters. These performers then move from the first point on K irby 's continuum--nonmatrixed--to the second point where they occupY a state 01" "symbolized matrix ": their costume, roJe, or presence is recognized as being within the orbit of deliberately presenting the sclf in a specia l way, though still not as o/her than the self.
Support performers This second m oda lily requires perro rll1crs lO have real skills th at present the sel !" advan tagco u.sly. Recog.lli7CU as skillful ami cnlnt aining in thcir own righ t, they II se lite oppo rlun ily 1(1 prcsCn l lhC JIIM:lves Sll ;¡s lu ga in rccognil io n ami appl allse rol' Ihe ir s ~ i ll 'l Sl ill lik c IlIl' ~till'c lJ ; IJl d · rl· 1 for mer, they are ¡II
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]'1 illlarily therc as support for the central characters. T hey do not upstage n: l1 tral performers and may perform separately and seq uentially from the kad characters. Their function remains dependent 00 the presence ofthe lead Jwrrormer and it is th is that distinguishes them from the lead performers. The Tiv people of cen tral Nigeria have an el aborate puppet theatre called 1, lI'agh-hir. meaning " something wo nderful. " These a re usua lly alJ-night per lormanees that take place duri ng the dry season. They are m ixed-media I'wnts with puppetry , masquerades, singers, dancers, and others, including lIJe shuwo (narrator) and the or-u.l'ZI (fire-man) whose Ila ming to rch ligh!s up lIJe acting arena and leads the conceaJed puppeteers in their mobile stages around the perimeter so that each seetion orthe audience can see. The puppet stage or dogbera is about the size of an average dining table and has enclosed sides concealing t he puppeteers underneath (plates 2 a nd 3). The puppets pcrform 011 the top surfacc but the enclosed sides 0 1' the dagbera restríet vision so much that ditTerent sounds as well as light are used to guide lhe ]luppetcers as they mancuver the mobiJc stage around to two or three stop Jling points in the performance arena. Thc limited sightlines from the dagbera JIlean that the or-usu must call out lo the conceaJcd puppeteers to let them know where to go and brandish his to rch in front of the small holes in the front of the dagbera. The shu wa performs between acts, announcing t he next \lne and then standing on the sidelines during tbe performa nce . Tbese o{'- usu are not self-effacing characters like the masq uerade guides we l'onsidered earlier. On the contrary, they make mueh of the opportunity to display their virtuosity. 1t is the or-USll, or fire-man , who, with his flamin g torches, provides a leading light to the hidden puppeteers. Like the mas qllerade guides, he is technically essential for the expedient fulfillment of the performance (plate 4); unlike thcm , he is expected to injeet his performance with personal skills that entertain the audience and contribute substantially to the success of the production. In these puppct performances, there is also a group of singe rs and some times dancers-o ften older women- who provide a sung accompaniment to the puppet sho\\! as well as songs during interludes between each act. Most important, however, is the shllwa , or narrator, who precedes eaeh act with a précis of it. Li ke the dancers or singers and the or-usu at a kwagh-hir show, the shllwa - who can be either aman 01' a woman- deliberately presents the scll"as a skilled performer. Thus in a puppet performance the dancers, singers, lhe shllwa, and the or-usu are presenting the sell" as skiJled performers, but remain suppo rt performers to the puppets and rnasquerades. In addition lo skilled support pcrformcrs, there are of course a whole host 01' ski lled , Ilon-acling lead pel' fo rmers . Leau performers are those whose acts ami d i ~r la ys 01' sk ill a re the prilllary l"nclI s ~)r lhe entertain ment. Among them ar\! acn lbab, JU Ill;crs, an ima lla J1l..:rs. blnry lcllc.:rs. m usici ans, sna ke cha rmers, st rlmg mcn, r ra isc singcn;. p ll rrl!'el·I~ . ,111,1 Jl Hlsqllerad cr::.;. W ithin K irby' s cllJllinllll m. I IJ es~ pcrJ'o rtlli.:rs huvl: 11 111 w l Illl)Vl'd J'r om "p n:sc Jlting lIJe s~lr "
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to p rcsc nting <.In "o thc r." Ncvcl t hclcss, it is dillindt ror the performers to m a intain él " no n-acting" r osltiOI1 as tlwy dClll ollslratc t!leir skills,
Thc
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pcrformer
The non-acting Icad perfo m lCr p rcsents the self in a spccific skil/ed role sueh as dance r, singer, tig h lrOpe w,lIke r. w restler, storyteller. ventriloquist, or musi cian Their inlention is to dra w atten Liün to their ski lis, to themselves, and to en lertai n t he audience, FOf exa mple. a pe rfo rmer can develop a lead role in a ventriloquist's aet: In an o pen spa ce [ . . ,J t WQ long sto ut stakes are driven into the earth , fo rked or n o tched a t the e nds. Bel wcc n the m, from top to topo a long palm-stem is laid, a nd Upon th is él row 01' small fetishes [sic] are earef ully balanced, one by o ne. T h e n tom-toms [sicJ are beaten, at first slowly and softly but \Vi t b eve r increasing rhythm. When the m usie grow~ loud and fast , th e li Ule ¡dols [sicJ begin to dance and talk with the voice of aman, Eggs can also be made to talk in a sim ilar manner.
It is only when a performer replaces him- or herself with an illusion that '"acting" is said to take place. R ichard Schechner has observcd that pe r rormers are " no t-themselves " and "not not themselves" (1985: 6) and Marvin ( 'arlson restates t his, asserting th at, within the p lay frame, a perform er " is Ilut herself (becau ~e of the ope ra tions 01' illusion), but s he is a lso not n o t hnself (beca use 01' the o perations of real it y). Perfo r m e r and audience aJike ,)perate in a world of do ublc consciousness" (1996; 54). 111 usion h owever is not oste nsibly a featllre of the performance 01' the :Icrobat, who se physical suppleness challenges the restraints 01' human phys Illgnomy a nd p roduces awe and wonder in the s pectator: At Hen sha w town , C a la bar, a eelebra ted pla y is so m etimes given at the ti m e 01' the fuI l m oon . A si ngle slend e r pole is fi xed in the ground. Up this aman cl imbs till he reaches the to p , whc n he stan ds on the point and dances i.e., sways to an d fro, rippling rhe musc1es ofbaek and waist, and waving his arm o[ . .. J A fler a while he c1imbs d own head foremost, ol' springs from the top, turning two somersaults before reaching the ground. (Amaury T aIbot 1923: 75)
(Amau ry T albot 1923: 75-76) Alternatively, the performer may demonstr ate skills in relation to specifie animals, as for example at an agrieultural show in Sokoto province, Nigeria, held in the 1950s, where the "hyena-tamers and snake charmers and magicians all come to per form" (Nigeria Magazine 1958: 339). Similarly, in Oshogbo, Nigeria, at the festival for Shango, m a ny different forms 01' entertainment are described , inc1uding " tub-thumping"- of a literal sort: Pestles and mortar normally used for grinding cassava are properties in this act. Confederates pound heartily \Vhilst Strong Man holds a mortal' on his chest.
[ .. ·1 Th e strong man is al so the tumbler and contortionist as well. [ ... J (D .W.M. 1953: 302-(3) The magician toys directly \Vith illusion-- employing sleight ofhand to givc an impression of shifting things in an impossible sequenee. Again, it is the creation ofan illusion that is dependent on actual sk ill and Bernard Beckerman notes that:
He (the Imlgicia n) CTeates :so con vint;ing
Similarly, in the st rcets of Nairobi there a re young b o y performers wh o ,':111 bend over backwards, stand on their hands. and by b ringing t heir feet 1hrough the space bet ween their anns and the ground, h old a matchbox in the Illcs of one foot and a match in those of the other and light it. They have .)1 her tricks such as being able to bend over backward and "walk" their feet Illore than half\Vay around their body. Anothcr examp1c is found among the (IV people ol' Nigeria where acrobats can fold up their body into the most .'\1 reme contorted positions so that they themselves fit onto a shallow disc the .I /e nI' a chair seat. Everywhere men- a nd women , but less so - jugg1c and IJo,' lld and spring and in so doing create the il1usion of doing the impossible. 11111 it is an illusion beca use it is possible: they do it. To this extent, the ,I('robat is also drawing attention o nly to him- or herse1f-····bllt doing it not olfl ly through the display 01' skill like the singer or musician, but, like the .11 11 ytel1er, through the creation ol' an illusion. It is. however, a double iI1usion 111:11 is created by the acrobat. Whereas for the storytel1er the element 01' 11, 'liol\ is p ri m ary in the content ofthe display, for the acrobat, the element 01' lU' rillll is a b se n t, for sLlch perfonners are the "subject of the performance" 111;¡rTOp 1992: 5). 111 1he u ll-d ay salla parade that fo ll o \\ls th e ending of Ramaddan in K a tsina, Ih lr , hcrIl N ige,ria .
II)INIII'Y t\NI,
1' 111
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sqllcezi ng or rubbing il lo prodlJ(;l.! tillo! tl ll isc. Tllc dailll is that the noise happens
I'R l i SI N IINl j t\ NI> J{h- I' RI': SI N l ' I N( j TIIL SLU: ,,11 Yldlers wanl lo draw the allenlion of the audicncc; it takes place in the 111 "',cII I Icnse 01' lhe performance. There is howevcr also the conlent of tbe Ill"\ '" lIIance, which may take place in the past or future or in imagined time. 111 11 " as with song, m usic, and (10 sorne extent) dance, the content ca.n be Il'pleo.:iated separately from the performer and the performance. In slorytelI III~' Ihcrc is an emphasis on the non-teal elemenls beca use this req uires in the 1I1111d ~ nI' the lisleners the creation of images and characters who do nol exist 111 d phcnomenological for111 for the audience. The storyteller, as John B arrop PIII'> il, is "speaking in his own person" (1992: 5). Yet if.- o r as- he moves in IlId out ofcharacterization as the plot progrcsses, from ti me to time he can be .lId lo he "acting" in the sense of impersonating an other. Beckerman draws I dlslinction betweeo what he calls tilose acts 01' skill that exist to displ ay k IIls and those that exist to displ ay skills in order to " achieve ao emotion al h ... ]lOIlSC." Whereas the flrst category exists for itself and provokes a response ,.\ awc and wonder, the lalter, or " what I call lhe illusory or fictive show IIh: ludcs the display 01' skill but shadows a second realm in the exercise of the PI'I~'eplible skil!. I t is such a double-imaged aet that js the basis or drama" I II)I)(): 16). I'his can be dearl y seen in Lele Gbomba's performances:
, ... ] Gbomba's t,heater di rnjn ished cverything b ut the domeigbuamoi. 111 lhe coursc of his prologue, he stri pped himself of his gown. his shocs, his shirt · everything bui a pair 01' blue shorts and a lappa 01' c1oth. and a headtie. which were his only props. Thus, stripped dO'vvn lo his wiry agi1e rrame, a plastic face with enormous eyes, and an incrcdible modulated voiee, Lele Gbomba became his pantheon: a whorish mincing senior wire. brushing off patting hands with out raged stares and Iimp-wristed swats; a pompous mallam dispensing Icdious sententiae to his followers; an English colonial officer stiffly cOlllplaining in military eadence: "Oh my God , oh , very much , what? Oh light, oh light oh God , my Fa rber!" (Cosen tino 1980: 55)
The verbal play of the ol11ioko is an example of a key . skilled support role . The omioko is able to move around the inquest arena, not aligning himself spatially or ideologically with any Caction , but "moving from one participant to the next in lhe order in which they spoke" (Amali 1985: 23). tu his role, the omioko control s order and focuses the attention of the speakers and the spectators on lhe performance of the inquest. The omioko is dearly at the critical midpoint of change on the continuum ranging rrom support to 1ead characters. He is an essential character but supposedly only as a transmitter, not creator, 01' information. He does not move the narrative forward; he does not, theoretically, contribute to lhe substance of the proccedings. 1lis role is to amplify, e1aborate, modify the substantive statements from leading participants in the inquest. Yet there could be no inquest without the omioko, ror as Amal i notes: "The omioko's functions added formality and dignity lo the occasion " (1985: 23). By his skill and knowledge of the participants and their circumstances and lhe hislory of the families involved, he not only orchcstrales the procccdings, but may su btly direct thcm as wel!. An othcr performcr who ralls int o Ihis calcgmy. b ul s\.l mew hal di rrerently. is thc storyleller. who inlrod tU:es a nothcr demcnl i!ll tl Ihe c:xpcricnce. Slo ry Icllcrs are rccol?nized anJ apprccilllcd bC¡;a II SC 0 1' Ilwir ~ pel'i al skills in Ihe art 01' I/II/TII(illg T II\: (¡'//il/g 01' lile n; lI ra tiv\..' is 11)(' Jll'I~ (\II;¡1 s~ il l lo which Iho
II PIIS. and resolutions about characlers who do nof actually exist and aboul ,'Vi: llls whidl are not actually taking place. Yel the experiences of the audi ,'lIl.'l' are real cnough- fcar, laughler. sadness. Thc bcst of rhe slorytellers I 1I ~· It , Iike Ihe dancer a nu lhe m llsician and Ihe singer, presents her/himself as 1111' ..:cnlra.1 fi g llrl' nI' Ihe perrorma nce, íl nd hrin g inlo illuso ry being a wh o le 1.1I1 gC oi" chUrHCkrs who ru ll1ll lhc I\illlal ivc Not all , howcvl.!r, are equa lly .k i IIcd. ex :! mplt!:
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Many storytellers assist their audiences to imagine the characters abollt
whom they speak by characterizing them in voice and body movement. Thus, whik Ihe sloryteller is real, those aboul whom the audience hears may not be
leal. This involves i//usio}1- the creation 01' perceptions, sensations, expecta
ror
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nea rl y cvcryolle in Mc ndchlll d WI II lH'l l II l1 d IIléil, chiers a nd ehi Idren - e()u ld ami d id pcrrnrnl lhest: dIJ/I/('i.1I11 I ... l. Only <1 lew Mcnde bcea llle crca li vc r crhll'lners 01' dOl/lei.l'ia. and fewer still earn the name ordolllcixhuall1oi, or "pullas" 01' the domei. (Cosen tino 1980: 54) Not all storytclling, 01' eourse , requires the same dcgree of dramatization a nd Speneer (1990) ma (.. es a distinetion betwcen the M ende ngmvovei historie na rratives in whieh there is no embellishment 01' dramatization and the domei. Each requires a different performing style a nd has different aims . The former is delivered in a straight manner. the latter wi lh as m ueh elaboration as the storyteller chooses.
The tbird modality: "act yourseJf" Up until now. r have been considering modaJities 01' performing in which the element 01' pretenee, impersonation, and feigning is minimal o r intermittent. Nevertheless, each modality can be discerned from O!'dinary, everyday aet ivities: the activity is cJearly speciaJized, differentiated , and entertaining. Regardless of either the increasing level 01' skill required or of their status as support or lead roles, all fall within Ki rby's first stage of the continllum: nonmatrixed perfQrming. The performers are people being themselves, presenting the self in a special way .
Kirby then defines the next point
As we movc toward acting from thi s extreme non-acting position on the continllum, we come to that condition in which the performer does not aet and yet his or her costume represents something or someone. We could eall this a "symbolized matrix ."
([1972]1995: 44) This " symbolized matrix" is often encountered when local people in local dress are seen by visitors for the fi rst time and who may describe the locals as being " in costume" whereas actually the local people are j ust "dressed. " An extreme example ofthis- and one wh ieh gained sorne internationalnotoreity was apparent in the presen tation orthe selfpracticed by the Nuba people 01' the southern Sudan whose display ofthe social ized selfwas taken to one form of aesthetic perfection_ Nuba people have developed an aesthetic display 01' the self in order to celebrate the young hea lth y body , wh ich is lhe prercq uisite fo l' personal survival and for the surv iva l 01' the gwup in lhe urio ~{ln ú il ions 01' thc southeast Nu ba mOll ll la ins (Faris 1978). II is a ronn o r s~ U:- pn!SCn l a l iol1lhal is limited lO Ihe nOn rHnllilll:( dl y scasOl l umlt n tll l' h l l"'~' villages. T h us il ca n he ~ a i d lhal lhc rl' i.'; ;¡ ele:1I thca ln: 0 1' ¡ll'I IVII\ :1111 1 iI d '::1I dUl'alion 01' 'l!
I'IU iS' i N ' I N ( ¡ A NU H L I'IHS' N II N I , III L S li t 1,
1" 1¡-,IIIII:lI\I.:C wilhin lhe h ()llI~ cullure . rhc fücu s nI' lhe perro rmance is on thc I' h \,. I~'lI lily of' lhe young people, esscn tiallo lhe survival 01' thc society . 1hel'c a re dilferenl \'Í:sual art con vcntions for men and wOlllen. Girls are 1'lllI lIlll'd rmlll an eady age to apply el mixture of oil and either yellow or red ,,,1111' day over themselves. The choice of color is regulatcd by the clan tl llha tlllll 01' the girl. Access to the use of this col or is a permanent option lit ,1 vit l's lile. although she is unli kely to use jI after her own famiJ y is well , ',l.l hlished. As well as coloring, girls are also subjec t to a series of one-off Inllll s 01' body decoration . which is carried out in three phases. As she ,k \ dllPS physically, the girl receives her nrst set of cicatrizations below her hll''''ls; at lhe onset ormenses, she receives a second set around her navel and I( IIISS her stomach. finally after the birth of her first child and as the child 1, wcalled, she receives the third and final set over her entire back and J¡, "t1ders. Unlike her socially determined coloring. this decoration is linked 111 1\'clly to the girl's biologieal development into a physicall y mature woman. Whl'lI:as the cicatrization is linked lO the performance of socia l roles, biol o '1l: t1ly delermined. the applieation of coloring and oil over the perm a nent ,In tllalion is often done in preparation for the dances that take plaee in 1I 111J1Inction with, and foll owing, the displays of fighting by the young meno Solo summarize the proccdures for the women: first , they have permanent l(·L'l.'SS from an ca rly age to temporary coloring and then a one-off access to a 'I'tj lll'nee of permanent markings. These two forms of personal display come I,¡!',clher al high points of entertainment in a display designed to draw the 111l'nlion ofthe young men to the young women and vice versa. For both the \,tl lln).!, women and the young meno these dances are opportuni ties to cnjoy IhCllIscJves. In contrast , tho young men do not receive permanent ma rk ings but do , IhWlIgh a system of age grades. gradually acquire the permanent right to .Ipply to their bodies temporary clay markings or pattcrns 01' specific colors. Ihis is done very frequentl y througho ut the dry season---sometimes more 111:111 lwice in a day. The color range permitted to the young men keeps pace \Vilh their age so access to the full range incrcases steadily. The applied design Ihclr may be very temporary and sometimes is kept on the body for only a Inv hours before the young Illan decides to try out another designo A1though I he ri ght to use the full range of colors, once acq uired , is forever, in praetice kw I11cn apply the coloring after their most physically perfcct years have pu ssed. A specifk range of hairstyles for men is similarly Jinked to age and '. lallls allll is a longer-lasting, though not permanent. form of decoration and Idelll il¡tation . Thc body and face designs are a personal choice and have no JI~ I sonal ritual significa nce. but lhe hairstyles a lthough they too are per ',\) l1 al d lQit.-c dl) have :'iQcial signi lica nce. In perfo rma nce, na tural physical ,1 1t I ih ul Cs cnhancl:d by arl ilkc. v.did:l led hy ~o(; ial status and presentad in a d isplay l I t' skill . erca tc ¡m acstl ll: llc C\ III I I1I11 ¡ Il~' w lo r élnd ki nes is in balaneed
'I',ym 111 ('1ry. \'1
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Thesc adl vltlcs 01' self-Jecorali o n COlls lil ll !l: what Kirby has called a "symbolized matrix " ami, at tite poin t whcn the decoration and its purpose reach their apogee in the dances. lhey come ¡nto the category of presentin g the self " in a special way" (M lIde 1983: 2). The Nu ba people expe rienced in a particlllarly traumatic way the effects 01' outside interference. In the 1970s. Leni Riefenstah l, a G erman photographer famous for her film 01' the 1936 O lympi c Games. recorded 0 0 film the per sonal body art ofthe yo ung N uba peoplc. /-Ier photographs were published in two ve ry grapbic book.5, The Last ()/ !he Nuha a nd The People o/ Kau, which becam e very popular outside the Suda n and brougbt about slIbstantial social chan ges t o the Nuba people. Among these was a steady infl ux of mai nly German tou rists who came to see the young men self-decorate and paid them to do it. The Nuba people's awareness ofthei.. potential to use their ordinary practiee as an entertainment gTew and was recorded on the BBC fi lm SOUI/¡ E astenJ N uha (J 982) as they decorated for tourists and for the camera crew. At one point, on being criticiz ed by his peers for applying a particular color and pattern in the wrong order, a young Nuba man answers, " Oh it will do for the G ermans, " referring to the BBC television crew as "Germans"- the audience to which lhey had become most accustomed. This demonstra1es a clear understanding of the altered practicc of self-decoration and of his own altered role as a painted youth. Nuba Pllblic self·decoration practices have reduced in subtlety of expres sion as the role of the outsider has had an i.ncrca sing impact cm the societ)'. Nuba people had to accommodate their own perception and practice of body decoration and the accompanying fights and dances to a new group of people, defined only as spectators. These spectators did not have the insider knowledge to see the young people as symbolically matrixed with reference primarily to the rest of Nuba society. This has shifted some Nuba self decoration practices to a different level ofmeaning. The body painting is now often carried out as entertainment for outsiders, its meaning for the insiders submerged. The process (self-decorating) and the product (decorated men) have become a performance. Thus the means (body painting) lo the end (display 01' self to peers, ensuring the $urvival of the group) is seemingly no longer the objective 01' Ihe practice. Practitioners are no longcr carrying out the decoration with a view to identifying themselves within the Nuba group as young, strong, and healthy (F aris 1972) amI simultaneously as an aesthetic work , but as people who paint their bodies - albeit with a careless reference to aesthetics. They have moved from doing things \Vith a combined aesthetic, social, and physical focus as part 01' their experience of growing up and growing older in Nuba socie ty lo doing t hese things in ord er to fulfill an eXlernally del111cd role. T he original mcaning i ~ ignored . It is not 10SI ()r cha nged, nor (possih ly) h"1S il hccomc obslIll'Il!; it is jllst deli bera tely heing ignorcd. Peo ple IHIVC sclcctcd rm m tlll.!il d a ily pllll'lit:-:s clcll1 enls th at. once iSI)lalcJ. ta kc 1)11 ncw II h::.tllillgS IX
I' IU:Sl:NJ JNti ANn IH-I' IU I1H:N I' IN(i TlIE SE LI ' 1'I1~' Nllba practices are Ihose in which people are calTying out actions ''''"lnly cmbedded in a social matrix but in which, to the stranger's eye, the p,'l lilrlllativc elemcnts dominate and can be isolated, extrapolated, and re pH·se llted. Implicit in this percept,i on is the notion of strangeness, of dis '''"Iilarity to the cultural practices of the observer, and congruence with the Ilhsnvcr's expectation of the observed- all convergi ng through the power 01' Ih ~' slranger's eye and p ll rse to rede.fine and recon tex tualize. T hus, while in IlIl' o riginal context the activity may fallunder the catego ry of " sym bolizcd 111 ,-" tú." as the performer comes to do it more and mo re for reaso ns other 111,11 1 "bcing" or " becoming," it is transfonncd into a presentational aetivity, rn Ild iherately seeking to fulfill a predetermined role and a temporarily reclefi ned hk lllily, the aetions come c10ser to ·'aeting." A s Kirby describes it:
In a symbolized matrix the referential elemen ts are a pplied to but lIot acteel by the performer [ ... 1As " recei ved" references increase , however, it is difficlllt to say that the performer is nol acting even Ihough he or she is doing nothing that coulc! be defl ned as acting. I ... ] When the matrices are strong, persistent and reinforce cach other, we see an actor, no matter how ordinary the beha vior. This condition, the next step closer to true acting on our eoo lin uum, we lila)' refer to as "received acting." (45)
When the nonmatrixcd performers are situated in such a way th at obser H'fs perceive them as "performing," then , in ,~pile (~/how they may percei ve Ihl'lllsc1ves, the performers move c10ser to what Kirby has called " received Il lillg. " Initially framed by Reifenstahl's camera, the men's body decoration tlraclices constituted " received acting." /-Iowever, taking control of the n pportunity, the Nuba men, in lheir redefined practice ol' self-decoration. Wl'Il1 rurther. As soon as they opted to self-decorate for olltsiders, they moved " 0 111 perceiJ1ed acting - what Kirby calls "received acting"- to what he calls :, Im ple acting" in which an clement of pretence is deliberalely employed. 1:01' lhe cameras and for the outsiders, the N LIba men were " acting" o.\' the NI/hu 11/('11 delined hy Reif'en.l'lo/¡/'.\· pie/tire.\'; they could also simultaneously IIlIl'I'act with each other in asides (even when still within Lhe acting arena) ,J\ /I/(' NI/ha menlhey "real/y " were- intending to eat and drink , to enjoy them ,dws. to shop at the market with the money they were earning by "acting" as 1!t"/I/.1'I'/I'(,.\· rOl' lhe outsiders. Acting became the \vork-task (Goffman 1959:72), wlth Ihe acts themselves, based on lhe older practices, adjusted to mee! the IIL'W J Cln al1 tls: 1 1I f\ ( ~a J
will 111
\Ir merely J lling hi s
lask ,llId giving venl to his feelings . he Lhe J~lillg 01' hi'l t:L~k illHI aCCl' plahly n lll vcy his feclings. IlIcll , tht.' r~'flI'CSl'lI l ill lí\1I p i :111 ilL'livilY will vary in sUllle
\: ,~pn:ss
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I III. ~ III
lkg rCl: rmlll lhl: al,;!ív il y itsd l' ;llld Ihl'lo:lllll." tlll'vll ahly Illisrcprcse nt ilo A no si nuc t he individual will be Icq uin: d III Idy (JI! sigl1s in order to construct el reprcsen Laliol1 01' his aCl ivil Y, Ihe illlage he constructs, however fai thful to the facts, will be slIbjecl to all the disruptions that impressions are subjcct too (Goffman 1959: 72)
l'
1.11,\ 1111 /, 1:' .. 1')88. " I lcaring Is I3c licvi ng: f\Cllllsti, 1'.1asks amI Spirit Manifcstatioll." 111 11 ,'.\'1 Aji'iml/ ,\4asks (JIU! C U!li./ral .s~I'.\·/('m.l', cditcd hy Sidncy L. Kasfir, 221 - 29. 1\ I \ lII'cn, Bc lgium: Muséc royal de I' A friquc ccntrale. ~llIdl' V.\. 1983. "The Tiv iVO/'l1 Dance. " N igeria Milgazille 54: 2. 'n 1\0, 1'.1. Shllaibll 1958. "The Gade Pcople of Abujet Emirate.'· Nigeriil Magaúne ,
,11
22~
.107. MichacJ 1969. " Tlle Cult of the Bori Spirits a mong lhe Hausa. " In AFiciI, cdited hy Ma.ry Douglas and Phyllis M . Ketberry, 279- 97. New
¡ 11I\\' lI l' jl'ogWU,
1',111 i/l
Although the "worktasks" (Goffman 1959: 72) have changed, they are work tasks nonetheless. A move from farmer-hunter to actor has bccn made.
1 111 ;. SU
I
, \11 k: Tavistock. IW' lIbcrg, Simon 1975. Ma.l'kec! Riluals olAjikpo. SeaUle: University of Washington
l 'I" s ~ .
'" IlI'd lllcr, Richard 1985. Belweel1 The(/Ire ol1d AllIhroJ!ology . P hiletdelphia : Uni versity
Note I huve used the male pronoun throughollt as almost all pcrforrners are male cxcept singers and daneers an d a few instrumentalists. The women 's Sande Society in Sierra LCOllC is an exeeption to the practice of male masking.
,1 I'cllnsylvania Prcss. "{II III.:.:r. Julius S. 1990. "Storytclling Thea.t re in Sierra Leone: The E xammple o f Lele ~ ¡\lomba." NelV Thealre Quarlerly 6, 24: :149 .. 56. W" III\leh-Rashid , J. A. R. 1971. "Isinyagoand Midimu: Masked D ancersofTanzania III J Mozambiquc." /lji-ican AI'I.\ 4, 2: 38 - 44.
Refcrences Amali , S. O. O. 1985. Al! AI1('ienl Nigerian Drama. Stllttgart: Frannz Steiner Verlag Wieshaden. AmHury Talhot, Pe rey 1967119231. Lijé i/1 Sa/.llhern Nigeria. London: Frank Carr &
CO. Beckemwn, Bernard 1990. Theatrico! Presenlo/üm: Perjilrmer, A udience. ({lid A el. London: Routledge. Blau, Hcrbert 1990. "Universals 01' Performance." In By Means 4Per!omwllce edited by Richard Schechner and Willa Appcl, 250- 72. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Bravmann . Rene A. 1977. "Gy·i nna-Gyinna: Making the Djinn Manifest." Aji-iclIl1 Arl.l' 10, :1: 45 - 50. Carlson, Marvin 1996. Peljó/,///(/Ilce: A Critica! /¡1/rOdUCliol1. London: Routledge. Cosenlino , Donald J. 1980. "Lelo Ghomba and the Style of Mende Baroque." Aji-icoII
ArlS 13,:1: 54- 55. D. W. M. 1953. "Oshogbo Celebrates Festival of SH A NGO. " Nigeria /vloga::il1l' 44: 298- 313 . DrewaJ, Margaret T. 1992. Yoruha Ri/Uo!: Perjórmers. Play. Agertey. Bloomington: Indiana University Press . Fardon, Richard 1990. Be/ll'een Cad. ¡he f)('ad (I/l{1 Ihe IVi!c!. Edinbllrgh: International African Library. Faris. James C. 1972. Nuha Personal Arl. Londoll: Duckworth. Goffman, Erving 1959. The Presel1lalio/l o('SeU'ill Everyday Lijé. Garden City , NY: Doubleday. 1I,t rrop , John 1992. Ac./ing. London: ROlltledge . I 10rton, Robin 1960. "Gods as Guesb." Nigeria Mllga:::in(', Spccia l Issuc . .l. O . N. 1958. Nig('ria MIIKa::illl' 59: :1:19 40. K iTby, M icha !!1 I 'J"5 1I <¡n i. "011 A<.:lil1g amI Nol · A ~·1 illg.·· 111 .· I,·lil/.11 ( R,') CIII/lid('/'{'d, c,htcd hy 1'J¡i lJlp Z al'l'ilJi .~ 1 ~K . !.
11)
11
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I)()IN(, DIITI;ItE NI'!-:
70
DOING DIFFE R ENCE Candace Wesl and S usan Fens fermaker Sourcc: Gender ami Sociely 9(1) ( 1<)')5): 8 17.
In this article, \Ve advance a new understanding 01' "difference" as an ongoing interactional accomplishment. Calling on the allthors ' earlier reconceptuali zation of gender, they devclop the further implications 01' this perspective fo r the relatiollships amonggender. mce, and class. The allthors argue that, despite sig nificant differenees in their charaeteristics and outeomcs, gender, race , and class are comparable as mechanisms for producing social inequality.
Few persons think 01' math as a particularly feminine pursuit. Girls are not supposeo to be good at it ano women are not sllpposed to enjoy it. It is interesting, then , that we who do feminist scholarship have relied so heavily on mathematical metaphors to describe the relationships among gender, race, and d ass . ' For examp le. some 01' us have drawn on basic arithmetic, adding, slIbtracting, and dividing what we know about race and cIass to what \Ve already know about gende r. Some have relied on multiplication, seeming to ca1culate the effe<.:ts 01' the whole from the combination of different parts. And others have employed geometry, dra\Ving on images of interlocking or intersecting planes and axes. To be sure, the sophisticat ion of our mathematical metaphors often varies Wilh the apparent <.:omplexity of our own experiences. Those of us wh o. at one point, were able to " forget" race a nd da ss in Our analyses 01' gend er relations may be mo re Iikely lo "add" th ese al él la ler poin!. By contrast, those of LI S who co uld never forget thcse d imensions ()!' soda l life may be more likely to d r(J w on cOlllpll:x gC(lI1l\.:tri~¡¡ 1 i m ;l~cly all along; no nct hcless, lhe exis tencc nI' so mil ny úilkn:n t a rpr(),,~ hcs f(l Ihc forie SI:CIIIS inu ica t ive 01' the d i ll ic ullit:~ ¡III ,'1' liS h;lw (,;'(pt: ril!III;:l'd iJl rllllllllH 1" tel lllS with il.
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Not slIrprisingly, prolif'eration oC thcsc approachcs has caused consider cOllfusion in the existing litera lure. In lhe same book or article, we III,IY fino rcfcrences to genoer, mce. and dass as "intersecting systems," as • IIltnlocking categories," and as " multiple bases" for oppression. In the same alll holugy, we may find sorne chapters that conceive of gender, race, and class ,l', distind axes and olhers that conceive ol' lhem as concentric ones. The 1IIIIhlem is that these alternative formula tions have very distinctive, yet IIl1d rliculated. theoretical implicalions. F or instance, if we thin k aboul gen 111". race. and e1ass as aoditive categories, the whole wiJI never be greater (11' Icsser) than the sum 01' its parts. By contrast, if \Ve conceive of these as 11 111It iples, the result could be larger or srnaller than th eir added sum, depend 2 111) ' 011 where \Ve place the signs. Geometric metaphors further co m plicate 111I1IgS. since we slill need to kno\\' where those planes ano axes go a fler lhey 'lllSS lhe point of intersection (if they are parallel planes amt axes, the y will m'ver intersect at al1). (h,r purpose in this artiele is not lO advanee yet another new math bul 1.. propose a new \\'a y of thinking aboul the worldngs of these relations . l· hcwhere (Berk 1985; Fenslermaker, West, and Zimmerman 199 1; West and I cnstcrmaker 1993; West and Z immerman 1987), we offered an ethnome Ihodologically informed , ando hence, distinctively sociological , conceptu .dl / alion of gender as a routine, methodical. and ongoing accomplishment. \Vl' argued that doing gendcr involves a complex ofperceptual, inleractional, II ld l1licropolitical activities that cast particular pursuils as expressions di l1lanly and womanly "natures. " Ra ther than conceiving 01' gender a s 111 individual characteristic, we conceiveo 01' it as an emergent property 01' iI 'l.'ial situations: both an outcome of and a rationale ror various social IIf Iangements ano a means of justifying one of the most fundamental divi .I"IIS 01' society. We suggested that examining how gendcr is accomplisheo "ollIJ reveal the mechanisms by which power is exercised and inequality 1/, produced. (hlr earlier formulation neglecteo race and e1ass; thus , it is an incomplete 1',lI l1cwork ror understanding social inequality. In lhis articIe, we extend "lIr analysis lo consider expli<.:itly the relationships among gender, raee. II ld c!ass, and to reconceptualize "difference" as an ongoing interactional . 1~·cl)lllplishment. We start by summarizing lhe prevailing critique 01' much klllil1ist lhought as severely constrained by ils white middlc-cJass character .lIul preoccupation. Here, \Ve consider ho", feminist scholarship ends up bor l"wing rmm ma lhematics in the flrst place. Next, '.. . e consider how existing c·,)!1cc pluéllíza ti ons 01' gcndcr have conlrihuted to the problem . rendering I lI ath cn J;lti ~a l 111l:laphors the o nly a ltc rna tives. T hen , caJJing on our earlier 1' lhll(llll C I I )(lJí~ I~)gi ~a l \.:o nccpt Lla li zal iol1 (Ir gcnder, \Ve- de velop the further I" 'p licalilllls 01' t his ]1Cr ~ pcc li vc lúr 1)11 1 IIII Jc r~l ;)ndin g 01' race a mi dass . We .1~!'iC' I Il la l. whi h.: gClldcr. ra~ :111\1da',,, \V ha t I~o pl c come lO expericncc as 11t 1'.;lIl il illg cillcpmics I\ r ~\lci:tl ~l i l l l' I~' l n, ' n hil ,il vaslly dirfe rclll ocscriptivc . d ll~
1'\
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ch aradcristics and oulco m cs, Ihcy a re. IHlIlct hc kss, cOlllparable as mechan isms ror producing social ineql.laliLy.
White middle-cJass bias iJl feminjst thought What is it about feminist think ing that makes race and dass such difficult concepts to articula te within its own parame te rs'? The most \Videly agreed upon and disturbing answer to thjs question is that feminist thought suffers from a w hite middle-c1as$ bias . The privileging of white and midd le-dass sensibilities in feminist thought results from both wh o did the theorizin g and how they did ir. Wh ite middlc-class \Vomen 's a d van taged viewpoint in a racist and dass- bound culture, coupled with l he Weste rn tcnoe ncy to construct the self as distinct from " othe r," distorts their dcpictions of reality in preoictable directions (Young 1990). The consequences of thcse distortions have becn ioentified in a variety of places, and analyscs of them have enlivencd evcry aspect 01' reminist scholarship (see, for example, Aptheker 1989; Co"ins 1990: Da vis 1981; 11 urtado 1989; Zinn 1990). r or exampJe, be" hooks points out that feminism within the U n itcd Sta tes has never originated among the women \Vho are most oppressed by sexism , "women who are daily beaten dowl1 . menta"y, physically, and spiritually \Vomen who are powerJess to change their condition in lire" (1984, 1). The fact that those most victimized are least likely to question or protest is, according to hooks (1984), a conscquence oftheir victimization . F rom this perspective. the \'ihite middle-c1ass character ofmost feminist thought stems directly fro m the identities of those who produce it. Aída Hurtado notes further thc requisite time and resources that are involved in the production of feminist writing: " without financial assistance, few low-income and racial/ethnic students can attcnd l1niversities; without higher education, few working-c1ass and cthniclracial intellcctuals can become professors" (1989, 838). Given that academics dominate the production of published feminist scholarship, it is not surprising that fcminist theory is dominatcd by whitc, highly educated women (see also hooks 1981 ; Joseph and Lewis 1981).
f) ()
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'll lipsiSIll" - thinking, imaginülg, and speaking " as ifwhiteness described the wur ld ," rcsulting in " a tu nnel-vision which simply does not see nonwhite I'\ pt~ricncc or exi stence as precious or signifi cant. unless in spasmodic, impot ,'11 1 g uilt rcflexes. whieh have li ttlc or no long-term, continuing usefulness" I1 'J7I), 3(6). W hite rniddle-class fcminists, the refore , may offer conscientious "\ prcssions 01' concern over "racisl11-and-classism, " believing that they have 111l:rcby taken into consideration profound differen ces in wome n' s experi " urc; simultancously, they can fail to see those differences at aIl (Bhavaní 111 prcss). Thcre is nothing that prevents any of these dynamies from coexisting and wll rking togcther. For examplc, Patricia Hill Colli ns (1990) argues that the ';lIrrression of Blaek feminist thought stems both from wh ite fe millists' racisl ,\lid classist concerns and from Black women intellectuals ' consequent lack ,,1' participatíon in w hite feminist organizations. Similarly, C he rríe M oraga I1 ')X 1) argues that the "denial of difference " in fe minist organizations derives uol only from white middle-class wornen 's failure to " see" it but also from women of color's and working-class women's reluctance lo challengc such hlilldness. Alone and in com b ination with one another, these sources 01' bias dll rnuch to explain why thcre has becn a general failure to articulate raee and .-I ass within the parameters of feminist scholarship; however, they do nol I'x plain thc attraction of mathematical metaphors to right the halance . To IIlloerstand this developmcnt, we must look further at the logic 01' feminist Ihought itself.
Matlwmatical metapllOl's and jél1l;l/i.~t Ihougllt 1 n llowíng the earlier suggestion of bell hooks (1981 ; see also Hull, Scott, and SlIlilh 1982), Ehz abeth Spelman contcnds that. in practice, the term " women " al.'llIally fllnctions as a powerf111 false generic in white feminists' thinking: Thc "problcm of difference" for femínist theory has never becn a general onc about how to wcigh the importance 01' what we have in wmmon against the importance of our oifferences. To put it that way hides two crucial facts: First, thc description 01' what \Ve have in eOllllllon " as women " has almost always been a dcscription of white middle-class women. Second , the " diffcrence" 01' thís group of women that is, their being white and middle-class- has never had lo be "brought into" feminist theory. To bring in " difference " is to bring in women \Vho aren ' t \Vhitc and middle class. (1988 , 4)
Still others (Collins 1990; Davis 1981 ; Lorde 1984; Moraga and Am:alduá 1981; Zinn , Cannon , Higginbotham , and Dill 1986) point to the racism and classism of fel1linist scholars themselves. Max ine Baca Z inn and her colleaglles observe that, " dcspite white, middle-class feminists ' frcquent exprcssions of interest and concern over the plight of minority and working-class women, thosc holding th e gatekeeping positions a t importan t feministjournals are as white as are those al any m ai nslream social sciel1ce o r h llmanities publication " (1 986, 293) . R acism amI dassism can lake a va riety 01' f0 n11S. I\dr iClIlIll R idl contcnús thal. allhough w h ilc (m idd lc-dttss ) I'I!minis ls m uy II Ol l.'llll Scio llsly beli cvc lhal Ihcir ral.'c is :-' lI pclior lo an y ol hc r. Ihey nn: nfll' n pl.ll'lIl'd bv a h ll'ln or "w h ill.'
I N {i
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wurns IhaL lhi nk in g a bo lll pi ivill!!lc m e rcl y as a characteristic of 11111 ¡vid u ~l ls ra lhc r Iha n a s ti ('hU I jl t'I ~'1 i~ l iI.: (J I' IIIndes 0 1' thollghl - lllay a IToro tI',ill1 undl:l \ ' il lltli llgof "whal p rivllL'J'l' h·t,'l h h lllllll Lwha t susl ain s il" ( 198H, 4) .
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W hat are the implica tions of a ferninist mode 01' thought that is so severely limited? Thc most important one, says Spelman , is the presumption that we can effcctively and usefully isolate gender from race and c1ass. To illustrate this point, she draws on many white fe mi ni sts who dcve10p their anal yses of sexism by comparing a nd contrasting it with "other" fo rms of oppressi on , Herein she finds thc basis fer additive models 01' gend er, race, and cJass, and " lhe ampersand problem": de Beauvoir tends to tal k a bout comparisons between sex and race, or between sex and class, or between sexoand culture . . . comparisons beiween scxism and raci sm , between sexism and cJassism, between sexism and anti-Sem itism. In the wo rk of Chodorow alld others influeneed by hcr, we observe a readiness to look for Iinks between sexism and other forms of oppression as distinct from sexismo (1988,115) Spehnan notes that in both cases, attempts to add "other" elcments 01' identity to gender, or "other" forms of oppression to sexism, disguise the race (white) and cJass (midd1e) identities ofthose seen as "women " in the first place. Rich's " wh.ite solipsism" comes into play again, and it is impossible to envision how women who are not white and middle class fit into the picture. Although Spelman (1988) herself does not address mathematical meta phors based on multiplication, ",e believe that her argument is relevant to understanding ho w thcy develop. For example, take Cynthia Fuchs Epstein's (1973) notion 01' the " positive effect of the multiple negative" on the success of Black professional women. Aceording to Epstein , when the "negative status" of being él woman is combined with the " negative status" of being Black, the result is the "positive status" of Black professional women in the job market. Baca Zinn and her colleagues contend that the very idca of this " multiple negative" having a positive effect "co uld not have survived the scrutiny ofprofessional Black women or Black women students" (1986, 293). They suggest that only someone who was substantially isolated from Black \Vomen and their lite experiences could have developed such a theory (and , presumably, only someone similarly situated could have promoted its pub lication in an established mainstream sociology journal). Spelman's (1988) analysis highlights thc following prob1cm: if we conceive of gender as coheren tly isolatable from race and cJass, then there i ~ every reason to aSSllme that the effects ofthe three variables can be mulLiplied , \Vith results dependent on the vaJence (positivc or nega ti ve ) o f ¡hose multi plieJ variables; yet, irwegra nt Ihal gcnderC¡mllO l bn;tlhcrcll lly isola téd rr~)m racc and class in the way \Ve conceptlluli7.c it, I hcll mli llipl icalivc 1I1t!aph()l"s m akt: lill le SC IlSC .
111
1r the clTccts of "multiple oppression" arc not merely additive nor si mply 1lIlIltiplicative, ",hat are they? Some scholars have described them as the I'loducts 01' " simultaneous and intersecting systems of relationship and Ilh::l lling" (Andersen and Collins 1992, xiii ; see also Almquist 1989; CoJlins 11I'1\); Glenn 1985). This description is useful insofar as it oflers an accur lit' characterization of persons who are simultaneo usly oppressed on the h,l.,is 01' gcnder, race, amI c1ass , in other words , those " at the intersection" of ,111 Ihree systems of Jomination ; however, if we eonceive 01' the basis of " I'pn:ssion as more than membership in a category, then the theo retiea l 1I11 plications of this formulation are troubling. Po r insta nce, what eon , lll siolls shaJl we draw from potcntial comparisons between persons who " \p~'rience oppression on the basis of thcir raee and c1ass (e.g., \Vorking-c1ass IIIl'l l (Ir color) and those who are oppressed on the basis 01' their gender and , LI<\s (e.g., \Vhite working-class womcn)? Would the "intersection o f t\Vo ~~tel11s of meaning in each case be sufficient to predict common bonds ,IIIHlIlg them'?" Clearly not, says June Jordan: " W hen these factors of raee, • LISS and gender absolutely collapse is whenever yo u try to use them as ,IIlll1matic conccpts of connection ." She goes on to say that, while these 1'1 "Kepts may work very well as indexes of "commonly felt conflict," their p' ~dictive value \Vhen they are used as "e1ements 01' connection " is "about as ' l'lwblc as precipitation probability for the day after the night before the day" 46). What conc1usions shall \Ve draw from comparisons between persons who 1,,' "aid 10 sufTer oppression "at the intersection" of aH three systems and ¡J " ISC \Vho suffer in the nexus of only t",o? Presumably, we ",iH conclude that 11 11' latter are "Icss oppressed " than the former (assuming that each categor 11 ,11 identity set amasses a specific quantity of oppression). Moraga warllS , lIowcvcr, that "the danger lies in ranking the oppressions. The danger lies in ,11 111/.1: lo acknOll'ledge lhe .\pecificiIY uf' lhe oppressiol1" (1981,29). Spdman (1988 , 123-25) attempts to resolve this difficulty by characteriz II\ j' "I:xisl11, racism , and dassism as " interlocking" with one another. Along ,lI lIilar lines, Margaret Andersen and Patricia Hill CoHins (1992, xii) describe l'l mkr, race. and c1ass as " interlocking categories of experience." The image ItI illll'r1ocking rings comes to mind , linked in such a way that the motion ,,1 IllI y olle 01' thcm is constrained by the others. Certainly, this image is _Ullll' dynamic than those conveyed by additive, multiplicative, or gcometric '11' ,deis: \Ve can see where the rings are joined (ami where they are not), as \Vell 1, Inlw Ihe 1Il0ve1l1cnt of any one 01' them ",ould be restricted by the others, II"II.! th at this image stiH dcpicts the rings as separate parts. 1I \Ve Iry In siluUle particular pcrso lls within this array, the problem with 1I bn' o ntl.!;oi dea r. W l' C<1n , 01" c~) "rse, ClIll\;cive 01' thc whole as " oppressed Ill" ,pll:" llm.l 0 1" I he rill gs a~ "l!luse ~, prrc'i~ed hy gcnJer," "those opprcssed by ' 111 " " a 11l1 " l h\ ,~cl )rr n:s~cd hy da:,s ( "~'l' Fi~' 1I1 \.' 1), Th i~ a ll ows us to situatc
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I = WhilC uppcr- ano middl e-dass women; 2 = lJp per- and rniddlc-dass women color;
I "pper- and middk-dass rnen 01' (Jo lor. .:1 = Workin g-da ss womcn 01' color; 5 = W hite
lO,111 ~ ill¡!-c1ass women : 6 = Wor king-dass rncn 01' co lor; 7 = While wo rkill g-dass men; g = While "1'1ll.'1 and tniddle-dass 111 en , This figure is ncccssaril y oversimplificd , I:or cxamplc, uppcr- a nd IlIlddI.;-dass pco pk are lumpcd logc lhcr, ncglcdin g Lhe possibililY 01' signifit:anl dim: rcn ccs 1" I\WCIl lhern. ~" I<' :
Figure I Oppressed People. N Ole: I = WhilC uppn- ano rniool c-c1ass wocm:n; 2 = LJpper- and middle-c\ass womcn 01' t:olor; :1 = 1Jpper- and rnidole-c1ass tnen 01' color; 4 = Workin g-dass worncn 01' color: 5 = While \\'orking-c1ass women ; (¡ = Workin g-dass tncn 01' color; 7 = Whi lC workin g-e lass mcn ; 8 = While upper- ano midolc-dass men, This fi gu re is ncccssarily oversimpliticd, I:or cxampl e, uppcr- and miodlc-dass pcoplc are lurnpcd loge lhcr, ncgl ecling lh e possi bilily 01' significanl difTcrenecs bel\Vccn lhetn.
women and men 01' all races and c1asses within the areas covered by the circ1es, save for whitc middle- and upper-class men , who fall outside them . However. what if we conceive of the wholc as "cx perience"3 and 01' the rings as gender. race, and c1ass (see Figure 2)? Here, we face an illuminating possibility and leave arithmetic behind : no person can expcrience gender without simultaneously experiencing race and class. As Andersen and Collins put it, "While race, class and gender can be seen as different axes of social structlll'e, individual persons experiencc them simultaneousJy" (1992, XXi).4 Jt is this simultaneity that has cluded our theoretical treatmcnts and is so difficult to build into our empirical descri p tions (1'01' an admirable efrort, see Segura 199 2). C a pturing it co m pels us to foclls on the actual mechun isms t hat prou w.:e s(lcial inequ ality. Il ow do rO m lS 01' inequali ly, which we now see are mMC Ihall Ihlo! r e ríod k coll isíon of cCl tego rics. opcratc logCl hd:' IJ ow do \Ve SC\! IIHlI a ll social cxchanges, n;gan.l lcs!:i Il f l hl! pa rl ic ipílllts or Ihe I)lI lcwn c . III~' lill lll l lIil lll'OIlS ly "1,\elH.lcrcd ," "r a~cd . " a lld "dll'l:;cd''')
1'1.1 address these questions, we first present sorne earlier atternpts to lll llccptualíze gender. Appreciation for the limitations of these efforts, \Ve I ll,.'\il'VC, affords us a way to the second task: reconceptua lizing the dynamics .,1 )'.ender, race, and c1ass as they figure simultaneously in human institutíons .1111 1 ílltcractíon .
Traditional conceptualizations of gender 1(1 hegin, \Ve turn to Arlie Russell HochschiJd 's " A Review of Sex Roles \(¡'warch ," publishcd in 1973. At that time, there were at least four distinct \\ ,1VI> \JI' cOllccptualizing gender within the burgeoning literature on the topic: 11) ;IS Sl!X dillerellces. (2) as sex roles , (3) in relation to the mínority status 01' \\ "IlI~IJ. and (4) in rclation to Ihe caste/class status of women. H ochschild .,/l"C I VCS Ihat cach (JI' these conccptuali1.ations Icd to él differen t perspcctive 11 11 I he hdla víors ul' womc n and mc": W h; 11 is In lype I
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\'l)J\s!ructions 01' racc. Classifying African-Amcrica ns into specious
1,Icial catcgories is considerably more difficult than noting the e/ea,.
"illlllf..!ical dif(erences distinguishing females from males ... \Vomcn
dI) share common expcrienccs, but the experiences are not generally
{he S
(1990, 27 , emphasis added)
response to powerlessncss. Socia l changc might also lo ok somcwhat differcnt to each pcrspectivc; d ifl erences disappear, dcviance bccomes normal. the minority grollp assimilates, or power is cq lla lized. (1973,1013) Nona Glazer observes a fllrther important difference between the types H ochs child identificd , namely , where they located the primary sO llrce o f inequality betwecn women and men : The sex dif(erence and [sex ] roles approaches share an emphasis on und erstand ing factors tha r characterize individ uals. These factors may be in he rent to each sex or acquired b y individuals in the cOllrse 01' socialization. The mi/lority group a nd casle/class approaches share an emphasis on fadors that are external to individua ls, a conce rn with the structure 01' social institutions, and with the impact 01' h is torical events. (1977,103) In retrospect, it is profoundly disturbing to contemp la te what the minority group approaeh a nd the c1ass/caste a pp roach implieo about feminist think ing at the time. For example, Juliet Mitchel!lallnched " \Vomen : The Longest Revolution " with the daim that "[t]he situation of \Vomen is diffcrent from that 01' any other social group . . . within the world of men , their position is comparable to that of an oppressed minority " (1966, 11) . Obviously, if "women" could be compared to "a n oppressed minority ," they had to consist 01' someone other than "o ppressed minorities" themselves (cf. Hacker 1951). Pcrhaps beca use ol'such theoretical problems, feminist scholars have largely abandoned the erfort to describe women as a castc, as a c1ass, or as a minority group as a project in its own right (see, for cxamplc, Aptheker 1989; H ull , Scott, ano Smith 1982). What we have been left with , ho\Vever, are two prcvailing conceptualizations: (1) t he sex differcnces approach and (2) the sex roles approach. And note, while the minority group and caste/c1ass approaches were concerned with faclo rs external to the individual (e.g .. the struct.ure of social institutions and the impact of historical events), the approaches that remain emphasize factors that characterize the individual (Glazer 1977) . Arguably, sorne might call this picture oversimplified. Given the exciting ne\V scholarship that focuses on gender as something that is socially con structed, and something that converges \Vith other inequalities to produce difference among \\lom en , have we not moved wel! beyond " sex differences" and "sex roles "'? A close exam ina rí on o f th is li terature s uggcsts that \vc h ave not. For exu mple, Cúll íns co nlcnds tha!
rv.
¡hi k rat.:c ilnd gClIllcr arc b~l!h s~)d:l l l v ~' , lI l sI I IIC h:J cal cgories, l.'on strul.'{i u lIs ,,1' pClldcl ,., '\'1 1111 ,./,.(1/',,/ ',/"/d}: /!'''' ,'f'i/t'rio IIlall dll
I11 mursc, Collins is corred in her c1aim that women differ considerably !tol ll I1nc another with respect to the distinctive histories, geographic origins, 11 11 \ rult urcs they share \Vith men ol' their same race and c1ass. Tbe problem, ""\H'vcr. is that what unites them as women are the " clcar biological criteria rlhl lll j!.uishing females fr om males. " Bere, Collins reverts to treating gender 11. ,1 lllattcr 01' sex dilTerenees (i.e. , as ultimately traceable to factors ínherent 1" (';u;h sex). in spite 01' her contention that it is socially constructed. Gender 1", PI IlCS conllated with sex, as race might speciously be made equivalent 111 l o lnr.
( 1lIIsider a furthcr example. Spelman launches her analysis with a dis o 11', ',1,,11 (Ir the theoretical nccessity of distinguishing sex from gender. She
1. ,11 ',1.':; de Beauvoir (1953) for her early recognition of the difference between
11
1111
(\VO
and goes on to argue,
It is one thing to be biologically female. and quite anotber to be ', hapcd by one's culture into a " wom an"--a female with feminine tirralities, someone who does the kinds ofthings " women" not " men " d" , someone \Vho has the kinds 01' thoughts and feelings that make duing these things seem an easy expression 01' one's fcminine natme. (1988,124)
1111\11 , t heno does Spelman conceive of the social construction 01' \\loman? She 111" o IIl1 y invokes "sexual roles" to explain this process (1988 , 121 - 23) but also I"Ib nf "racial roles" (1988, 106) that affect the coursc that the process will I,' ~ I I )espite Spclman's clegant demonstration of how "woman " t.:onstitutes 1 gencric in fcminist thought, her analysis takcs us back to "sex roles"
I '''l'
"11" 1I¡'ain. ( 1111 Jloinl here is not to take issue with Collins (1990) or Spelman (1988) in 1'01 11" IIla r: il would be él misreading 01' our purpose to do so . \Ve cite these " tI ~" lo hi ghlight a 1110re fundamental difficulty facing feminist theory in I m l,ll : IWW C\lIlccptualizations ofthe bases of gender incquality still rest on " Id Ullln :plllali/,at ions 01' gcnder (\Vcst and Fenstennaker 1993 , 151). For l ' IIll pk . Ihose who rely 011 él scx d ilTerenccs approach conceive of gender l . 11Ibl'1 ¡III' 111 lh\! illlli viuua l. in ollle!' words, as Ihe masculinity or femininity 111 ,1 jll' l Sll lI . F lscw hc n; ( FctI ~tc"Hakl.!r \Ves t. and Z immerman, 1991 ; W est I l ld I \' II!;l\:rllla J.. e l 11)1)": Wcsl il lld ¡II\ lI m'r ll wlI 19X 7), we 'lote th a! this I111 ~ Jlll lid lla li(\ " ohsl'I lrcs 1I 11\ h.'hlilllllll ll' ,,1 h \IW gcndc r can structure
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distinctive do mains 01' social eXpC I; [!IlCC (see also Stacey and Thorne 1985). " Sex ditfcrcnccs" a re treated as the explanation instead of the analytic point of dcparturc. Although many scholars who take this approach draw on socialization to account tor th e internalization offemi ninity and masculinity, they im ply that by about fivc years of agc these differences have become stable c haracteristics of individuals- much like sex (West a nd Z immerman 1987, 126). The careful distinction between sex a nd gender, therefore, is obliterated, as gender is reduced effectively lO scx (Gerson 1985). 5 W hcn the social mcanings of sex are rerooted in biology, it becomes virtuall y impossible to expl ain variation in gender relations in the context of race and dass. We must assume, for example, that the cffec ts of inherent sex differenccs are either added to or subtracted from those of race a nd dass. We are led to assume, moreover. tha t sex differences a re more fundamental than any other d ifferences that migbt interes t us (see Spelman 1988, 116 - 19, for a critical examination of this assumption) - unless we also assume that race differences and dass differ ences are biologically based (for refutations of this assumption , see Gossctt 1965; Montagu 1975; O mi a nd Winant 1986; and Stephans 1982). Those who take a sex roles approach are confounded by simil a r difficulties, although these may be less apparent at the outset. What is deceptive is role theol-y"s emphasis on the specific social locations that result in particular expectations and actions (Komarovsky 1946, 1992; Linton 1936; Parsons 1951; Parsons and Bales 1955). Jn this view, the actual enactment of an individual's "sex role·' (or, more recently, "gender role" ) is contingent on the individua!'s social structural position and the expectations associated \Vith that position. The focus is on gender as a role or status, as it is learned and enacted. /n earl ie r work (Fenstermaker, West , and Zimmerman 1991; West and Fenstermakcr 1993; West and Zimmerman 1987), \Ve have noted several problcms with this approach, including its inability to specify actions appro priate to partit:ular "sex roles" in advance of thcir occurrcncc, and the fad that sex roles are not situated in any partit:ular setting or organization aJ context (Lopata and Thorne 1978; Thorne 1980). T he fact that " sex roles" olten serve as "master statuses" (Hughes 1945) makcs it hard to account for how variations in situations produce variati ons in their enactment. Gi ven that gender is potentially omnirele va nl lO how we organize sociallife, almost any action could count as an instance of sex role enactment. Thc most serious problem with this approach, howeve r, is ils inability to address issues ofpowcr and inequality (Connell 1985; Lopata and Thorne 1987; Thornc 1980). Conceiving of gendcr as com posed 01" the "male role" and the "female role" implies a scparatc- blll-eq ual relationship bc tween the two, o ne c ha racterized by complemen ta ry rcla Liolls ra lll e!" than conflicto Eltiew hcre (Fcl1slcrrna ke r. WCSI, a nd Z in llllcrmall 1991; Wesl ami l;clI slcr rnake r 1993; Wl:S I a no / illl lTlCrm a ll 19X7 ), we i ll tl~II, ll é I l lis pro hh.:m wil h U¡¡ l ric T hornc und 11('1 l·.. lIc:tl'lIc': l) ]).\C I valill ll 11", 1 :;111 i:iI s('ic ll lis ls ha \'\.'
D O I NG D/F F I: REN<."t·:
1\111 lIlade lIluch use of role theory in their analyses 01" race and class rclations. ( llllcepts sllch as "race roles " and "class roles·' have seemed patently inad "~III:llc to account for the dynamics of power and incq uality operating in 1I",sc contexts. As many scholars have obscrved, empirical studies of the " female role " ,\I1d "male role" have generally treated the experiences of white middle-class pel sons as prototypes, dismissing departures from the prototypical as in lil llces of deviance. This is in large part what bas contributed to the charges 111 white middle-class bias \Ve discussed earlier. Jt is also what has rendered 111\· scx role approach nearly useless in accounting for the diversity of gender Id. llions across di fferent g roups. Sccking a solution to these difficultics, .loan Acker has ad vanced the \ Il' W that gender consists 01' something else altogether, namely, " patterned, II¡·ially produced distinctions between female and male, feminine and maso.IIlille . . . [that occur] in the course of participation in work organizations as "..di as in many other locations and relations" (1992b, 250). The object here is 111 dncument the "gendered processes" that sustain "the pervasive ordering of " " ll1an activities, practices and social strut:turcs in terms of differentiations 1... lwccn women and men" (1992a, 567). Wc agree fully with the object of this view and note its uscfulness in cap 1111 illg the persistence and ubiq uity of gender inequality. 1ts emphasis on II ll' allizational practices resto res the concern with " the structure of social III ~i litutions and with the impact of historical evcnts" that characterized ear 111"1 c1ass/caste approaches, and facilitates the simultaneous documentation o r l'l' lIdcr, race, and dass as basic principies of social organization. We suggest. hll wcver, lhat the popular distinction between " macro" and "micro" levels ,,/ analysis reflected in this view makes it possiblc to empirically describe and \ f11ain inequality without fuHy apprehcnding the common elcments 01' its .J.ll ly unfolding. For examplc, " processes of interaction" arc conceptualized ."m rl rmm the " production of gender divisions," that is, " the overt decisions IIld procedures that t:ontrol , segregate, exclude, and construct hierarchies 1',lscd on gcnder, and often race" (Acker 1992a, 568). The production of IIl1a gcs, symbols and ideologies that justify , explain , and give legitimacy to I Il ~oI lll1tions " constitulcs yet another "process," as do "lhe [mental] internal jll,lCt'SScs in which individuals engage as they construct personas that are II'PlOpriatl'ly gendcred for the institutional setting" (Acker 1992a, 568). '111" analytic "missing link, " as \Ve see it, is the mechanisl1l that ties these .1 0'llI illgly Jiwrsc proccsses togcthcr, one that ¡;Quid " take into account the \ 1111';1 raini,,!!. irn pact 01' cnlrenched ideas amI practices 011 human agency , but ILIl II I¡J 1a\so acklwwlcdge Iha t (he syslCl11 is l"OlIlinually construed in everyday hit .lIld Ih a \. II mkr ccrl a in cll ndil iotls, indi vid l.lals resisl pre~s urcs to conrorm 111 Ih e l\Cl'd~ ul" lh e syslcm" (h,sed 1\)1)1 \ H). 111 Slilll , il \Ve ctlllccivc 0 1" fCI II 1c1 11 >; .1 11 1,1111'1 \11" hi\ll ogical diITcre nl"c~ or il ilh'll' lI lliIl ",Ics. Wl' :tIC l o ll~·\.·d 111 111111 1, 101 1I ti :. slalld lllg ap:II'1 I"mm a mi
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outside othcr socially rclevant, orgallizing expcrienccs. This prevents us frol11 un derstanding how gcnder, racc, and class operate simultaneously with one ¡lIlother. It prevents us from seeing how the particular salience 01' these experiences migh t vary acros::; interactions. Most important, it gives us virtu ally no way of adequately addressing the mechanisms that produce power and inequa lity in socia llife. Instead. we propose a conceptual mechan ism for perceiving the rclations bet\veen ind ividual and in stitutional practice, and among forms of domination.
An etbnomethodologicaJ perspective Do n Z immerman concisely describes ethnomethodological inquiry as pro posing "that the properties of social lite which seem objectivc, factual, and transsituational, are actually managed accompl isbments or achievements oflocal processes" (1978, 11). In briet~ the "objective" and "factual" properties 01' social life attain sLlch status through the sitllated condllct 01' societal members. The aim 01' ethnomethodology is to analyze situated condllct to understand how "objective" properties of social life achieve their status as sllch. The goal 01' this article is not to analyze situated conduct per se but to understand the workings ofinequality. We sho uJ d note that our interest here is not to separate gender, race, and class as social categories but to build a coherent argument for understanding how they work silllultaneollsly. How might an ethnomethodological perspective help with this task? As Marilyn Frye observes, For efficient subordination, what's wanted is that th e structure not appear to be a cultural artifact kept in place by human decision or cllstom, but that it appear natural--that it appear to be quite a direct consequence 01' facts about the beast which are beyond the scope 01' human maniplllation. (1983,34)
Gellde,. Within Western societies, we take for granted in everyd a y Jife that there are two and only two sexes (Garfinkel 1967, 122). We see this state of affairs as "only natural" insofa r as we see persons as "cssentially, originally and in the tlnal analysis either 'male' or 'female'" (Garfi nkc\ 1967, 122). When we interact with others, we ta kc for gran tcd Lhal l:ach 01' liS has all "essential" man ly o r womanly natllrc~ \lnc tha( Jcnvcs rrOl11llt l1' ~>:, :Ind un\.: lba ! can be detecled rrom t he " natl lral ~ igl1 s " wc tri ve off ((¡O !flll ;111 1976, 75 ). T hese bc.lit; r.., con~ 1 il Ul \! 1hl! n() l lIl a I¡ve cOllu'plioll,'i \11' l)f 11 1.:11 tlu re n.:g~1 rd ing 11 11; nru pcrl ics 01' n lll/lla 11 v sCXI.:d pCrSOIl"I ,",ud 1 I!did ... ' " PIIO II III\.' ~c~llI illgly
""Icctive," "factual," and "transsituational" character 01' gender in social 1l l.llrs, and in this sense, we experience them as exogenous (i.e., as outside 111 li S and the particular situation we fllld ourselves in). Simultaneously, hu\\'t.:vcr, the meaning nI' these beliefs is dependen l on th c contcxt in which I ItL') are invoked- rather than transsituational, as implied by the p opular "II1i..c rt 01' "cognitive consensus" (Z immerman 1978, 8- 9). What is more, h~l' ~l lISC these properties 01' normally sexed persons are regarded as "only lIil lll ral," questioning them is tantamount to call1ing oursclvcs into question ,l', l'Olllpetent members 01' sodety. ( '()nsider how these beliefs operate in the process of sex assignment- the IIl1lí. tI c1assification 01' perso ns as either females o r males (Wcst and 1I1l lllCrman 1987 , 131 - 32). We generally regard this process as a biological ,klc rmination requiring only a straightfo rward examination 01' the "facts ,.1 Ihc matter" (cL the description 01' sex as an "ascribed status" ,in many III llOductory sociology texts). The criteria for sex assignment, however, 1.11 1 vary across cases (e.g., chromosome type before birth or genitalia after hí l th). They sometimes Jo and sometimcs do not agrec with one another (1' t!" hermaphrodites), and they show considerable variation across cultures I I<.csslcr and McKenna 1978). O ur !llOra/ COI1J!icIiOI1 that there are two and only 11\10 scxes (Garfinkel 1967, 116 18) is what explains the comparative case 01' , Ir'hi~villg initial sex assignment. This conviction accords femaiJes and males 1IIt' stalus 01' unequivocal and " natural" entities, whose social and psycho !,,,, ical tendencies can be predicted from their reproductive functions (\Vest ,lIul Zimmerman 1987, 127-28). From an ethnomethodological viewpoint, ',\:\ is socially and culturally constructed rather than a straightforward statc 1111.: lit 01' the biological "facts." Now, consider the process 01' scx categorization - the ongoing identifica 111'11 orpersons as girls or boys and women or men in everyday life (West and 1I111llerman 1987, 132 34). Scx categorization involvcs no wcll-dcflned set 01' , Iill:ria that must be satisfled to identify someone; rather, it involves treating ,ll'l'carances (e.g., deportment, dress, and bearing) as if they were indicative .. 1 IIl1dcrlying státes ofaffairs (e.g., anatomical, hormonal, and chromosomal ,III'angcmcnts). The point worth stressing here is that, while sex category ',(' 1 VL:S as an "indicator" 01' sex, it does not depend on it. Societal members will '.ce" a world populated by t\Vo and only two sexes, even in public situations Ill a t prcclude inspection 01' the physiological "facts." From this perspective, 11 I ~ illlportant to distinguish sex category from sex assignment and to dis IllIl',lIish both fro m the "doing" of gender. (¡cn d ~r, we argue, is a situated accomplishment of societal members, Ihe lo\:ul nJallagclll~nt 01' co nd uct in rclation to normativc conceptions of :I) \pl o r riatl' attitudes anJ. J c Livitil,::-; rm r a rt icular scx ca tegories (West and 11IllllCrm a n 1()37, L14 15). Frmn 111I!i pcrspcctivc, gender is not merely 111 1 II Il{¡vi dll;¡) ,I\trihllte hll l SOl ll l'll lI lI!, ' "itl í ~, Ul"CIlIll plis ll cJ il! inlnaclioll \V II!I ol!w l's. 1I<.:I'C, as iJl o ur ead ll'l WI 11 ~ , \-VI' 1L' !V . ln Jnhn I kril aj1.C 's ( 191'< -.,
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1I 11, NTIT V II.NI.) 'lilE SEU:
"IiI"g,clllcnt pnwides 136- 37) fórmulati on or accountability: the possibility of deseribing actions, cireumstanees, and even dcscriptions 01' themselves in both : >crious and eon sequential ways (e.g. , as "unwomanly" or " unmanl y") . Hcn tage points out that members or soeiety routinely eharacterize activities in ways that take notiee of those aeti víties (e.g., naming, describing, blaming, excusing, 01' mercly acknowledging them) and p lace them in a social framework (i.e .. situa ting them in the context of other activities that are similar or different) . The faet that activities can be described in sueh ways is what Jeads to the possibility ofcond ucting them with an eye to how they might be assesscd (e.g., as "womanly" or " manly" behaviors). Three important but subtle points are worth emphasizing here. One is that the notion 01' aceountabiUty is relev ,mt not only to activities that eonform to preva iling normative concep tions (i.e .. activities that are eondueted "unremarkabl y," and, th us , do not warrant more than a passing glanee) but also to those aetivities that deviate . The issue is not deviance or con formity ; rather, it is the possible evaluation nI' aetion in relation to normative conceptions and the likely eonsequenee nI' that evaluation for subsequent interaetion. The seeond point worth em phasizing is that thc proeess of rendering sorne action accountable is an interactional aeeomplishment. As I-Ieritage explains, accountability permits persons to eonduct their activities in relation to th eir circumstances- - in ways that permit others to take those eireumstanees into account and see those activities for wh at they are. "[T]he intersubjcetivity 01' aetions," therefore, "ultimately rests on a symmetry between the producLioll of those actions on the one hand and their recognitioll on the other" (1984, 179)- both in the context of their circumstances Ü And the third point we must stress is that, while individuals are the ones who do gcnder, the proeess 01' rendering somc thing aceountable is both interaetional and institutional in character: it is a feature of social relationships, and its idiom derives from the institutional arena in which those relationships come to lite. In the United States, for example, when lhe behaviors of children 01' teenagers have become the focus of public coneern , the Family and Motherhood (as well as individual mothers) have been held aecountable to normative eonceptions of "essential " remin inity (including qualities like nurturance and caring). Gender is obviously mueh more than a role 01' an individual charaeteristic: it is a mechan ism whereby situated social action contributes to the reproduction of social struc ture (West and Fenstermaker 1993, 158). Womanly and manly naturcs thusly aehieve the status of objective prop erties of sociallife (West and Z immerman 1987). They are rcndered natural , normal characteristics of individua ls a nd o a Llhe samc time, rurnish the taeit legitimation of the distincti ve ano uncq ll éll t'¡He:-; (JI' W(Jl1len anu mcn within the soci al order. Ir sex catcgorics are J)o lentia ll y omni rcleva nt lo soci al lire, then pcrsons cngagcu in virt ua ll )' a ny a¡;li vilY !Hay 111.' held acco ulIta ble rO l' thcir pcrl'onn alKc 01' tlla t ac tivily as W\\lI Il'11 l lf liS IlIel1 u lld tlld r c~ltc!:lory nWll1bers hi l~ can he tI~\,:d 11. val ida l\! 01 dis\'lcd,t fl1l'il 11 11I l'l iH:ti vitics . Th is
,1,
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rOl' counuess situaLiolls in which persons in a particu
1. 11 sc x category can "sce" that lhey are out of place, and ir they were not
11'0:11.:, their eurrent problcms would not exist. It also allows for seeing various ,," ,1 1 IIrcs of the existing social order- fo r example, the di vision oflabor (Berk 1'';1'( '''), Lhe development of gender identities (Cahill 1986), and the subordina 11,'11 nI' women by men (Fensterrnaker, West, and Z imrnerman 1991)- ·-as :' II .I lural" responses. These things " a re the way they are" by virtue ofthe fact I'hlt IIlen are rnen and women are women- a distinction seen as " natural," as
Itlll tcd in biology, and as producing fundamental psychological , behavioral,
II ul social conscquences. I'hrough this formulation, we resituate gen der, an attribute without clear 'H' i:rl origin 01' referent, in social intcraction. This makes it possible to study IlItw gcnder takes on social importo how it varies in its salienee and con ," lI l1cnce , and how it operates to produce and maintain power and inequality 111 ","ciallife. Below, we extend this refonnulation to race, and then , to c1ass. 1111 IIlIgh this extension , we are not proposing an equivaleace of oppressions. \( ,Iel! is not c1ass, and neither is gen der; nevertheless , while race , c1ass, and VI'III \cr willlikely take on diffcrent import and will often eany vastly different 1IL'lal consequenecs in any given social situatlon, we suggest that how they Ilpl' rate may be productively eompared. Here , our focus is on the social IIll'chanics of gender, race, and c1ass, for that is the way we may perceive their 1I1lllltaneolls workings in human affairs.
Race Wllhin the United States, virtually any social aetivity presents the possibility .11 \'alegorizing the partieipants on the basis of race . Attempts to esta blish
,I~'C as a scientifie concept ha ve met with little suceess (Gosset 1965; Montagu \117"'; Omi and Winant 1986: Stephans '982). There are, for example, no IlIl1hJgical criteria (e.g. , hormonal, chromoso mal , or anatomical) thal allow plr ysicians to pronounce race assignment at birth, thereby sorting human 1r~' ln!\s into distinctive races 7 Since racial categories and their meanings 1 h. lIlgc over time and place, they are, moreover, arbitrary.~ In everyday life, Ill'w rtheless, peoplc can and do sort out themselves and others on the basis of
I
Illl' lIlhcrship in racial categories. Mich acl Omi and Howard Winanl arguc that the "seemingly obvious, II,lIma!' and 'eommon sen se' qualities" of the existing racial order " them dvl,'s tcstify to the cffectiveness 01' the racial formation proeess in eonstrllct Ir,!, 1acialmcanings and identities" (1986, 62). Takc, for instance, the relatively , .'H'lIt l:ll1ergcnec ofthe calegory " Asian American ," Any scientil1c theory of , IU: wllllld be hurd prcssed 1.0 cxpluin this in the abscnce ofa well-del1ned set C\lllit clia ¡'ur éls:;igning. ind ivid ua ls 111 tlll: catcgory. In re1atlon to ethnieity, tlll tlrCllHore , it Illa kcs no sells!.: \lI Upl' h.'p.a lc in a sin gle ca tcgory the d is IIIIII IVI; h istories. g,c\)grap hil.: ()tiVill~ 111111 t,t rlllll'C:' uf Ca ll1hod ian, C hinesco
DOI NG O "' FElU..i NCI :
IDI\NIIIY i\ NU 111 1,: SI :I ji
hlipi llo. JUpUIlCSl!, Kor\:!a n, Laolia n, T hai . anJ Vietnamese Americans. Des pite importa nl d islim;tions among these groups, Omi and Winant contend , " the majority 01' Arnericans eannot tell the difference" between thei r members (1986,24). "Asia n American, " thcrefore , afTords a means ofachieving racial categorization in everyday lite. 01' course, competent members of u.s. society share preconeeived ideas 01' what membe rs of particular categories "Ioo k like " (O mi amI W inant 1986, 62) . Remarks such as "Odd, you don ' t look Asían " testify to lInderlying notions ofwhtt1 " Asians " o ught to look like. The poin t we wísh to stress, how ever, is that these notions are not slIpported by any scientific criteri a fo r reliably distinguishing members of different " racial " gToups. What is more. evcn state-mandated criteria (e .g., the propo rti on 01' "mixed blood" necessary to legally c1assify someone as I31ack)" are Jistinetl y Jifferent in other Western cultures and have Iittle relevance lo the way racial ca tegorization occurs jn everyday life. As in the case ofsex categoriza tion , appearances are treated as if they were indicative of sorne underlying state. Beyond preconceived notions of what members 01' particular groups look like, Omi and Winant suggest that Ame ricans share preconceived notions of what members of these groups are Iike. They note , for example, that \Ve are likely to become disoriented "when people do not act ' Black,' 'Latino,' or indeed ' white' " (1986, 62). From ollr ethnomethodological perspective, what Omi and Winanl are describing is the accoun tability 01' persons to race category. 11' we aecept their contention that there are prevailing normat ive conceptions of appropriate attitudes and activities for particular race categories and if we grant Heritage's (1984, 179) c1aim that accountability allows persons to conduct their activities in relation to their eircumstances (in ways that allow others to take those circumstances into account and sec Ihose activities for what they are), \Ve can also see race as a situatcd accom plishment of societal members. From this perspective, race is not simply an individual characteristic or trait but something that is accomplished in interaction \Vith other::;. To the extent that race category is omn irelevant (or even \'erges on this), it follows that persons involved in virtually any action may be held accollntable for their performance of that action as members 01' their race category. As in the case of sex category, race category can be used to justify or discredit other actions; accordingly, virtually any action can be assesscd in re\ation to its race categorieal nature. The accomplishment of race (Iike gender) does not necessarily mea n " living up" to normative conceptions or a uitudes and activities appropriate to a particular race category; rathcr, it means en gaging in action at the risk ofrace assessm cnt. T hus. cven tJwugh indivi Ju als are the ones wllo aeco mpliSh race, "the <.'l1tc rprisc is fUI1 J am\.! nlally intcract io nal and insli tll liona l in chanlcler, rol' accountabi lily is ;.¡ Ii!a lllfé 01" social rcla lio n ships a nd its iJ il)tn is dra wlI rrom Ihe in..¡lilu li,\1ll1 l IllCl 1i1 in \vh ich those rclaliollsh irs a re CrH ll'll,¡J" (Wes l ;\nd /tllll ll ~· IIJ ' i lll 1')1i7 11 / ). d,:
The accomplishment of race renders the social arrangements based on raee as normal and natural , that is, Iegitimate ways of organ izi ng sociallife. In the lJnited States, it can seem "only natural " for counselors charged with guiding high school students in their preparation for coIlege admission to advise B1ack students against advanced courses in math , chemistry , or physics "because B1acks do not d o weIl" in those areas (Essed 1991. 242). The students lTlay weIl forgo such counies, briven th at th ey "do not need tbem" and "can gel into coIlege without them ." However Philomen a Essed obse rves, this en sures that students so advised wiIl en ter coIlege at a disad vantage in eomparison to dassmates and creates the very situation that is be1ieved to exist, name1y , that B1acks do not do well in those areas. Small wonder, then, that the proportion of u.s. Black students receiving college degrees remains stuck at I ~ pereent, Jespite two decades 01' affirmative action programs (Essed 1991 , 26). Those Black students who are (for whatever reaso n) adequately prepared for college are held to accounl for themse\ves as "deviant" representatives of their raee eategory and , typicaIly , exceptionalized (Essed 1991 , 232). W ith that aecom plishment, institutional practice and social order are reafflrmed. Although the distinction between " macro" and "micro" levels of a nalysi.s is popular in the race relations li terature too (e.g., in distinguishing " institu tional " from "individual" racism or "macro-Ievel" analyses of raeialized social structures from "micro-Ievel" analyses 01' identity formation) , we con tend that it is ultimately a false distinction . Not only do these " Ievels" operate continually and reeiprocally in " our Jjved expe rience, in polities, in culture land] in economic life" (Omi and Winant 1986, 67), but distinguishing between them "places the individual outside the institlltional, thereby severing rules. regulations and procedures from the people who make and enact them " (Essed 1991 , 36). \Ve contend that the accountability of persons to race categories is the key to llnderstanding thc maintenance of the existing racial order. Note that there is nothing in this formlllation to sllggest that race is necessarily accomplished in isolation from gender. To the contrary, ir we ~:oncei\'e of both race and gender as sitllated accomplishmcnts. we can see IIow individual persons may experiencc them simultaneollsly. For instance. Spelman observes that, [i]nsofar as shc is oppressed by racism in a sexist context and sexism in a racist context. the Black woman's struggle cannot be compart mentalized into two struggIes- one as a Black and one as a \Voman. Indccd , it is difficult to imagine why a Black woman would think 01' her struggles this way except in the face 01' demands by white women or hy BI,H:k men that shc do so. (1988 , 124) \'0 Ih\! Cl\l~IH Ihat all illd iviU llal BI:hk WOI llall is hd J ilCl.:ou nwble in ane Ni II lal ion
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as " llpp ,J~ il iona l " dl::l Ha nds !tll .ll.;'iHIIII¡¡h, lIl \ 1\ 111 1\ \111:, il is a /JI1/1'I. who is hcld accollllldh h.: in hol h ,.¡"", Ih llh Contrary to Omi lInd Wina nt's (1 9X6, 11-' ) 11.,,, 01 hy pl)lh~tit'al cases, 011 a ny particular occasioll 01' intcraction , we a re ull llk.dy to hcC\ lI1 JC IIncomlorta hlc whcl1 "pcop le" do not act " Black," " people " uo nol act "Latino," or whcn "people" do no! act "white:' Ra tb er, we a re likc\y to bccomc JisconcerkJ when particu lar B1ack \Vomen do not act li ke Bla ek \Vo/l/en, particular Latino men do not act like Latino men, or partle uJa r w hite women do 110t aet likc white women- in the context that we observe thcm , C onceiving of race a nd gender as ongoing accom plishmen ts means we must locate their emergenee in social situations, ralher than within the individual or some vaguely defincd set of role expectations. 'o Despite many important differences in the histo ries, traditions, and vary ing impacts of racial and sexual oppression across particular situations. the mechanism underlying them is the same , To the extent that members of society know their actions are acco untable, they wil! design their adi ons in relation to how they might be seen and describcd by others, And to the extenl that race category (like sex category) is omnirelevant to social life, it pro vides others with an ever-available resourcc for interpreting those adions. In short, inasmuch as our society is divided by "essential" differences between members of different race categories and categoriza tion by race is both relev ant and mandated, the accomplishment of race is unavoidable (cf. West antl Zimmerman 1987, 13 7). For example, many (if not most) Black men in the United States have, al some point in their lives, becn stopped on the street or pulleJ over by pol ice for no apparent reason. Many (if not most) know very well that the ultima te grounds for their being detained is their race and sex category membersh ip. Extreme deference may yield a release with the command to "move on:' but at the same time, it legitima tes the categorical gro unds on whieh lhe police (be they Black or white) detained them in the first place. Indignati on or outrage (as might befit a white man in similar circumstances) is likely to generate hostility , if not brutality, from the officers on the scene (who m ay sharc sharply honed normative conceptions regarding " inherent" violenl tendencies among Black men). Their very survival may be contingent on ho w they conduct thcmselves in relation to normative conceptions of appropria tc attitudes and activities for Black men in these circumstances, H ere, \Ve sec both the limited rights of citizenship accorded to Black men in u.s. society and the institutional context (in this case, the criminal justice system) in which accountability is cal!ed into play. In sum, the accomplishment of race consi sts 01' creating d ilTerences am ong members of different race categories di ffercnces lhat are ncithcr na lural nor biol ügical (cL Wcst and Zim merman 19X 7, 117 ) O lll'" ~'I ('a l ~'d lhcsc dirfcr cnccs are u\cd l O m aintailll hc "cs:;cn tial" d i.,litll.: liwllc...... p I fa~. i:11 id cllti Lics" and the in slitll liollal arnlll1.tcmcn ls Iha l Ihcy ' ,lIp pl lll I 1""1 IIli~ p,'rspcclivc. lI 'O/lWI/
/111
I IO I Nli 111ft J IU Nf' I '
I 11 1' 1; I I I
1.lllUI idclIl ilics a n: nol ¡lIvarian t itlcLlli ;ra tiolls of our human nalllres that arc III1JlllJlllly di slrihutcu in society. Nor are norma live cunceptions 01' attitudes .11 111 .l\.:tivitics rol' (lile 's race calegory lemplatcs ror "racial " behaviors. Rather, \\ hlll is invarianl is thc notion that members of differen t "races" have essen1I.I II y dilkrcnl natures , which explain their very unequal positions in o ur ,,~·il,ty . "
C7ass
I his, loo , we propose , is the case with c1ass. H e re, we k now that even vm pathetie readers are apt to balk: gender, yes , js " done ," and race, too , is In:olllplished ," but dass? H o w can we r ed uce a system that " differentia\Jy 1IIICtures group access to material resources, inc\uding economic, politicaJ a nd pdal resourccs" (Andersen and Collins 1992, 50) to " a situated accomplish tlu.: nl"'? Do \Ve mean to deny the material realities of poverty and privilege'! Wl: do not. There is no denying the very different material realities im posed Ilv differing relations under capital; however, we suggest that these realities h.JVC little to do with c1ass categorization and ultimately, with tbe account .Ihilily of persons to c1ass categories- in everyday lite. For example, consider Shellce Colen's description of the s.ignificanee of III.1 ids' uniforms to white middle-dass women who cmploy West Indian iUllnigrant women as child care \Vorkers and domestics in New York City. 111 lhe words of Judith Thomas, one of the West lndian women Colen IIJIl.:rvicwcd ,
She [the emplo yer] wanted me to wear the uniformo She was really prejudiccd. She just wanted that the maid must be identified ... She used to go lo the beach cvery day with the children. So going to lhe bcach in the sand and the sun and shc would have the kids eat ice cream and all that sort ol' thing .. . I tell you one day when I look at myself, I \Vas so dirty . . . just likc I came o ut from a garbage can . (1986 , 57) 1\1 lhe end ofthat day, says Colen , Thoma s asked her employer's pennission
wear jean s to the beach the next time they went. and the employcr gave her p\!nnission to do so. When she did wear jeans, and the employer's brother c';III1C lo the beach for a visit, Thomas noted , 111
1 really helicve they had a talk about it , because in the evening, driving back I'rom the beach , she saíd " Wc1L Judith , I said you could \Vea r some lhing cisc tu lhe beadl otller lhan lhe uniform [but} I think ynu wi ll have l o wear lhe ullilün ll becu usc lhey' re very in formal o n lhis bcach and Ihey du n'l know wllo is tll lcs ts from wh o isn't guests." (19S6, 57) til
!DENT Il Y 1\ NI
IloI Nt, II I III;l!ltHN(' ,"
Ofthe women C olen inlerviewed (111 1')lIS} HI " "lIl \\, I ~ Il lol king II lO rt'lhall $225 a week , and Thomas Was the oll l ~ IJm \V li l l"l' l'llll'lllycr was paying lúr medical insurance. AlI (including TIt OlII. I:, ) Wl' r ~ slI rporling al lea.sl two households: their own in New York, a lld Ihal ur Ihe ir kill hack in the Wcst [ndies. By any objective social scientilic crill:ria, fhen. all would be regardeu as members of the work ing-c1ass poor; yet. in the eyes ofThom as's employer (and, apparentl y, the eyes of ot l!ers at the beach), T homas's low wages. lon.g hou rs, and mi serablccollll ilio l1s ofemployment were insufficienl lo estab lish her c1ass category. Wi lhnlll a IIniform. she co uld be mista ken 1'0 1" one 01' Ihe guests and ohcnn :. n(11 he hdd acco untable as a maid. T hcrc i¡; 1l1 0fe lo Ihis e,xlI fnp lc, 01' course, tha n m eets the eye. The em rl< lyllr\ nlll\\ilhs lan di ng. il is unlikely that Thomas, tending to whitc I lI id d l~ dl l:.:" d ll ldrl' lI wlll \ wcrll d ca rly not her own , would be mistaken ror 1J1Il' .. 1 tllI ' !'.IWltls ,111' hcad l. T he blue jeans, however, might be seen as 1I1t1'L.I'III.' hl'I I.l dlll \' IUl.'llfllpl y wi ll! normativc expectalions ofattitudes and 1>(.' 11.1\1111'. ,IjIJl' 1l(l J 111 11' '" n IlI aid
\.'1 (Wll ll!il' II qtlr pr ilYis confirmed by Thomas displaying hersel f ,1', il 111.1 11 1) 1\:, I'vd yll N¡,killl n ( ilclln notes in another con tex t, "the higher ~1:lJldt fl d nI liv ill /' n I Olll' Wl) lI la ll i¡; made possible by, and also helps to J1I'rpl.'l if all:. Ih e nllll.!1 s l\lwer stan dard 01' living" (1992 , 34). .l\dllll ll cd ly. lhe II nn nulivc conccptions that sustain the accountabili ty nI pcrsCl lIs lo d ,,:-;s ca lcg\lry a re so rnewhat different from those that sus tai" acco llnta bilily lo sCX catcgory and race category. For example, despite ca rlicr a llcmpls lo li nk pa uperi::;1lI with heredity ano thereby justify the rorced sleriliZ:lli o n or poo r WOrncn in the United States (Rafter 1992), sci entists today do nol com:eive al' class in relation to the biological charac teristics 01' a person o There is, moreover, no scientifie basis for popul ar notions 01' what persons in particular class calegories "look Iike" 01' "ael like." But although the dominant ideology within the United Sta tes is no longer based explicitly on Social Darwinism (see, for example, Gossett 1965, 144- 75) and although we believe, in theory, that anyone can make it, we as a society still hold certain truths to be self-evident. As Donna Langston observes:
t""11l
a'
11' hard work were the sole determi nan! of your ability to support yourself and your 1~lmily , surely we'd have a different outcome for many in our society. We also, however, believe in luck and on closer examination, it certainly is quite él coincidence that the " unlucky" eome from certain race, gender and class backgrounds. [n order lO perpetuate racist , sex ilit ami classist outcomes, we also havc to believe that the CUrren t ccon omic distributiOll is unchangea ble. has always existed. anu pro babl y cx i:. L'i in this form th roughoul Ihe known universe. i.c.. it\ " Ilat ura l. " ( 199 1, 146) (1
I .11 11",11111 pinpoillls Ihc undcrlying ass umpliolls that l>ustain our notions 11111111 pl'J'sons ill rclalion to po verty and priv ilege- assumptions that com I'dl' \Villr 0111' contradiclory declarations 01' a meritocratic society. wi th its il',lIl rlv illvo kcu exemplar, Horatio .l\lger. For example, ir someo nc is poor, 'l' ¡ISSIIIIIll il is beca use o f something (hey did or d id not do: they lacked 11I "I,l llVl', tlrey were nol industrious. they had no ambition. and so forth. If ,H/lI~' IIf1t' is rich , or merely well-off. it must be by virtue of lheir olVn efforts, " I1I'II IS, ami initiative. While these beliefs certainl y look more mutable than 11111 vicws ofwomen's and men 's "essential " natures or ou r deep-seated con \'íl Ilo ns regarding the characteristics 01' persons in particular mce categories, 111,'\ ~ Iill rest on the assumption that a person 's economic forfu nes derive '¡¡ UI1 I)lIalities 01' lh e persono Initiative is thus treated as inherent among the ",,\t" ami laziness is seen as inhcrent among Ihe have-nots. I 2 Given that 1II III ,lllVC is a prerequisite for employment in jobs leading to up\Vard mobility i" IIIISsociely, it is hardly sllrprising thal "the rich get richer and the poor get l'''IIIC r.'' .l\s in the case of gender and raee , profollnd historical effeets of 1"' '''lIclrcd institutional practice result , but they unfold one accomplishment " , 1 1illll!. 111 he sure, thcre are " objective" indicators of one's position within the \ ,1t:r1l or distribution that differentially strllclure our access to resources . It 1, IlIiS¡;ible to sort members of society in relation to these indieators, and it l . Ihe ¡ob of many public agencies (e.g., those administering aid to families " ,It depcndent children, health bcnefits, food stamps, legal aid, and disability 11\ Ild ils) lo do stlch sortin g. In the process, Pllblie agencies allocatc further Ilm'qllal opportunities with respect to health , welfare , and life chances: how \t· J . whatever the criteria employed by these agencies (and these clearly ~hfl ll l '.l' over time and place), they can be clearly distinguished from the 1\ 1III Inlability of persons to class categories in cveryday life. \ '; Benjamin DeMott (1990) observes, Americans operate on the basis ora 11111·. 1 Ilnusual assumption , namely , that we live in a classless society. On the 1111 Irand. our everyday discourse is replete with eatcgorizations of persons b II.ISS. DeMolt (1990 , 1- 27) offers numerous examples ofteJevision shows. !II \\~ p; l per articles, cartoons, and movies that illustrate how cJass " will tell " il l ' lil' nwst mundane 01' social doings. On the other hand , \Ve bclieve that \Ve 1" IlIl' llniled Slatcs are truly unique " in cscaping the hierarchies that bllrden ' 111 I\ :~ I or Ihe developed world " (DeMott 1990, 29). \Ve cannot see the sys 11) 11 1'1' disl ribution that structures our uneq ual access to resources. Because \'1 ('¡ 1I111111 sec lhis, the accomplishment of cJass in everyday life rests on the 11I1'''"J1lplioll lhal everyone is endowed with equal opportunily and , there I"h' Ih:ll rea l dirterenccs in the oulCOIllCS we observe must resull from 111\11 .,, 11111:11 dilTcn:nces in atlrib utes li kc iJl' cll igcncc and character. I 111 l·x a lll pl c. considcr lhe lll<.aJ¡;I '¡., COVCJ'aI,lC nI' thc tri a l of Mary Beth " lllklrcad Iht: wir\.! Ma sa nil a, i¡HI \VII I ~\., :lnd surroga tc mother 01' Ba by M . , , 1kM 1111 (I I¡I)O () 6 1( 1) (willh ¡IIII II l l1 l' l! 1II Ihis Irial revolved around lhe 11' \
II H ' N I I I '
,\NIl
II IHSIL I. I'
qucstion orthe kind of wo ma n w ho wo uld a g l'\!c lu h¡;a r amI se ll hel child lu someone else, One answer to tllis qu,~sl i o n mig h t be "Ihe kind 01' wll man" who learned early in life that poverty engentlc rs obligati o ns of reciprocal sacrifice among people- even sa c ritice ror those w ho are not their kin (cL Stack 1974), W hitchead was (me of eight childre n , raised b y a single mothe r who worked on and off as a beautician . Living in poverty, members or he!' family had often relied on "poor but genc rOLLS ne ighbo rs " for help and had provided reciprocal assistance when they coukL W hen W illiam and Betsy Stelll (a biochemist and a pediatric ian) carne to her ro r help, therefore, W hiteheél u saw t hem a s " seemingly dcsperate in their childless ness, threateneu b y a ruin lHlS disease (Mrs. Stern ' s self-diagnosed multi ple sderosis), [and] as people in tro uble , unable to cope wi tho ul her" ( D eM o tt 1990. 99). Although she Wll Uld be pa id ro r carrying l he prcgnancy an d although she kn ew that they we n: bcller o ff f'inancially tha n she was, W h itc head saw the S terns as "i n ncC(,1 \)f hel p" ami , he nce, could not do othe rwise than to provide it. D eM o tt \!xpl a iJls: S he liad seen people turn to othcrs helplcssly in distress, bad herself been turned lo previously: in her wo rld faiJ ure to respond was unn él tural. Her dass experience, together with her own individual nature. made it natural to perceive the helping side of surrogacy as primary and the comJ1lercial sid e a s important yet secondary. (1990, 98) Another answer to the "wh a t kind of woman" question might be White head 's lack of education about the technical aspects of artificial insemination (DcMott 1990, 100). A high school dropout, s he thought that this procedure al10wed clinicians to implant both a man ' s spe rm an.d a woman ' s egg in another woman's uterus , thereby ma k ing it possible ror inrertile couples to have their own genetic children. It was not until just before the birth that Whitehead learned she would be the one contributing the egg and, subse quently , would not be bearing their chi ld but her own. Under these circum stances, it would certainly secm " néltural" ror her to brcak her contract with the Sterns at the point 01' learning that it required her to give them her baby. The media coverage of Whitehead ' s trial focused neither on class-bascd understandings of altruism nor on c1ass-associated knowledge of sexual rep roduction : rather, it focused on the question of W hitehead's character:
\!x hi h ililll1lslic. ;JnJ !lisl rionic." . . , 1\ 1jnJc r the c ircumslanccs, he did 1101 'icé Ihal " Iheré wcrc any 'parental rights"': Mrs. Wh itehcad was "a sUlTogilte 1Ilerus" ... "ami not a surrogale mo lher. " (DeM o tt 1990, 96) I'hr(1l1gh thcse mean s, "the experts " reduced W hitehead from a \Voman to a
\\10mb, ami , therefore, someone with no legitimate c1aim to the child she had hl'ipcd to conceive. Simultaneously, they affirmed the right of Betsy Stern to hl' Ihe Illother- even of a c hild she did not bear. As W hitehead 's attorney put il in his summation , "What we are witnessing, and what we can predict wil1 happen. is that o ne cl ass of Americans will exploit another c1ass. And il w iJ l always be the wife of the sanitation worker who must bear rhe children for Ihe pediatrician " (Whitehead and Schwa rtz-Nobel 1989 , 160, cited in D e Mott Il)l)() , 97). The punch line, of course , is that our very praclices of invoking '\:sscntial differences" between cJasses sllpport the rigid system of social rclations lhat disparately distributes opportunities élnd tife chances. W ithout Ihese practices, the " natural " relati o ns under capital might wel1 seem fa r Illore malleable. The accomplishmcnt of dass renders the unequal insti t utional arrange Illcnts based on dass category accountable as normal and natural , lhat is, as lcgitimatc \Vays of organizing social life (cf. West and Zimmerman 1987). DilTerences between members of particular dass categories that are created by this process can then be depicted as fundamental and enduring disposi lions. 13 In this light, the institutional arrangemenls of our socie ty can be seen as responsive to the differences- the social order being merely an accommoda lion to the natural order. In any given situation (whether 01' not tbat situation can be c ha racterized as faee-to-facc interaction or as the more " macro" workings or instituli o ns ), Ihe simultaneous accomplishmenls of c1ass, gender, and race will differ in nmtent and outcome , From situation to situation , the salience of the observ ables relevant to catcgorization (e.g., dress, interpersonal style, skin color) JIlay seemlo eclipse the interactional impaet orthe símultancous accomplish IlIcnt of all three. We maintain, nevertheless, that, just as the mechanism for accomplishment is shared, so, too, is their simultélneous accomplishmcnt l·nsured.
Conclusion: the problem of differcnce
The answers from a team or expert psychologists were reported in detail. Mni. W hi te hcad was dcscribcd as " impllls ivc, egocentric, self-dramatic, manipul o pi n in n tlJil l llH,' dCl'c ll dilllt's a ilmeot Was a " Ill ix.cd rc rso nu li l y Jisordcr." ol ld Il lal "1111' WiI:. " illllllalure,
As \Ve have indicated , mathematical metaphors describing the relations alllong gender. race, and c1ass have led to considerable confusion in feminist sdJOlarship . As \Ve have a lso indicated , the conceptualizations of gendcr that slIpport m a t he matica l me ta p h ors (e .g ., " sex d ifferences" a nd " sex roles " ) have I'orcoo sch o lars to think 01' genuer as so melhing that slands apart from a nd oU lsiJ e 01' raCL~ a nd da$s in r eo rle':; li vcs .
11·'
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11> I N I I I Y J\ N I) I 111·. SI · 1. 1·
11 ti I N (1 t) I H ' HU' N ( ' ¡¡
In p utti ng forth this pcrspcctivc, \Ve ho pe to advancc a nc\V way 01' think i ng about gendcr , race, and class, namely, as ongoing, methodical, a no situated accom pli shments. W e h ave tried to d emonstrate the usefulness 01' thi s perspectivc for unoe rstandin g how people expe riem:e gender, race, class simultaneously. We have also tried to ill ustrate the implications of this pcrspective fo r reconceptualizing " the prob lem 01' di ffere nce" in fcmin isl theory. What are the implications of our ethnomethodological perspective for a n understanding of rela tions among gender, race, émd class? F irst and perha ps most important, conceiving of these as ongoing accomplishments means that we can llot determine their releva m;e to soci al aclion apart rrom the contexl in w hic h lhey a re accomplished (F enstermaker, W est, and Z immerman 199 1; Wcst .,"tI Fens termaker 1993). Whil e sex category, race category and class categoryare potentially omnirelevant to social lite , individual s inhabit m any differcnt identities, and these may be stressed or muted , depending on th e situalion. F or example, consider the following incident described in detail by Patricia Wi lliams, a law professor who, by her own admission , " Ioves to shop" and is known among her students for her "ncat clothes":1 4
IIlIwcw r. thal scx calcgory anu dass catcgory, althollgh 1lI 11 ted ,
. \ f
.r.. 1Ila t spcelllC mteractlOn. \ I~ A sccond implication 01' our perspecti ve is that the aecom pli shment of t. ~~ ,I;r-;s, and gender does not require catego rical d iversity a mong the pürr\\ ,l lItS. To paraphrase Erving G offman, social situations " do not so n\~ .11I, )w ror the expression 01' natural differenecs aS for th e production o fjt~\ Ih~ dilTtrcncc[s themsel ves)" (1977, 72). Sorne of the most exlreme disPlay\\~h cssential " womanly and manly natures ma y oee ur in settings that are u~ \'~] ! ~'scrved for members of a single sex category, s uch as locker room s orbe\ \j f ·,: IIOI1S (Gerson .1~85). Sorne of themost drama~ic expressions of "defil)i~\ \lly ..tass c?~rac~enstlcs r~ay emerge 111 cJass-speclllc contexts (e.g. , deblJl~\lly h"lIs). Sltuatlons that IIlvolve more than one sex category, race eatcgory , \\" ,Iass category may highlight categorical membership and makc the ae' '~ te plishment of gender, raee, and class more salient, but they are 110t neCt~\l~d 11) produce these accomplishments in the Ilrs t place. This point is ~~ \l)-¡ ·.llcssing, since existing formulations 01' reJations among gender, ra,t , Iass might lead one to eoncJude that " differencc" must be present fCJ~ .\h q 'orical membership and , thus , dominance to matter. \il)d A third implication is that, depending on holV race, gendcr, and \ t .11\: aceomplished , what looks to be the same activity may have di!);\, lIH'anings for th(~se engaged in it. Consider ~he long-s~anding debates a.~\\I~ss 1 ~' lIl1ll1sts (e.g. , Collllls 1990; D avls 197 1: DIII 1988: hrestone 1970: Fr \ nt 1%:1: hooks 1984; Hurta do 1989; Za vella 1987) over the significari~\\n IIlothcring and child c
ano
Buzzers a re bi g in N e w York City. Favored particularly by smaller stores and boutiques, merchants throughout the city have in sta lled thcll1 as screening devices to reduce the incidcnce of robbery : if the face at the door look s desirable, the buzzer is pressed and th e door is unlocked. Jf the face is that of an undesirable, the door stays pressed and the door is lock ed . I discovered [these buzzers] and their mean ing one Saturday in 1986 . l wa s s hopping in Soho and saw in a store window a sweater thatl wanted to buy for my mother. l pressed m y round brown faee to the window and my finger to the buzzer, seek ing admittance. A narrow-eyed white teenager, wearing running shoes and feasting on bubble gum glared out, evaluating me for signs that would pit me against the limits of his social understanding. Alter about five minutes, ho mouthed "we' re dosed ," and blcw pink rubber at me. It was two Saturdays before C hristmas, at one o'dock in the afternoon; there were several white people in the store who appeared to be shopping for things for Iheir mothers. (1991 , 44) In this inciden l . says Williams , the iss ue of undesirability revealed itself as a racial determination. This is true in a comparative sen se; fo r example, it is unlik ely that a white woman la w professor would ha ve bcen t realeu thi~ way by this salespersoll and 1ikel y that a Latino gang m e m lx r wou ld havc. Th is is also true in a legal sensc; ro r example. in cases in volvi fl" d isl.'r illlinati on , the law rcqu ircs potc n li al plai ntiffs lo s pcdry whét h~ 1 0 1 IIIlI Ilh'Y \VClé d iscrim in tllcJ ag¡lÍlIsl (1 11 Ihe bi.lsi s o r scx (Ir race lH son1\' .. 1111' 1 I 11 1r1lnll. Wc sllggcst,
Mi
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Bluc k wOlm:n ha ve iUclIlil i..:d WO I k i" tire co n te xt 01' t he rami ly . 1r 1l11l:llli/ ill1! Iaho r. worlo. 111111 .JlIII III N lh~~ ir id c nt ily as WOIll CIl, ~\
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111I! NTI 'IY ANII 1' 111
11 11: \tél)' ~'.\.' S IIlI(,S o)'lIl1lllanity whitc supremaci:st iJcology dai m¡;J hl at..:k J1l!Opk: wen: ineapable 01' expressing. (19S4, 13334)
huma n bdugt> sll \)wi llg loVl; alld
1I () I N (i "11 ; 1· 1- lt 1 N ( ' 1
11 1
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caplurc IIH:II' complcx qua1ity. I'oreground amI background, con
11'\1, salicllce, C1nú center shin ('rom in tcrad ion to interaction, but al1 operate 11 Jt ~' 1 dependen tly .
())' l'llllrSe, this is on1y the beginning. G ender, race, and c1ass are only three 11I\'ans (although certainly very powerful ones) of generating difference and
Looking specifica lly a t American fami ly Ji fe in the nineteell tb centLlry. Bonnie Thornton DiII (1988) slIggests that being a poor or working-<.:Iass African American woman, a Chinese American woman, 01' a Mexican A mer ican woman meant something very difrerent from being a Euro- American woman. Normat ive, c1ass-bound conceptions of "wom an's nature" at th at time included tenderness, piely. and nurturanee--q ualities that legitimated the confincment of middle-class Euro-American women to the dom estic sphere and that promoted such conflnement as the goal of working-c1ass and poor immigrant Euro-American families ' etTorts. For racial-ethnie women, however, the notion of separate spheres served to reinforce their subordinate status and became, in etTect, another assault. As they increased their work outside the home, they were forced into a productive sphere that was organized for men and "desperate" women who were so unfortunate or immoral that they could not confine their work to the domestic sphere. In the productive sphere, however, they were denied the opportunity to embrace the dominant ideologieal definition of " good" wife and mother. (D ill 1988, 429)
dlllllinance in sociallife. 15 MllCh more must be done to distinguish other forms ,,1 IIlcquality and their \Vorkings. Empirica1 evidence must be brough l lo bear 0111 the question oí' variatíon in the salience of categorical memberships, while .ti ll allowing for tho simultaneous influence ofthese membcrships on interac ItI 1I1. We sllggest that the analysis of situated conduct affords the best prospect Itll IInderstanding ho\V these "objecti ve" properties of sociallife achieve their IIII)',oing status as sueh and, hence, ho w the most fundamental divisio ns o f "111' society are legitimatcd and maintained.
Notes 11111/01'.1"
nole: /VI' gralefú//y aclou}l\'/edge ¡he crilica! commenls amI suggesliO/l.l' o(
/,,1111 Browl7 Chile/s, Ae/ele Clark. El'elyn N(//al!1o G!el1l1, !Jcrmal1 Gray, Aída Hurtado. I ,';('rie }el1l1eS.I'. Nalley .lurik, Palricia ¡\1errilVel/¡a. Virginia O!c.~cn, Pamela Ro!Jy, I 'II //a Takagi. .lall1es R. Wesl. Don H. Zimrnennan , A1axine Baca Zinl1, Ihe graduale \ lIIdcl1lS o/ UCSB's Sociology 2J2P ( ....imer 1993), anc!, especial/y, DelzisC' Segura. rllllllks 10 Pauy ForgiefiJr /¡ibliogmphic CI.I'.I'islance.
Fourth and tinally. our pcrspective affords an understanding of the accomplishment of race. gender, or class as constituted in the context of the differcntial "doings" 01' the others. Consider, ror example, the very dramatic case of the u.s. Senate hearings on Clarence Thomas's nomination to the Supremc Court. Wherever \Ve turned , whether to visual images on a tcIevision screen or to the was a B1ack /110/1 and that he was a B!ack mano It also made a difference, particularly to the African American community, that he was a B1ack man who had been raised in poverty. Each categorical dimension p1ayed off the others and off the comparable but quite different categoriza tions of Anita Hill (él "self-made" Black woman law professor, who had grown up as one of 13 children). Most white women who watched the hearings identified gcnder and men's dominance as the most salient aspects of them, whether in making sensc of the Judiciary Committee's handling of witnesses or understan din g the relationship bet ween I lill and T homas. By contrast, most A frican A merican vicwers ¡¡aw raci:;m as Ihe most salient aspect or thc hearings, íncluding whi te men's pruriclI l il1 tcn;sl in BIack sexu ality and lhe exposurc 01' trouhli ng J ivi/!ioll s bl'twCl'1I BI:wk women and men (Morrison 19(2). The poill! is that 11 0w we I¡¡]wl 'illd l d ylli lmil:s t..Iocs not
In this article, \Ve use "race" rat her than " ethn icily" to capture the comlllonsensical hcliefs 01' Illembers 01' our society. As \Ve \ViII show, these beliefs are predicated on the assumption Ihat differcnl "races" can be reliably distinguished from one another. , Compare, for example, the very different implica t ions of "Double Jeopardy: To Be Black and Female" (Beale 1970) and "Positive Erfects oflhe M ultiplc Negative: Explaining thc Success 01' Black Professional Women" (Epstein 1973). 111 this context, we define "experience" as participation in social systems in which gender, race, and class afreCI , determinc, or otherwise influence behavior. 1kre, it is important to distinguish an individual's expcrience 01' ¡he dynamics or ge,nder, race, and class as they order the daily course of social interaction from Ihat individual's sense 01' ,i dentity as a Illember of gendered, raced, and classed r:ltcgories. For example, in any given interaction . a woman \Vho is Lat,i na and a shopkeeper ma y experien ce Ihe simultancous effects of gendcr, nlce, alld e1ass, yet idcntify her expericnce as only "about" !'ace, only " about" gender. or only "aboLlt" dass. ~ rhc ambivalence Ihat dogs the logic of social construction,i st positions should no\\' hc all too familiar to feminist sociologists. 11' we are true to our pronouncements Ihat s(lcial inequalities and the categories they reference (e.g., gender, mee, and dass) are not moted in biology, then we may at sorne point seem lo f1.j¡·t \Vith the lIolilln that they are. therefore, rooted in nothing. For us, biology is not only no! ,kstillY but abo not the onl y reality. Gender, tace, and e1ass inequalities are firmly r" oled in lhe evcr-prese nt realitics 01' i" divi d ual practice, cultural conventiolls, ;ami soc ial institutillns. Thal's I'calilv vllolIgh , when \Ve ponder t.he pernicious and pc rv:\sivc d \:lral.:ll.' r 0 1' racism, ~CXI~ llI , a lld cl.'oll()lllic opprcssion. r, T I1 i1 1 punw lls ma y he held :H '~" 'llllla"h: ¡Jll CS l w l nwan Ihat tlwy ncccssarily will he hcld acco" II I:lhl<- iJl L'''~' l ~ 11I!t: I:I, 'IIIIII 1'lIrllcul:lr inler:lclional oulcol11es
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iIII l:r:'cl jI> 11 . lTIaint ai ll vil a l siU l isli¡;s ( 111 ral,;l:. C alifornia , 1'01' illstam:c, n:lies on mot hcrs' ami 1¡llhc rs' s\!lf-idelllitil:ill inlls ~)n hjrth cc rLilieatcs. 8 O mi anu Wi nilnt (1 1)!l(" M - 75) p!'oviue flumerous empirical illus t.rations, includ ing the lirst appearan ce 01' " white" as a tenn of self-identifiCdl ion (circa 1680). CaJifomia\ del:ision to categorize Chinese peoplc a s "I ndian " (in 1854). and th e U .S. Cc nsus's creation of the category "llispanic" (in 1980). 9 C on-;idcr Susie Guillory Phipps's unsm;cessful suit against the Louisia na Bureall af Vital Records (O mi and W inant 1986, 57). Phipps was c1assified as " Black " o n her birth certificate. in accord w ith 11 1970 LOllisiana la w stipula ting that an yon with al leas! one-thirty-second " N egro blood " was '·BJa ck. " 1ler atlorney contendeu that e!esignating a race category on a person's birth certificate was unconstitulional ane! that , in any case, the one-thirty-scconu critcrion was inaccurate. LJltimatcly, lhe cOllrt lIphe ld Louisiana's state law qllantifying " racial ie!entity" and thereby affirmed the legal principie of assigning persons to specific " racial" groups. 10 This would be true if only becallse outcomes bea rillg on po we r and inequality are so different in e!ifferent situations. Ours is a forrn uliltion that is scnsitive to vari ability. that can accommodate, for example, intcraetions where c1ass privilege and racism seem eq ually salient , as well as those in which racism inleractionally "cclipses" accountabilily to sex category. 11 As Spelman observes, "T he exi~tcn ce of raeism d oes not require that there are races; it requires the beliefthat there are races" (1988, 208, n. 24). 12 A devirs advocate might argue that gender, race, anJ class are funJamcntally different beca use they show diffeTent degrees of "Illutability" or latituJe in the violation of expectations in interaction. Although c1ass Illobility is possible. one might argue, raee Illobility is not ; or, while sex change operations can be per formed , race change operations Cilnnot. In response, we woulu point out that the very notion that one cannot change o nc's race - but can change one's sex and manipulate displays of one's class- ·only throws us back to biology anu its reassur ing, but only apparent immutability. 13 Although we as a society believc ' that so me people lllUy "pull themselves up by their bootstraps" ane! others muy " fall from grace." \Ve still cherish the notion that c1ass will reveal itsclf in a person 's fundamental social and psychological character. We commonly regaru the self-maJe man, the wclfare mothe!', and Ihe middle-class housewifc as uistillct categories of persons. whose attitudes anJ actlvitjcs can be preJicted on catcgorical grounJs. 14 We include these prefatory comments about shopping anJ c10thcs fo r those reaucrs who, on eneollntering this e!escriptioll , asked , "W hat does she look Iike'!" and "What was shc wearingT' Those who seek further informalion will fllld Williams featurcd in a reccnt fashion layoul for M irahel/a magazine (As Smart as They Look 1993). 15 We cannot stress this strongly enough . Gender, racc, and class are obviously very salient social a ceomplishments in social lile, because so Illany features of our cul tural institutiollS alld uaily uiscourse are organizeu to perpe t ua te the categorical distinctions on which they are baseu. As Spelman observes, " the more a society has invcsted in its Illembers' getting the eategories right, the more oceasions there will be for reinforcing thelll , and the fewer occasions there will be for questioning them" (1988. 152). O n any givcll occasion of interaction , however, \Ve may also be hele! accountable to other categorical mClllb~rships (c .g., elhnicil Y, nati ona lity. sexual oriental ion , pl uce 01' birthL :lOd. lhus, " dilú'rC111,;¡;" llIi1y Ihen be dilTcrentially cOllstilu tcd . 7
1)( JI N ( ; 1111 {' J ItI J N I ~ t ·
n
ro
70
_,\l'h:r , Joall. 1<)92<1. Gendered institulillllS: Frolll scx roles to gene!ered institutions.
Soci%gv 21: 565 - 69. 1992b. G cnderin~ orgllnizat ional theory. In Gel/dering Organizaliona/ Tll eury ,
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cdilcd by A lbert .l. Milis and Peta Tancred. London: Sage. I\llIlquist, Elizabeth. 1989. The expe riences 01' minority women in the U nited States: Inlcrsections of race. gender, a nd c1ass. In Womell: A/ell1inisl perspeclive, eJitee! by
.h) I·'rceman. Mountain View, C A: Mayfield. Andcrson. Margaret L., and Pa tricia Hill Collins. 1992. Preface to Race. e/ass alld gel/del', cditee! by Margarot L. Andersen ane! Patricia Hill CoHins. Belmont CA: Wadsworth. ¡\ pI hcker, Bettina. 1989. Tapestries of lije: WlIIl1l'n's )I'ork, II'O/I1e/1 's COI1SciOUSlleS.I'. and 1/'" /I1e{/l/ing o/dai/y l'xperience. A mherst: Uni versity of Massachusetts Press. 1\, slllart as th ey look. Mirohe//a , June 1991, 100 - 111. Ikalc , Fiances. 1970. Double jeopardy: To bc Black ane! female. In Tlle Black \I 'UII/ml: /1// anlll%gy, edited by Toni Cade (Bambara). New York: Signet.
link. Sarah renster maker. 1985. Tlle gfndcr fáclory: Tlle apporliun/llenl (Jf lI'ort.: in
ilnleriwn !rouse{¡o/dv. New Yo rk: Plenum. IIhavani , Kum-Kum . In press. Talking racism and the editing ofwomen's sludies. In II/Irodl/cing )I'omen·.I' swdie.\', edited by Diane Richardson and Vicki Robinson. Ne\\i York : Macmillan. ( 'ahill, Spencer E. 1986. Childhood socialization as recruitlllcnt process : Some lessons from the stud y of gender development. 1n Soci%gica/ Sll./i/ies uf cllild del'e/O¡JlIlCn I , cdited by Patricia Adler ane! Peter Ad\er. Greenwich , CT: l A\. ('olcn, Shellee. 1986. "With respect ane! feclings" : Voices of West Indian child care and domestic \Vorkers in New York City. In A// AlI1erican I\'OIl1l'n, edited by .lohnella B. Cole. New York: Free Press. ( 'ollins, Patricia Hill . 1990. B/ackjéminis' (hol/ghl . Ncw York: R outledge.
( 'onnell, R. W. 1985. Theorizing gender . So!'iology 19: 260 ..72.
Davis, Angela. 1971. The B1ack woman' s role in the community of slaves . B/a('k
. .;dlO/ar 3: 3- 15. . 1981. WOIl1CI1 . roce and e/as.\'. New York: Random House. .k Beauvoir, Simone. 1953. The second sexo New York: Kllopf. I kM ott. Bcnjamin. 1990. T!le il1lpt'ria/ midd/e: Why Amerimll.\· ('on ', l!link .I'[raiglrl ,,/mlll ('/as.I'. Ne\V Haven, CT: Yale University Pres.>. llill. Bonnie Thornton. 1988. Ou!' mothers' grief: Racial ethnic women ane! the maintcnance of families. jOl/rna/ oI Fami/y Hislory 13 : 415- 31. I' pstein, Cynthia Fuchs. 1973. Positive eff~cts orthe double negative: Explaining the SUl'CCSS of B1ack professional women. 1n C/Wl1ging l\'O/11en in (f cllanging .l'ociely, \!ditcd by loan Huber. Chicago: Univcrsily of Chicago Press . I'sscd. Philomcna. 1991 . UnderslOl1dil1g ('I'eryda)' raci.l'lI1: / 111 il1lerdiscip/inarl' IlIeory.
Newbury Park . CA: Sage. h'nstermaker, Sarah. Candace \Vest. amI Don H. Zimmerman. 1991. Gender in l'quali ty : New conceptual terrain . In Gellder. jámily al/{/ ccol1omy: Tlle triple o ver /(1('. cdi lCU by Rae Lcsse r Blumbl'fg. Newbury Park. CA: Sage. J !lestolle. Shu la mith . 1970. n/l' dia/('clic lI(sex. New Y ork: Morrow. I riedan . Ilt:l ly. 1%3. ,[,ht' Ji '/IIilli//(' 1/I,·.\li«(II1'. New York: Del!.
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I-rYI:, Marilyn , Ir)H~ . nli' I,,,/il/, ·.\ ,,1 ,. ',.t//\ I ~\,\ (IJ 'J ,Ú /¡ill,II"I( "" '(//1 '. I'rllnlilIlShllll'" NY: C rossing Prcs~ Ga rfinleL J larold. 1()ü7. S tlldi,'s il/ "11111111/11',11".1"1,,,. 1' 1'. IIt' lcwpod UifTs, N.I : Prentice-I lall.
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I ,.. Ilil' . A udrc. 1')1\,1. .)'/1'/ 1'1' olllsitla. '1 n llll;\IIShlll !'. NY: ('rosslIlg.
!\H hl ey . ed. 1(>75 . Ra/'(' & IQ. I.olldoll: O xford lJnivcrsily Press.
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.17. G erson , J udith. 1985. n,e I'uria!;ilil)' al/(I.mlielll'<' o(,!!,(,,,t!cr: !sSI/CS ld'm/lccpll/ali::alio/l Mor;lgu , Chcrríe. 1981. La güera. In This h/'idge c({IIed /11y hack: Radiwlll'rifing hy (/mlllleasu/'emenl. Paper presented at the annualmeeting orlhe Amenean Sociologic
Staeey. J udith, and Barrie Th ome. 1985. The missing feminis l revolution in sociology. - -o1984. From margin LO een/er. Boston: South End.
Social Prublems 32: 301 -- 16. H ughes, Everett C. 1945. Dilernmas and contradietions of status. Amaimll Jour/1ol o/
Slack , Carol B. 1974. AII au/' kin: Slralegies/or survivol in a Block col/UnUnily. New Saciulagy 50: 353 - 59. York: Harrer & Ro\\'. Hull. Gloria T. , Patricia Bell Scott, and Barbara Srnith , eds. 1982. AII Ihe lI'o/llen ore Stcphans, Naney. 1982. The idea o/ mce in science. Hamden, C'T: A rehon. II'IIile, ali Ihe Blacks are /I/en, hUI some O['IIS ore hra ve. Old Weslbury, NY: Feminisl Thorne. Barrie . 1980. Gender ... Ho\\' is it best conceptualized? Unpublished manu Press . script , Department 01' Sociology, M ichigan State University , East Lansing. Hurtado, Aída . 1989. Re lating to privilege: Seduction and rejection in the subordin éí West , Candace, and Sarah Fenstcrmaker. 1993. Power. inequality and the accom tion of white women and women of color. Sígns: JOllnwl uI Women in Cullure ((lid plishment 01' gender: ATI ethnon"ethodological view. In Theory 01'1 genderlfeminisl11 Sociely 14: 833 - 55. on t/¡eory , edited by Paula England. Nc\\' York: Aldine. Jordan , June. 1985. Report from the Bahamas. In 0/1 coll: Poli/ical essays. Boston : West, Candace. and Don H. Zimmerman. 1987. Doing gender. Gentler & Sociely South End. 1: 125- 5 1. Joseph , Gloria, amI J.ill Lewis, eds. 1981. COll1l1/On di//erences. Garden City, NY: Anchor. Williams, Patricia. 1991. Tll e ((Ichell/Y of mee (/mlrighls. Cambridge, MA: HarvarJ Kessler, Suzanne J. , and Wendy McKcnna. 1978. Gender: An elhnomel!7odologicul University Press . (/pproaeh. New York: Wiley. y oung, Iris Marion. 1990. Impartiality and the civic public. In T/1/'OIt'ing like (/ girl and Komarovsky. Mirra. 1946. Cultural eontradiclions and sex roles. American JOl/mal o( olhe/' essays inf('minisl phi/o,\'of!hy. Bloomington: Indiana University Prcss. S ociology 52: 184 89. Zavella , Patricia. 1987. WO/11 e/1 's \Vork und C'l/Ímnojúmi/ies: Cal1nery lI'orkers of lite - -o 1992. The concept of social role revisited. Gel/del' & ,'>'ocie/y 6: 30 I - 12. SonIa Clara Valle.v. Ithaca , NY: Cornell U niversity Press. Langston , Donna . 1991. Tired of playing monopoly? In CllOnging ollr pOll'er: .4n I ,illlmerman. Don H. 1978. Ethnomethodology . American Sociulogi.I·1 IJ: 6- 15. inlrodl/clio/1 lo Il'OlI1e/ú' sll/dies, 2d eJ., edited by Jo Whiteh o rse Cochran , Donnél I.inn, Max.ine Baca. 1990. Family. feminism and race in America. Gender & Socie/v Langston , and Carolyn Woodwa rd. D ubuquc. lA : KendalI- ll unt. 4: 68 82 . Linton . Ralph. 1936. Tlle sludy ofman . NeVv Yo rk: A pplcto n-CcnlUry. / iTlIl. M axine Raca , Lynn We ber Cannon, El izabeth Tligginbo th am , and Bonnie Lopata , Helen a Z.. and Barrie Thorne. 1987. 00 lhe terlll "se.' r" lel> .. Slgn.l' · ./011/'11(/1 Tho rnlon Dill. 1986. T he costs 01' exclusionary practices in women's studies. Signs: o( WO/l/('// ill Culture amI Soóel y 3: 718 21. ./O/lfll((1 WOII/('II in Cullure (lnd ..'>"";('/.1' 11: 2l)()- 303 . M,,"I;I)!.II.
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I first heard this Dick Gregory tale \Vhen growing up in Chicago in the I 960s. Now, Gregory told the sto ry to our p redominantly black high school audi ence with an undertone of sardonic bittemess al its implil: it dicholomy of blackness and Iiteracy. At the s(lmc lime (lnd no JO ll h t ( , lqWI)' had this too in milld \.Ve recogni zed hu mor in the dclicil1l1s ¡roo}' \1 1,1 vil'''' IJillrn p h \l yc r
lit,' ¡lIlCllatill g lI.:cllllol\lgy 01' orlicialdol\\: 111\: Iricbter \w er the chump, the 11I psl e l ()Ver the Man . W ith pcrhaps too IiUle appreciation 01' Gregory's Ulllt iOlwry tOlle (or 01' his a ppended maxim: "Get from the playground to the I'lIlvillg-gro und " ) the tale made the sandlot rounds for many months, and "VCII ir \Ve used to speak 01' Earl-the-Pearl and Chet Walker instead 01' Midlacl Jordan, i( answered exultantly to some rebellious need we all felt a s WI.: lTawled our \Vay through the labyrinthine nightmare of u rban educatiollal Ih:cay. We imagined that its strategies of indirectioo and displaeement were 11~<; i g ned to create alternative expressive possibilities to those proferred by the lI1il ~( e lfs) texts: its hy perbolic and parodic adherence to institutiona l ord er ,uggested how thc wil and irony of performance could supplant the c1assify III )!. lIorms 01' sanctioned \Vriting. Little did 1 suspect that the story could be redeemed years later as an .dkgory 01' my professionallife - Ilot , thank goodness . <1S a postal c1erk , but, 11\ one 01' its more perverse variations, a literary critic - a critic specifically of '\ frica n-American expressive tradition . Fo r at the time 1 was first eneounter In g Gregory 's little rabie as a schoolboy io Chicago , the state 01' African AlIlerican literary interpretation was well reflected by the tale : obscured by lite shadow 01' a hermeneutical technology produced as much to confine as 111 illuminate hlack expression, pieces of African-American Iiterature were ('asually, if elegantly , sorted into categories (of period, genre, an d " sensi b a1i(y") - but few were actually being read as a dynamic activity capable 01' 1r;llIsfigurillg both reader and the textual event of meaning. Since then. a vnitable explosion in interpretive activity and acumen has taken place. so Iha( \Ve flnd ourselves on the threshold of an entire revaluation 01' (he vcry llIlage and import of African-American Iiterary and cultural tradition. A key ingredient of this critical revolution, indeed its enabling condi tion ;lIld interior rationale, was the vigorous debate taking place among black IItis!s and intellectuals about the function of literary expressioll in the wider l'll 11(cx(s of black liberation and evoluti o nary black consciousness. On the IIne hand, literature was seen as both an inadequate defense against the lIarshness 01' African-American experiellce ("ain't seen no poem stop a '38 " Ilaki Madhubuti') and as an exile into the "dead letter office" of an alienat "n~ duplicitous, and oppressive medium ("so many words, but none of them 4 .11 e mine" - Amiri Barak( ). On the other hand, writing, properly reconceived ;lIld directed as utteranee and as aet, was advam:ed as a signal instrument 01' l'I¡\tural liberation. But, for thois revolutionary alignment 01' voiee and pur plise to be achieved , the "new breed " (Peter Labrie, al'ter James Brown)' of hlack artists would need to fashion a dynamic ne\V poetics: expression would h\:<':l)l11e precminently theatrical (" the poet must become a performer" I ;·III·y Neal) ,(' perfo rmance would become transitive and transformative CArt 1' , cltange . .. poet ry
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71 P RO LOGUE Perforrning blackness Kimberly W Benslon So urcc: Peljurming B lockness: J:'l1aC!lI1enIS ofAfi-ical1-Americ(J11 Alodernism , London: Roullcd gc, 2000, pp . 1- 2 1.
Brothers and sisters, my text this morning is the Blackness of B1ackness ... Black will make you ... or black \ViII unmake you. Ralph Ellison, Inl'isihle Atan I Brown is not brown except when used as an intimate description of personal phenomenological fields . . .. that is, we need ahem, a meta la_nguage ... something not inc\uded here. Amiri Baraka, The Slave 2
1 Tl le Postal O ffkial was taken aback: he was on a routine inspection of a sorting office on Chicago's Southside, but what he saw was definitely nor routine . Ofrto one side, without ostentation or fanrare, a young \Vorker \Vas sorting his pieces as if he were Michacl Jordan giving a c\inic: around the back - shump!, into the box; through the legs - slVish! , into the bag; and so on. Tbe Official couldn't forbear: "Young man," he intoned , " that's truly amazing! " "Aw, man," the worker shot back , flipping anothcr piece over his head neatly into a slot, "This ain't nuthin ... you just \Vait 'til I can read this jive!"
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1'his ht)o k ~)fl i.:n; ¡¡ p ldilll ll l:l IVnpllll l,i'"ll1 f lln 1" 1 f.. nil.lIi vc cthos inf,lrlll ing A fri l:u n- A merican m o J c llli\ ll1 W ll ~'h 1,1.1\ ~ 1IIIIdl 1111 . 111 " Jcsignatcs that politico-aesth l:tic fcrlllcnt .... isi ll l' Wllh Ihl!' 1;1,11 k tllll..lll lllSlless movement of the 1960s, a stil1-1ivin g mOIl1Cllt in whieh ;¡ "l l st~lIll C'd eITort to transfoml re presentation into presentatio n bec m y approach . B/ackness, in faet, emerges f1'om close SCI" lI lillv ni tlll' 1I111\JCnll;nt's Icudi ng thco rists - Malcolm X, Baraka, anu Nc:a l chl\:I' '' llhllll' 111 " 111 as a ILTIll o f
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1I11111iple, onell CIlllllicling.. implications w hieh, takc n together , signal black AlI1crica's clTo r! lO articulate its own conditiolls 01' possibility. At one moment, hlack ncss may signify a reified essence posited as the end of él revolutionary "lIlctalanguage" projecting the community toward "sometning not included here"; at another momen!, blackness may indicate a self-interpreting process which silT1uItaneously "makes and lInmakes" black ioentity in the ceaseless flux 01' historical change. Several animating tensi o ns prol iferate from this ahiding debate on blackness: Is the self 01' blackness an empirieal prese nce, a goal, or a necessary fiction to be ultimately disca rded in the higher interests of communality? Is there a language cogna te wi th this black seHhood , o ne capahle of legitimating its most daring political and psycbie desires - and, if so, does this language exist prior to the intended rupture with the past or is it an elreet of that intention? On the other hand , is traditional language, cncrusted \\'ith the legacy of alienation, an imprisoning meebanism or evasive lure? And if a meta-Ianguage can be forged - for example, in the performative idioms 01' music, polemic, or rebellion - ean its styles of emancipation, didac ticism, disruption , and celehration be reconciled in a coherent expressive discourse? No doubt these are questions haunting the entire history 01' African American culture, anO particularly those 01' earlier collective aesthetic move ments such as the Renaissance of the 1920s and the less-often diseussed hebop modernism of the 1940s. What gives such issucs signal emphasis during the period of the Black Arts Movement - and , in turn , what m a kes investigation of the Movement 's modemist impulse valuable for an increased understanding 01' the larger history in which it is embedded - is the way in which vario liS socio-political and cultural perturbations lent to the categories of change and difference an inherent, not merely a strategic or historical , value. On the one hand , the modernism stirred by Black Arts experiments must be studied as an adversary culture cultivating styles of dissonance and refusal in an effort to resist the closures of all received narratives and codes. In this spirit of ca1culated disorder , the Black Arts descend, sometimes quite directly , from the dissonant fury 01' the bebop generation. 1O On the other hand , seemingly anarchic negation is deployed by African-American modern ists in the interests of discovcring a space of redeemed value; in this quest for lIleaning and plenitude, modern black art echoes the romantic metaphysics 01' the Renaissance. 11 But the conjoined impulse toward rebcllion without r(,.I'.I'en I itnen 1, for a revisionary violence which somehow both subverts and recuperates the past , delinea tes the distinctive rhetorical fleld 01' Black Arts speculations on tradition. And any critical appraisal of the Movement's clTects must account for its animating tensions in terms whieh reduce neither lhcir contraJictory nor productivc character. In pa rlieula r, we m ust negotiate the division that persists between our apprccia tion 01' the eru's exp rcssio ns as text ami our awareness o f them as J'X!1" rM I11
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cvi llcc ti polar l)pposit il lll : ull lhe 1)11,' 1t .II Hl Illl \\,,11 ~ IS llIeilS llred against · pri vi1egcJ notion 01' "blackncss" whic h IS flos il cd as 1:)( lel'lJal to both the E uro-A merican " mainslrea m " and, in a poll llcu l liense, lo lhe work itsell'; on the other hand, the work is tested for co nf'orm ily lo a universally applicable norm of"the Iitera ry" (a trope ofcultu ral vulue in ge neral) w hich is supposed to exist both in and o lltside any notion of "blac.:kness," 1 would arg ue thu t these views share a basic philosophie slIpposition - lhal the work' s meaning may be locatcd in some standard both prior and external to the expressive act itself - a supposition rooted in a eommon politica l im plicá tion: that the a udience's role is to discriminate the " pro per" from the " fail ed " or foolish, the correct from the deviant. Let me quickly illustrate by contrasting two justJ y we lJ-knowll a ppraisals of modern A frican-A merican poetry , H a ki Mad hubllti 's (Don L Lee's) Dynumile Voiees may he taken as a representati ve o f what 1 will term lhe "hermenelltics of blackness" : fo r him, black poetry ranges on either side o f the great divide ol' the Blac k A rts M o vement, which created, in his view, the tlrst thorollghly " Black " African-American poetry. Wllilc acknowledging the inftuence of earlier periods, especially the Harlem Renaissance , upon the new black poet's sense of purpose anJ seriousness, Madhubuti measures the " unique " status ofthe contemporary. originary bl ack poem by a standard 01' didactic comm itment, " concrete" subject-ma tter. a nd orality , a standard which no earlier poetry had fully realized. Against Madhub uti, we may place a representati ve of what J wo uld caIJ the " hermeneutics 01' recuperation," a reader such as Blyden Jackson , who, in his contribution to Black Poetry in America (co-written with Louis D. Rubin) , sees likewise in the modern black poem a " wo rld 01' blackness" where every utterance "so unds ali ke," a plainness which Jackson sees as threatening the reduction of the poetic to "a cartoon quality."1 2 However, where Madhubuti sees in the modcrn discoursc 01' blackness a salutary disjunction . Jackson offers lo reassi milatc the era 's disharmonious outcries to the presumed continuity of a "syntheticall y Amer ican" tradition , allowing us to " think of recent black poetry at Ieast as much in the context of poetry as 01' propogandu. " In a sen se, Madhubuti a nd Jackson share a crucial presupposition for the interpretation 01' modern African-American expression: that the a udience's role was radically reshaped or threatened by the emerging poetic of contem porary praetitioners, a poetie which asserted that the peculiar power of black art was its refusal 01' diJfJculty and the accompanyin g need for professional exegesis or " translation," and , concomitantly, that the writer-performer , in questio ning the authority 01' trad itio n, conceived hi s o r her wo rk as nol merely experimen tal but as un exploration 01' raJ ically altc rnativc eu ll ura l construclS. C urio w¡ly, hOlh criti ca! cam ps I ha vc becn ,)ull ill illf II.'''p\l nd lo this poten tial sllh ver~ i on M lil e uses ¡¡ntl rcecplil)n ¡lIdecd ,,1 thl' h"y ca lcgnry of 1""
hl .tC~ c xpn:lIsio ll hy rea nllllling lile ralhl'l tradiliollal asslImption Ihat liter ¡¡III II: is all inevita ble l,;Ollscq llc ncc uf being, and thal its "natural " role is (¡ 1 mimc an CX reril~nce wllosc él ut hcnticity is guaranteed by being enacted IIIlkpcndcn tly 01' any rcllection upon it. Both Madhubuti and Jackson thus ;In:cpt Ihe opposition 01' expression-as-structure and ex pression-as-event, ¡¡lid cach undertakes the task ofmaintaining the purity 01' one notion against 11!l' iniq uity oC the o ther. Behind this opposi tion stand a host of other, rather lallliliar, dualities which permeate hoth interpretive fields: assimilationism wrslIs nationalism , language versuS self, form versus content, oral versus writlcn , craft versus politics (as in Jackson ' s dich o tomy of " poetry" and " propaganda "), etc. It is the burden of my argument that unless we change place from a criticism erected on such contraries, locating our discussions al Ihe challenging juncture 01' ideological and aesthetic concerns, we will IK' doollled to retrace tbe conceptual do-si-d o marked out by the secret partners of recent years, the Schools of A bsolute Blackness and C hastened 1lnivcrsality - a nd, further, we will fail lO perceive o r experience the era 's own hracing lesson: that " blackness" is not
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progla lllllla Il l' I..h:daml l! Ins !t mi Pl '¡ l Hui Pi'll olllld 111 ~" . wll ¡eh ca rry lhe Blal'k Arts MOVCl1 l\; nl '~ Ilc ighl /lracsl ln:IH:. II1lllJh'l"l ,11 ,lI ld p(ilítical visions. 11 RelaleJl y, \Ve mus! gr~lsp wi l h lll ote pal ll\: I1 I:llll y II\)w this argurncnl derives fro m !\ frican-A mcricall modernism '!oI d W II sIl uggle for self-definit;on. Indeed, ) wOllld suggcst Ihallhe two eritical positions o utlined a bovc- one stressing the Black Arts' most vocilcrous ideological c1 a ims for an auto nomous blaek poetics; the other sccki ng to situate black poetics within a larger, more continuous, and more tcxtured fiel d 01' expressive desire - echo an argument taking place among practitioners themselves a bout the naturc of blackness, performance, and the mod ern African-American subject. To establish a paradigm for this discoursc - which we sha ll see emerge through out this study in the d isparate arenas of theater, music, poetry, preachin g. and criticism itself .~ rd like brietly to contrast t\Vo passages which o lTer bril1iantly compressed rctlections of the kcy issues involved: the sermon on the "blacklless of blackness" in the Prologue of Ellison's Inl'isihle Atan and Clay's c1im actic speech in Baraka's /Julclunan. Each text privileges the rela tion of blackness to performance as a vision of A frican-American identi ty, grouping arollnd that topos a complex of problems integral to any discus sion of modern African-American expression (problems concerning the rel a tions of history to tradition , revolution to repetition, textuality to orality); but they a1so do so in order to figure quite distinct theories of both bl ack selfhood and its formation by and in the "play" of a renovated languagc of black identity.
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"Amen, hro!/¡er . .. " "!3Iuck lvil! gil you .. ." Michael Ha rper , "A pol1o Vision: The Nature of the Grid " 14
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Let us begin with ElIison's passage:
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l not only entercd the music but descended , like Dante, into Íts depths. And heneo{h Ihe slvijiness o/Ihe 17m lempo Ihere \Vas {/ sloll'er lempo ({mIo cave a/1(/ I enlered ir and looked around {[mI hearel (1/1 old IVOIIWIl singing a .1¡Jirilllal as./ú/l o/ Welt.l'chlller:: IIsllmlll'lIm, and heneolh Ihal laya Sli/! lowcr In'el on Ivhich 1.1"1/ 11' alwtlllflj /l l girll//(' color oI illor)' pl(!ading in a I'fIÍi' c (ikt' /JI)' lIIol/¡n ',1' (/.\ \/ /. ' .1'/ /) 0,1 1>¡'¡(lre a group o/ s!(/ vcOIvncrs II'/¡o /Jid /il/' 1",1' I/(¡/,¡'¡/ /,,,tll ', . /1/11 111 '1011 ' 1/¡,tI HfI
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As if deli berate1y reversing the iUusi o nary. demate ria lizi ng movement of humanist metaphysics - that movemen l of cancellatio n and co ncealment by which an irreducible expressive open ness is emptied out ¡nto an essential pro priety - EUison irollicaUy displ aces "whi le mytbology's" fable of the ori gin witil a story of the beginning-as-bl ackness. A t that begi n ning, the passage suggests. we fi nd enacted a ser ies ol' com plex differentes and disloca tions , first im
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oud "awol"ul" hui always chlhonian, whilc Ihe lIlore reSOllant ambiguities of " !luid iuc lltily" are ascribed lo lhe "gnlnd hoo<.!ed phantol11 " 01' a "whiteness ol"-whileness." Accepting thc a mbiguity orhis own beginning. E llison at once eiles Mclville's text as an ineseapable element 01" the A merican scene and app rop riates its authority over that scene by reshaping it toward a new '\:nu ." Ellison, in ellect, forces Ishmae\ (and, with him , lhe quintessential American reader Ishl11ae1 implicitly mirrors from the moment of his inaug ural "calling") lo re-en ter the arena 01' the preacher's dark pronouncement, and then suggests that the text of blackness is precise\y about the internal contradictions, necessary repetitions, and transgressive revisions 01" any beginning per se. But further , Ellison ' s text thematizes the prob1ematic of beginning as performed repetition by dedaring its own di vided status as expression. " Blaek will make you ... and unmake yo u": unuers tanding its existence as irreducibly heterogeneous, blackness establishes and yet al so destabilizes Ihe very ground of its own figuration , thus simultaneously asserting and dislocating its o\Vn privileged status as an:h-signifier of Afri ca n-Ameriean expression. Embracing the "is" and "ain't" of the beil'lg-of-blackness, anouncing a kind of dark Law of Contradicti o n in place oI the dominant representations 01' black discourse, this topos presents the possibility of a differential principie of identity which refuses any effaeemenl 01' the dis similar by a totalizing theory of African-American existenee (as in lshmael's hurried critique of the "negro preacher's" sermon as "Wretched enter lainment "). Thus , the sermon works by ditTerential tensions, defining the cver-shifting "scene" of African-Ame rican language as dialectical : "In the beginning" \Vas the sign 01" the End, the bloody sun of Revelations (cf. Re!'. (, :12); black will and it won ' t; love enfolds hate: laughter echoes mo uo él doub1eness experienced both rhetorically (\\Ion't/don't) and dramatically (the "ivory" whiteness-of-whiteness calls ror th e preacher's " black" respo nse). Primordial blackness is thus not a node 01' absolute essence but, rather. the (re)discovery of the subversive ambiguity of any expressive act, its inceptive cntanglement in a culture of veiled beginnings and benighted cJosures. It is Ihe end1essly enigmatic name for a ceaselessly elusive agency, that which puts Ihe reluctant prophet into the dark cave of the W H ALE'S BELLY as the prel:ondition 01' his deliverance through and for testifying. This theory 01' blackness dearly has profound implications for perform ative and interpretivc practice alike. But let us explore such possibilities in (;Oncert with a Barakan vision 01' blackness. Here is an excerpt from ( 'Iay\ cll1gry, and ultimately fatal, disputation with his " ivory" antagonist ,
I lila : .JusI shut up . You do n'l know w ha l yo u're talking about. You uon' t kn ow an ylhing. So ju::;\ k eep yOll r slupid mout h c10sed .. . and Iet lile lal k. _.. T hc bell y rub'! YOll WlLllh.:u me lo do Ihe helly rub? Sh it li'1
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you don 't L'vcn knllw I]()w. )l pu d01J'1 kl1PW hnw .... Belly rub is not Q ueens. Iklly rllb is dark pilleeS, with bi¡', hals and oVl'reoats hcld up with one armo Belly rub hates you .. . They [whites] say, "1 love Bessie Smith ." And don't even understand that Bessie Smith is saying "Kiss my ass, kiss my black unruly ass." Before love, suffer ing, desire, anything you can explain , she's saying, and very plainly, "Kiss my blaek ass." ... Charlie Parker'! Bird ... would'ye played not a note 01' music if he just walked IIp East Sixty-seventh Street and killed the first ten white people he saw. Not a note! . .. You don 't know anything except what's the re for you to see. An act. Lies. Device. Not the pure heart, the pure pumping black heart. .. . You understand? No. 1 guess not. 11' Bessie Smith had ki lled some white people she wouldn't have needed that music. She would have talked very straight and plain abOllt the world. No metaphors. No grllnts. No wiggles in the dark 01' her sou1. . . . all it needs is that simple aet. ... Ahh Shit. But who needs it? I'd rather be a 1'001. Insane. Safe with my words, and no deaths, and clean, hard thoughts, urging me to new conquests. (Amiri Baraka, Dwc/¡man, 34 - 45) A vision ofblaekness in relation to being and performance, Clay's speech is like the preacher's sermon in constituting an ideologieal and epistemologica l theory 01' signification. But if in Ellison we see the unmasking 01' myths 01' idealized presence and the disdosure 01' a diacritical dispersal 01' linguistic force, in Baraka we fed a counter-movement from the impure to the essen tial, a dcliberate and violent reversal of Ellison 's deseent which points beyond the realm 01' figure to its eorrected meaning in a " proper" form o Por Baraka, the expressions 01' language and the body of blackness are diametrically opposed; discourse and being are not, as for E1Iison, thoroughly intertwined , and the possibility 01' "knowing" begins with an emphatic refusal 01' el 0 quence's prestige. Blackness, far from being inextricable from the paradoxes 01' its articulation, fina1Iy transcends representation. 11' it is the always pre sent yet always coded subject of African-American cultural expression, th e appearances ofthat culture do not themselves constitute blackness ·- African American cultllral expression is not, in faet, the Ihing-in-itsellofthe blaekness which its pronouncements would invoke. Clay's blackness "hates" the representational realm of (/.1 ij' in which he, as a mere preacher 01' the Word, remains endosed in a spuriolls "safety." It longs for incarnation as literal presence, for the singular revolutionary act that would "murder" self-diffc rence and heal th e breach betwcen blac k identity and discourse which the origi na l violc ncc 01' whi Lc ncss I.l pene(.L T be effusions of a " p umpiJlg" b l:H:kncss wo uld rcp lal,;i,; 1, Il i s\IIl ' ~ pn) jcct ion o" bla~ k pcrf
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hcillg. This uCl1l n becOl1les Ihe authL'ntie "heart" orperronnance, redeeming blaL~k expressiol1 I'roll1 its condition as diasporic, alienated, and even burden sOl11e "device." Clay's polemic against the " Iie" 01' " metaphor" would shatter the Ellisonian scene oftextllal construction, a scene which Clay's vision sees as itsel/(and not simply the hidden \vhite master) imposing the " mask" ofblackness-as-being: Ellisonian diseourse, Clay seems to propose, points to the self-repeating aet 01' signifying (cf. the play's subway train in its mock-heroic quests 01' endless return) rather than to the longed-for signified. Th us, the image 01' destrllc tion, of smashing the idols of the tribe, yields not silenee but "plain talk," the sacramental violence in which desire is at last fulfil1ed, not deferred, in which speech is deployed not deferred to , in which the act ofthe present eanccls the emptiness of perfonnances heard as ends in themselves. We may, in fact , note that where El1ison is concern ed with the twisting 01' ends into their " possibilities" as beginnings, Baraka more apocalypticalIy would deliver black speech from the cyde 01' servile reiterations we call African-American tradition, yielding a radicalIy de-su'blimated perspective utterly beyond the reach 01' a textuality suffused by pathos and limitation . Thus, thollgh both authors stage their visions of African-American identity as a performative response to the historical condition 01' blackness-as-exile, their conceptions 01' that performance and the terms 01' its interpretation are instructively divergent. Where ElIison ' s questioning 01' origins gives to lan guage a productive capacity accomplished only in its performance, Baraka 's interpellation of a longed-for end envisions playas cither a prerevolutionary diversion 01', more radica1Iy, a postemancipatory sacrament in which the codcd meaning 01' historical black expression would become "very straight and plain," Performative activities, in this world in which we perforce have our beginning, are at best only approximations 01' the continuolls ideal 01' lived experience; as deflections 01' genuine revolutionary fccling , they are still more distanced from the continuous essence 01' truly free aetion. 1n the vision ofa "simple act " ofliberatory violence, Baraka's hero in fact assigns a signal role to the pllre gestures of performance. But the authenticity of those ges tures is realizcd only through a termination 01' the self-questioning (or, to rully accept Baraka's polemic against Ellison in this drama, self-falsifying) lheatrica lit y 01' the subterranean preacher. Performance is not, then , inescap ably dissonant and aporetic. BlIt lIntil it is directed to invocation 01' an indivisible (not invisible!) kernel 01' blackness, becoming both the site and mechanism 01' a revolutionary transubstantiation , performance can only be a 1I1ockingly faint shadow of a more "real " expression (Clay 's speech, after all, lInuerslands ilselfto be yct another "text" 01' African-American literary tradi tion, amI its eitation 01' ElIison's preacher. unlike the preacher's revision 01' I\klvillc's Ishmael, reinscri bes a Si~l,ll 01' sc1f-enslavement, no! self-enablement). Tllu s, lhe prLlphl:cy 01' rcvo lutio l1l1f y bluck I1CSS m ust supersede the E llisonian slmy (JI' pcrl'ormed hlacklH.:ss as I1l'CCSslI r y liL'tion , displacill)!. the reduclive H:,
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The Ellison/Baraka argument over the nature and telos of performed black ness brings us back to the q uestion of interpretive strategies with which we began this more-than-Ellisonian deferra1. Ellison's view of blackness as endless beginning suggests th a t its llTeaning does not inhere in any ultimate referent but is renewed in the rhythmic process of multiplication an d sub stitution generated from performance to performance. This is not in the least to say that Ellisonian performance is arbitrary or empty, just as it is not abstracted or objectilled. Rather, it is a construct of desire, mobilized at a site of strugg1e against various forms of ideological c1osure . As interpret ive respondents to its performative call , we are asked to acknowledge the perpetually unsatisfying and contradictory character of its enunciations. As compensation , we are offered a notion of lhe black text as a dynamic producer of richly differing signifying perspectives - a fashioner , in fact, of a world (as the hero puts it near the end of Il1l'isihle Mal1) " seething with possibilities. " Baraka's vision, by contrast, asks LIS to negate the effects of such temporiz ing displacements , to materialize the presence dissimulated in performance by moving throllgh the text to the truth ofblackness beyond it (one might say , to literally per-form!). The dance of blackness here is, to those who embody it, spectacularly unconcealed: it possesses a sense and sensuality which precedes "anything you can explain. " In a sense, Baraka' s blackness stands beyond the necd for cxegesis as such ; Clay's sermon is ironically directed to an auditor (i.e., Lula) \Vho, ipso .Iúeto, can 't "understand" it, while his longing is for a manilcst, nontigural "plainness" which prec1udes any need for clucidatory discovcry. Indccd , until the "simple act " 01' revol ution provides a transparent cpistemology 01' black presence displacing the partial perform lInccs that inadcq ualcly p rcflgurc it, we may s lJmli sc Ihal it is Ihe uudience (here imaginl!d (o be more like C1ay l han likc 1,lila) rn lh er Ihan Ihe perform ance wh ich rcq lIi res scru liny, Hml (ha( (he pr",,, d lCrS IlIsk is visiona ry a nlllln ,'ia lio ll 0 1 Ih e ¡s. 11111 di u1l.:el il'al herlll um::ut il' l 'III' II t'l'IIIl' u l o r tlll: i,\ (lile! a¡¡I'I, 0 1'
hlackness. Fo r Baraka, lhe Fllisolliall play ol"langllagc's dOllbleness is a dup licilolls discurd lhal scrcams lhc burdcll 01' black modernism, that imprison 1I1cnt 01' dclay 01" diasporic wandcring whcrc "multiplicity" is only a scattering 01" bcing-as-blackness and "play" is a hllrtfully necessary postponement of Illurdcrous redemption. And in a curious SCllse, representation is finally not problematic for Baraka as it is irresolvably for Ellison , beca use it can never quite erase blackness so as to mark in repetilion its absence . 1nstead, repres entation tcmporarily, ir hurtfully, hides or encodes blackness , allowing the possíbility 01' its becoming present as a his(ory which would not be a fiction , as a wholencss which would no longer enact its own fragmentation. We are finally in a position lo return to the contrast ofinterpretive modes, exemplified by Haki Madhubuti and Blyden Jackson, to which Baraka and Ellisoll might at first blush seem to correspond o After all , Madhubuti , 1ike Baraka, invokes the extralinguistic standard of " correct" blackness in ercct ing a vision 01' the poetic canon, while Jackson , á la Ellison, would refocus attention on the verbalmedium in which a rather more cc1ectic or "synthetic" vision 01' blackncss evolves from generation to generation. But ElIi son and Baraka are alike in just the crucial respcct which sets them aparl I'rom Madh lJbuti and Jackson: both thcir accounts of the topos 01' performed blackness begin by asserting that African-American signification arises through rupture, loss, and the consequent desire for restored plenitude - and if they disagree about the destination 01' desire's projects, they together differ from Madhubuti and Jackson in seeing no immediatel.y available cultural aulhority which could stabilize blackncss's performanccs. In thi s sense, the Ellison-Baraka contrast offers us a mechanism - an enabling allegory, if you will - for resituating the critical opposition 01' "blackness" and "universality" onto a ground internal to African-American discourse itself - i.c., in Ellison and Baraka, we are offered models 01' the black performative 'text ' which imply that such an opposition is itself constituent of African-American mod crnism , which in turn suggests that criticism might make that opposition its own su bject. What might this look like in practice? At this point I'd like to tum back to the contcmporary criticism of black poetic practice, and admit that 1 have neglected one global analysis which otTers insight into this critical dilemm al opportunity - that is, Stephen Henderson ' s "Introduction" to Underslanding Ihe N elV BIC/ck Poetry' 7 a work whose foundational value for cultural criticism has bccn richly explored by Houston Baker in Blues, Ideology, and AFro-American Literalllre,' ~ and whieh 1 no\\' take up as a complex and rare instance 01' lhcoretical praxis attuncd to black modernism 's performative ethos. In its amalgam of conceptual and practical reflection , this work gen erales a scries 01' tellsio lls and juxlapositiolls which are at once fruitful and, I Ihin k, in need 01" I"urlher explora tioll. I am particlllar1 y interested in t he a p posi l ion 01" lIc lH..h.:rso ll 's slra lcgy u l!coding l ile wo rk 's performalive l'lIlIn ~ialillns (I he Slf ll cl un d inveSlit; lIiollllllllllsic as " pocl k relcrcllcc" ) - a
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s ll alcgy whidl llp~IIS 111' cxpn:SSIUII u .. I pllil' lI ll: dl y Ildinitc realm 01 play witlt Iti s cOllcc rt ur " saluJ'atinn ' whll:h SCCII1N 111 u pe ntlc simultaneously as a goal
'\Iidl' to a ,\,, 'Ú ' /II '" ul int ellm: lalion which would withstand the assault of ;Irhit rary dislllissal; un Ihe other hand , \Ve are given a modc of engaged inter pre:tal ion which a uthenticates the black reade r's very cultural being as the ('n:thling condition of his/her aeti"ity. Thus, Henderson would simultaneously nlllcrctize a canon for " understanding" the textual practices of African Amcrican 1l10dernism (which would create a formal barrier to cultu rally Illspecifk, historicaJly relativizi ng, o r other reductive appropriat ions 01' visi on ary black expression) and re-ideal ize tbese fonn s as residing a mong " thin gs 1Il1known" (thereby creating a spiritual barrier to imperialist ic or depoliti l·i/.cd parsings of black textuality) . This balance of objectives is, I beJieve, unsettlcd , but it is also unsettli ng in a very useful manner. The danger it courts is that o f dismantlin g one IIIdaphysical/ideological system by erecting another, thus recapitulating the political structure underlying textualist-idealist aesthetics. A t this point we lIIight have recourse to historical explanation, noting that the uncertainty ,Ir Ihis double proposition a rose in part fro m tbe circumstances of an in stitu lional critical voice seeking to negotiate a register somewhere betwecn the ignorant hostility ofmainstream standards and the sometimes eqlla lly hostile ;lIIti-academiüism ofthe performcrs themselves . Such a discussion is no doubt slill needed - and my final chapter seeks to addrcss similar performative lTlICeS in contemporary black critical practices though in admitting it we sltollld bc wary ofbeing ultimately dismissive ofthe ingenuity ofHenderson's visiono For we may also see in its inner dynam ic a productive yoking 01' Fllisonian and Barakan perspectives, which acknowledges the endless re wrbcrations of black langllage \-vhile imagining tbe proxirnity to this open pcrformance 01' a meta-lin g uistic realm 01' inetTable amplitude. Moreover, in Itis attentive scrutiny of the works themselves for manifestations 01' pe ..form ;lIlce and blackness alike, llenderson points the way past the criticism with which we bega n, which followed a proccdure at once mimetic and normative. at once spuriously demystifying (in its daim to lay bare a " true " black poctics) and blandly demystifying (in its confident avowal of a guiding poetie 1'llIies). By contrast, Henderson brings us back to the expressive itself as a Il'alm 01' theoreúcal as wcll as aesthetic/polítical activity , while reminding us 1hat determination of perforlllance's construction in a diversified network of dlOices and constraints, not bland reiteration 01' reccived ontology or iconicity, illlpcls aesthetic and critical practice alike.
lIX
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IV !'roper c\'aluation 01' words and Ictters In thei .. phonetic a nd associated sensc Ca n b ring Ihe peoples 01' earlh Int o Ih\! ckar li gh t 01' pu re (\)smic Wi sd ol11 . S l ll l Ra "T,l the Pco plcs
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1 "i ~ III.,igh I ICllll liS II ~ 1\\ ( , 1C!!\lI , ' ~ IW~ lu I dll\!!,:d\ .Il' W11Il"1I plllvid.:s a rdinvd g IOS:i UII l ile p~ rf(II'll1f:1 ti v\!-lh\!\ l l\ · II\.:u l inspiratidll Id .\rri L'an- AIlIL'riL'an II Hld ~mis lll. 'lIJe black wo rkcr. we rl!ca ll. flnds hilllsdl' 1.'l1 llleshed ill thc deli wry systclll 01' written records. wllerc documents assl.lIl powcr tn encapsulatc co mplcx. movemen t.s 01' social 1Uld personal li fe . AsslIming easy corrcspo nd ence between word and event and among those assigned authori ty to JeLer mine their meanings' destinations, the institlltion of letters depends upo n fundamental, undisturbed ra le ~ 01' in tcll igibility, as \Ve11 as upon the genera lly unseen lab or 01' its proper 'sorting. ' The entire process of correspondence from inscription to col1ection to provisional classification to disseminatio ll amI consumption - remains invisi ble and unquestioned , a tidy ideologil7o:l1 circuit oftransmission and ret rieval. But G regory'$ mail c1erk deftly unhinges this machinery of documen tary self-extension , interrupting the redundan t relay of pages wri tten and read. He does so nol by any overt refusal ür blun t sabotage, but rather by a n insoucian.t ironizing of the system's assumed integrity. F ar from inevitable, stable, and guaranteed, the official delivery of writing is exposed here as vulnerable to disruption al1 along the way , blH especial1y in the concealed zones where the actual tasks 01' disposition amI distribution take place. And it is made to seemal1 tbe more precariou sly contingent by the worker's syle of subversion , an e1egant cunning that doubles (and thereby slYlY ruffks) the appearance 01' conformity, undermining rigid dassificatory norms by seeming lo fulfil1 them with such spirited devotion. The following chapters engage works that, aboye all , exemplify the rangc 01' intentions and effccts that such disruptive performances entail. They explore disparate but interlocking figures whose work not only collecti vely images the traits that most distinguish the period 's activity - a valorization of critique and change, privileging enactment and improvisation over particu lar artifacts, positions. 01' achievements: an aversion to discrete conventions and genres, leading to an incorpora tive logie of bricolage and narrati vc experiment; a critical engagement with tradition through acts of mimetic displacement , appearing by turns demystifying, corrective, absorptive, anel remystifying - but which, moreover, implicitly asserts the interdisciplinary nature of African-American modernism's theory and practice. By thus inter preting modern ;\ frican-A merican performance through several of its most distinctive \Vorks, practices, and practitioners, I hope to demonstrate the semiotic and practical interdiseursivity operating across cultural idioms In the Black Arts era's struggle for a synthetie vision of bl aek identity. \Ve begin \Vith exploration of lhe period ' s principal media of performance activity and speculation, drama and m usic. F oeusing on the evol ution o f dramatic fo rm as vehicle ofideological inquiry , Pa rt I discusses the new black theater mo Vement both as ideological projection and ::;elf-consciously evol u tiona ry practi ce; Pa rt lJ , eXlntpolaling t he mu sica l ideal ~ lIbtel1d i ng conlem rora ry black drama , cen tcrs firJiI ÜIl Ihe jau illn nv¡¡lí\m s of 101111 C oltra ne illlJ Ihell Il pon the poetic prm:llt:c insr in:d 11" hh "X I" ,t i l1l (!nl ,11 f't:rocil v a nd
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nI' tWLJ pro l'o undly in fluclIlial ami distinctive elTorts to redefine black agency as an askcsis 01' self-enactmcnt: first, \Ve \Vill 'sound' the passages of Baraka's sdr-Iransgressive quest fo r revolutionary voice; second, we shall shift tone radically in pursuing Adrienne Kennedy's haunting project of self-staging, a projecl that inventively pressures the efrervescent idealism of Ba rak a's " postwcstcrn " poetics. Finally, in Part IV we confront the most intricate IIl:XllS 01' perfo rmative and speculative energy to emerge from the Black Arts Movcment's assertions of visionary blackness, the cal1 of ve rnaeul a r ereati v ily and the response oi' critical theory. Through consideration , nrst, of the lIlodern chant-sermon , which presents a ¡iteral1y movi ng meditation on the (rc)l11aking of black historical consciousness, and then of the autobio ' ra phical (and vernacular) d ynamic of contemporary black eritieism, we \ViII encounter more directly lhe figure \Vho is, in fact , the central player in l\I'rican-;\merican modernism's drama of transformative consciousness: Ihe audienee. C o nceived , as we shal1 see in our opening discussion of theater IIlanifestos, as precise1y those concerned to join thc artist in revising idea s ()f hlackness through a synthesis of vernacular awareness and revolutionary aspiration , the audience is enjoined to bring its energies of perception toward Iransfiguration in the present tense of enactment, thereby affirming itself as Idos and co-creator of the modern black artist's expression, be it dramatic , llIusical , poetic, or sermonic. It's only fair to note that a slightly more cOilventiona l approach l1l igh t h~ to discuss the vernacular first in this study, as "background" and "ve hiclc" ,,1' contemporary experimcntation - and, indeed, we shall see tbroughout the lirst six chapters that vernacular modalities enrich Black Arts visions to un l'x tcnt many explicators of the period would nnd surprising, contradicting ,¡s it does constructions 01' the Movement as utterly replldiating tradition. Ilo\Vever, I believe that this perrneating, central presenee 01' vernacular inl1ec IIOIIS wil1 be reduced to an instrumental role iftreated merelY as introduction lo Ilur critical narrative. Therefore I ha ve waited for the final section to focus "11 vernacular performance in detail , hoping that it will be seen as itself a \ ihrant clement of black modernist practice, not merely a funding source of t.lles. tropes, and tricks from which " real art" draws its inspiration. 111 cach chapter, though in decidedly different languages and domains, Wl..' witness variants of the Black Arts Movement 's defining efrort to become ,1 ~d r-interpreting entity - a concern that the 11rst chapter on modern black di ama seeks to clllcidate through a reading 01' the movement's theater "I"lIikstos. But we \ViII find it necessary upon occasion to intcrrupt our "\VII mimesis 01' this concentration upon black modernist prodlletion, .pcdiciully lo lakc stm.:k 0 1' ed1 0e.:; and differences betwcen the matrix 01' i\lli cun -American pcr!ormam;c "lid Ihe Euro-American avant-garde. For lI..' ll uinly Ihe asstl ll1t UPl)1l n.'rrcsl!!1Ii1l i. )11 ami il1lerrogat ion 01' meta physical 'JI
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t., wlll~ 1 1 (ilqJ Ply' ~ 11 1.111 I II'I~. illll lldll n:d liS as hal billgc r uf' !lIad A rts pra\ is i:. Ui> 111,11 ~4:d 111 I he l',\ 1\(' 1i II I ~ II tid tIlca ti i,:al i1Yor the n ll)L!0n Wesl. Vet thal r~IJic al n: plIdiat iu n uf'cllll vcn llollal d ral llaturgy, a rcpudiati on fóunoed in thc L:onjunction 01" ArlHutlia n "~ r u d t y " a nd Bred,tian '"alicnation." often sets the deconstructivc instru men ts 01' perfo rma nce againsl apprchcnding L:onscio usness . Even when consciousncss is to be intensificd by its immcrsion in an iJea lized mise-en-scenC' (Grotowsk i; the L iving, Theatrc), we find it set in opposition to the intricate burdens ofhistory a nd the sinuous responsibilities 01" rcmembrance. Because our L:omparative discussion s of A l"rican-American ano Eu ro A merican performance will be generall y lOcal and L:o nL:ise.2U we might do well he re, bcfore setting forth on OUT journey through Blaá A rts speculations and practiccs, to sketch a more synoptic acco unt of the encompassing frame of reference withi n which contempora ry A frican- American performance and its criticism ta kes shape . The very prestige of the term "performance" in contemporary culture can be traccd to modernity's reccssion from the Rea1. 21 Specifically, performance acquircs significant theorctica l capital once secular revisions of a theocentric tradition ha ve beg un to struggle toward ne\\! idioms of knowledge, history, and value. With the Ca rtesian and Kantian objeclification 01" self and worlo , respectively, modernity arrives as a "science of man " c1aiming subjectivity as a privileged panopticon immunc lo the histrionics of rhetoric, social commerce, and political context. In one sense, lhe advent of modernity constitutes a new chapter in the West's narrative of self-scrutiny. establishing meaning through provisional interpretations, rath er than by faithful transcription s ora transcendent verity. Vet by seeking to recuperate the European subject as reliabl e center of meaning, modernity also participates in an ongoing effort within western discourse to contain the disruptive energies latent in unauthorized concepts of performance. Thus, modcrnity as Enli ghtenment. however m ueh a break from medieval structures of thought, can also be seen as the apogec of a western tradi tion of occidental " antitheatricalism " that , as Jonas Barish a nd David Marsh al l have d emonstrated , sought to banish the discursive amI ontological "s ubversiveness" 01" all mere appearance in order to secure a transparent representational order?' Wherever the pcrformative had previousl y con noted impulses tran sgrcssing logic (be they the agitations of desire, dream , ideology, rebellion , or any other site of intertextual transaction) , it \Vas to be replaced by a notion of performance as a c10sed mimetic ecollomy, gua r anteed by absolute visibility and accountability , in the interests of a stable continuum 01' subject, knowledge, and - not incidentally - sta te . But whereas in the antitheatricalism characteristic of p remodernity the di sruptive potential ol' performa nce was acknowledgcd as a ll too actual él th reat (hence lhe speclI lar hyperho lc floteo by Barish il1
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l:dgcs uf thl' r l \' r~'1 ;IS a kind uf' il1lpish , licc llscd Vil:c lig ure. p\.!/forll1a llcc is cmpli\.!d 01' uny alfl:ctive or inlcnliunal ]1owcr. becol11ing instead, rather li ke Macbetlú da gger. a oeccption whose threat líes in its ability to persuade the subjcct ofits illusory agcncy , rather than in any direct impact on (and within) the subject herself. Thus oep1cting performance 01' any unca nn y po tentiality, lU oJernity adopts what \Ve may term ab-scene vision. It seems lo me no coincidence ... and 01" signa l import to the Black Arts Movement's fascination with vernacular-inspíred insurgency - that the Enlightenment's evisccration 01" the perl'ormative sphere should occur alo ng side a pervasive concern \Vith otherness a nd a compensato ry fetishization of writing as foundation 01" authentic selfhood. C hallenges to E uropean culture, whether in te rnal or colonial , were freguently transformed into confronta tions between nature and imagination, provoking twin genres tha t betrayeo the Enlightenment's occult obsession with antithetical spectacle: the subHme and ethnography. For what characterizes discourses on both " natura l" and cultural monstrosities is the unpresentability o f their putative objeets, wh ich remain immcasurable or impenetrable " others" to ep istemologieal a nd ethnological perception. The uncanny , be it mountain or native, is ultimately factitious , for what the sublime and ethnography stage is not so much alterity itself as the interpretive hubris by which oifference is apprehended. The object is defin ed as extern a l to the viewcr's mastery, not in genuine recogni tion of its othcrness but only to legitimate the observer's own " anthropolo gical " prim acy . Thus, as we shall furth er observe in C haptcr 7's ex.ploration of modcrn vernacular performance, the development of an ethnological strategy rol' ne utralízing invi sible and recalcitrant performances thro ugh offstage COI11 mentary occurs exact ly when European culture is itsel f ' othered,' facing its own disappearance as mythic center in él Ptolemaic cultural design. So, too, conjuration ol' natural wonders resta ges a thTeatened fiction of mastery, reflccting m ode rnity 's characteristie doubleness as a putatively original a nd yet suddenly belated mode of self-prcscntation. The re-emergen ce of a more transgressive idea of performance within modern western culture must be seen as an internal resistance to this legacy of Enlíghtenment's sublil11ated , ethnocentric antitheatricalism. Metaphors of performance prolifera te, un surprisin gly. in those di sco urses that , however derivative of Enli ghtenment, begin by questioning it s hierar chical rel atio n betwcen the observer ano the scene of knowledge. Such revi sionists as Freud, Nietzsche, Darwin, Marx , and Saussure decenter mythologies of the subjeet, logic, hermeneutics, the state, and the scntence with self sta ging disco urses of desire. rhetoricity, chance, ideol ogy, and signification. And in the theatre ibelf Büchner, Strindberg, Pirandello, Artaud, a nd Brecht drivc from lhe boards a dassica! paraoigm of drama tic presentarion , with its lixcd J istancc between a uthorita tive tex.t and mise-en-scCl7c, by defa miliarizing thcatr ka l narra tivc. charactcr,
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N¡;verlhdcss. I hi~ d cad y st il )WI.,I\\ 11I 11,k l ll i', 1 vll lllri/a li oll 01" pC I" J"o n nullcc over Ihe l11ean ing Ih al wu uld UllI UllI lI le II h ll s 11 01 rai lcd also lo recapitulale modermly's impc ri<Jlislk grasp 1(11 a Ulhoril y (lvcr Ihe cvenl. lntcnl on displacing lhe subjcd as <111 d h:ct uf la nguagc, psyc hic apparalus, episteme, or so me other sll"uclllrt!, d iverse slranJs 01' Euro-American moo ernism converge in h urling agency inlo a "crisis" thal menaces individ ual will and fractures communali ty. A bove all , Ihese modes oC ironic distllr bance have not produced a vision or methodology of a udiencc identifica lion sufficicnt to lransform mimetic designs inlo what we shall term in lhe context of African-American theatrical experimenls "meth exic," 01" parti cipatory and collective, practices. I suggest, then, that in lhe backgro und o[ Blac k Arts speculations we keep in vie w Euro-American modem isl pe r fO mll:lllCe as a double gesture: on the one hand , a n impulse 01" revolt thal would tra nsccnd modernity by ackn owledging tbe failure oC hegemony to eradicate difference, be it " indigenous" or "foreign "; on lhe other hand, a submission to modernity's metaphysical logic, allowing evasion of historicaJ imperatives that remain either beyond its conceptual reach or ol1tside its practical l1nderstanding. As we shall note at opportunc moments, African-American modernism , by contrast, augurs a sacramentalized performative present in order lo redeem, not den y, the promissory notes of historicized subjectivity. Thc freedom it seeks dwells within , not beyond , collcctivc rcsources of memory and desire. Devc10ping parameters suggested by lhe Ellison/J3araka dialogue, pe r formers in the era of the Black Arts Movemenl variously pursue a syntax of enactment capab\c of mobilizi ng spectatorship as u simultaneollsly sensate and scnse-altering body, cupable at once ofunruly critique and revolutionary re vision. Avatars of those silenced and abjected by modernity and western modcrnism alikc , they comprehend di asporic consciousness not merely as conccit but as malerial condition . And so their experiments in dramalic, musical , poetic, vcrnacul a r, and critical form must at every moment ncgoliatc momcntous quesliolls of sacrifice, sedition, and self-realization - but always \Vith stylc, al wuys wilh gui1e: ,~"ump!, ;nlo ¡he hox: ¡hrough lhe /eg'\ - ~' lI'islú, inl/l II/(' hag: al/¡/ .1'/1 01/ .. .
Notes 2
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It :tll'h Lllb\l ll , tllll/si/¡/¡' M(//I (New York: Randolll HOllse, 1952), p. 22. AI IIII i B llra~a ILeR lli -'Il ltes l, Du/cllI/wll (jff(1 The SIl/re: [\1 '0 Play.\' (New York: W illi:1I11 Mil i rll\\', I (1M), p. 44 . I luk l R. M:ldhllhuli IDtm L. Lec] , D)'lIomi/ e Voices (Dc troil : Aroad side Press. 1'1'/ 11 1'. IX B,II,d" I, 11/1' SI'{I ',· . p. (,(,. 1'1' '' ' 1 I al ,,,!.:. " l ll l' Nl'w Brceu ." in B///e!-- l-"il'l' ('
'11
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-'allll'sT. Sll'warl , "('he Ikveloplllelll orlhe Black Rcvo lutiollary Artist ," in Block Fi/'t ,. pp. 4 ). X M ~ trvin X, " ))on L L~ Is a Poem," citcd in ¡he Block Aes/he/ic, ed . Addison G nyle, JI'. (Ncw York: Doub l\:day. 1972), p. 196. '1 Trcy Ellis. " Thc New Dlaek A rtist," in Callaloo 12, no . I (Winter, 1989),33 - 42. 10 Sec hic Lott, " Dollble Y, Double Time: Bebo p's Politics of Style," Callaloo 11, no. 3 (Sulllmer, 1988), 597- 605. 1I Sec Ilouston A. Ba ker, Jr.. J'vfodernism l/mi lhe Uarlem Re/1aissal1 ce (Chicago: Un iversit y of C hicago Prcss, 1987). 12 Blydcn Jacksoll, "Frotll One 'New Negro' to Another, 192:l-1 972," in Blyden Jacks on and Louis D. Ru b in , Black Po!? /ry in Americl/n (Baton ROllge : LOllisi~trla State lJ niversity Press , 1974), p. 93. 13 David Sm ith 's nearl y decades-old la lllent in an im po rta n t essay that " there. is a p
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11I,,,kIIIlSI 1'1 : lcl l ~~ 11 1\,,1 "11111 111 \ V ,IIl' l'IllI\:cived as n:vu lt~ aglJ insl 11Iodc lllil y \ , Wuy. ;r lid depa I h fro lll 11H'l ll ill ~ ,,1111 :IS I he)! ;m: lhell1 ~clves pc n.:cived lo be evasiolls of a Ilheralion p m xis n:spu ll~i vc 11) pcrcc lvcd co nJilions of "b la ck ness ." T hou gh, as noleJ abo ye, my I"efe rellcc lo " A fric
72
PERFOR MAT I VE ACTS A N D
GENDE R C ONST I TUT I ON
An essay in phenomenology and femini st theory
Judith Bulle,. SOlll·ce: TIi('a lre .10111"11(// 40(4) (198X): 519 531.
Philosophers rarel y think about acting in the theatrical sen se, but they d o ha ve a discourse of 'acts ' that maintains associative seman tic mea nings with theories of p(3rformance ami acting. For example, John Searle 's 'speech acts,' those verbal assurances and prornises which seem not onIy to refer to a speaking relationship, but to constitute a moral bond between speakers, illustrate one of the illocutionary gestures that constitutes the stage o f the analytic philosophy of language. Further, 'acti on theory: a domai o ormo raJ philosophy, seeks to understand wha t it is 'to do ' prior to any claim of what one Ol/glll to d o. Finally, the phenomenological thcory 01' 'acts,' espouscd by Edmund Husserl, Maurice Merleau-Ponty ami Gcorge Herbert Mead, among others, seeks to explain the mundane way in which social agents cOl1slitule social reality through language. gesture, and all manner of symbolic social signo Th ough phenornenology sometimes appears to assumc the existence 01' a choosing ami constituting agcnt pri or to lang uage (who poses as the sole sourcc of its constituting acts), thcre is also a more radical use of the doctrine 01' constituti o n that takes the social agent as an ohjecl rather than the subject ofconstitutive acts. When Simone de Beauvoir claims, ' onc is not born, but, rather, h ecol11es a woman,' she is appro priating ami reintcrpreting this doctrine 01' con stituting acts from the ph enomenological tradition . ' In this sen se, gender is in no way a stable identity or locus o f agency from which various acts proceede; rather, it is an identity tenuously constituted in time- an identity instituted rhrough él .\'Iylized repe/ilion o/act.\". F urt her. gender is instituted through the stylization 01' tbe body ami, hence , must be unuerstood as the mund ane way i.n which h(ldil y gest l1 re~_ 1110vcments, antl t::nacl nH:nts 01' various kin ds con stitute the IJ(1
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ill usioll 01' UIl a"id in~ gUlld c l ed ~dl. I III S 111'111 111.1111111 I1l\JVt:S 11](.: COI1Ct:p ti on 01" gCl1ucr llll lIJe grolllld 01' a su hstall tiulnlC uh'l l,r idcnlily to one that I'cq uires a cOllception 01' a conslÍ tutcd socia! (¡',,/pom/ill'. Significantly, ir ge nder is ins tituleu through acts wh ich are internally J i::;colltinuoLJs, then the appearance o/subslallce is precisely that, a co nslrucleJ identity, a performa t ¡ve accomplish men t which the lIl unda ne soci a l audience, inc\ud ing the actors themsc\ves, come to believe and to perform in the m ode of bel ief. If the ground of gender identity is the stylized repetition of acts through time, anu not a sccmingly seamless identity, then the possibilities of gender transforma tion a re to be found in the arbitrary rc1ation between such acts, in the possi bility of a di fferent SOft 01" re peating, in the brea king or sub versive repetitío n 01" t hat style. T hro ugh the conception of gender acts sketched aboye, I will try t o show som e ways in which reífied amI na turaJized conceptions of gender might be undcrstood as constit uted and, hence, capable o f being constituted difIer ently. In opposition to theatrical or phenomenological models which take the gendered self to be prior to its acts, I will understand constituting acts not only as constituting tbe identity of the actor, but as constituting that idenlity as a compelJing illusion, an o bject of he!ief In the course of making my argument, I will draw from theatrical, anthropological, and philosophical discourses, but mainly phenomenology, to show that what is called gender identity is a performative accomplishment compelled by social sanction ami taboo. In its very character as perl"orlllative resides the possibilit y 01' contest ing its reífied status.
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Feminist theory has often been critical of natura lis tic explanations of sex and sexual.ity that assume that the meaning of women 's social existenoc can be derived from some fact 01" their physiology. In distinguishing sex I"rom gender, feminist theorists have disputed causal explanations that assume that sex dictates or necessitates certain social meani.ngs for women 's experience. Phenomenological theories of human embodiment have also been con cerned to distinguish between the various physiological and biological causalities that structure bodily existenee and the meanings that embodied existence assullles in the context 01' lived experience. ln Merleau-Ponty's reftections in The Phel1omello!ogy 01 Percepliol1 on 'the body in its sexual being,' he takes issue with such aecounts of bodily cxperience and claims that the body is 'an historieal idea' rather than 'a natural speeies.'" Significantly, it is this claim that Simone de Beauvoir cites in The S econd Sex when she seIs the stage for her c1aim that 'woman: and by extension, a ny gcndcr, is an histo rical situ a lion ralher than a natural facL' In both contexts , the exislenec amI 1~lcticity 01' I he material or natu ral o imcnsio ns of th e body a re no t dcni l.!d, h ut reco lili·iwd as d istinct from the
JlIOCC:'S hy whkh Iln' hvdy conlf':s I() h c a l culllllalllll:allill gs. hlr bolh Beauvoir atlo I'v.1 c r!l;au- Pollly, the body is lInderslllod t ~) he
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clll booieo agents are exterior, surracco. o pen to lhe pcn.:cptioll 01 o tlle r:; . Ernbooiment clearly ma nirests a set 01' strategie::; o r \Vhat Sa rtre would pcr haps have calleo a style 01' being or Foucault, 'a stylistics 01' existence: This style is never fully self-styled , for living styles have a history, and that histo ry conditions and limits possibilities. Consider gender, fOl" instance, as a ('or porea/ sly/e, an 'act,' as it were. whieh is both intentional and performati ve, where 'performati ve' itself carri es the double-mean ing of 'dram atic' and 'non-refcrential. '
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a nd gendcr, as the cultura l interpretation or signification of that fac tieity. To be femalc is, according to that distinction . a facticity which has no mean ing, bllt to be a woman is to have hecorne a woman , to compel the body to conform to an historical idea of 'woman: to induce the bodv to become a cultural sign , to materialize oneself in obedience to an histori~ally delim ited possibility, and to do this as a sustained and repeated corporeal project. The notion 01' a 'projcct', ho\Vever, suggests the originating force of a radical wiU, and because gender is a project which has cultural survival as its end , the term 'slralegy' hetter suggests the situation of duress under which gender per fonnanee always and variously OCcurs. !-lence, as a strategy 01' survival , gender is a performance with clearly punitive consequences. Discretc genders are part of what 'humanizes' indi viduals within contemp orary culture; indeed, those who t~lÍl to do their gender right are regularly punisheJ. Because there is neitber a n 'essence ' that gender expresses or externalizes nor an objecti ve ideal to whiüh gender aspires; beca use gender is not a fact, the various acts of gender crcates lhe idea of gender, and without those acts, there would he no gender at all . Gender is, lhus, a construction that regulady conceals its gellcsis. T he lacil collective agreement to perform , produce, and sustain discrete alld polar genders as culturalfictions is obscured by the credibiliLy of its ll wn prodm:tion . The authors of gender become entranced by their OWTl lictions wlllTehy the construction compels one 's belief in its necessity and naturalness. Thc historical possibilities materializeJ through various COf poreal styles are llothing other than those punitively regulated cultural ncti ol1S Ihat are alternately embodied and disguised under duress. t low useful is a phenomenological point of departure for a feminist de .'\cription of gemid! On the surface it appears that phenomenology shares wirll feminist analysis a eom mitment to grounding theory in lived experience. and in revealing the way in which the world is produced through the con stituting aets 01' suhjective expcrienee. Clearly, not all feminist theory would privilcgc the r oint 01' view of the subject, (K risteva once objected to femin is t thcory as ' too exi stenl ialis l't a nd yet the fem inist c1ai m th a t the per.sonal is political sLlggesls, in pa rt. th a! subjeClivc cxperieTIl~e is l1 (l t \lOly strucllLred by \:xisting IXll it il.:u I urra ngcIllCn L'l. b UL c lTc\.:ts unJ li lrllC lurcs Ihose a rrangeme nts in IU lrJ. l'"cl11i ni); ( Ihcory ha ... sOllgh l tu llnderst;¡nd IIw W/IV in whid l systcm i~
política! :wd l"lll turu I strtldul\:s ;¡r ~ cnaded and repl"()u uccd tlllllUg lt individllal ads a nd pral"lic ~s , IInu huw lhe analysis of ostensibly personal sitllati~)lls is c1arilkd through situaling the isslIes in a broader and sharcd cultural conlexl. Indecd, the feminist impulse , ano I am sure there is lI10re lhan onc, has orten emergeo in thc recognition that my pain or m y siklll:C or 111y anger or my pereeption isnnal1y not mine alone , and that it dl'lilllits me in a shared cultural situation wh ich in turn enables and empowers Ille in eertain unanticipateo ways. The personal is thus im plicitly political inasmuch as it is conditioned by sbared social structures, hut the personal has alsl) been immunized against political challenge to the extent that public/ private distinctions endure. For feminist theory, then, the personal becomes an cxpansive category, one which accommodates, if on ly impbcitly, politieal structures usually viewed as public. Indeed , the very meaning ofth e political cxpands as we\1. At its best, feminist theory in vol ves a dialcctical expansion 01' both of these categories. My situation does not cease to be mine just hccause it is the situation of someone cIsc, and my acls. individual as they are, nevertheless reproduce the situation of my gender, and do that in various ways. In other words, there is, latent in the personal is politieal formulation ()f feminist theory , a supposition that the life-world ol' gender [elatíons is constituted, at Ieast partially, through the concrete and historically mediateo acts ofindividuals. Considering that ' the' body is invariably transformed in lo his body or her body, the body is only knovvn through its gendered appear ance. It would seem imperative to consider the way in which this gendering 01' the body occurs. My suggestion is that the body beco mes its gender through a series ol' acts \vhich are renewed , revised, and eonsolioated through time. hom a feminist point ofview, one might try to reconceive the gendered booy as the legacy of sedimented acts rather than a predetermined or foreelosed structure, cssence or faet , whether natural , cultural, or bnguistic. The feminist appropriation 01' the phenomenological theory of constitu tion might employ the notion of an ([el in a richly ambiguoLls sense. 11' the personal is a category which expands to inelude the wider political and social slructures, then the oc/s 01' the genoered subjeet would be similarly expansi ve. ('learly. there are political aets which are deliberate and instrumental actions of political organizing, resistance coJlective intervention with the broad aim uf' instating a more just set of social and poli tjcal rclations. There are thus acts which are Jone in the name ol' women, and then there are acts in and 01' lhemselves, apart from any instrumental consequence, that challenge the l·alegory of women itself. Indeed, one ought to consider the futility of a political program which seeks radical1y to transform the social situation of women without first determining whether the category ol' woman is socially l'ollstmcted in such a \Va y lhat to he a woman is, by definition , to be in an opprcssed situation. In a n unucrs tandable desire to forge bond s of solidarity, klllillist discollrse has orten rclicd lIP()11 lhe category ofwom an as a universal prc:lupposition 0 1' cult ura l CXpCI il.!lIu-' wlridl. in its ll niversal status. provides a
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Inhl' ,,"I l) l tlg l~ 1I 1 pIO"IISC lit ~VC III" íl l !'llhlll.::d sulid:II ¡Iy 111 ;1 , ,,111 m: ill whiell (Ir '111:1 11 Ir as lur IIIl' IlIosl pal I 1)l'.:11 plC1Hlpposed as .' 1I¡,''< I\!ns lVC \\I ll h hlllllal11lCSS itscl f. rC1I1illist thco ry has sOllg ht with success lO hring Il:ma k s pecilleity into visibility and to rewrite the history of culture in Il'lIl1S whidl adnowk:dge the presen~e, the innuence , and the oppression 01' WOI\II,:Il . Ye \. in this I!ffort to combat the invisibility of women as a catcgory ICl11 illists mn Ihe risk 01' rendering visible a category whieh may 0 1' may not hl' re prcsc ll tative 01' the concrete lives of women. As fe minists, we have bccn h:..;s cagcr , I think. to consider Ihe status of the category itself and , indeeJ , 111 discl~rn the conditions of oppression wh ieh isslIe from an unexamined Il'pl odlll't ion 01' gendc r identities whieh sustain discretc and binary categories '1"1 11:111 and woman , Wll ell BC(l llvoir c1aims that woman is an ' historical sitllation.' she emph as I /C'i Ihal the body sllffers a certain cultural construction, not only thro ugh l\lllv~ nti()lls that sanction and proscribe how one acts one's body, the ' acC 111 pc d'ormance that one' s body is. but a lso in thc tacil conventions th a t ';11 lIl'I Lln.: the way the body is clllturally perceived . Indeed , if gender is the L'lllllII'a l signilkance that the sexed body assumes, and if that sigoificam:e is 'f)d~'h.: nnin ed tll rough various acts and their cultural perception , then it \VIlIrld appear that from within the terms of culture it is not possible to know ~I" ;IS distinct from gender. The rcproduction of the catcgory 01' gender is 1.'lIad ed on a large political scaJe, as when women first entcr a profession or /-'.lI ill certain rights, 01' are reconceived in legal or politica l discourse in signific tl lllly I1CW \.vays. But the more mundane reproduction of gendered identity lakes pl: tee th rough the various ways in which bodies are acted in re1ationship In Ihl.: J ec ply cnlrcnched or sedimented expectations of gendered existence. ( 'llllsidér thal Ihere is a sedimentation of gender norms that produces the pl:C:lIl iar phcnomcnon of a natural sex, or a real woman. or any number of 11Icva knt and compelling social fictions, and that this is a sedimentation that IIVl')' lillle has produced a set ofcorporcal styles which. in reified form , appear ;IS lile natural configuration 01' bodies into sexes which exist in a binary lehl llOll to one another. ¡lIl' lirh..' II l1 ivcn¡a l
n. Binary gcndcrs and the heterosexual contract ro guarantee the reproduction of a given culture, various requirements, well-established in the anthropological literature of kinship. have instated sl.:x llal reproduction within the confines of a heterosexually-based system of Ill
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killship sllldics "'I ve showlI hllW cllltu r\:s are govl.:f1ll.:d by cOllvcntiolls that only regulalc and guuranlee Ih e production, exchange, and eo nsump lion oJ' material goods, hut also reproduce the bonds of kinship itself, which require taboos él.nd a punitive regulation of reproduction to etTect that end. Levi-Strauss has shown how the incest taboo works to guarantee the 6 channcling of sexuality into various modes of heterosexua l marriage. Gayle Rubin has argued convincingly that the incest taboo produces certai n ki nds 01' discrete gendered identities and sexualities. 7 My point is simply that one way in which this syslcm of complllsory heterosexuality is reprodllced and concealed is Ihrough the cultivation of bodies into discrete sexes with ' natural' appearances ami ' natural' heterosexual disposition s. Although the enthnocentric conceit suggests a progressi o n beyond the mandatory struc tures ofkinship relations as describcd by Levi-Strauss, I would slIggest, alollg with Rubin , that contemporary gender identities are so many marks or ' traces' o f residual kinship . The contention that sex, gender, and hetero sexuality are historical products which have become conjoined and reified as natural over time has received a good deal of critical attentioll not only from Michel Fo uca ult, but Monique W ittig, gay historians, and various cultura l R anthropologists and social psychologists in recent years. Thcse theories , however , still lack the critical resources fo r thinking radically about the historical sedimentation of sexuality and sex-related constructs if they do not delimit and describe the mundane manner in which these constructs are produced, reproduced, and maintained withi n the field 01' bodies. Can phcnomenology assist a feminist reconstruction of the sedimented character 01' sex, gender, and sexuality at the level 01' the body? In the tirst place, the phenomenological focus on the various acts by which cultural identity is constituted and assumed provides a felicitous starting point for Ihe feminist effort to understand the mundane manner in which bodies get crafted into genders. The formulation of the body as a mode of dramatizing or enacting possibilities offers a way to lInderstand how a cultural convention is embodied and enacted. But it seems difficult, if not impossible , to imagine a way to conceptualize the scale and systemic character ofwomen 's oppression from a theorctical position which takes constituting acts to be its point of departure. Although individual acts do work to maintain and reproduce systcms 01' oppression. and, indeed. any theory of personal polítical respons ibility presupposes such a view. it doesn 't follo\\' that oppression is asole conscq ucnce of such actS. One might argue that without human beings whose various acts , largcly construcd, produce and maintain oppressive conditions, those conditions would fall away, but note that the relation between acts and conditions is ncither unilateral nor unmediated. There are social contexts and conventions with in which certain aets not only become possible but beco me conceivable as acts at alJ. The tranSl'Onlla tion o l' social relations beco mes a ma uer, Ihen, 01' Intnsfo nning hegcm o nic social conditions rathcr than the ind ividual ilCls tllat are spawned by Ih o~c conditions. In deed. one runs the 1101
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risk of addressing the mercly indi recto if not epiphcn o mcnal. rdlcctioll of tho se conditions if one remain s restricted to a politics of acts. But the theat ricaJ sense 01' an 'act' forces a revision 01' th e indiv id ua lisl assumptions underlying the more restricted view 01' eons lituting aets within phenomenological discourse. As a given tempora l duration within the entire performance, 'acts' are a sh a red experience and 'co11ective aetion .' J USl as within feminist theory lhe very eategory of the pe rsonal is expanded t include political structures, so is there a theatrica11 y-based a nd, indeed, Icss individua11y-oriented view 01' acts that goes some of the way in defusing the c ri ticism 01' act theory as ' too existentialist. ' The act that gender is, the act thal embodicd agents are inasmuch as they dramatkal ly a nd active1y embody and oindeed, weaf eertain cultural signifiea tions, is clearly not one's act alone. SlI re\ y, there arc nuanced and individual ways of doing one's gendcr. but Ihal one does it , and that one d oes it in ac:cord with certain sanctions and proscriptions, is clearly not a full y indi vidual matter. Here again, I don 't mean to minimize the clTect 01' certain gender norms whieh originate within the family and are e.lforced through certain familial modes of punishment and reward and which, as a consequence, might be eonstrued as highly individual , ror cven there famil y relations recapitula te, indi vidualize, and spe cify pre-existing cultural relations; they are rarely, if ever, radiea11y original. Thc act that one does, the act that one performs, is, in a sense, an act that has been going on before one arrived 00 the scene. Hence, gender is an act which has been rehearsed , much as a script survives the particular actors who make use of it, but which requires individual actors in order to he actualized and reprodueed as reality once again. The complex components that go into an act must be di stin guished in order to understand the kind of acting in concert aod acting in accord wbkh acting one's gender invariably is. In what sen ses, then, is gender an act? As anthropologist Victor Turner suggests in hi s studies ofritual social drama , social action requires a perform ance which is repealed. This repetition is at once a reenaetment and reexperi encing of a set of mcanings already socially established: it is the mundane and ritualized form 01' their legitimation Y W hen this conception 01' social performance is applied to gender, it is clear that a1though there are individual bodies that enact these significat ions by beeoming styli zed in to gendered modes, this 'action' is immediately public as well. TIlcrc: IIre tem po ral and colleetive dimen sions to these actions, am.lt nd r Pllhli¡ ' lI allll(' is 1101 incon sequential; indeed, the performan ce is elTcctcd wil ll lll \.' ~ ll illcg ic aim of maintaining gender wilhin its binary fr:llnc. I I'Hk" ,ldp(l 111 I'l'da!!\)!' iGII terrns, the performance renders socia l Illws c\plkll As a public actiOI1 and rc rJ'mlll, IIi w , 11 ' ".\ l lIh I 1 11 ' 11 , 1 choice 01' projecl lhat rcllccls iI mc tl'\ y illd ivldl lil l lll.u< 1 '''01 ," h 11 illl r()~ed or inst ri bed UpO I1 Ilu: in d ividua l 11, ,IIl1ll 1'11 I 11 11111" "' 1'" , d. \11.llI '11\.'l1 ls llfthe subjcct wou ld l'lll1 lc:nd . 1 In' bml, I ~ IIl1tlloi lú}I), IIt'l i jlH; d \, íi l¡ 1'lIlIllIal codes, as ir il \Vele a 11'1 1( 111 111 ,,1 ,
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1I,'illter do clllhl1lhcd :-;c:\ws pn:-cxlst lite clllturall'unVCllliollS wltieh esscll lially sigllify blldics. AClors are a lways al ready 0 11 lhe stage, within the terms 1'1' 1he performance. J lIst as a script lIlay be enac\ed in various ways, and just as Ihe play requircs both text and interprelation , so the gendered body acts ils part in a culturally restricted corporeal space and enacts interpretations wilhin the confines of already existi ng directivcs. Although the links be tween a theatrical and a socia l role are complex ami Ihe distinctions not easil y drawn (Bruce Wilshire po ints out the limits of Ihe comparison in Ro/e- P/aying a/1(( lde/1.l ily: The Limits oI Thealre as A.J('wphor lO ) , it seems clear that, although theatrical perfo rmances can meet with political censorship and scathing criticism , gende r performances in lIon-theatrical contexts are governed by more clea rly punüive and regulatory social con\'entions. Indeed , the sight of a transvestite onstage can compel plcasure and applause while the sight ofthe same transvestite on the seat next to LIS on the bus can eompel fear, rage. even violence. The convenlions which lIlediate proximity and identification in these two instanees a re clearly quite L1itTerent. J want to make t\Yo different kinds 01' claims regarding this tenta l ive distinction. In the thea tre, one can say, 't his is just an act,' and de-rea lize the aet, make acting into something quite distinct from what is real. Beeause of this distinction , one can maintain one's sense of reality in the face of this tcmporary challenge to our existing ontological assumptions about gender arrangements; the various conventions which announee that 'this is only a play' allows strict lines to be drawn betwcen the performance and lite . On the street or in the bus, the act becomes dangerous, if it does, precisely beca use there are no theatrical conventions to dclimit the PlIrely imaginary character of the act. indeed , on the street o r in the bus, there is no presumplion lhat the act is distinet from a reality; the disquieting effect 01' the act is that there a re no conventions that facilitate making this separation. C1earl y_ there is thea tre which attempts to contest or, indeed, break down those conventions lhat demarcate the imaginary from the real (Richard Schechner brings thi s out quite clearly in J3elll'een Thealre a/1(/ Anthfop%gy"). Yet in those cases one conrronts the same phcnomenon , namely, that the act is not contrastcd with the real , but CO/1.slitut es a reality that is in some sense new, a modality 01' gender that cannot readily be assimilated into the pre-existing categories thal rcgulate gender reality. From the point 01' view 01' those establishcd categor ies , one may want to clailll, but oh , this is real/ya girl or a woman , or this is /'(:,ally a hoy 01' aman, and fllrther that the appearance contradicts the fealil y oC the gender, that the diserete ami familiar reality must he there, nascent, tClllporarily unrealized , pcrhaps realized at other times 01' other places. The tnlllsvestite , however, can do more than simply express the distinction be lwccn sex alld gender. but challenges, at \cast implicitly, the distinction hcl wee n ap peara nce a nd rea lity that st ruc tures a good deal 01' popular thin k ing " bout gcndcr identil Y. Ir thc ' realily ' 01' gender is constituted by the pcr rormtl l1cc ilsdl'. Ihcn there is nO rc¡;oursc lo
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' sex' or 'gender' which gt:núli l pcrfO IIl IlI IIt ' • IHlc llsihl y 1' 1'1\;:-':-'. III\.keJ , 111\: transvestite's gender is as fully real as ;11 1\ III1l whosc pl.'IIIlIIlllIllCC compl ies with social expectations. Gender rca lity is performative which III C:JIIS q uile simply , that it is real only to thc extent that it is performeJ. It secllls I¡.ir to sa y thal ccrtain kinos of acts are usuall y interpreted as expressive 01' a genoer wre or identi ty, a nd that these ads either conform to an ex pected gender iden tity or contest lhal expectation in sorne way. That expectation. in turn , is baseJ upo n the pcrcep tion 01' sex , where sex is understood to be the diserete and factic datum 01' p ri ma ry sexual characteristics. This impLicit and popular theory of acts and gcstures as expressive 01' gender suggests th a t gende r ilself is something Plior to lhe vario us acts, postures, and gestures by which it is dramati7ed and known ; indeed. gender appears to the popular imagination as a substantial core which might well be understood as the spiritual or psychological cor relate of hiological sex. 12 I f gcnder attributes, however, are not expressiv but performative, then these attributes ctTectively wnstitute the identi ty lhey are said to express or reveal. The distinetion between expression and performativeness is quite crucial , ror ifgendcr attrihutes and acts, the varioLls ways in which a body shows or produces its cultural si gnification, are per~ formative , lhen there is no preexisting identity by which an act or attribute might be mcasured; there would be no true or false , real or distorted acts 01' gender, and the postu lation of a true gender identity would be revealed as a regul alory ficlion. Th at gender reality is created through sustained social performances means that the very notions 01' an essential sex , a true or abiding masculinity or femininity , are also constituted as part ofthe strategy by w hich the p~rrormalivc aspect 01' gender is concealed . As a con scq ucn ce. gender cannot be understood as a role which either exprcsscs 01' d isgu iscs an interior ' self,' whether that 'self ' is conceivcd as sexcd nr no \. A..:. performance which is performative, gender is an ' act,' broad ly (,;OIlSt rul.:t.! , which constructs the social fiction 01' its own psychological in l\! 1il l! ily, I\s \) ppllscd to a view such as Erving Goffman's which posits a sd r whil'll as:.;¡¡rncs and exchanges various 'roles' \Vithin the complex social C~pCl. I :I l ii¡I1S n I' I he 'ga me' of modern li fe,' \ I <1m suggestin g that this self is 11\1 1 \1Il 1y ill l.:lrievahly 'ou tside,' constituted in social discourse, but that the U'1 I'S'il'l ll'C ¡¡Ihricatioll. Genders, th en. can h\.' Ill'ilher true nor false , neither ICil l 111>1 apparent. I\nd yet, one is cOl llpd l ~'tI (¡l live in a world in which 1.'\'lIdl'" cl lllslilulC' univocal signific r:-.. ill \\ 111111 1'~' l\der is stabi1ized, polarized, 1¡'I Hk ll:d discrcte and inl r
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t.lispla~ct1 by all xicly, Ihal cullurl: so rl:adily pllnishes or margin a lizcs those who j~¡jl to perl'orm the illusion 01' gcnder cssentialism should be sign enough
that on some level there is social know ledge tbat the truth or falsity 01' gender 14 is onl y socially compelled and in no sense o ntologieall y nccessitated.
In.
Feminist theory: beyond
aD
expressive model of gender
This view 01' geoder does not pose as a comprehensi ve theory about what gender is or the manner of its construetion , and neither does it prescribe an explicit feminist political program oIndeed, 1 can imagi ne this view of gender being used for a number 01' discrepant politica! strategies. Some of my frie nd s may fault me for this and insist that any theory of gendcr constitution has political presuppositions and implications, and that it is impossible to sep arate a theory 01' gender from a political philosophy of feminismo ln fact, I would agree, and argue that it is primarily politieal interests which create the social phenomena of gender itself, and that without a radical critiq ue of gender constitution feminist theory fail::; to takc stock of the way in whieh oppression structures the ontologiea! categories through whieh gender is conceived. Gayatri Spivak has argued that fem inists need to re!y on an operational essentialism, a false ontology 01' women as a universal io order to advance a feminist po1itical program. 15 She kno\Vs that the category of 'women' is not flll1y expressive, that the multiplicity and discontinuity 01' the referent mocks and rebels against the univocity of the sign , but suggests it could be used for strategic purposes. Kristeva suggcsts something similar. 1 thi nk. when she prescribes that feminists use the category 01' women as a politica ! tool without attributing ontological integrit y to the term , and adds that, strictly speaking, women cannot be said lo exist.' r. feminists might well \Vorry about the political implications 01' c1aiming that women do not exist , especi ally in li ght of the persuasive arguments advanced by Mary Anne Warrcn in her book, Gendcrcide. 17 She argues that social policies regarding population control and reproductive technology are dcsigned to limit and, at times, eradicate the cx istence of women altogcther. In light 01' such a c1aim , what good does it do to quarre! about the metaphysical status of the lerm , and pcrhaps, for c1ear1y political reasons, feminists ought to silence the q uarre! altogether. But it is onc thing to use the tcrm and know its ontological insufficiency and quite another to articulate a normative vision for feminist theor y which celebrates or emancipates an essence, a naturc, or a shared cultural reality which cannot be found . The option I am defending is not to redescrihe the world from the point of view of women . 1 don 't know what that point 01' view is, hut wheltcvcr it is, it is not singular, and not mine to espoLlse . lt would only be half-ri ghllo elaim that I am interested in how the phenomenon ofa men's or WOl11cn 's po int 01' view gel s constitutcd , ro r wh ile I do think that those poillls nI' views are, indced , S()L:Ia 11 Yco n,,1 ituteó , and tha! a rcllexi ve gencalogy lO '!
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01' thosc POillh 1)1 \1 \'1\1 11'1 ¡II ll'illl ollll II! d ll I1 j.., 1101 prilllarily lhe gendcr cpislernc lhal I iHll jl ll \' I,'~ I C d 111 '::-')111 ' ,1 11 1' dl'I,:llI lhl llll'tin¡'" or rcconstrucling, Indced, it is lhe 1 ) IC~ lIproSil ll)flI \l lh t: ~; II~L~"I Y u l'wllll1an itsclfthat rcquircs a crilical gcncalogy nI' Ihe ~¡) rn r l c)\ illslillJlilllWI and discursivc mcans b which it is cOl1slilulcd, J\ Hl1ollgJl sorne fcll1inist literary critics suggesl lhat th ~ prcsupposition 01' sex ual JilTerence is neccssary for all di scourse, that pl)s ition reifies sexual JilTcrcnce as Ihe foun d ing moment of cul t ure and prc '1lI dus an analysis not only 01' how sexual difference is constitu ted to begin \Vil h hut how it is continuollsl y consti luted, botb by tbe masculine traditi on II Ial pn:empts the universal point 01' view, a nd by UlOse fe minist posit ions I hjl l construcl the univocal category 01' 'women' in the name 0 1' expressing or, il ll.h.:cd, liberating a subjccteJ c1ass. As F oucault claimed about th ose human I~;I dforts to liberate thc crirninalized subject, the subject that is freed is even IIl1l1'lJ deeply shacklcd Ihan originall y thought. ' 8 ( 'Iearly, though, l cnvision the critical genealogy 01' gender to rely on a pl ll.:llomenological sel 01' presuppositions. most important among them the \:x panded conception of an 'acC which is both socially shared and historically ,'11IIstiluted, and which is performative in the sense l previously described. Bul a critical genealogy l1ecds lo be supplcmented by a politics 01' perform alive gender acts, 011C which bOlh redcscribes existing gender identities amI affers a prescriptivc vie\\' about the kind 01' gender reality there ought to be. The redescriptioJ1 necds lo ex pose the reifications that tacitly serve as substantial gender cores or iJentilies, and to elueidate both the aet and the slrategy of disavowal which al once constitute and conceal gender as we I¡ve il. The prescription is invaria bly more difficult, if only beca use we need ro think a world in which acts, gestures, the visual body. the clothed body, the various physieal attribules usually associated with gender, express Ilolhing, In a sen se, the prescription is not utopian , but consists in an imperative \11 acknowledge the existing complexity of gender whieh our vocabulary invariably disguises and to bring that complexity into a dramatic cultural intcrplay without punitive consequences. Certainly, it remains politically important to represent women, but to do I hal in a way that does nol distort and reify the very eollectivity the theory is supposcd to emancipate. f7cminist theory whieh presupposes sexual differ el1ce as the necessary and invariant theoretieal point 01' departure c1early il1lproves upon those humanist discourses which conflate the universal with the masculine and appropriate all 01' culture as masculine propcrly. C\early, it is necessary to reread the lexts of western philosophy rrom the various roinls 01' view that have been excluded, not only to reveal the particular pers pective and set 01' inlorests informing lh ose ostellsibly lrampareJ1t de s¡;ripli o Jl s 01' lhe rca l bul to olfer alternati vc ucscriptions a nd prcscliptio ns; iJluccJ. lo I!stahl isl l pl1 il osnphy " ... u cultu ra 1prm:1ice, ami 1P clÍ l iei/e its tenels 1'1 1)11 1 mnr¡.!i nali /.cu cul1u ral h)catiol1<:, I h ~I V,' 1111 ~Jl llllrd wilh Ihis pn.> ccdu rc, all J huye ch';¡r1 v hl.' l1, ' IiI ~tI !'mJ1l 111\):)1.: arl a l y~~'·. My " Idy \:\l IlCCrn is lhal
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sex ual di 1fl·...CIICl' 11Ilt bccnll1c a rdlicatiol1 whidl uJ1wiltingly preserves a hinary rcstriLlillll on gender identity and <1n implicitly heterosexual frame work ror the description of gender, gender identity, and sexuality. There ¡s, in my vie\\', 110thing about femaleness that is waiting lo be exprcssed ; there ¡s. on the other hand, a good deal about the diverse experiences of women that is being exprcssed and stiJl needs to be expressed , but caution is needed with respect to that theoretical language, for it does nol simply report a pre linguistic experience, but constructs that experience as weH as the Iimits of its analysis . Regardless of the pervasive character of patriarchy and lhe preval ence 01' sexual diffe renl.:c as an operative cultural distinction, there is noth ing about a binary gender system that is given . As a corporeal field 01' cultural play, gender is a basically innovati ve afTair, aJthough it is q uite c1ear that there are strict punishments 1'01' contesting the script by perfo rming out of turn or through un wa rranted improvisations. Gender is not passively scripted on the body, and ncither is it dctermined by nature, language, the symbolie, or the overwhelming history 01' patriarehy , Gender is what is put on, invari ably, under constraint, daily and incessantly, with anxiety and pleasure, but ir this continuolls aet is mistaken for a natural or linguistic given, power is relinquished to expand the cultural field bodily through subversive perform ances 01' various kinds.
Notes For a furthcr discussioo of Bcauvoir's fcminist contriblltion to phenomcnological theory, see my ' Varialions on Sex and Gender: Beallvoir's Tite Se('ol1d Sex,' Ya/e fi'ench Sll/die,l' 172 (1986). 2 M,lU J'ice Merleau-Ponty, 'The Body in its Sexual Being,' in The P henomell% gy (JI Percep l;on, transo Colin Smith (Boston: Routledge ami Kcgan Paul, 1962). 3 Simone de Beallvoir, Th e Se('ond ,)'ex. trans, H . 1\1. Parshley (New York: Vintagc, 1974), 38. 4 Julia KristevH , Hislo;/'e eI'amo/lr (Paris: Editions Denocl, 1983),242, 5 See Michel Foucault, The Hislo/'J 01 Sexual;ly: An Jl1lroductir!l1, lrans. Robert Hurley (New York: Random Ho usc, 1980), 154: 'the nOlion 01' "sex" made it possiblc to group together, in an artificial unlty, anatomical elements, biological functions , conducts, sensations, amI pleasun.:s, and it ena bled one lo makc use 01' lhis fictitious unity as a causal principie ... ', 6 See Claudc Levi-Str"lIss , Tite:' Ele/1l1t/1t(/ry SII'/IClureS 01 Kins{¡;ji (Boston: Beacon Press, 1965). 7 Gaylc Rubin , 'The Traffic in Women: Notes on the "Political Economy" of Scx.' in To\\'urd (//1 Anlhropology oi Wom en , ed. Rayna R. Reiter (New York: Monthly Revie\V Press, 1975), 178 - 85. 8 See 111y 'Variations on Sex and Gender: Beallvoir, Wittig, and Foucaull,' in Fem;/l;sm as Critique , ed. Seyla Bcnhabib and Drucila Cornell (London: Basil Hlackwell , 1987 [distributed by Univcrs ity of Minnesota Press]). 9 See Victor Turner. DramC/s, Fields, (/1/(1 Melaphors (lthaca: Cornell Universily Press, 1974), Cl ifford Geertz slIjfgesb in ' Hl lIrrcd Genres: The Refiguration 01' Tholl l,(hl,' in IAJ('(/I K llfIIl'lcdgl', Fl II'I/¡,· ,. F.S.l'(/\'.I' ;1/ Il/lc/'fI/'etil'i' Anthro{Jology (Ncw York: Basic !ltl\'ks , 11)83), Ihal 111(' Ihl:al ft<',tI \1\\'laphOl' is lIscd hy recent s(lci,,1 11111
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73
CHO R EOGR A PHI ES OF GE NDER Susan Leigh Foster Sourcc: S igns: .Ioumalo[ WOllle/l
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In 1989 and again in 1990, Teresa de Lauretis argued that the charge of essentialism as ascribed to certain feminist theory or theorists promulgated a d ivisive factionalisrn within the feminist movernent that would serve the patriarchal status qu o far better than any antifeminist agendas . She urged a reconsideration of the term e.l'sentialism, one that would reenvision it not as a biologically based fixity but rather as a political and conceptual stance that encompassed the knowledges, practices, and discourses wi th in which a given author or text is irnmersed. Essential differences would therefore not derive fro m natural or biological dilTerences, but from the historically specific conditions that imparted to theories or theorists their values and assump tions, met hodological and conceptual approaches, and forms of add ress and of critical ref!ection (de Lauretis 1990, 244). Altho ugh de Lauretis's redefini tion of esse ntialism sublates thc oppositionality betwcen gynocentric and poststructural ist feminisms, or between a nalytical approaches informed by identity politics 01' deconstruction, her proposal has gone largely unheeded, especially in the ensuing fOCLlS on gender as performance. The project of conceptualizing gender as performance, pervasive within cultura l st udies, has been widcly debated in gender studies and feminist theory for the past five years. Such a project, consonant with feminism 's dedicatlon to the extrication ofgendered behavior from the biological body, foregrounds the opportunity to analyze and observe gendcr's ostensible fea tu res, its appear ance a nd activities, promising a more critical diagnosis of gender's inftuence and effects, while at the same time holding out the possi bility fo r social change, Ir, the argument goes, gender is " only" a performance , albeit deeply routinized and ingrained, then the theoretical space exists wherein sllch behavior could be resisted , alterecl, and refashioned so as to alleviate the pre s\:riptiolls fo r gendercd behavior ¡hat are cxpericnced as oppressive by so many. r hc sl:ra ru ti on betwcen aetor llnJ performa nce implied by this approach lO Ihe a na lysi:. 01' gcndcr ~ upports a Il u; ol iz;.t lio n 01' pcrsonhooo as fluid and
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prot l:a n l.:ult Llr¡1I l.:~l n s l r lll.!ti ()1I c,:a pahk Iw t u nl y nI' changc but also ul' illhab iting, perha ps evcn n.:pn:sI.!Jlt ing, IIlllltipk, Jistinctive cultural arenas. Such a conception 01' identity raJically challenges lhe essentialist notion 01' an organic and inviolable connecl ion between the biological determinants 01' sex, mce, or sexual orientation and their cultural e1aboration. This organ icist conception ofthe link hetween body and identity , a foundin g argument in so many forms of racial , gender, and sexual d iscrimination, has been deconstructed by poststrueturalist critiq ues that foe us a ttention on the very mechani sms orknowledge production through wh ich th e eon nection between biologicaJ destiny and cultural possibility is made and maintained . Yet, the ten-sion bet\Veen essential and deconstructed models o f experience endures, trenchan tly and eloquentl y summarized here \Vith regard tO racia l identily by dance ethnographer Anna Beatrice Scott: Now 1 pride m yself on being a post-essenti a list bJack persono but when I \Vent to él Moco afro rehearsal in San F rancisco intent upon doing sorne Black Atlantic researeh this past M arch only to discover that I was one o f only five black peop1e out of at least fifty parti eipants. inc1uding the drumrners and teacher, I was having a hard time controlling my proprietary ami protective instincts regarding hlack culture. I stood amidst the collection of Anglo, Asian , and Latino participants in the room , questionnaires in hand , smile on face , ami wondered to myself, " Where are the black people?" W hy did it matter to me? And why was everyone staring at me, the materialization of the adjective in Mo co afj·o? (1997 , 259) As " post-essentialist," Scott wants to detach skin color and other racial attributes from a mandated way of life. and as black, shc wants to retain privileged access to a cultural heritage. Scott names this dilcmma and even complicates it further by receiving critically the gaze directed at her as an "authen tic" representative of the h!oto a/j·o tradition. ls the gaze she receives directed not only at her black body but also at her feminine body? What is in her "flesh and bones" that makes her dancing "truer," more Moco afi'o than that of Anglo, Asian, or Latino bodies dancing alongside her? De Lauretis orrers an opportllnity to think through these questions by identifying essential differences as those that result from a profound and endur ing immersion in cultural and historical speeifkities. Yet essential differem:es often inflect and complicate one another, necessitating a theoriza tion not only 01' their historical and cultural specificity bllt
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interad " lid illl Cllldillc lllle another, wh ik cllm:cpl uali/.ing Ihe illl('rsccliol1 01" these ca lcgll rics may comrnlll1i catc an excessively sta tic, rathcr than a dyn amic, understanding or the process" (1995 , 128). Thc task , then , in focusing DI! gcnder, as one catcgory of cssential dil'ferenee, is to construct il in inter relation with racial and sexual configurations ol'identity. O ne ofthe purposes DI' this articl c is to suggest th at the l'ai lme to develop de La uretis's concept of csscntial ditTerence and to conceptllalize gender i.n dynamic relation with race and sexuality stems fra m the unexamined use of th e term performance. Is peljómUll1ce the most appropriate term to describe lhe sedimented layers and comp1ex nctworks of behavioral responses that constitute masculine and feminine roles? Since there are different techniques and theories 01' perform ance - the perrormer can a ssimilate the character of the part to be played and allow that character's l'eelings and motivations to generate and guide the actions, or the performer can care[ully approxim ate beh aviors j udged to be typical of the character to be rendered - d oes gender as performance also stipulatc a particular approach to performing? Most crucially , if gender is performance, what script or score is being pcrl'ormed? For those o f us in dance , thcater, anu performance studies, the recent appropriation ofperfórm al1ce and its eousin pel.Jármalil'ity as terms that \vould illuminate cultural aud textual studies signals a potentially fruitful interdisciplinary inqu iry, but one that calls for certain discipline-based know1edgc about the fun etions 01' these terms. Rather than appea] to knowledge bases generatcd in the field s ol' theater, dance , and pelt o rmance studies for answers to these questions, argum enL~ for gender as performance typically acknowledge the work 01' speech -act the orist J. L. Austin (1962) as a foundational approach. A ustin 's theory a l' t he performativity 01' languagc, a radical opening out of language to social and political dimensions, posits that under certain conditions the speaking of a phrase might alter the status of the body performing the speaking. It d oes not make any daims for speech as a form of bodily articulation (something that the phrase " speech acts" might suggest), nor does it explore action as an accomplishrnent of the body. For Austin. the bod)', fundamentally the passive executant ofthe subject, enunciates words in the direction of another body-subject \Vith \Vhich it intends 10 eommunicate. Sorne of its commun ications, by contractual agreement within the sociolinguistic order, perform the work ofreordering the speaker 's relations 10 !lis or her surroundings, as in the often-cited example 01' "1 do " as the pivotal statement in the marriage ccremony. The allure of Austin 's focus on linguistic performances for more general theories of performance presumably resides in the proposition that lhe enactment or a gcncralized cultural script will implicate the individual in juridical and political networks of meaning that exercise a determining effect Dn identity . But can such a framewo rk of distinctio ns betwcen performa tive anJ nonperfOnlHltivc linguistic utterances he ex tended to the full realm ol' hc havior wit hin wh kh ccrlai n gl!sLurcs might be identitlcd as gendercd'! 11 \
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Jlldi LlI Bll lkl , wllos\.:' (¡('//d,',' / /( ,/1"'(' (1, )1)( 1,1) IS llrt \.:'1l 111\.:' citcd source ror the notion \, r g~' lIdn a:. pcrfO llll al1\;,\.:', d rílW'i ll ll A ll slin's lhcorit:s to emphasize the :;edimcnlcd lll'lworks o f sllc inl IIllllllS Ih rl1l1gh which lhe subject is con 1 stituted as gCllllcred . BlIl lcr's Clllle\:plio ll 01' pcrforma livity, not unlike de La uretis's l'ssl'lllial Ji ffe re nce, foells\:s nn lhe historically specifie eonstella ti on 01' rei lcralive and citati on al patterns, the regulatory system, and not on any single or delibe rate ac ts 01' individuals, that interpelJate lhe subject as a gcndered subjeet. 2 Bu t for Bu tler it is difficult to envision how either per t'ormalll.:e or performativity extends beyond the verbal rt:alm into n onverbal dirnensions of human aetion, Although in early version s of her thco ry of gcnder iden ti ty, Bu tler (1990b, 270) mentions bodily gcstures, movernen ts, and enactrnents 01' various kinds, in Bodies ThalMaller sh e defi nes performative acts as " forms 01' authoritati ve speeeh: most performatives, for instance, are staternents that, in the uttering, also perform a certain action and exercise a binding power" (1993 , 225). In her only reading of a no nprinted text, the film Par¡.\' Is Burning, Butler notes the categories of eharaett:r types that are perforrned at the drag balls and their eostuming, but she never examines the eclectic movement vocabularies and the sequencing 01' those voeabularies through which social commentary is generated. She considers the relation ship between pedestrian and stage identities without actually detailing the ranges of exaggerative and ironie gestures used in eaeh site. 0nly by assessing lhe artieulateness of bodies' motions as well as speeeh, ] wou ld argue, can the inlerconneetedness of racial , gendered , and sexual differences within and among these bodies matter. Performativity for Butler not only lodges primarily in the verbal dimen sions of human behavior but also exercises its power through compulsory reiteration. In order for gender to appear as natural , as the inevitable pro duct 01' the body 's sex, the acts through which it is constituted are repeated so Crequently and interminably as to forec1ose any possible apprehension 01' their eonstructedness: " Performativity is thus not a singular ' aet,' for it is always a reiteration of a norm or set of norms, and to the extent that it aeqllires an act-Iike status in the present, it coneeals or dissirnulatcs lhe conventions 01' whieh it is a repetition " (1993, 12). By ddlning gender identity as reiterative, as a stylil.ed repetition of social norms through time, Butler is ablc to unmask the eontingent status of those norms and their coe rcive cffeets.:\ Although Butler emphasizes that performativity can be located on ly in multiple rather than single acts , the foc us on rciteralion stresses the repeti lion of acts more th an the relationality arnong thern. Ilow are lhese "aets " organized so as rnutua"y to reinforce and/or expanJ o n one another'! ]-]ow do acls nol ol1ly reilerate social norms but a l50 va ry thcl11 so as lo cstablish rcso na n<.:es aInon g t1 ist il1cl catcgories o f 110 rm a livc hdlavior? In thi s arli<.:lc 1 plll SII C a I11cllwdolúgy Jcsi!!l1\:d 111 i1ll swc r Ihese q ucst ions Ih rn ugh a fú c lIs OH II\(' cxul11plc nf dance. Danco.! illll llli lll' s tire issucs a l stakc ill :I n an:llysis q rgc lI( [¡ ' 1 ;IS pcrro rl11:tnu! no l. ,,, lv hel ;\11 ',\' da n....e. li kc genJ e r,
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1a111sists I¡¡rgely uf bodily m.: lions ruther than efTccls 01' spcceh, but also ncca u:;c il dcli ncatt:s a clear funclion Co r the perforrner. By examining the role 01' performance in dance and contrasting it with choreograph y, 1 hope to SllOW that choreography is a far more useful rubric for understanding gende r. ('horcography, the tradition of eodes and conventions through which mean ing is constructed in dance , offers a social and historical analytie fram ework rol' the study of gender, whereas performance conccntrates on the individual execution of such codeso C horeograph y resonates with cultural values con cerning bodily, individual, and social identities, whercas performance focuses on the skill neeessary to represent those identities. Choreography presents a struct uring o f deep an d enduring cultural values that replicates similar sets ofvalues elaborated in other cultural praetices, whereas performance em phasizes the idiosyncratic interpretation of those values. Like perforrnativity, ehoreography consists in sets of norms and conventions; yet unlike perforrn ativity, or at least its general usage thus far , choreography encompasses l.:Orporeal as welJ as verbal articulateness. Choreography therefore serves as a useful intervention into discussions 01' materiality and body by focusing on the unspoken , on the bod ily gestures and movements that, along with speeeh, eonst ruct gendercd identity. C horeograph y also fo<..:uses attention on the interrelationality 01' various sets of codes and conventions through which identity is represented . 1n wha! follows 1 present an analysis of both choreography and perfo rm ance through a consideration of examples drawn from social and lheatrical dance traditions. My purpose is to intervene in the general discussio n 01' gender as performance and to examine critically key oppositions - bclwee n essentialism and deconstruction, the corporeal and the linguistic, a nu the lextual amI the perforllled - th a t undcrlie that discussion . At the same lime, 1 hope to demonstrate the value ol' danee as a conceptual framework ror sorting through these very cornplex issues. FocLls on dance enables a more thorough understanding of the cultural constructedness of body and idenlity and a more far-reaching se! of strategies for effecting social ehange.
Theorctical mOl'es In order to iHuminate \\'hat is entaiJed by the choreographie process, 1 begin \Vilh the examplc of the lone female choreographer at work in the dance studio. This example traces ib origin to the modern dance tradition in the United States, a tradition whose feminist underpinnings have been welJ docu mcnted .4 This initiative, undertaken by white, bourgeois women at the turn of the century, eonstructed a new expressive practice focused at the site of the individual dancing body . These artists sought to overhaul body and soul in order to liberate individu al <.: rea live impulses fro rn the. :;tranglehold 01' soeietal no rllls a mI acslhclie va lues. T hci r cho reo/;.t raphie accomplishments. eongru L'nl with ex pcl'imell 1al philo))ophics Ot' Cdllculilln dllrin g lhal period, proviJed 11 ' ,
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the rationale ro r the en tranl,;c (JI' dance inl t> highcr cdllcation. ; Construeo as a wa y 01' knowirlg, other than and outside 01' verbal knowledge, the profes sional world 01' modern dance a no the university oance program continue to privilege the in
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clIltivatcs Ihe hody through tra ining reginh:lIs lhat dcvelop its strength, fl cx ibility, endurance, and coordination. r, It may acquire a massivc muscLllar ity uncharacteristic of the fem ale body or a willowy f1exibility uncharacter istic of the maJe body. This body, already codified in terms 01' its sex but appearing as one oftwo sexes, then presents itselfto the viewer. Its movement \ViII be seen as gendered , as putting into pla y various codes 01' gendered behavior. Thus the cboreographer considers kinds 01' bodil y stances (open or c1osed), bodily shapes (erect or curved), engagements with the surrounding space (direct 01' diffuse). timing of U1 0vements (slo\V or quick , continuous or abrupt), qualities of motion (restrained , sustained . undulating, bursting), and sequencing 01' body parts (random or sequential) characteristic 01' caeh gen der 's motion .7 She stipulates a quality 01' focus for the dancer. projecting attentiveness to the connections between internal sensation and externa] motion , projecting awareness of external space ami making contact \Vith other danee rs, or calling attention to the booy 's enunciations in space. She likewise designates a ki nd of motivation for the movement in which dancers can appear to be propelled by an imagin a ry force located out in space or to initiate 1l10vemcnt from within their own bodies. She reck o ns with estab lished codes of contact bctween female and male bodies: whe re the body 01' one sex can touch the body 01' the other sex, what kinds of shapes bodies of the two sexes can make together, who can give weight and who bear it. who initiates movell1ent and who follows , \Vho is passive and who active, who is to be looked at and who is doin g the looking. She forges phrases 01' movemen t that construct groupings of dancers with gendered connota tions - c hao li c, convoluted. pristine, or geometrie. When she does this for multiple bod ies , she elaborates a theory not onJy of gendered eorporeal identity bul a lso 0(' relations among gendered bodies. Male and female bodies, bodies 01' different color and racial atlributes may or may not evidence vocabularies or styles 01' mo vement associatcd with their sexual or racial identities. These bodies gest ure toward , tOllch. or sup port one another. They follo\\' in one a nother's pathways, reiterate or vary one another's moves . They evidence a range 01' emotional responses toward one another, all the whilc oblivious to or interactive with the audience. They may distribute themselves so as to frame a soloist or to present multipl e competing events. They may cite othcr dances or dance traditions as part 01' their danced argument. In the sustained devclopment 01' their activities, they \\'ill appear to narrate events, to tell a kind ol'story , perhaps wilh characters, motivations, and responses to one another, or perhaps to speak ofthe weight. momentum, and agility 01' which bodies are capab1c. They may enllnci alc values and rclationships characteristic 0 1' a particular ethnic iJcntifl cati o n, or lhey may present a series 0'- affcl!tivc Sla les. t\ccuOl ulat ing these choil.:cs cQncerning lhe beh a vior 0 1' nod ics , tli t' l'hm l'0l:lJ'aphy builJs U f') a n imHgl' ('l l' cDllll11l1nil y. Oll \: Ihat a rliculalcs blllll illdi vi d llul a nd collcdlvc h.lcnl ilics. I 1/
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'I ltrough v ul lh¡; Cn':a ll vc J11Ol'CSS n i :11 I1I 1I 1.1 11I 1~' lla\,:sl' idclltities, lhe choreo ;¡ lrad ilion nI' J'c¡m.:scn la 11 1111,, 1 l'lIl1vcntiol1s, k nowlcogc of whkll is shareo to a grealc r 01' Icssc r cxltm l by holll dance makers ano oane_e vicwcrs. To achieve I hc ll1eaning shc envisions, lile choreographer selccts 1'1t1111 among these con ven lions, implementing, innovating, ano even cha lleng iJl11 II spects of the lrad ilion. Viewers will, in tum, analyze thc c horeographic illlpk mentation of conventions in order to derive their own interpretation of Ihe dance. H owever intuitive or inspired the creative process may seem , the choreographer is nonetheless laboring at the craft 01' dance making. However Jislinctive Or giftcd her dances may seem, she is worki ng as one of a group or practitione rs sharing a body of knowledge about how oances mean what Ihey do. However immeoiate lhe oance's message may appear to viewers, th uir lI nderstanding of the oance will be baseo on their abil ity to decode the cll o n:ographic cod ing of meaning. Thus, the choreography may contribute illnovations that \ViII subtly alter the contents of its representational traoi 110/1 but these innovations can acquire their full meaning only through their ';I III, lleoness within that traoition. I >ü ncers who enter the stuoio to translate choreography into perform .111\\' begin by Iearning the movement, its timing, ano its disposition for the Ihldy in space, as meticulously as is requireo by the aesthetic ocmanos of lile situation . Yet they also mooify lhe movement so as to develop a personal rel:tlionship with it. In order to " make it their own," they may alter move rnc nl to aoapt to their bodily capacitics so that they, ano by extcnsion the IIltlVemcnt itself, achieve greater c1arity in performance . They may imbue I he Illovemenl with personal meani_ngs in addition to those describeo by the dl llreographer so as to attain a greater fervency. They may elaborate a per!itlila - - an integrative conception of the booy-subject who would move in lIJ e way specified in the choreography - ano then use this concept to further tdi m: stylistic features of their performance. They may also ealculate the l'Ifct"! of their performance on viewers ano calibrate effort , intensity , ano IOl'lIS so as to "reach " the auoience in a manner consonant with the choreo JI':J phy's theoretical goals. They may even connect to a history of perfonners 111 a traoitional style of performance that informs lheir current project. 1hf\ll tghout the process of learning a nd presenting a oance, performers IlIanifest these ano other competcncies, the product of years of arouous Ilaining.
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On ;asionally, oaneers are askeo to movc beyono the bounos of lheir train ing as performers ano to assume roles as eochoreographers of t he oance. TlJ cy l1lay be asked to genera te movement baseo on specific strictures o r )!lIiJelines. to solve problems of seq ueneing, or cven to engage cri lically, ;Oll1 l11cn t on, or select fro m among the representatio llal slrategics that lhe ~ lJ ml'()graphy oeploys and that they embody in pcrfll rmancc. 'rhe fúcl tha t da nCC ls Illay élssist in Ihcse choreographie projccls Itowewr, d oes no l alt er I he ~Ii~j inelivcncss tll' I he !Wll roles. Insofa r as Ihl'Y ;11 l' 1'\.'1 rn l meno¡. IlJey will
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he concc rllcJ prll l1al il y wilh lhese kinds of q ucstiol1s: Ilow shall I phrase this scction? Should I 1I0ld back here in order to provide more contrast with the intcllsity 01' that 111oment? Does my timing appear mannered? C an I be more rocused? How can I look occupied with one action while act ually waiting for Ihe arrival ofanother body with Wh0111 I must appear to have a spontaneous interaction? What aoditional strcugth , fl exibility, or enduranee do l need to enhance the exccution of the movement? How the performcr answers these questions will affect the overall i111pact 01' the ehoreogra phy and rnay subtly alter its intent. Cerla inly , there is a sense in which the performance of a ny given dance stands as the most aCClIrate presentation of its choreography (stand s as the choreography) insofar as a ny given viewer has aecess to it. Still, throughout the viewing of a da nce, one ca n pcrceive the gllioing score for the action as distinct from the exccution o ft hat score. One can see the residue of strategi¡; choiccs conccrning rcpresentation as distinct from the bringing to Iiveness of those choices. And in this distinct iveness, the contrasting fllTIctions of choreography and performance are apparent : dance making theorizes physieality, whereas dancing presents that theory of physicality .
Embodying the social The premise of a new oance being made illustrates most graphically the kinds of oecisions through which choreography comes into being. But the distinc tion between choreography ano performan¡;e that I wish to elaborate works equally \Vell within the context of " authorless" choreographies ranging from sqllare dances .lo fox-trots , ano it extends far beyond conventional notions or oancing to induoe a wide variet)' of structllred movement practices such as parades or political oemonstrations, religious rites or academia lectures. F or any of these structureo movcment practices, a set of protocols (what 1 have called a tradition) exists that \ViII be referenced by the choreography and then vivifieo by thc specific performance. For sqllare dances, such protocols would aovise on proximities and qualities of touch bet\Veen bodies; trajectories for bodies traveling through space; patterns or steps; relations among move ment, music , ano caller. For an aeaoemic lecture. there exist protocols for Icctllrer ano Iisteners regaroing tl1eir loeation , the appropriate kino and alllount ofbodily postllres ano gestures. Choreographies ror indivioual square oances oiffer widely in kind and nllmber of steps and the eomplicatcd sequencing of those steps. Lectures are choreographed in accordance with the formality of the oecasion ano their disciplinary affiliaüon. Many square dances have no identifiable choreographer, and, like the guidelines for the Iccturc. they have been passcd lhrough generations of perfonners who may makc incremental cho reogr aph ic changcs lo them. No matter how dynamic lhc d an cing, how ch a risllla tic lhe b:lu ring, llll: chorcognl phic specifications un dc rl ying Ihuso perfo nllanccs n:lIll1 in I h ~ sunlC. x I 1"
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Uy Jislill gllishill g hclw~'c l1 chun: uglanh y ami per formance, lhc process cor~l(m;al significa nn: cun be mude morc apparent. It is lhis process that connects da nce to olher cultural practices and larger systems 01' cultural values. Consider, for eXC:Ullplc , the striking divergence in movemen t vocabula ries for male and female roles in European ballet that began to de velop at the beginn ing of the nineteenth ccnt ury and the concomitant implementation 01' pointe work for the fcm ale ballerina. Althollgh promlll gated through lhe skills 01' individual dancers such as M arie Taglioni and Fanny Ellsler, the slldden emergenee 01' dancing on pointe can be traeeJ to no single choreographer. Its widespread use by fem a le soloists of miJcentury constructed a radically new vision of both femin ine an d masc ul ine roles in which fem ale dancers embod ied an illusive fragili ty and maje dancers SlIp ported , aumired, and yearned after them. The choreography 1'01' these gen dered roles made manifest a version 01' the R ousseaui an social contract with its division of duti es betwecn mascllline public and feminine private spheres. It staged a new vision of mascllline and feminine identities as uniqlle and complementary parts 01' an organic social whole rather than as ordered ele ments of a social hierarch yY Throughout the eighteenth century, male and female dancers shared a single vocabulary of positions and steps. They performed the same traveling phrases, beats, turns, and jumps, with stylistic differences that signified lheir roles : male daneers jUJ1lped higher, multiplied the numbers 01' beats and tllrns, and exhibited a more foreerul grace than female daneers, who per formeJ smaller versions of these steps with a softer and more fluid style. By the early nineteenth centu ry, the choreography celebratcd distinet voeablll aries for male and female dancers - dainty and complex footwork and extended balances for women, and high leaps.jumps with beats, and mllItipJe pirouettes for meno And it elaborated new conventions of partnering that ineorporated ne\\' eodes for touching, for support, and for the aehievement of pleasing eonfigurations. Up until the end of the eighteenth century, pas de dellx had plaeed great emphasis on male and female daneers performing aJongside one another or traveling separately designated pathways in mirroreJ opposition. By the mid-ninetcenth eentllry, partnering included sections of sustained , slowly evolving shapes in which male and female dancers con structed intricate designs, always with the mal e dancer guiding and support ing the female dancer as she ba laneed delicately and suspensefully in fully extended shapes. In tandem with Ihis shift from hierarehieally to organically related gender roles. praetices ranging from fashion to postural pedagogy to anatomical study undertook analogo us redefinition:; of gen der roles. In fashion. mascu line garb, as colorful and ornamented as womcn's wl!ar dllrin g the eighteen th ccnlury, tran sformed into sober and mmkst dC'iign:i tll al ~mrhasiled the jutlici o us di~p(lsil¡l) n 1)1' n1l;:1I and lhe frivo luus illl: lillilll llllS uf women. T he con¡él, l/ scd a s ;J Ssi¡'; I ;II \\:~ ill Illai nlaini llg:ln Cfl'l'l )l1l!> IIIII', wa s ahando llcd by
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both SI.: X1.: S in fa vor uf prograllls 01' cxc rci sl.: thal wOl/ld I.:nabk lhe bndy to establish its ()WIl vcrticality, but was Ihcn reintrodueed ror women , not as IO postural aid but as enhancemcnt to the body's gendered appearance. The corset shrank the waisl and ex panded Ihe pelvis. Similarly. anatomical illus trations that had previously used the male skeleton as a reference for both sexes. adjusting only the si ze of the fema\e bones, began to depict female skeletons from female examples. H owever, they often exaggerated the width of the pelvis and reduceJ the size of lhe head so as to provide bone-deep verifieation 01' women 's role as childbearer." These kinds 01' changes in ballet, fashion , and anatomical study contrib uted to the massive overhaul of gender roles that established the separate spheres ideo logy ofthe nineteenth century. Yet it is only th rough an attention to choreographie structure that ballet's ideological work beeomes apparent. If ballet were analyzed in terms of the performance skills it required , a complementary yel distinct set of issues would emerge. In order to perform well. female ballerinas neeessaril y cult ivateJ new strengths fOf rising onto and balancing on pointe. They mastered patterns of f10w that would enhance their ephemerality and dextroLls coordinations that would make them both intricate and f1eeting. Male dancers likcwise learned the placement ofwcight and lhe eoordination neeessary to assist another body in these precarious anJ eomplex tasks. Both sexes \carned to exploit lhe foeus necessary to direct the viewers' gaze towa rd the ballerina. While these skills exemplify the gender-specific varieties of bodily discipline lO which dancen; werc subject, they do not cOllvey the full construction of gendered identity articulated in the nineteenth-century pas de deux , nor do they indicate the extent to which ballet helped to consolidate the widespread change in gender ro les. O nly by focusing on choreographic ehanges can one see ballet's connectedness to other cultural practices aecomplishing similar redeflllitions of gender. Only by analyzing those changcs that reorganized male anJ female vocabularies and the coordination of male and female interaction can one see ballet not as a mere refleetion of social changes but as olle 01' Ihe endeavors that produce such ehanges. An alternative relation between dancing bodies and Ihe social body was artieulated on lhe black urban U .S. street-as-stage of the late 1970s. Fighting to survive at Ihe ver y margins of society, break-dancers, primarily male, choreographeJ black social prolest and urban renewal during a time of accclerating c1ass differentiation and the dccimation of inner-city neighbor hoods and resources. 12 Their choreography responded directly lo the simul taneous crises of depleted housing, laek of meaningful jobs, rising police brutality, and increasing commoJity fetishism and to the technological cx plosio n of devices for reproducing sonic and visual images .J:\ Presenting thcir ch Meograph y on lhe street comer, lhey o lTercd a critique 01' bourgeois, largely whi te, pri vileges asso(:Ía led wil h altcllding thc thcater. with the theater l:llnslJ'lIl:d as (In dil e com mcmmlll iol l oClíf¡;'s highest v
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time. tbey cUllsecratcd lile SII 'l.~L'1 as a silt' fUI POl.l'l1tial n~ju vcJl ati\)l l of a discnfra nchised and tll:ép ly alicnakd por lllacl~ . Break dance culliva led thc jointcdness o f body and thetlow of motion across [hose joints sequentially bUI so as to fent ure each j oin t as mueh as the movemen t aeross it. Into this synthesis of rupture and flo w, dancers incor porated astonishing virtuoso spins on the bead or should ers, splits, and back and forward flips ; freeze poses that stilled the body in a earicatured version of a well-known social type or socia l gesture; and citations 01' other danccrs' characteristic movem ents and 01' other dance traditions. These citations funet ioned as dialogues, as playful and com petitive mastery 01' other daneers' materi al. and as expressions 01' solidarity with ea rlier A fro-Am erican a nd Afri can dance traditions. 1n their borrowings from forms such as karate a nd Capoiera, they also placed break dancing on the world stage 01' popular culture. In consecutive solos or sometimes duets an d larger groups, dancers crafted these dialogues with breathtaking speed of movement a nd agility in transitions. The competitive stakes of each performance aUowed dancers lo enhance their status and increasetheir prestige within a masculine-domina ted arena. The power and eloquence of the dance resulted from bodies negotiating precarious, dangerous tensions between anatomy and gravity coupled with the critical and witty commentary on other bodies and dance forms. Accord ing to Tricia Rose, it was these choreographic features of break dancing thal connected the dance to its political environs and imbued it with resistance and affirmation: What is the significancc offlow, layering, and rupture as demonstrated on the body and in hip hop's Iyrical , musical, and visual works? Interpreting these concepts theoretically, one can argue that they creatc and sustain rhythmic motion, continuity, and circularity via flow; accumu)ate, reinforce, and embellish this continuity through layering: and manage threats to these narratives by building in rup tures that high1ight the continuity as it lllomentarily challenges it. Thcse effects at the leve! 01' style and aesthetics suggest affirmative ways in which profound social dislocation and ruptu re can be man aged and perhaps contested in the cultural arena. Let us imagine these hip hop principies as a blueprint for social resistance and affirmation: crea te sustaining narratives., acculllulate them, layer, em bellish, and transform them. Ho\Vever, be also prepared for rupture, find pleas ure in it, in fact , plan on social rupture. W hen lhese ruptures Occur, use them in crcative ways tha t will plerJarc yo u fOI a fUlu re in wh ich survival will dellland a suddcn shi fL in CnlLllH.l tael iCS. 11 Rosc's ca l! l.P c.onsidef' Ihe úancillg " thCl) r¡,:lkllll y" nHll..l's cvillcnt illO crilica l capacil y , ill l!tal il shuws tite rtlplll l'\:S. :llId il s Clll llI 'IVl' llIl tl po lClll i:II, iJl I)¡al
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it sh ows t)¡\! body Ilcgoliating thosc rU[1ltll'l;s illIJ I¡¡king ph:astIrc ¡I! th ul ellorl. Survival depends on tlle kinds 01' indi vidual agility and com l11 l1nal solidarity tha! the dancc expresses. Break dancing's delllonstra tion of survival tactics was a l! the lllOr!! p¡;r suasive beca use the dancers were improvising the choreography in perlOIlIl Clnce. Like j azz, break dancing required the choreographcr-perforlllcl lo draw on previoLlsly choreographed and rehearsed pbrases and to SCCllIél ll: C these along \Vith newly invented material in ways that yielded un premedilaled results. Wi thin the white tradition ofmodern dani.:e, improvisati on frequenLl y implies a lessening of conscious intent so as to allow unconsci ou s impu lses lo emerge. 1.\ Consonant \Vith the Afro-American tradition of jazz, improviscd dancing such as t ap or break dancing docs no t partake in lhe cOfL.')ci o us! unconscious binary. Instead , improvisers can craft their composition all he same time that they allo\V opport uni ties for the una nticipa led lO eme rge. I (, By improvising, the da ncers were literally placing their bodies in the soc ial rupture that Rose describes and dedicating themselves to the creati on amI resolution of haza rdous corporeal dilemmas. The choreographic foml man dated a distinguished individual performance, where individual initiati ve and exploration could verify masculine bravado. At the same time, dam:ers signaled comrnunal affiliations and aggressivc competition th ro ugh l.hG danced dialogues they chosc to incorporate. Although dancers oceupieJ Ihe dual roles of choreographer and perfomler, the responsibilities and eva llwl ive standards 01' cach role can be distinguishcd . Choreograpby was cvalua l..:d by dancers and vie\Vcrs in terrns 01' the range and vividness of citations; IIIL' innovative sequencing; the rcsponsivcncss to music , crowd, and conkxl. and the deftness with which the body \Vas extricated from uoa ntü.:í rut cd situations. Performance evaluation was based on the charisrna, cool , ru nki ness, virtuosity, and audacity that dam.:ers exhibited while thinking on Ih cir feet. "Discovered" by thc art establishment and the media in the ea rly IlJ80s , break dancing cxperienced a meteorie rise in visibility and a consequen l shin in ,lhe kind ofsocial critique it could choreograph. 17 No longer a streeh :orner performance, break dancing was staged in galleries, in popular film ::; SlIeh as Flashdance, and on television , and its commercial viability was evenlually recognized by the music video industry. Less a n occasion ror imprompl u critical dialogue on the stage of Jife , break dancing nonetheless maintai ned the powerful integrity of its negotiations alllong space, rhythlll, gravily, and its intentextual refercnces to other dance forms, thereby providing cOlllpclli ng visions 01' a reflexive physicality that contrasted with other lllainstreéllll fm ms of dancing, such as ballet or aerobics. Allhough initiall y ma rgimllizcd by lile lll ale-centered slrcet cu lt ures t hat SUp[1\llled break danci ng, women lIaneers a mJ singers. alwa ys conlribut ors lo tlH! oll g()in g expcrimcn lalioll wilh lhe !"onn , beg¡tn 111 ~h a re cente r ~;lugc wil )¡ 11 1:1 h' a l t ists when ru p ntllsk l110ved inlO COII1 Ill!.' I·\." i;¡) illun..:, slIc h al' M 1v 1' \
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lI y II "I II ~J MII III' 01 It.\.' S: II \l U CllP It.:l1t'la p hll ';I \'a h::gics J cvclopetl ill \:adi\:r 11!'c,;. II.. dall l:~ divl: \''iC VlH:a lJlllari \.'!-. 01" I11 11 ve 1l ll" 1I 1. ahrupl shifls ion rcfercnces. ;J lul r lce: \I i(lUS n:lali(lllship lo grav ity Il~lII a lc ¡,,·tists elaborated a separate /¡l.: 1 01' l'l1n n : rn :; rc v(ll vill g a ro l.llld Ihci r OWI1 sexual identity and pleasure ami 1hC11 pel spclll i vc o n urba l1 vio1cnce and J ecay. The continuities in dance sty1c 1ha 1 lhey uult ivatcd alld the themalic \:oneern with the inner ei ty's decimation sign aled lhcir solidarity with the masculineidentifled form, their sympathy wi l" Ihe plig hl 01" young A fro- A merican men, and Iheir distance I"ro m anti hlac k-m .dl.! ag\:lIdas . 'X !\ t Ihe same time, women a rtists choreographed a crilique ofscx isll1 wi lhin Ihe !\fro-American community in which they demoll slra ll.!U virtuoso conlrol o ver their own bodies and p1easures. A:s exemplified in videos by lhe group TLC, choreography anu camera work coordinate to c rca l\: a eomplex inleraction betwecn pcrformcr and viewer. 19 In works sLlch as (¡'('cj!. R ed Nigh¡ Specia/, and Water/á/l.\' , the dancers repeatedly invite lhe ca mera and, implicitly, the viewer toward them. gesturing the body's sensu ality and desire. Masterfully. t hey rebuff. refocus, and reorient the gaze so as to control access to intimacy. Standing firm, they mock the objeetification of the female body. Slipping deftly out from L1nder the gazc's scrutiny. they illlllllin a te pathwa ys 01' desire whose directionality and acccssibility they have erafted, By choreographing such a complex relationship to the gaze, these women arti~ls embody the tense dynamism of their identities as Afro !\meriean and feminist, as members 01' an oppressed and marginalized social grollp , a nd as leaders in an intern ational avant-garde popular aesthetic. As these examples illustrate, choreography, whether created by individuall or collective agencies, illlprovised or designated in advance, stands apart I"rol11 any performance of it as the overarching score or plan that evidences a 1hCl)ry 01' embodiment. This plan or fralllework 01' decisions that imp1cments " sd 0 1' representational strategies is what endures as that which is aug mc nll.~d. cnriched, or repressed in any given performance. Tt is that which t; kJIIges slowly over the multiple pcrformances. This kind of distinction hc lwccn choreography and performance is not equivalent to that between 1(/l/glI(' and paro/e. Choreography is not a permanent, struetural capacity for n:prescntation, but rather a slowly changing constellalion of representa I iOllal conventions. Both choreography ami performancc change ovcr time; 11.,11t select from and move into aetion certain semantic systems, and as sllch Ihey derive their meaning from a specific histo rical and cultural moment. In III\: case of eighteenth- and nineteenth-centllry ballet, choreographic specifica tions 1'0\" gender roles incarnate the separatespherc redefinition of Pllblic a nu private spaces; in Ihe case 01' break dancing, fcma1e choreographers llla bora te a highly nuanced identity for thclJlselves as !\fro-!\l11ericél ns and as \\lo men th roug h th eir cra fling of bodies ami carne ras. In bolh cases. e h oreo g raph y. \li Me lh a n an y P\!I r'1rmance, is wh ul rc~n na l cs wi lh o lbe!" syli lcll1S 0 1" rcprcSI.'II I¡¡ liOI1 Iha l Illg,'ll!c r C\l ll sl illl lC l ltí: c llllll r¡¡II\I "III ~'1l 1 wi thin wh ich a ll thlt/il;), ci rc lllall'
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This notion 01' choreography dilTers Illarkedly from standard treatments 01' dance as the elusive. cvcr-changing "mother ofthe arts. " The initiative within dance studies to approach dance as a historically specific cuJt ural practice ra ther than an inerrable ce1ebration 01' a universal human condition has taken place alongsidc and with the aid 01' feminist studies. Over the past twenty ycars, dance scholars have used the kinds 01' interpretive strategies imple mentcd in fcminist theory to distance sex from gender as a way to denatural ize the dancing body and historieize dance as a practice and profession. I review bridly some 01' the main points of intersection between feminist and dance studies in order to c1arify further th e kinus of c1aims 1 wan t to make for choreography. The pertinence 01' feminism to dance studies has long been apparent. The professions 01' both dancc and dance scholarship are made up almost entirely ofwomen. Dance, the object ofstudy, is feminized within our society. The dancing body is aligncd with and central among a whole host of entities silllilarly deflned as feminíne : it is most often construed as natural, auth en tic, spontaneous, rervcnt, chaotic, and evanescent. Whcthcr primordial or decorous, it is always insubstantiaI. At the same time. gendered divisions of labor exist within the discipline such that producers and artistic directors are most 01'ten male and dancers are most often remale. Similarly, traditions 01' dance sllch as ballet, with its abslract, hierarchical structures, are conceptu alized as more masculine than the feeling-filled, intuitive modern dance , a tradition founded and perpctuatcd largely by women. Lacking adequate forms 01' documentation, dance has receivcd little historical recognition. The enigmatic slipperiness 01' the dancing body has been seen by most historia ns and aestheticians as incapab1e 01' the catcgorization and analysi s that would endow it with the status 01' a serious art or a meaningflll form of socialíty. 20 Where earlier generations of dance scholars emphasized just this ephemer ality and unspeakable power , scholars in the 1970s and 1980s began to adapt several kinds of methodologies to support their argument for a greater visib ilíty and legitimacy for dance in academic research. Although the fllll range of arguments against institutionalízed patriarchal values is pertinent to the subject 01' dance. 1 briefly outline two arcas of concern to both dance and feminist studies: the critique oflogoeentrism and the critique ofthe objectifled and sexualized status 01' women. Using the expanded notíon oftext e1aborated in semiotics and in Derridean notions 01' writing, dance scholarship has hypothesized for dance the status and capacities of a language-like system. It has recast dance as a cultural practice whose discursive function might be seen as distinct from yct com parable to la ng uage: it has rec1assifled dance as a system of signs. 21 R ather than insisl on lhe alterily 01' dance a~ cxcm plified in the premises 01' an écrilllre j hllinilh', úa ncc schola rs hip haN Ilcshed out Ihe corrcspondenccs between
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';lIliL'd wil h thCIIl ;1I1 Impl it.'iL c ritiq lle \Ird a nl:c as Icss sophisticalCu 01' COI1 I-'l'p lll ally dClll umJi llg Ihall Ih e writt cn tex t, anu they lacitly challenged Ihc hicla ll:hica l n:la liollships Orllli llll a.nd bndy, intclleclual and physical , w riting alld dallci ng , r hey also provideJ a llew kind ofjustificalion for lhe projecl nf wri ling abOl1l d unce: ir dance could be cOl1ceptualized as structured around I:e rla in IUllguage-likc capacilies then the verbal analysis of this non verbal I~ l rm wo ukl conslilu le more an acl 01' translatio n than (me 01' cOlTuptionY As parl nI' this iniliative to asserl thc sill1ilarities between language anu dallce, Ihe "olhering" 01' the nonverbal call1e un der intense scrutiny. Terll1 s prcviollsly applied to dance, such as preverbal 01' preli/erale, lhe opposition nI' Ihinking lo doing, an d Lh e divide between theory ami pra..:tice, cOllld 1I0W he challenged, T he rieh production of experience occurring daily in lhe dam:c sllldio provided a crucial resource for understanding not only the poslstructllralist c1aill1s concerning the inslability of the text ami the cultura l conslrllctedness of the body but also the structllring of knowledge th at dichotomies such as verbal and non verbal produce, Unlike art history anu musicology, which have moved away from the creative production of arL and music, dance studies remains d ose ly allied with the teaching of dancing and dance mak ing, and in that alliance neither writer nor dancer can daim lo be theorist or practitioner. Ir dance studies profited from the efforts to decenter the preeminence of the word , it likewise gained from the critique of women as sexualized objects, Yvonne Rainer's manifestos from the early 1970s document the growing unease with the dancing body as object of a sexualizing gaze, and her choreo graphy, a long with th at of colleagues Tricia Brown, Lucinda Childs, and many others, added compelling urgency to the defiant efforts of twentieth century modern dance choreographers to detlect the masculine eroticizing gaze. 24 With the elaboration of gaze theory in film studies, dance scholarship began to identify corresponding constructions of desire in theatrical dance, even if it did not adopt the larger psychoanalytic framework of such theory beca use of the general orientation in psychoanalysis toward body as the site of the unknowablc, 25 Although an extensive Iiteratllre has developed in feminist stlldies address ing the sexual status of the fema Je body , the body continues to be used as a metaphor for the sexual or the erotic as if it could achieve no olher cultural signifkance than as the site 01" sign 01' sexllahty. 2(i Alternatively, the body is a nalyzed as the subject of medica l or scientific discourses that have inscribed ir. In either ofthese approaches, the body endures as the mute container for, or recipient 01', other signifying practices. Simila rl y. as Ja net Wolff has ob scrved, dance has scrvcd as the unexamincd ll1eta phM ro r ¡ l IIlopian potentia l wilhin fe mi nist a!!\!ndal:i 0 1' :iexua llibera tion .1.7 D,IIl CC ~c rvc~ j<; a Illcla pho r for rrccdom, t ru nsgrcssivc pllssíbilities, 01' lhc rCali/¡¡111l1l 01 scxu al plcas ure, yel Ihe actu ul dallcc 1 ' '' ldin~~ !ha l woukl yicld I hl.'~~' 'l''ill !h ,If l' lIe ver J iSCllsscd.
HuI h da n c~ and da II I:C s tlldil'S. howe vcr. slall d as prouf nI' I he body 's capacily lo ge nc ral\:', n:prcscnl. alld parlicipa l\: in I1IlIch more lhan sex ual desire. The absencc 01' ua nce as a topie in fem inisl sludies amI 01' the lived body as more Ihan sexual , more than a sign for sex, is a lacuna in l'eminiSl research that lhis ¡¡rtide is designed , in parl, to address, In its applieation of poststrucluralist perspectives, dance studies, Ii ke fem inist sludies, has engaged in the balancing aet betweeJl assimiJation tnto general semiotic and cultural theory and maintenanee of a distinctive identity, 2~ On the one hand , dance seholars have aspired to legitil1late dance through uel1lonstration 01' the applicabili ty 01' poststructuralist pa radigrns to danee and through their facility at usin g such paradigms. On the o ther hand , the strategy of cl aiming for dance the stalus and complexity of a text obscures aspecls 01' dance that are deeply resistant lo written descript ion, And will such a project receive recognition from a community whose power resides in the maintenance of boundaries that excl ude dance exeept as a eonvenient l1letaphor for spontancity, frivolity , and the inexpressible? Derrida's often-eited interview with Christie McDonald , ''Choreograph 2Q ies, " would seem to answer in the negative. The idea 01' lhe dance ll1akes its appearance in both the title and McDonald 's opening move, where she quotes Emma Goldman: " If I can ' t dance, I don't want to be part of your revolution." Derrida, ever willing to probe the parameters of l1leaning set by a metaphor, makes several references to dance that fall into two categories: the flrst characterizing the inlerview process itself, the second in conjunclion with the feminist movement. D errida hopes that the discussion with McDonald will approximate a uance in that "it should happen only once, neither grow heavy nor ever pl unge too deep; aboye all , it should not lag or trail beh ind its time" (Derrida and McDo nald 1995, 141 - 42), In keeping with the spirit of the dance, Derrida continues, his intervicw should "not Icave lime to come baek to what is behind us, nor to look attentively " (142) , Although dance initially musters only these shallow attributes , incapable as it is of "growing hea vy or plunging deep" or " Iooking attentively," Derrida soon imbues it with the capacity to "s urprise ." Thus, with a Illodest radicality , the dance ean "escape those residences under s urveillance; the dance changes place and aboye all changes place.\''' (145), This capacity 01' dance lo jump spryly or wriggle out of the hands of immobilizing disciplinary praetices offers an imagc 01' the kinu of disruptive, heterodox strategies that Derrida ueems neeessary to subvert all monological discourses, Here, the dance is neither "powerless nor fragile ," and it serves as a signitkr for lhe kind of agi1c, contingent action that Derrida estima tes is necessary for the ongoing struggle of feminist politics, Having positioned himself as a eritic \Vho admires this kind of choreo graphy, Derrida d ismisses the dance for the bulk of t he discuss ion, return ing lo it. at McDonald 's pro m pting, al the end of the interview , W hereas earlicr, dance eharacteri zed the a d hae laclics of resi sta nce to hegemonizing
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prac ti...·l·S hCII" h'l lcograp hy SIII I I Il IIIII\ IIp tl ll' IItupian strllctllrin g or a place bcyolll.t sl'\ua l dilt c n.:nce . T he u an ~, WIH)Se l!XistCllcC depcnds on the exchange of thl.: twn sc'-a'!s aCl.:ording to various rhythms, abo signals the possibility 01' cscarmg 1'10111 that cxchange. The "incalculable choreographies" of which hu mans a re capable, those tha t "carry, divide, and multiply the body oreach ind ividual ," could m ove LIS to a pl ace where sex ual and gendered markers no longer make a difference: "Then too, I ask yo u, what kind of a dance wo uld there be, or would there be one at all , if the sexes were not exchanged according to rhythms that vary considera bly? In a quite rigorolls sense, the e.ychange alone co uld no t suffke either, ho wever. beca use the desire to escape the com binatory itsclf, to invent incalculable choreographies, would remain " (154). Derrida stages a deliriou s fantasy in which the problem of sexual d iffeTcnce evaporates (fleeting as dance itself). But in this dream he uses dance both to seeure the inevitability of sexual exchange, fundamentally hete rosex ual, and to siplal the desire to escape beyond slIch exch a nge, pos sibly polysexual. Al though dance's epiphanic evanescen ce seems initial1y to encompass this contradiction , once its d a.zzle begins to fade , two choreographic features of Derriua's argument emerge. The first centers on his failure to discuss what kinds of choreography might catapult us from heterosexual to polysexual. T his transformation , a kind 01' singular jump or leap , has no choreographic substance. It merely hap pens in the blink 01' an eye , as quickly as the dance changes places. These two places, essential heterosexuality and deconstructed polysexuality, reproduce the essentialist!antiessentialist debate that de Lauretis is contesting. Although Derrida mentions the laborious, daily struggle 01' fcminism, he docs not consider the choreographic elements of that struggle, beca use it is only the dance's " madness" that allows it to change places (145). ('onsequently , feminist politics can only oscil1ate between the essentials of hiological , sexual identity and the mad leaps that might position women l\1olllcntarily in a dilTerent place. And reminist analysis can only attend to the Ilvcrwhdmin g complexities 01' deconstructing a given historical specificity, with liltle energy left over for devisin g strategies 01' mobilization. This nonchoreographic conception 01' dance and its effect on the subjeets ur 1'l'lllinism and sexuality eonstitute tbe second major feature of Derrida's inlerview , and his superficial treatment of dance provokcs a number of l\uestion s: Is it the feminine subject of feminist studies that inspires the llIetaphor 01' dance? Is this él subject that deserves only a gliding glance'? M ust the terrifying trio 01' dance , the reminine, and the sexual repeat endlessly its Illad, transient, and unanal yzab\e performance? Are the th rec members of Ihis trio destined onl)' to re iry and reduce one an o ther ra ther than expand Iheir individu al and mu tual identi ties? 111 he r hook Tal/g(l Olll/ tI/(' Pol/tica! F U !/Iol//I ' o! " ,/\,sioll (1 995 ), Ma rta Savig liallll ch orcngra phs:l n a llerna livl.! lo Ihe (lprl lSifi"" ht!wcell Cliscn lialist idenli ly nnd ~k~l)I I ~lr\l~ li lltl (lO C in which d :J\ln: ~¡' I v~' ... 11" hnt h suhjccl ,I I1U t
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interp rctivc rra ll1cwo rk rOl' dam;e's relationship to cultural theory. To the trio dance-rernilllne-sexuality, she adds the critical perspectives of post-colonial politics, global economics, racial and class-based markers ofidentity, and Ihe autoexotic return 01' la ngo to the emerging nation of A rgentina fol1owing its glamorous appearance on the f1rst-world stage of early twentieth-century Europe. Savigliano stages earl y tangos among the oppressed black populations 01' the Rio de la Plata , whcre the dance's eroticisrn seandalized the daneers' masters at the same time that it pron o unced their distinctive identity. She ana lyzes its characteristic embrace as a sign of the ongoing yet impossible attempt to suture racial and c1ass divides in an ethnically diverse, urban and rural colony. The co mpl exily of these divides is registered in the rclation of dance to music and Iyrics, in the division of labor between upper body and lower body , and in the complicated gendcr roJes elahorated for male and female dancers. Throughout the dance, partners' torsos align and move in unison and thcir faces remain impassi ve, yet their hips, legs, a nd feet enact intricate scenarios ofseduction and conquest , aggression a nd resislance. The male dancer, although ostensibly in control , is compromised in his author ity amI status by hjs dass origins; the female dancer, while she follows hi s lead , leads with her bravado fatality. The choreogra phy for his role develops his persona as a "cruel. even violent ruffian , but he is sensual , loving, and coquettish, although exploitative and courageous, even when economic,L1ly and emotionally dependent" (Savigliano 1996, 2(6). He.. choreography makes manifest "an astute and merci\ess broad , ambitious and potenli a ll y treacher ous but submissive and condemncd" (206). In elaborating these kinds 01' gendered roles for the dancers , Savigliano deploys precisely the notion of identity argued for by de Lauretis. Not natural. yet enduring, the attributes 01' these dancin g bodies and their affinities with certain economic and political circumstances fashion identities whose claims to authority are based no! on biological but on historical experience. As part 01' her analysis 01' tango , Savigliano also condu~ts an anatomy of the dance scholar' s di1cmm a, compounding it with the perspective of the third-world woman of color: how lo borrow what is useful from first-world , male , poststructuralist theory and at the same time avoid colonization by that theory , thereby preserving an integrity and uniqueness for third-world , reminized dance. Sa vigliano's solution places the t\Vo diseourses , onc written, Ihe other danced , in a fatal embrace and asks them to tango . This "dance ," unable to be vicwed voyeuristically, is gratifying to read because it fOl.:uses on the tango , providing a wealth of historical and cultural information about it, but it also shows the tango as capable of suggesting a new model for research across boundaries 01' gender, nation , and race . It thereby empowers dance as bOlh a su bjcct éllld a theoretical stratcgy 01' general u~c within cultural theo ry. Its variely o i' c ho reographic 1ll0VCS , lt nlikt! Derrida 's single Icap, offers sub stan tive slratcgics ror analyzillg OI llll ~' I\lll\'(lgrar h il1 g responses to genucr nppl'l'ssi nn. I "1
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SlIbsCqUC1I1 t!x pnill1cnlation at the margins 01' art and theater, loosely lahcled perjiml/(/I/ce (lrl ami perjórl11ol1ce, extendcd the intcrrogation of houndarics betwcen art and life and continued to subvert hierarchies of text ami action . Performances gcncrated out of a disciplinary orientation in art challenged the complieity of thc art object in museum ami gallery schema of economic profitability. Their attempts to dematerialize the art object em phasized the process 01' art making as opposcd to the resulting object that is availablc for colle.ction and display. D Performances generated out oftraining in theatcr crossed boundaries to cabaret, storytelling, and activist demonstra tion. Conceptualized as an alternativc to mainstream thcater productions, this ecleetic array 01' events cllrrently escapes any cohesive structural features and can be defined as such by the alternative venue in which the perfomlance takes place, by the autobiographieal and highly personal nature 01' the ma terial presented, or by the heterodox mixture of speech, action, sound. and citation that the performance consolidates. As elaborated in artistic and scholarly practices, performance challcnges the stability of thc script and invites consideration of non-script-orientcd events whose importance was previously denied. The vcry term invokes a critique of author and text as original and motivating identities. Performance also draws together an eclectic array of events whose juxtaposition promises to yield important insights into cultural expression and individual and social identities. Thus, performance has been used to eondllct a critique oflogocentric values from two directions: phenomenological investigations of perfonnance as a disappearance act and psychoanalytic interrogations 01' the reconstruc tion 01' performance as memory have reeharted the territory between event as experience and event as object of study.34 Ethnographic encollnters \Vith heterodox and hybrid varieties 01' performance have challenged thc hierar chical and exclusionary strllctures that had ordained distinctions between popular and elite or universal and ethnically specific. Because of the critical need to examine the role of such structures in the production of knowledge. both psychoanalytic and ethnographic approachcs havc emphasized deonto logization and inclusion over analysis 01' the social and political significanee 01' events under investigation. They have focused more 011 how such events lInravel the cpistemic coherence of earlicr conceptions of theatcr than on the new convenlions of representation that these performances establish. Both psychoanalytic and ethnographic approaches to performance ana Iysis have also tended to revolve around the individual in the act of perform ing and the individllatcd experienee of performance, rather than to engage with systerns 01' representation that viewer and performer share. Psyehoana Iytic fral11cworks. in their focus on the lack , loss, or absence of performance, run the risk 01' indulging in thc ephemerality of the performance without providing a n opporlunity to sl.:rutini /e Ihe systcllls of representation invokcd hy Ihe pc rrnrl11u ncc. T he necd Itl n:COII ~lrllcl the performa nce in individual rnelJl Oly Ill uttcrs morc Ihall i l s IIlOlIll:lI lll ly ahility Lo rcdeflllc, individllally l .; 1
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The emphasis on the individual as elaborated thus far in performance and performance studies influences in subtle yet crucial ways the role that performance plays in the c1aim for gender as performance. Performance emphasizes the transformative moment when the individual instantiates prescribed, prearranged patterns of movement, speeeh , or display. Gender as performance focuses on the unmasking of these "natural" patterns as culture, or on the compulsory execution of these patterns. Analysi s of the seo re 01' script to be executed matters less than the individual 's adaptation of those scripts. This suppression of the script for the performance leads to models of social change based primarily on individual insubordination 01' transgres sion. !\ny body, discontented \Vith the regimen 01' behaviors assigned to it. can alter its partieipation in the regimen but can hardly effect serious change in the content 01' the regimen itself. furthermore , the focus on individual execution or enactment ca n deflect inq uiry away from the historical and cultural specificitics ofthe pe rfo rmance . G cnde r is hcing r crfo rmed , hut wha t is gendc r lhat it is bei ng pc rlú rmed? Ir pe rfo rma nce as assilll ila lcu in l o c uhural"l lld lC"i somc li mcs p urs ul1S lhc indi vidllal al Ihe CXpC II Sl 111' Ihe soda l, il a lsll I'Ih'ap~,IIJ;¡ll'" ;I n ullcxal1l ined
app ro priatioll ¡,I' Ihe physical (read IÓllininc) by the textual (read masculine). Bot1-l the corporcal and the femininc , as I have tried to show, share attributes 01' instability, ephcmcrality, and unknowability, whereas the textual. even in its deconstrueted versions, maintains a solidity and rationality that aligns with the masculine. The vast majority of studies implementing the notion 01' performance have focused on written representations of gender rather than the orchestrated actions of Illoving yet nonspeaking bodies. They neglect the body and at the same time use body to infleet textuality with a new vitality . This enlivenment of language through a demonstration 01' its performative capabilities continues to rely on traditional notions 01' the text's solidity as eontrasted with the less stable moment of its performance.1Ó The choreo graphic dimensions 01' the perfofmative act - the text's capacity to body forth a theoretical and political orientation - remain buried in the text, property 01' the Iinguistic order and its engagement with the social. Since the c1aim for gender as performance devc10ps out of Austin 's linguistie studies rather than theater research, this lack of attention to repertoires of behavior other than those orthe text should come as no surprise. However, the perpetuation 01' verbal and nonverbal oppositionality implicit in the perform ative text limits the analysis 01' gender and may even perpetuate traditional gender inequalities. Choreography challenges the dichotomization of verbal and non verbal cultural practices by asserting the thought-filledness or movement and the theoretical potential 01' bodily action. It names the necessarily coIlective practiee of en gagement with enduring yet historically specific con ventions of representation and emphasizes the connections that such conventions have to social and political structurings of power:17 New conceptualizations 01' the script, developed in the wake of poststructuralist critiques 01' author and text , likewise summon up this theorization of human action , yet the legac)' or the dramatic text continues to infuse the script with a kind or permanence, whereas the notion of choreography as a theoretical premise underscores the changcability or events and their environs . '~ Choreography also disrupts the traditional divisions of labor between verbal and non verbal acts by fusing the experiential and " feminine " cultivation 01' bodily presence to the intellec tual and " masculine" analysis of representation. To approach gender as choreography also suggests a potential bridge be tween academ ic and activist spheres of engagement with gender operations. It is precisely through a choreographic assessment of bodies, their behavior, and their location that col1ective interventions such as "Take Back the Night," "Confront the Rapist at the Worksite. " " Same-Sex Kiss-Ins," or "Guerrilla Girls at the Whitney Museum" acquire their perspicacity and charisma. 1~ T1H:se theoriled res ponses to choreographies of gender and power illustrate an o ngo ing en¡.!agement wilh syslems 01' rcprcsentation a nd an ability to rcstra teg i z~ as [lowe r al k rs lhe form n f ll s ap pca rance. Bccause oftheir ca nny alla lysls ul' hud y plllilics, Ilrcs ~ resl'0I1Sl.'!'\ also 1Il0VC uct ivist anu scholarly
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and collectivcly, the identitics 01' those wllo partidpatcd as ¡x:rformcrs and viewers. Ethnographic frameworks , in their attempt to negotiate the difTer ence between ethnographer and ethnographic site, exam ine the individua!'s encounter with difference, sometimes at the expense 01' summoning up the sociality of that difference. The investigator, as soloist, stand s in for the role of any viewer in response to the performance, channeling that response toward individuated forms of reaction and away from collective rubrics that produce and sustain meaning, a\Vay from an examination 01' the structures of power inherent in the ethnographic encounter. Performance, as a genre of theatrical presentation , complements this emphasis on individual identity because 01' the sheer number of solo artists whose autobiographical musings cultivate the resonances between ind ividual sty1e and cultural motif. Before the advent of performance and performance studies, the dramatic text was typically conceived as signifier for the system 01' shared values that gave a theatrical production its meaning. lts use 01' language (not the theatr ical conventions implemented in its staging) was seen as evidence of a socially shared meaning system. Performance studies' efforts to rupture the hier archies of permanent text and ephemeral action implicit in this canonical conception of text have been crucial to our understandings of theater and of the social as theater. However, the function of this new conception of " text" --- as an unstab1e, nonoriginary, historically specific orchestration of per forrned sociality - has yet to be theorized. 35 That is to say , what still needs to be examined is performance's ehoreography.
Choreographing gender
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I'II\;i, aCliolls ;11 1.: lIClI all 11llll1cJ iakd alllhelltic ¡;x preSSil)Jl, nor are Ihey ollly Ihe SlIllllltali u ll o /"a lllhc di sc ursivc pracliccs lhat wnlaill anJ objectify thelll. ( 'horeography rclies (l1l lhe inclllcatcJ capabilities, impulses, and preferences Ihal yc;.¡rs 01' practice produce. bul it also leaves open the possibility for the IInprccedcnled, Bodies change the world through their persistent adherence 10 roulinized action, but also by congregating precipitously, stllmbling, duck ing, or striking a balance; by stretching or imposturing; by standing defiantly or running dcviantly; or by grasping others' hands. These thought-filJed actions defy strategies of containment and move us toward new theorizations 01' corporeal existence and resistance. Could this be the dancing that Emma (,oldman had in mind?
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See, e.g .. the 1"0lIowing incidental references to Butler and to gender as perform ance. Chosen randomly , they suggest the wide impact of the notion of gender as pcrformance on cultural studies generally: Burshatin 1992,578; MacDonald 1993, 123; Senelick 1992, xi; I-Iernmings 1993; Rabinowitz 1995. 102; Robson and Zalcock 1995, 185- 86: Apter 1996, 15·-34, esp. 27; Duncan 1996, 5; Kent 1996, 191. For Butler's diseussion of interpellation and its relation to Althusser, see Butler 1993. Butler also makes this point in "Performative Acts and Gender COllstitution: AJl Essay in Phenomcnology and Fcminist Theory" (1990, 271). See Ruyter 1979; Kendall 1984; Daly 1996; and Tomko. in press , See Kriegsman 1981; and also Tomko, in press. I have elaborated on this argurnent in Foster 1992. The kinds ofrnovelllent qualities. spacing. and timings 1 descri be herc are mea nt to be suggcstive of categories of movelllent analysis rathcr tha n as systernatic o r exhaustive lists of g~ndered characteristics. They take inspiration from but do not c\aim the kind of comprehensiveness argued for by the carly twentieth-century lllovcrnent theorist Rudolph Laban. A description 01' his system for anal yzing gendered movement can be found in Bartinieff 1980, 58- 59 and 92- 93 . An alternat ive and very thoughtful systcmatization of gcnder in relation to movement styles IS providcd in Young 1990. Jane Gallop's marvelous leetures in the mid-1980s in which she lay on atable and "served hcrself tlp" to the audienee make c\ear the kinds of choreographic expec tatiolJs th il t lectures typil:ally enforce. The following surnmary of changesin gcnder roles across the eighteenth and ea rly nineteenth centuries compresses the argument Illlake in Foster 1996. Please con sult that history for a rnuch fuller aceount of the'se changes. For a full description of Ihe kinds of changes in postural pedagogy and the changing role 01' the corset. see Vigarello 1977, 1978. See Jordanova 1989. As critic for ¡he Vil/age Voicl'. Sally Banes brought break-dancers' accomplishments lo the altcntion 01' a wider and whiter audience as early as 1981. See Banes 1981. I'ricia Rose"s book on rap and hip-hop traditions presents an eloquent analysis 01" 1\](' rol!: oftcchnology in rap music and also idcntifies powerful reSonances alllong dance, visu ." art, and music I'crsions 01' hip hop that 1 do not address here, For a rllllt.:r tlllCh: rsta ndi ng nf the dancin¡ ~ in rdation to other arts anJ teehnology, see l{\ l S~'
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14 Rose 19(14, .\(1. Ros\: Ireab hr\,!i1 k daIlCllI g. ;1 "mil"': II mll IIIal el1lel' g~ d in Ihe lak 1970s, as par! l)"the more gcneral aeslhe li.: S" \ ' .:;¡lIs IlIp ""P, 15 See Novack 1990 ror a discussion 01' illlprovisalioll in I'elation to contacl improvisatioll. 16 For a lucid analysis 01' Afro-American tradilions 01' musical impro visation , see Lewis 1996. 17 Ranes tracked the developmenl of brcak dancing across Ihis crucial period 01' ils assimil at ion into mainstream culture, noting pen.:eptive!y Ihc changes in choreo graphic style broughl aboul by increased visibility . See Banes 1994, 121 -..58. 18 See Rose 1994, 178. 19 The three members nI' Ihe group TLC are T-Boz , Left-eyc , and Chilli. 20 For a discussion 01' Ihe absence 01' dance in Ihe history of aesthetics, see Sparshott 1988. 21 See Foster 1986; Adshead 1988; Novack 1990; Ness 1992; F ranko 1993; and Martin 1996, 22 See Kacppler 1972; ami Williams 1977. 23 1 am not claiming that Ihe Iranslalion is free 01' corruption, but merely Ihal Ihe project oflranslation attempts to move tcxl from one discursive system to another, whcreas prior conccptions of dance presumed Ihe impossibility of Ihis move. 24 See Rai,ncr 1974. 25 See Dal y 1987, 1996; Albr,i ght 1990; Desmond 1991; Adair 1992; and Manning 1993. For an incisive review of the dance lilcraturc that applies gaze Iheory, see Thomas 1996. 26 Buller occasionally elides body with sexuali ty in such a way as lo call into qllestion her exacl conceplion 01' corporeality. E.g., she claims , "The loss of control that in Ihe infant characlerizes lIndevelopcd motor control persists within the adlllt a s Ihal cxccssive domain 01' sexuality Ih a t is stilled "nd deferred Ihrough the invoca tion of the 'ego-idea\' as a ccn ter 01' control " (1993, 261-62). 27 See Wolff 1995. Wolff cites several examples of Ihe uncrilical use of dance in feminist argumenls, and she calls for the kind offocus on choreography Ihat 1 am presenting here. 28 The difficlllties 01' using deconstruclion and postslructuralist theories in such a way Ihat they oblilerate differenee occause Ihey are fundamenlally indiffcrent to it are eloquently discussed in Schor 1989. 29 In her chapler, interestingly titled "Dreaming, Dancing, and Ihe Changing Loca tiolls of Feminisl Criticism, 1988," Nancy K. M iller (1991) has already undertaken a critical analysis of Derrida's text , and rny revisilation ofhis inlerview can be seen as a eomplemenl lo her remarks as \Vell as 'In attempl to rccupcrale Ihe notion of choreography, 30 See Gee rtz 1980. Geertz \Vas one of the firsl lo note the disciplinary borrowing and blurring that \Vas enabling new Iheorizatiolls of cullurc lo occur. Yet , il1 " Deep Play: Notes on a Balinese Cockfight" (1973), Geertz demonstrates precisely how this untutored borrowing ean reinscribe the very values one is trying to gain perspective on. Geertz and his wife rush headlong with Ihe cro\Vd gathered to watch Ihe cockfight and away from Ihe poliee raid. Their run down the street is unpremeditated and res,pond s ",ti a gul leve\" with immediacy and allthenlici ty to the kinesthetic explosiveness of Ihe group. As a result, Ihey are laken in and mad e honorary natives. The founding momenl of Iheir a ssimilatian into Ihe group is based on a visceral. corporeal empalhy Ihal lies hcnea !h cultural difTcrcncc. 31 Do lan 1( 1)3 cla bO l'ales the political e Q n ~cqll cncé s 01' slIc h h' II'1'Owi ll g. 32 Por él lucid accounl orthe roh:: al' th \! tex! in Ihcal \!r Sl lldi,'s , ~cc Worlhe n 1995. 33 See Lipp;1I'l1 11)71 1'111' ;111 aCl'lIl1l1t 111' tlu:sl) CX I'CI i1l1\:111',
-\4 I'cggy l'he l;lIl h;l', lkvcl nred (1110 uf' tho m \lsl s,'phislicatcd and complex delinea I inlls pI' Ihi s lurn lory ill Ulllllurkcc! (1 1)94). 35 J oscp h I{o uch 's olltstanding \York 011 circum-Atlantic performance exelllplifies the radical llverhauling of history Ihat thc l"ocLlS on performallce can yield. Roach examincs thc eirclllatioll ofinlluences alllong Europe, Al"rica, and the Ne\v World so as to illurninatc the workings of racial prejudiee Hlld colonization in a wide varicty of pcrformance contcxts. Performance allows him to assess the impact of non-text-based events an_d traditions so as to show mutual influeuces among Ihe thrcc regions. I-Iowever, Roach's notion 01' slIrrogation, a way of Iheorizing the pcrpelualion of scores over time, focuses on Ihe filling ofthe role by the new body, more than on the ehoreographic moves stipulated by Ihe score Ihat Ihose bodies Ihen ll1ake. See Roach 1996. 3ú SlIc-ElIen Case (1995) has pointed lO Ihe prejudices entailed in Ihe foclls on the textual in sludies of performativity. 37 Kati e King arglles in support of Ihis notion of choreography as Iheory when she descrihcs "the wholc of Ihe Illany forll1 s theori zing takes: acting, Ihinking, speak ing, conversalion, aclion grounded in (hco ry , aetion producing theory, action suggesting theory, drafts, lellers, unpublishcd manuscripts, stories in writ ing and not, poell1s said and wrillen , élrt events like shows, readings, enaclmenls, zap aclions such as ACT UP does" (1990, 89). 38 This notion of choreography shares much \Vith Elizahelh Grosz's notion of sig nature. See Gros? 1995 , 21 - 23. 39 For a lucid account of the cultural work performed by Queer Nation ' s kiss- ins in shopping malls, see Berlanl and Freeman 1993. 40 Miller 1991 warns that Ihe utopian vision of polysexuaJi ty can mask crucial struggles among different feminist groups_ I agrcc and see the pOlenlial for choreo graphy to negotiatc somc of those differcnces.
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References Adair, Christie. 1992. Women {/nd D(/nci': Sy/phs alld Siri'ns. London : Macmillan . Adshead , Janel, ed.1988. Donee AIZII/p·i.\': Thcory (/nd Praclice . LOlldon: Dance Books, A"lbright, Ann Cooper. 1990. " Mining the Dance Field: Spectacle, Moving Suhjccts and Feminist Theory ." CO/1WCl Qua"'er/y 15 (Spring/Surnmer): 32- 41 . Apler, Emily. 1996, " Acling oul Orientalism. " In PClfOrl11l1l1C(' ol1d Cu//Ura/ PO/illcs, ed. Elin Diamond, 15- 34. New York and London: ROlllledge. Austin, J. L. 1962. H(}\v lO Do Things lVi//¡ Words. Cambrldge, Mass.: Han'ard Uni versity Press. Banes, Sally. 1981. "Breaking Is Hard to Oo." Vil/age Voiee, April 22- 28,68. - , 1994. Wrilillg Dllncing i/1 Ihe Agc o/ Posl/1/odemism. 1"mover, N.IL and London: Wcsley a n University Press and University Press ofNe w England. BaniniefL Irmgard. 1980. 8()(/)' MOl'emenl, Copil/g lI'ilh Ihc Envirol1l1'/el1l . New York: Gllrdol1 & I3rcach . Ikrlant , I.auren . and Eli zabelh Freeman. 1993. "QlIeer Nationality ." In Fm/' o( (/ {)¡{(,c/' P/{/I/el: Q/lc(,/, Po/ilies und Socia/ Thco/'y, ed, M ichael War,ner, 193·-229. Minllca poli;; and Ll\lldon: lJni versit y 01' M innesota Press. I h ll'~llI . Susan o 1993, Ullh('(/wf¡{e Wl'ig /II . Bcrke ley and Los Angeles: Un iversily 01' 'al il úrllla Pr~'ss .
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BlII'sllat ill , bl ad 1(111) Jl la yl1l )' t 11(' !'vIlH )t JI, II 'ld~ ,IIH I I', 11111 111.11I\.'\.' ill I , "I ~ (h; Vq.\;¡ \ 'El primer 1:;li,lIdo,'" IIl 'S pl.·l,; i;d I (ll'll': Jll' rI ,I I III.II IH' . \', 1. Killlktly Ik llstoll , speeial issue 01" l' M LA 107(3): SN, ¡.; 1, Butler, Judith. 1990a. (¡CI/(Iel' 'f'rol/h!c, 1',",l/il/i.1'I1I (///(111/,· SI/¡'I'('/'.I'ioll (Ir 1"('IUi'.I'. Ncw York an o Lo ndon: Routledge. - -o 1990b. " Performative Acts ami Gender Constitution: /\n Essay in Phenomeno logy and Feminist Theory.'· In PeljimlJing Feminism.\', ed, Sue-Ellen Case, 270- 82. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Ulliversity Press, - -o1993. Boclies TI/(/I Mal/er: 0/1 Ihe Dis('ul'sive Limil,l' r~r "Sex , " N ew York and London: Routledge. Case, Sue- E llen. 1995. "Performing Lesbiall in the Spaee of Techllology. Part l." Th ealre joufI1aI47(1): 1- 18. D a ly, All n. 1987, 'The Balanchine Woman: Of Hum1llingbird~ and Channel Swi m mers." Tulc/l1e f)ral/1a Rel'iew 31 (1): 8- 21. - -o 1996, f)o/le buo f)al/ce. Bloomingtoll: Indiana LJniversity Press, de Lauretis, Teresa . 1990. " Upping the Anti (sic) in Feminist Theory, " In Cunlficls i/l Femil/ism. ed. Marianne Hirsch and Evelyn Fox Kellcr. 255 - 70. New York and London: Routledge. Derrida, Jaeques, and Christie V. MeDonald, 1995, "Choreogr<Jphies." In Bodies (JI IIU' Texl: f)ance (lS Theory. Lilerature as f)ance , ed, Ellen Goellner and Jaequelille Shea M urphy, 141 - 56. New Brunswiek , N .J.: Rutgers University Press, Desmond, Jane, 1991. " Dancing out the Difference: Cultural Imperialism ami Ruth SI. Denis' s 'Radha ' of 1906, " Signs: .Iollrl'/al oI WomelJ in Culllo'e (lnd Sociefy 17( 1): 28 - 49. Dolan , Jill. 1993. "Geographies of Learning: Thcatrc Studies, Performance, ami the ' Perforrnative.' '' Thealre ./ou/'/wI45( 1): 417 41. DlIncan, Naney. 1996. "Introdllction: (Re)placings." In Budy Spa('e , ed. Naney Dunea n, 1·, 10. New York ami London: Routledge, Foster, Susall Lcigh. 1986. Reading Dancing: Bo(lies (//1(1 Subjecls in CO/1lel11f!Orary Allleric(/n Dance. Berkeley ami Los Angeles, University 01' California Press. - - o 1992, "Dancing Bodies, " In l/1{'O/pora/ion.\', ed. JOIUlthan erary Hml Sanford Kwinter, 480 - 95. Zone, vol. 6, New York: Zone. - -o 1996. Choreography amI Narralil'e: Baller's Staging 01 .'llor)' (}/1(/ f)esire . Bloomington: India na University Press. Fra nko, Mark. 1993. /)o//('e os Texl: ldeologies of' lhe BU/'O(/I/e Bod)'. Cambridge: Cambridge University Prcss. Gcertz, Clifford, 1973 . TI/(' 1nlerpre/(t1io/1 r~rCuILUre.\' . New York: Basie. - -. 1980. " Blurred Genres: Tlle Refiguration ofSoeial Thought. " America/l Scholar 49(2) : 165 - 79, Grosz, Eli zabeth. 1995, Spuce. Time. uml Perversio/l. New York ami London: Roullcdgc. I Icrnlllings, Ciare. 1993, "Resituating the Bisexual Body: From Idcntity to DitTerencc," In AClil'([ling Theol'y, ed. Josepll Bri.stow alld Angelia R. Wilson, 118- 38 . Londoll: I ,awrcnee & WisharL Jordanova , I.udmilla, 1989 , S exl/al Vi.l'io/1.s: 1mage,l' or Cc'//rlc/' ;/1 S ('ÍI'I/('e a//eI lIfedi('il/c h('/II'('('// 1"" E'igh/( '{'lI l h (/1/(1 T I\'('lIIielll C<,nI urÍl·.I' , Ncw Y" rf.. . I I. lrvcslcr W hcatsllcal', K acppl c r, /\ dricn nc 1 _ 11)72. "Mcl ll mJ and nH;\lry in A lla lv/ ll lp 1)" I1 e!.: Strllctlll'l' wit II aIl /\ I1;rlYsi ~() I' T() II !, a !l Da ll t'c." 1~ /I/I/(}IIII/,I' ic '(!I"g l' 11',( ' ) 1/1 ' 1 I
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I fT Gll ,:nTfrH !S
'In
, 1 ', li , .l h~· lh I')X·\ 11'//('/'(' ,""//(' Ihll/c'('(l: 1'11,' I/ir"/ o( , I/I/{'ri(,(1I/ /11'/ /)w/('e. IIc rk dcy ;lIld I ,l IS A lIgdcs: I IlIi vc rNit y 01' ( 'alil'orllia I'ress . Kcut , KathrYII R. 1')%. ' '' No frespassing': Girl Scout Camp and the Limits of the ( 'uunterpublic Sphcre ." JVrJII/l'I1 0/1(1 Perjim1/onc(' S(2) : 44- 58 . Killg. Kal ie. 1'NO. " Producing Sex, Theory , amI Culture : Ga y/Straight Remappings in Contemporary Feminism." In Conflicl,l' in Feminisl17, ed . Marianne Hirsch ami helyn Fox Keller. 82- 10 l. New York amI London: Routledge. K riegsman , Salí Ann, 1981 , M odern Dance in Al7lcric(/: The Benninglon y¡,ats. Boston: G. K. Ilall. I.ewis, George. 1996, "1 mprovised M usic after 1950: Afrologieal and Eurological Perspcctives, " Bla('k MU.I'ic Re.l'earcl/ ./0/./1'1/0/16(1): 91- 122. I.ippard. Lucy, 1973 , Six Yeors: The f)e-Alul eriolizaliol7 u/lhe AI'/ Objecl/i'ol/1 1966 1972. New York: Praeger, MacDonald , Erik. 1993. Th ealer al tite l\lorgil7s: Texl and Ihe Posl-Slru('lured S/age. Ann Arbor: University of M ichigan Press, Manl1ing, Susan , 1993 . E cs/(f.l'Y ({/1el Ihe f)eI11O/1: Feminism (/nd Natir!l1alism in Ih e /)(/l1ces o( M(lry Wigman. Berkeley ami Los Angeles : University of Ca liforni a Prcss. Martin, Randy. 1996. " Overreading 'Thc Promised Land ' : Towards a Narrativc 01' Contextin Dance. " 1n Corporealilies, ed. Susan Leigh Foster, 177 98. New York ami LOlluon: Routledge . Miller, Nancy K . 1991. Gel/ing Personal. New York amI LOlldon: Routledge . Ness, Sally Anl1, 1992. Body , J\Iol'emenl. (11/(/ Cullu/'e: Kil1e.l'lhelic (1/1(1 Visual Sy mbol i.l'm in (/ Philippille Communily. Philade1phia: University of Pcnnsylv
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I\ lIlIU Bealricc. 11)9'/' " SpC\;laL"lI: alld l)illICill¡r Bodi \.!S rhal Mall n : Or, Ir II 0011 " l'ít , DOII ' t Force 11. " In MI'!l/Ii/1.1~ ill ¡\Iolioll , Jane Deslllond , 2.':19 (¡8. Durharn , N.C.. and London: Duke Universil y Press. Senelick , La urcnce. 1992. lntroductiou lo Cender in Per/iJmU//1ce: The Presel1l{/fio/1 01' Di/láe/1('e in ehe Per/órl/7ing Arl.\', ed. Laurenee Scnelick . i- xiii. Middletown , Conn.: Wesleyan University Press.
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Sparshott, Francis. 1988. O/filie CrowuJ. Princeton , N.J.: Princeton Universiry Press. Tholllas. Helen. J 996. " Do You Want to Join the Dance'?" In ,~1o \ling Wordl·. ed. G ay Morris, 63 --87. New Yo rk ano Lonoon: Routled ge. T omko, Linda. In press. Da/1cing e/uss. Bloornington : Indiana Unive rsil y Press. Vigarcllo . Georges. 1977. " Posture, cspace et pédagogie ." {)¡x-huilieme siede 9: 39 48 .
--o1978. Le co rps redressé. Paris: J. P. Delarge. W illiams, Drid. 1977 . 'The Nature of Danee: l\n Anthropological Perspeetive." Dallce Research Joul'Ilal9( 1): 42 44. Wolff, Janel. 1995. Reside/u Alien. London : Polily . Worthen . William. 1995. " Disciplincs of the Text/Sites of Performance." Tu/une Drallla Reriew 36( 1): 13 - 28. Yarbro-llejarano . Yvonne. 1995. " Expanding lhe Calegories of Race and Sexllality in G ay and Lesbian Stlldies. " In Prl~(e.\'siol/.\' o/Desire, ed . Gcorge Haggerty, 124- 35. Ne", York : Modern Language Association of Arnerica. Young, Iris Ma rion. 1990. H01 V lo Tlirol\' Like a Cirl and Orher Esso)'s in Feminisl Philosopliy and So (,ial Theory . Bloomin gton: Indiana Universily Press.
1'1 0
74
PE R FO R MING LESBIAN IN THE
SPACE OF TECHNOLOGY
Part 1
Sue-EI/en Case
Sourcc: Theatre .IoUrl/iJ/47( 1)( ¡ ')<)5): ¡ '8.
The immediate problem is ho\V , 01' where. to begin to write the conjunetion "performing" amI " lesbian " in this time of slippage amI upheaval. when: medical teehnologies are redefining basie definitions of gender assignment, even the deep structures 01' eorporeality itself, in genetic codes; a sexually transmitted pandemie is loose in the world , taking (safe) sexual praetiees out into more virtual. abstraet realms; political categories such as " race," or "sexual preference" are scrulinized at the deepest level as unstable, and even lhe seismology of such instability doubts its o\Vn methods. The very lerm "Iesbian " is slipping semiotically on the banana peel 01' mainstream and academic fashion, signifying everything from Banana Republie's "My Chosen Family" ofjeans amI tanks tops, K. D . Lang posing rol' a shave on the cover of Vanil y Fair, amI ads for strapping on a dildo ; to a way to " read" Hollywood movies, such as Single Whil e Fema/e, or staking a critical , theoretical claim in the term " queer."j In fact , in some qucer eircles, the term " Iesbian " has been evacuated . Understood as a term of the 1970s, connoting " Iesbian feminist ," " Iesbian ," in that sense, has been overwritten by the queer-derived " dykc"·- -more proximate to gay men in identification lhan the seemingly wOlllan-signifying term " Iesbian." ls there a \Vay to retain lhe notion 01' " lesbian" in technology , while still marking a material history (JI' lesbia n lives---one that might combine the theoretical tradition of lesbian ICminist thought amI new " queer" inscriptions through sexual practice? Could thc two tradilions help to bring about a new form of coalition polities') While " Ic'ibia n" COmes um.ler scrutiny, the other tenn in lhe conjunction "pcrrorm in/! ksbian " is trouhl cd hy the cha nging sen se of performance. " Live" pcrftl rma m:\!. slill burdcncd wil h t I) e pmh lcm 01' acco unling for something 1" I
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clllcrpri::;e ol'visibilily inlhc syslclll orrcprcs-:nlation 011 the other. Rctaining the conjunctiol1 " pcrrormil1g 1esbian," thcn, willfully challenges the essential isl chargc.
cu lbllh-: "hody," has, ill variOlls wilys. :d k naph:d lu l'Ollslrud a slagillg nI' lhc rdationship belwccn the boJy and Ihc ncw cy hl'rsphcr-:. The traditioll nr pcrrormance as something "Ii ve" ami cmbodied, has, lhmughout much of the lwentieth ccntury, been challengeJ by the scre-:n . Movies, tclevision. the computer and new, virtual systems interrogate the "¡¡ve" body and its tradi tion by their screenic contex t. In performance, is the body poised between its appearance within national and kinship systems and its disappearance among multiplc scrccns, as in Jean Genet's play The Screens, in which the protagonist f¡nally disappears from among a series of them? Or, is it, as in Steve Reich 's Fhe Cave, the subject position distributed among stage technologies and screens? W ill the body be totally subsumed in an interactive, virtual n:ality, as in the movie The LaIVnl110Wef ll;fall? Is performing the body's rclation to the screen the repetitive hurling of it against the screen, like E1izabeth Streb's dancers, who h url themsclves against walls, miking the music of thudding bodies? Or is thc performing body composed ofscreens, as in Nam June Paik's "Family 01' Robot, Unc1c" and , respectivcly, "Aunt"'? Paik's arrangement of antique TVs in the humanoid shape ofa robot, with performing bodies o¡¡¡ their scrcens ironically quotes systems ofthe body and ofkinship, Both humanoid systems and thcir simulation, "Robot," signify a nostalgic, antique, representational systcm-a quaint notion ofthemselves. For Paik, screened bodies have over taken industrial, mechanical ones as video sculpture has overtaken TV. Yet, ir the body pcrsists in standing "¡¡ve" onstage, not screencd, is it caught in the gestures of the routing of human agency through technology , as Laurie Anderson 's live performances, in which her voiee is transformed in the mike, foregrollnding the rOllting? Is the " Iive," gendered, experiential1y specifie body in tension with tho secming neutralization of it as it passes through technological channels? How does the body perform Big Science, as Anderson entitles it? 1s it in consonance with screens--can the two orders play with and against one another? Or must the body be consigned to the empty stage, alone before the live audience, in the tradition of "poor" theatre beca use of the new, diseounted value assigned to the tlesh , as the continuing practice of one-person shows insists') Is "performing lesbian ," then , sorne conjunction of these elements, such as a wall of video screens projecting images of dildo scenarios, anonymous. but costullled in appropriate retro butch-femme wcar- sex-radical , but also reticent in its feminist memorios'. Or is it 1ive sex acts in the " poor" theatres of the small, migrant bar culture'? Even these sllggestions wil1 not carry into eontemporary critical theory, for the new sense of "q ueer performativity" would challenge the formulation "performing lesbian" as retaining, in its terms, the assumptions of identi ty and visibility po1itics-- what has becn considered lo he the esscntialist trap 01' idealist philosophical syslems. More Ihan any ot he l chu!'gc , '\ :ssenlialism " has focused critical energy againsl Ih-: no ti on:-i "r "h::-lhiiln " and "p-:rform ance" in rece n! work:;, c1aiming Ihe scop~ ora ('IlI l lId i¡tIll -; hil'llu corrcct Ihe nn lolugical f¡dl acies inhcrcnl in idcl1l il y p"li liGs, '.'11 thl' \l lí l' halld, a llll Lhe
In writing "performing lesbian " in the face of " queer performativity," I want lo directly confront the charge of essentialism. Briefly, the charge is that idcntity politics rest on thc base that one might " be" a lesbian , thereby invoking an ontological c1aim. According to the poststructura1ist critique, such a notion posits the formation of the subject position as prior to other social constfllctions--possibly even deterlllining them. M oreover, it charges Ihat identity has been imagined as visible, demanding space in the regime 01' representation as one of its political projects. Identity and visibility are both made to c1ailll the notion of presence in thcir constitution of the " Iive" and the body. In order to evacuate the regime of identity and visibility , the charge of essentia1ism has attended so diligently to the prob1cms inherent in the c1aim of "being" that it has obscured the broadcr, structural fundion of Ihe termo What is essentialist, or at least metaphysical, the ruinous worm buried in essentia1ism, is the kind of argument that is ultimately based on a self generating self referentiality , which has, in the eurocentric tradition. his 10rically secured its dosed status by an appeal to "ontology." In other words, what is structurally essentia1ist or metaphysical in an argument is the c1aim Ihat the system rests, finally, on sorne self-generating principIe -...that it cu ts loose from outside dependencies -.. .. operates outside of the historical , mate rial nmditions of change. Essentialism procures the metaphysical through a 1I0tion of Being as an essence. An essence, as Teresa de Lauretis notes in "The Essenee of the Triangle or, Taking the Risk of Essentialism Seriously: t'" cminist Theory in Italy, the U.S. , and Britain" c1aims the function 01' "Ihe rmlity 1I11derlying phC/lomena" or "'{¡((l internal constiWtion, on lVhic!J ((lllhe sel/sihle properties depend."2 In other words. an esscnce functions in a philo sophical system as the location where "the buck stops," or where "the thing" is, hcyond any other referent "in itself, " De Lauretis counters the charge nI' csscntialislll hy distinguishing a "nominal esscnce" in contrast to a " real " "IIC, lhat would , within a feminist project, proffer an "embodied. situated kllow1cdgc, " as mutable and historical1y contextua1ized .' She slips the rug out frolll undcr or from within the " thing," resting its identity claim as contingent IIpon vlJlilion. on Ihe onc hand (the femini st project) and material circum slanccs, on Ihe lJlher.ller aim is to rctain the projeel ofidentifying in order to dla ll~ngc "di rccl1y Ihc social -sym holic inslilulion orhctero sex ll ality:'~ Within Ilris ¡;ri liGd cnv il'on menl. "' pc r rorm i n¡~ lesb ia n" would be taking what dc l a ll l ~lis l:lIlls " IIIl~ csscll liul isl l isk" ru i'l,.l'm lll Ilre idcnlity o fl esbi an ag::Jins l 111;11 "f lr l:ll: II ISC:W :.r !. ( cll a illlv , II dH Ih " I.lllIil iar anu W<: Ii.; OlllC sl ra tcgy,
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De LUU l'dis l'eJclincs CSSCII CC l~) COU Ilh:1 Iltl: essc lllialist l'ilargc. Bmrowin¡', hcr adjllstment tu rccontcxtua li/.c Ih e iSSUI:, I \Va nl tú revcrse the eharge lo identifya metaphysieal base wil hin the poststrucluralist argumcnt. De Laurclis reconfirms an open system, in which signs still ret,ti n a scnsc of rcfcrcnts outside their purely textual ones. Heteroscxuality, in her argumenL appears as both a social and sym bolic institution. In poststruet uralist arguments, lhe eharge of essentialism has been used to erode this sense 01' a refercnt outside 01' the lingllistie or discursive system. De Lauretis 's gesture of rcinstating a eonfiguration of feminist polities against the eharge 01' esscntialism, through a study of an actual political collecti ve in ltaly- a system that accOllnts for and is accollntable to a social movement - traces the critical space in which I would Iike to position the poststructuralist charge that would empty out identity and the order 01' visibility. For. as we will see, such anti-essentialisl systems, while they esehew ontology , rest on other bases which funetion to set up a self-generating, self-referential. and in that manner, metaphysieal argument. Th us, they operate in the refined atmosphcre of " pure" theory and writing. abandoning earlier materialist discourscs that signalled to activist, grass-roots coalitions, while c1aiming a less essentialist base.
Debates over the meaning 01' perfo rmativity ha ve been linked to the adop tion 01' the term "queer" in some critical quarters. As Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick describes it in "Queer Performativity," Judith Butler's proposal 01' gender bending performativity in Gender Trouh/e has been a central tool for the " recruitment" 01' graduate students into gay stlldies. 5 The journal g/q (a jou/'I1a/ ol/eshia/1 ami goy sll/dies) even dedieated its inaugural issue to a dialogue between Sedgwick and Butler on queer performativity . If queer corrects the tradition 01' 1esbian identity politics, performativity corrects the attendant regimes of the "live" and performance. Looking to Sedgwick's and Butler's artides as coneise summaries of the positions. the necessa ry bond bctween "queer" and " performativity" serves to focus several critical anxieties that the departure from the troubled territories 01' " lesbian" and "perform ance" seeks to allay. Performativity describes a critieal strategy seemingly more deconstructive in its account of " performance" as signo lt strips the mask from masquerade that would still retain an actor/subject behind the sho\\'. Queer performativity identifies its operation as semiotic iterations of power contested at the sites of gender identification a nd legal , medical discourses eoncerning sexual prac tices. Perfo rmativity , as Sedgwick sees it, "earries the authority of two quite different discourses, that of theatre on the one ha nd , of speech-act theory and dcconstruetion on th e other. . .. Span ning the Jisl ancc hc twcen the exlrol'(!j' siO/1 01' t he aclor, the ;/1(/'O I'('/'sioll 01' l h l~ sign il ic r. ,,(, Scd gw id allributes lhe c,xdu sivc r"I
III\: BII 1Il' I ~ l ll\ qHlll lld 1':111 11': 111:1 dy dl'ag p e ll'llllll:lIlCl'S. Sl'dgwiek would l'x lcnd pcrflll lllat ivil y lo '\:ollling out. 1'01' work arolllld ¡\II>S and 1'01' the seU'.. lahdl'd . I l'iulsvc r:;dy h ui urgc ntl y rcprescntational placarded body of del1'lo/1 sl/'alio/l. " In otller words. the "livc" body is performativc when "self-placarded Iinl dl'nHJIlstration ." Tlle hard-woll "visibility" of ¡\CI UP demonstrations ha s spurred critics such as Scdgwick to account for such activism by \\'riting theories dependent 011 some not ion 01' the subculture. Sedgwick's sense of the " self- placarded" admits agency and the visible , while semiotizing it. To those famili ar with the standard praeticcs 01' agit-prop theatre , or the Brechtian notíon of " distanciation ," ¡\eT u p's strategies and Sedgwick's representa tion of them do not secm to diverge from nllmerOllS historieal models . The Breehtian Iradition of political thcatre has long regarded any modes of suturing as cmpathetic st ructures that retain mystified c1ass relations. thus rendering cvery performing body a placarded demo nstration of social gesture- either complicit with dominant praetices, oro in Brechtian Epic practices, a chal Icnge to the status quo. However, what Sedgwick identifies as the qucer specific mode 01' performativity is one catalyzed by "shame ," distinguishin g it from those propelled into representation by other mechanisms 01' oppres sion, such as dass relations in the Brechtian model. Unlike the material rclations of dass. the catalytic relation of "shame" to "performativity" estab lishes a bridge betwecn interna l dynamics and the order 01' the visible. This crossing of the internal/external divide may pro vide the key contriblltion 01' "queer" to "performativity" which has made the compound so inviting to theorists in recent years. Diana Fuss, in he r introduetion to the inftucntial anthology, inside/out, mark s this relati on as the signatllre of new critical practices 7 We will see, in a later discllssion. just how this works along the contested borders of the visible and wrilin g. Yet Sedgwick only passingly admits demonstrations into her discussion. She ultimatel y settles upon Henry .Iames's Prefaces in the New York Edition of his work as the prime site of ¡x:rformativity. Before addressing the consequences of Sedgwick 's return to writing, I want to inculcate Butler's use 01' " queer performativity" to explore just how reading amI writing have been made to overtake traditional notions of per l'onnance . In "Critically Queer," Buller emphasizes that " there is no power. l'l)nstrued as a subjeet, that acts , but only a reiterated aeting that is power in ils persistence and instability."g Butler's Illission is to evaeuate notions ofthe \ uhjcct/agcllcy from within the systelll ofperformativity. She emphasizes that "Perfonnativity . then. is to be read not as self..expression or self-presentation, huI as the ul1anticipated resignifiabi1ity of highly invested term5. "9 Butler l'Ol1tinues , wúr king from J. L. Auslin . to locate such performativity within :;tudics of spccch acls, assc rting thal : " pcrt'onnative aets a re forllls ofauthor il a live "pcol.:h." Rcframin g Ihe operalilllls 01' "qucer" wi thin th ose 01' " per l,um
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rhc lCnll " q uccr" c ll lcrgcs as all 11I ti '1 pdld lit lB (lIa ( 1aisl:s (lIe q lIesl ion 01' the SIal U!) 1> 1" force ami oppositioll 01 ~ ( . l yllb i li(y and va riahilily , lVi/hin perfonnativity.1O The term "queer," opcrating within these paramelers provides the solution to earlier conundra Butler identified in her in fl uential article " Imitation and Gender Subordination ," in which she problem atizes the rubric "Iesbian theory. " "Lesbian ," as connoting sexual practice causes her: To install myself within the terms of an idcntity category [which] would be to turn against the sex uality that the category purports to describe; and this might be true for any identity category which seeks to control the very eroticism that it c1aims to describe and author ize , m uch less "Iiberate" .... For it is always finally unclear what is mcant by invokin g the lesbian-signifier, since its signification is always to some degree out of one's control. but also bccause its specificity can only be demarcated by exclusions that return to di s rupt its c1aim to coherence. '1 For Butler, " Iesbian ," as an identity, is overdetermined by hcterosexuality. It is actual1y produced by homophobia , articulates the (by definition) unarticulable in its c\aim to scxuality, is both "o ut of contro\" for those rea sons, and oppressive in drawing exc\usionary borders of specificity. "Queer" evacuates the fulsomc problema tic of "Iesbian" to operate as an unmarkcd interpellation, thus avoiding that exc\usionary speciticity. "Queer" occurs within "performativity" which Butler, in the earlier artic\e, defines as evacuating "performance" by denying "a prior and voli tional subject." In fact, as she would have it, "performative " "constitutcs as an cffect the very subject it appears to express. "12 O nlike Sedgwick's sense of performativity, Butler's sets out to contradict traditional agit-prop or Brechtian theatrical strategies that encourage actors and spectators alike to imagi ne themselves as an agent of change. Butler gives over that agency to a "reiteratcd acting that is power in its persistence and instability. ... a nexus 01' power and discourse that repeats or mimes the discursivC' gest ures 01' power."" She insists that the subject is merely a product 01' such iterations: Where there is an "1" who utters or speaks ... there is first a discourse which precedes and enables that "1 " . ... Indeed , I can only say '"1" to the extent that I have first been add ressed, and that address has mobilized my place in speech; paraJ ox i..:al1y , the Jiscllrsi\'c eondi ti on of social recogni tion ¡Jrf'{'ede,\' {/l1d con di/ ¡/11I,I' I he fOl'lna Iion nI' the su bjccl. 14
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(icncrally. Ih i~ III.:aIIl1CI1( 01' subject lo rlllaliun is rallliliar lo rcaders 01' post slruetura lisl. VI i!vi!n G ramscia n lhctll'y. Thc signature 01' Butler's strategy here resides in its l)wn cmphasis on ""precedes and conditions. " Moving un argument through the notion of "preceding" is reminiscent 01' an earlicr philosophical move that would also confront Idealism , the mother 01' essentialism, bu t that finan y, reinscr ibes a metaphysical prcsumption at its base: Aristotle's notion of the prime mover in his Mewphysics. Marking his base as "substance" in contrast to Plato's Ideas , Aristotle finds himselfwithin the currently familiar dilemma of the con tradictions between compound , or heterogeneous "substanees " and the unity of " identity ." Against the essen tialist stasis of identity, Aristotle al so anives at th e function 01' acting (read performativity) as mutable and motile : N othing, then , is gaineJ even if we suppose eternal substances, as the believers in the 1'orms do, unless there is to be in them some principIe which can cause change-for if it is not to a{'/ there wil1 be no movement. 15 But the cause 01' action , or change, suggests prior agency- a problem both i\ristotle and Butler would solve. Butler poses discourse as that which pre cedes and " mobilizes" the formation of such agency in the subject positi on. Then how do discourse and power avoid the same correction as the subject to be preceded by something that determines their agency? Butler posits "reiterated acting that is power" as the generator of the system. Aristotle strikes a structural1y consonant tone , as his chain 01' " preeedings" resol ves in the self-referential notion 01' "thought thinking on itself."16 Since thought is both the subject and the object 01' its operations, argues Aristotle, it iterates itself and thus becomes the " prime mover. " " Reiterated acting" describes a similarly self-referentiaI function that "precedes and determines" agcncy , without begging a further precedent. Now, i\ristotle literalizes the theolo gical implications in such a strategy, cal1ing the prime mover "god ," while still insisting on substance against Idea. Butler, in overwriting human agency with sclr-itcrating acting as "power," embeds the theological , self-referential " preceder" in what she emphasizes is an anti-essentialist move. In order to deconstruct the location ofthe subject as preceJing the social, Butler reverses lhe equation, necessarily retaining what is metaphysical in both postulations: a self-iterating function that " precedes." In Butlcr's argument, iteration itself, mediating the relation 01' power to aCling fmal1y functions as re-iteration. Whereas Aristotle found , in thought Ihinking on ilself, a self-generating col1apse of subject/object positions, But\cr ¡¡res IIp the motor 01' iteration by repetition . When al1 referents fail (u ~i gnH I iln yl hin g outside lhe SystCIll, rcpetition becOllles its dynamic as is uhviolls in ~I.!ve nl l n I' Bu ller':; kcy l,;o l1l.:cpl s: '" lh e psychc ca11s to be rethought
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IcXlS, a ból lltl o llil1 l,', histurieal trauilions 01' performance I'or lhe print modes of Iilera ry a nú philos(lpltical scruliny , "Quecr." then , moves identity to reader ship a.nu "performativity " imbues writing with performance.
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In spite ofmoves to Ihe contrary , Butler has reinstateo the sLlbject (orwriting) as herselr, " Melancholic reiteration" motivates her critical production, as she reporteo in an interview , 'Tve just finished writing another manuscript in which I spend page after page trying to refute the reduction of gender performance to something Iike style. "211 When the author, by virtue of her own theories, forgoes her role as representative, either of a movement, act ivist group, or even , through identity politics, the conoitions of lesbian , or some form 01' social oppression , self referentiality can become either formalist philosophical argllments , or prey to media adulation , as the troubling (to Butler) appearance of the fanzine .fudy! illustrates.21 Writing, as Derrida set out to illustrate, cannot, in spite or alluring, queer performative gyrations, wriggle free of the metaphysical · -even ir it scapegoats lesbian and feminist writings as sites 01' identity and presence. And this brings us to the way in which a notion of performativity, as in both Butler and Sedgwick , while referencing activist demonstrations, is finally most alluring as an effect orwriting and reading. In fact. one might argue, the project of performativity is to recuperate writing at the end of print culture. In Sedgwick , q ueer performa ti vity is best enacted by the Prefaces of J lenry James ano in Butler, it resides in accommodating misreadings 01' her own writing. Not surprisingly , the critical discourses 01' speech-act theory amI deconstruction ultimately bring the notion of perrormativity back to their own mode of production: print. It is confounding lo observe how a lcsbianl gay movement about sex. uaL bodil y practices and lhe IClltal clrcet:> 01' él viru s, which has iSslleo an agit-prop éIl:tivi st trao itio n fm lll il s loin s, as wdl as a Puli tze r-pri ze winning Broau way play (A lIg d\ ill , 11II1',·íl'll ). wu ulJ h¡¡vc. a s its cri tica l o pcralion, a nnlinn nI' rcrl~)nn a liv i l " ih itl , 11 " 1\',, ba ~:" to w litt ctl
What happens when critics of "Iive performance" attempt to accommodate this new sense of perfonnativity and its privileging of print culture? Posi tioned at the intersection of the realm 01' the visible with the "live," \Vithin a lradition that roregrounds the body and resists recording technologies. such as the camera or print, perrormance seems unable to partake in the strategies 01' performativity. In aooressing perrormativity, the critics of " live perform ance" oetail a clear axis of oependencies along the notions of " performativity ," "quecr," ano the realm orthe visible in relation to that ofwriting. They must discover a \Vay in which to rio the " live" 01' the contamination of " presence" ano install writing at the scene of visible action . Not all performance critics have becn seduced by queer performativity , Janelle Reinelt, in " Staging the Invisible: The Crisis of Visibility in Theatr ical Representation ," ioentifies one danger inhcrent in these operations of performativity. Reinclt challenges Hutler' s arguments for their extraction 01' visibility ano ioentity politics from theatrical prodllction . Moreover, she concludes that Butler' s only notion 01' political action , to pcrturb the system, is a oangerous onc. She argues that the notion of subversion , by aboicating any clear program for change, offers what secms to be a subversi on 01' the dominant order, but in fact lea ves hegemonic cooes of visibility in place. Reinelt deems the subvcrsive strategy "theological ," operating on the " blind raith " that once the dominant system is perlurbeo , the hold of the hcgemonic will somehow give way and the lot of oppresscd people in the system will be improveo. Reinelt qllotes one example of Butlcr's leap of raith: "Subversive ncss is not somethin g that can be gaugeo or calculateo . In raet, what I mean by subversion are those effects that are incalcLllable ." 2~ In oroer to illustrate her point to the contrary , Reinelt describes ho\V a cross-genoer, cross-racial casting 01' the character 01' Betty, in Caryl Church ill 's Cloud Ninc, serveo to reminize markers of race in challenging those 01' gcnder. Reinclt oescribes the audience's laughter when the colonial, white C1ive kisses thc African-American male actor playing Betty, as celebrating 1he reminization of the African-American man in white, colonial practices . 1n t his case, perturbing gender roles by cross-gender casting does not destabilize tltl~ genucr and racial markers; instead , it reinscribes the negative way in wltieh markl'rs 01' genoer and race are used against one another in dominant practil'cs. In spilc 01' pcrtw'balions 01' the system. the traoitional codes reas snt thcmsclvcs. Likewise, Reincl t a rg ucs, Butler':; ana lysis of the fil m P ari.l' ;.1' /lllfl/;I/g, whidl ló c lIscs 0 11 Vcn uo; Xl ra vaga ni'a as a subjcct who "repeats and tllillteS k ¡.!il im aling lI ()rms hy \V ll u.: h 1I tl sdl' has hccn ucgraueJ, " actual1y
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The lingering problem for H a rt, which had been abandoned by the textual rctllrn effected by Butler and Sedgwick , is in the realm of what is seen- the " mea!" (JI' the matter. Hart is stilllooking at live performance. I-I o wever, she linds that such visibility " risk(s) rein stating a melaphysics of substance in urder lo maintain él political perspective that can be referred to as lcsbian. "25 '·S ubstance. " once the base of a materialist critique in contradietion to an csscntialist one, no\\', associated with visibility and identity, ri sks csscnti alislll by turgidly resisting the psychoanalytic strategy of positing "sexual suhjectivilies." Han would not "see" the eontarninaled meal 01' lhe material, nor ils d o uble, identity, y Cl she will con tinue lo look ln rcm a in a spí:cta toT. 1r sI l!: will not risk lhe sig hl 01' Icsbian idl'l1 fify , w ba l I.'oll ld -;111': ... ce? F o llow ing in lhe Bll ltcri an llIoJe, Ilar l aclua lly ma ll ;¡gcs 1\1 ,(:~, II I¡' hilla ry Ihe stash Ih e nule lhal mns Ih lllllgh Sha w anJ WI.':lvl: 'l.; 1111 [( 1I11 ~'lI l1 tll.' tn h.- pla yill g.
BuLd1/ku llll( is 1111 hlllgt'r a way lo llIakc " h.-sbian " visihle, with its markin g nr \:xpericm:c alld hislory; ralhcr, 1'01' J lar!, bulch/lCmme performance pro vides a "challcnge lloJ the conslruclion 01' the heterosexual/homosexual binary , adultí:rating the first term and foregrounding the productioll 01' the second tcrm."26 Putting it another \Vay , lesbian visibility gives way to lhe visibility 01' the production of the binary. The spectalor effects seeing the strllctllration of relalionships. This new brand 01' structuralism , coming full circle from the kind 01' cssentialist charges once levelled at its tradition (think of Claude Levi-Strauss 's \York on face painting in Triste Tropique and the reception of it as essentialist), reorganizes the visible. Valiantly , while arguing with visibility politics. H a rt resists the term " queer. " Oscillating between the two strategies 01' lesbi an visibility and queer per formativity, Hart's argument slips through several posi tions, as she pro poses "lesbian desire," the ability of spectators to "see lesbians," and " lesbian subjectivity." Ha rt finally arrives at lhe solution in retaining both thc visible, the live, and its evacuation in the notion of a " hallucination " of 1csbian within the "s pecular econollly." What Hart has accomplished by the revision is this: subjective processes have been empowered to absorb the realm of the visible. Hart resolves the initial dilelllma between visiblelidentities and inter nal , discursive functi o ns by empo\Vering the latter to swallow up the former. Once firmly on the ground of slIbjectivities, through the notion of hallucina tion, Hart can actually "see" Shaw and Weaver prod uce the binary . Finally free of the axis of visible/identity/body/live through her unique blending of Lacan with Butler, Hart can writ e abollt a lesbian performance. Withollt recourse to a written text for the move, that is. withollt reading a playscript, but remaining tllned to five performance, hallucination all ows Hart to textualize what seems to " mean " outside 01' linguistic systems. She can employ the master narratives of writin g -·the internal "o ut" available within psychoanalytic discoursc. Hart can then make the return to writing that Sedgwick and Butler effccted in their notions 01' performativity, whilc seemingly retainin g a focus on live performance. Hart has overcome the way in which perform a nce has traditionally per lurhed the interpretive powcr of print. After a]] , critics 01' theatre, dance, and mllsic are familiar with th e lon g, precarious tradition of writil1g arts criticismo Yel , within current critical debates, the contestation between lhese two orders seellls lo have overrlln the borders 01' the traditional dispute. The obsession with thc performative aspect of writing, from within many critical qllarters, marks a reconfiguration of strategies through which print may once again claim thc produetion of meaning for the reallll of the visual and the active. hlah1ishing writing as performativc both admits its limit amI reestablishes its dominallce. In terms of performance, it becomes the victory of lhe speetator ovcr lhe pcrformanc\! lhe o lJ id iom " heauty is in the eye of the beh older" beco llles cOlIslil\lli ve and all-cl1l bmcinj? in I.his new formula . Performance is m atk lo yield l/l is precise poi lll
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In contrast to Reinelt 's skepticislll ahollt polilics witholll prograllls, or outside referents, Lynda J lart 's recent work seeks to reconcile lhe notions 01' pcrforlllativity \Vith the vi sible reaJIll of " Iive" performance. The terms queer amI performativity offer a direct challenge to Hart, who, p reviously, ha:; written within a tradition 01' critica.! aecounts 01' "performing lesbian ." While she does nol evacuate the term " lesbian, " she does attempt to Illove it !'rom its traditional context ofvisibility politics to function more like the term "q ueer " in regard to performativity. Yet the retention of "Iesbian " causes an oscilla tion between the two systelllS that Han cannot quite resolve. Her solutionlies in adding Lacan to the formulation. Ha rt begins her artide "I dentity and Seduction: Lesbians in the Main stream" by addressing the tra ditional question: how does a lesbia n look or aet like one? In a consideration of a butch/femlllc performance by Peggy Shaw and Lois Weaver, the performing duo that has catalyzed most theoriza tion in the field, Hart aligns the term " Iesbian" with the polities ofvisibility, as tainted by essentia.!ism. Yet, rather than situate "queer" as the correction to this traditional sense of " Iesbian visibility," Hart posits psychoanalytic theory : According to such responses, Weaver and Shaw were unsuccessful in presenting thelllselves as lesbians. But what is this "something-to be-seen " that is presumed to be so crucial to the political project? Why do we always assume that visibility always and everywhere has a positive sociopolitical value? Visibility politics, the dominant agenda of gay and lesbian aetivislll, dashes with psychoanalytical con structions of sexual subjectivities. The former 's assertion of identity politics is unraveled by the latter's destabilizing identificati o ns . ~4
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Wh¡; rl:as slIch lh:ha ll:S o ve !' w r i 11111' '' I .. h; 11 1 1q!l ll d 111 pl:1f'ormalll'l: m ay rcside in lhe subtcxt 01' thl: aho ve crilics, I'cggy l' lil' lulI . 111 Ihe chapkr (JI' hl:r book Ul1l11orked.. cntitlcd "The O nlol ogy 01' I'crfll rtl lancc" din.:clly adurcsscs this struggle. After sctting out lhe familiar dlarges: "Performance implicates the rcal through the presence ofliving bodies" ami " Jive performance plunges into visibility,"27 Phelan situates these critical problem $ with performance at the sitc of writing. First , she notes that "To attempt to write about the undocumcntable event of performance is to invoke the rules 01' the written document and thereby alter the event itself. ,,18 She then reverses the direction of the critique, however, to lead her argument back to writing as performative:
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The sllpp tel11enl is Ihe gazc , wh ich is constil lll eu l hllllll, ll c:l sl ration and the invisihle genilals lit' 11l\' llI o tlle!'. As P hclu ll !lllt' 11 , ~L'l'i ll f' is lhe Ica r 0 1'
hlillu tless: 1'111\11.llillll. ThwlI glt a L.acalliall m. Yllllll'l)nic lúrlllulation . sight, tlll.': bod y. anJ perlúnIlance bccol11e the silc rOl' loss.lack. and disappearance: 12 As Ihe hudy atlains subjcctivity through the promise of disappearance, the allxiolls cyc wriles perl'ormativity - securing for writing that same promise of uisappcarance, freeing it from its fetters as a recording device. Likewise, the critical/political role Phclan assigns to performance is that 01' "radical negativity."'l As she sees the blindfolded An gelika Festa hang from the pole 01' the binary. effectively resistin g being "absorbed by history" and the affects 01' representation , Phelan 's writing "mimics" that contingency and negativity , promising a fulsome discursive marking of the " unmarked. " 130th writing and the booy actively access their incapacities, mediated by "articulale eyes"14 whose enunciations are, as Butler would propose, " sub verted." Phelan celebrates the endstations orthe engines ofwriting and seeing, otTering up. a political and performative, blindness and the unmarked. what Reinelt has pointed out in Butler as " blind faith " in the eff'ects of subversion as a radical potential. Phelan thus distinctly addresses the issues emanating from the contestation between performance and writing. Yel she shifts con testation to homology , "rnimicry," insisting writing is both unlike and like performance, when caught in the Symbolic web of Lacanian principIes. By dis-abling both, she retains both in terms of one another. Accordingly , " queer performativity" and its concomitant charge 01' essen tialism serve to bring together several different orders of isslles and to reflect anxieties around several diffen:nt key points: self.. referentiality has overcome an argument that .vould set determiJling referents outside its O\\'n syrnbolic system , identity and visibility politics have been replaced with unmarked interpellations into sueh sym bohc systems. and the body and the order 01' lhe visible have been subsumed by writing ano the order 01' prinl. "Queer per l'ormativity," in withdrawing from these arguments has not only evacuated the sites for certain debates but has successfully isolated the various elements from one another. Accompanying these absorptive strategies, is the alteration in the critical st udy 01' performance rrol11 a perspective based on the practice to one based on its reception. Hart, Phelan , and others, actually write out the position 01' Ihe spectator. For those versed in the history of critical writing on perform ance in this century, the shift is a crucial one. The early exemplars of perform ance criticism were written by practitioners, with an eye toward produclion: Antonin Artaud 's Theulre uml/ls Douhle , Peter Brooks' s Thc Emply Spu('c, (irotowski's J/1e POOl' Thealer , Herbert Blau's 111e ImfJossihlr: Thealer , and 01' course. the critical works of Bertolt Brecht and Heiner M üller. Each prac litioner imagined Ihe ground of the theatre in terms of how it embodied the agonislic positions. appearances. and gestures of their communities or 01' llu.:ir hislo rica l. social m oments. Artaud went in sean;h 01' collective enaclmen ts lo l1a li nese a lld T arahuma ril IlI dian ri tual prHclices in order to discover the tllas,",s lll' Ihl.' ago ll hc twccn 1111.' P\!fccpl lhlc ¡¡ nd Ihe imperceptible: the theatre
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Thc challenge raised by the ontological c1aims 01' performance for writing is to re-mark again the performative possibilit ies of writing itself. The act of writing towa rd disappearance. rather than the act of writing toward preservation, must remember that the after-effect of disappearam:e is the experience 01' subjectivity itself. 29 The use ofperformance, then. is to challenge writing to become performative. The contradiction between performance, as mutable and non-reproductive , and writing, as stable and reproductive, motivates writing to somehow perform "mimicry" and " to disco ver a way for repeated words to become performat ive ulterances ."w Not surprisingly, J. L. Austin does not follo\\' far behind. These new strategies 01' writing follow on lhe heels of deconstruction , a strategy linked to the role 01' writing. They seek a way to extend writing to those whom it had previously dispossessed. While Phelan never writes "lesbian " or "queer," she does situate the performance of writing in terms of gender, deploying the category of "women," andfinally "mother" as the dispossessed , as body. How can writing finally accommodate them? Once again, performance enters the scene as that which insists upon the body and c1arifies the problem: For performance art itselfhowever, the referent is always the agoniz ingly relevant body ofthe performer. . . . In performance. the body is metonymic 01' self, ol' chamcter, of voice, 01' "presence." But in the plenitude of its apparent visibility and availability, the performer aetllally disappears and represents something clse- dance, move ment , sound, character, " art. " . .. Performance uses the perfonner's body to pose a question about the inability to secure the relation between subjectivity and the body per se; performance uses the body lo frame the lack of Being promised by and through the body- that which C(lnnot appcar without a supplernent. "
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anJ its lIlet a-Jollhl \!. BI;¡u prtldll ~·(.·d lit,' 1....1 liS slagillg 01' Wllitillg .tiJl' Godot in San QU\.!l1tin lO be ac tcd hy all Il1vest\.!d cOlllll1l1l1ity. Brc\.!ht in ven ted the geslUs--d evelopeJ stagc positiollS, crosses and proximitics as maps of social re1ations . The crucial JilTercnce these works hold against performativity resides in the assignation of power into agonistic roles - lhe Jeliberations of its partitions through characters and spatial rc1 ations anJ the a bsorption of it into the arena of the spectator-- the singular envelope to which it is addressed. As the agonistic collective fades away , in its performance traditions and in critical reception , the rise of the individual may be seen as part of the victory of advanceJ capitalism and its market strategy. Private property is celebratcd in a new way. Rather than individual ownership, in the traditi onal sen se, of something olltside oncsclf, the self has been amplified across the terrain of what was once an " outside " to tlna11y encompass a11 property within its subjectivity. In the rise 01' the individual as the theatre, and the conAation 01' audience member with performer, the private individual has become the arena 01' the publico For example, the desire for the new-individualist stage is manifested in the prominence orthe work of Anna Deveare Smith.lndividual performance representing diffcrent ethnic communities in crisis secms to be the form most acceptable to contemporary audiences for those debates. Thesc inversions of social values regarding performance reinstate several materialist concerns. Does this intimate that it is a capitalist project to locate the book as performative? Are corporate, institutional structures of owner ship marked in the "unmarked?" Do categories such as "queer" protect corporate forms of profit-taking by emulating them'? To wafd a ,.etm-fe-V;S;Oll
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Ihe page. 11t1s IwclI slipped out fWIll under it llnto the network- the e1ectronic spaee 01' new eapitall'ormations. Againstthis electron ic. corporatc backdrop, then , hopefully, a retro version (Ir "performing lesbian " can better work to revivify the dying political "body." Fulsollle, rathcr than empty, with substance. situatcd within the material , rc-con nccted to outside rcferents, quivering in a new version of " Iive" Aesh , rec1aiming the visible, and set on a course in sync with political activism, this conjllnction may press on past the attack of the queer performative into a consideration that admits its virtual , electronic ground. But nrst, as is its tradition. some sense ofthe historical moment orits demise amI displacement may c1arify what must be accommodated in order to reconstitute itself. The critical anxiety set off by the fall of the wall , whieh capped the erosion of the grounds of the M arxist, or postMarxist materialist critique dispatchcd several strategies into exile. While eurocommunism, particular1y in F rance, continued to be ratified in intellectual circ1es, Althusser, Baudrillard and Foucault could argue for continuing adjustments 01' the notion 01' the subject as within the Illaterialist critique amI its social, activist movement. When the framework of such a dialectic fell a\Vay, when the terms 01' the debate were no longer ratified bccallse of the seeming failure of such a critique in the historical moment of the late 1980s and early 1990s, strategies concerning the subject sought to distinguish their critical, political operations from the failures ofsocialist , Marxist practice. An ambivalence, an anxiety blocked the bridge between theoretical, critical systems and activism- a bridge that had been mandated in Marxist/materialist systems. Withdrawin g the rem nants of postMarxist theory from the nov,'-collapsed practice , the deploymen t o outside referents collapsed into se1f-referentiality. In his " Cultural Studies and its Theoretical Legacies ," StLlart Ilall poignantly traces of the coJ1apse 01' such a bridge out 01' the system and continues to insist upon it:
Sti11 too young to play the blind Tiresias, too butch to accept the role of the dumb Cassandra , too self-critical to produce critique as prophesy , and too wary for blind faith , I remain unpersuaded by these latter day uses of queer performativity that semiotic sublations ol' the material and historical , written across bodiless , discursive representations of sexual practicc better serve what used to be called the politica\. Further, the return of the repressed contradicts the very move to discourse. For writing, empowered by these stratcgies , is only emphatic in the dying scene 01' print culture - the melo dramél 01' the psychoanalytic. Despitc its Senccan stagings, writing is giving way to the rcgime 01' the visible within the its very engine--- its own techno I(lgy . As writing splays across the computer screcn , the realm in which new rorms ofcorporate, global economies inscribe thcir logos, its script is admitted illto the reprcsentational space through ü.:onic windows. Wi thdruw ll from snl:iul signiliers in to its own na.rcissisl ic <.lilieOllrS¡;. it Tlcvertheless wrilcl> aeross Ih e t\!ChIl OSl:reCIl 01' va lue and virtual sm:iu lily As wriling has lu rn¡;d in 011 il sd r, exer ll.!d ils prowcss agai ns t Ihe li ve lI lId 111(' IIlal\!rial. ils gw unu. o nce
Similarly, rcminist critical theory began to withdraw from its 1970s neces sary link lO grussroots , activist agcm.1as, wh ich, if not ideological1y ma terial ist. wc rc engageJ in social cha ngc . Lcshian theory , on its way to quccr theory, ~iIl ll ght lO d isli nguis h itsc1f rmm lInOs Icshi' lll rcmin ist a gl:nJas, with thcir idcnt ity óllld visi hil ity p~)liti es. '1 JI!.: dló ll .·~· !lf cssl'lIlialislll bl ocked thc majO!'
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What decentered and dislocated the sett1cd path 01' the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies certainly , and British cultural stLld ies to sorne extent in general, is what is sOl11etimes called " the lin guistic turn " : the discovery of discursivity, 01' textuality . ... unless and until one respects the necessary displacement of culture, and yet is al\Vays irritated by its failure to reconcile itself with other ques tions that Illattcr, with other questions that cannot and can never be fully covered by critical textuality in its elaborations, cultural studies as a projcct. an intervention , remains complete.'s
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IlIwlIgll wlIy r nm l 11I1:\)ry lo wllal Ia; ,d hll" 1..'1111.11111 1\'" as pra ~ li ~c . Imllill)'; IhcorCIical a rg u IIlCII Is lO sI ra Icgics I 11 ~I!tIl .rh: .1 i ii 111 '> UI'II as o Vl: rJclcnnina IiOIl or excess. Positing c~onOlllic clmdililms sudl as dass o p prcssio n bccalllc impossible to accommodate , as they call et.l ror lhal rdercnl nulsiJe lhe system . Capitalism could not, dTectivcly, be introduced as a concepl. In Maleria!isl Feminism amI lhe Pvlilics vI Discourse, Rosemary I-1ennessey traces this withdrawal through the effects of Foucau lt, Laclau a nd Mouffe. ami the charge of essentialism. Yet, she notes that the very project crea tes strategies in consonance with global capitalism. installing
n: lI1a in IIl1 lcslt:d A s lile .:ritiqlll: wilhd ra ws I'mlll !1ot;ons 01' cOllllllunities, slIhcllllllI'CS illlll sCllliotizcd slippagc arnong market slrategies. it often becomcs wllal il sccks to critique . As illustrated in thc preced ing argulllents, there is an axis along th e abandonment 01' the terlll "lesbian " in its currency, in its dass operations, in ils il1lperialist uses, and the body, as a subject-susped, whieh must be deaned away by words. "Queer perforlllativity" thus runs the " race into theory " a\Vay from the site 01' material intervention. Sagri Dh air yam, in "Raci ng the Lesbian , Dodging White Critics" notes that
a decentered , fragmented , porous subject .. , better equipped for the heightened alienation 01' late capitalism's refincd divisions of labor, more readily disciplined by a pandemic corporate state, and more available to a broad nexus 01' ideological controls. '6
lhe rubric 01' queer theory , which couples sexuality and theory and collapses lesbian and gay sexualities, tends to effect a slippage of body into mind : the monstrously feminized body's sensual evoca tions 01' slllelL fluid , and hidden vaginal spaces with which the name resonates are deanscd , descxua lized into a "queerness" where the body yields to intcllect. and a spectrum ofsexualities again denies the lesbian center stagc. lR
One of the signature structures of lesbia n feminism, as of the Marxist tradition, was the eollective. 80th posited a challenge to capitalist structures through notions of eollective ownership and social practice. 11' the east bloc fell to successful global capitalism, lesbian rood collectives, bookstore collect ives, living collectives, theatre collectives have fallen to traditional capitalist practices. New "postmodern lesbian " or queer articles trace the way in which capitalist projects have appropriated such abandoned terriLories for their own uses. Sasha Torres's sen se of the " prime time lesbian," and Danae Clark 's " Commodity Lesbianism" describe the media's and market's uses of the terms. Whilc I would contend that this commoditication is the result of the queer retreat. sorne of the postmodern protectors would , as Robyn Wiegman has done, fault identity politics for it, arguing that "it is along the modemist axis of self-assertion and visibility that both a lesbian consumer market and a marketed commodity repeatedly named leshian has been achieved.'»7 Yel. in the face of such high capitalist aggressivity , these authors can offer only celebrations of commodification , 01', as above, isolated strat egies 01' subversion. In particular, " subversive shopping" has been formulated as an apt action within the commodified realm, It is difficult to perccive, finall y, wh at is subversive in buying the semiotized version oflesbian that ad campaigns have developed. Thus, the critique ofthe commodified lesbian , cut offrrom any program of change--in isolation- - actually promotes commodification . The evacuation 01' the outside referent has effectively coupled the body and thc materialist critique only to give them over to , as Reinelt has pointed out. the hegemon ic practices that endurc in the codeso The new "queer dyke" thus appears as commodity felishist- the dildoed dy ke who Illakes 01' her:-;clf an ad as pol itics. Wha t rcmains is mapping Lhe exact ro ulc o f' Ihe rctrca l Ih rough decon str ucti ve c ritiq ues. Mc,U1 wh ilc, lhe COll ll S i \~1 1 Wil lll'l \ll!al GlpilalisL uses 01' slIch slra lcl.!.ics. as notcd by Il c n n~ssy ¡¡ b\IVC (1 1 0 1 1I:al ill tlal a ).!.cn da~, sli ll l 'lfl
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The challenge of the " live" body needs to be deaned up by the semiotic cfficiency of theory. 8ut ho\V do all 01' these theories happen to conjoin with the rise 01' global capitalislll, the new tcchno-era and the cOllling supremacy 01' the computer screen?
The end of print culture Tho contest between two orders, previously perceived as alpha be tic a nd visual, but technologically represented by print and the scrcen has run through out the twentieth century. Print and the screen have organized their own cultures- their own virtual communities. The two technologies produce their own structures of value . In fact , one could trace cultural production in lhe twentieth century through a history of their relationship, through Dada and Puturislll , Benjamin and 8recht, feminist critical theory and film. Th e Narne o/ lhe Rose, by the serniotician Umberto Eco , could be read as lhe narrativization 01' this current print/image struggle, masquerading in the robcs of medieval monks. Whereas these two orders have traditionally run Iheir separate courses, challenging one another by differcnce, the coming dominance 01' the computer as the new engine of writing has finally assigned print to the screen. The victory of the screen , accompanying the victory of glohal capitalism and the new virtual construction 01' social and economic practiccs yiclds a variety of consequences. !lce screencu. the manners of print culture are forcgrounded: "ri n l rc prcsc nls a Jccisill ll pI' 'iCVC rc abstractio!l and su btTaction. AII nonl ill c;1I sil!.l1als tire fillcl\:d OUI: ~;llh )f is ban ncu for seri o us texts;
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lypograph ica l \.:Pllsl:tllls a 1'1': ri gc)I ()II ~ l y ~' lIl n l u 'd. S il 11 lid is pros\.:ribed ; evcn lhc taclilily 01' visual clahOfi.llion is llU II:lwL"lL !'rilll is an ael 01' perceptual self-Jenial. ... Nol the lea sl irn pliealioll ofdcctronic text for rheto ric is how the implicit self-Jeniab 01" thc p rill t conlracl are being renegotiateJ .-\9 Not surprisingly, then , the attributes of print culture suit those of the various strategies JescribeJ above. The panic con\.:erning the role of writing since Jeconstruction , on the one hand , and French feminist theory , on the other, involves tbese many different kinJs 01' values. If one plat:es writing abou t writing against this challenge by the screen, the ground of the debates is changed , In fact , it seems to be somehow emulating those very attributes it has exciseJ from its culture. Writing has been deconstructed by writing itself as a way to keep writing. Some deconstructive writing sought to enhance its culture by encouraging experiments which would illustrate spatial coincidences in writing, reading, and the academic performances of both. lacques Derrida, in many 01' his works, such as C/as, or "The DOllble Session." in DissemilJaliolJ, plays with the black/white register of print, its spatial organization and performance:
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Luce l riga ray CI iliqllcs nol ol1ly the linear elreel orwri ting, but the organ i/alion 01' pages. amI lhe play 01' vertical and horizontal as inseriptions of gendcrcJ , hetero-social constructs. In "The Power ofDiscourse," she calls for lhe disruplion of the "recto-verso structure that shores up common sense," asserting that: we need to proeeed in sueh a way th at linear reading is no longer possible: that is , the retroactive ¡mpael of the end of eachword , utteranee. 01' sentence upon its beginning must be taken i.nlo con sideration in order to undo the power ofits teleological effect. .. . Thal would hold gooJ also for the opposition between structures of horizontality and vertieality that are work in language.42
Your mission, should yOll choose to aecept il, is to learn to read wilh your ears. In addition to listening for the telephone. you are being asked to tune your ear .. . to the inflated reserves of random indetenninateness ... stay open to the static and interference that will oecupy these lines .... At first yO Ll may find the way Ihe book run s t.o be disturbing, but we ha ve had lo brea k up ils logic Iypographically.... T o cra ck open lhe clos ura l sovc rc ign ly 01' lhe Boo k, \vc ha ve I"cigncd s ilencc an d disco nllccl ioll . . , , /JI/' 1'l'!c-pllOl1e [JI/ok rclcascs Ihe d k l.!l (11" an clcctn1nic-lihid !llal n o\V II s¡ Uf tYPl) Itnl phy lo Inmk Illl' in ilialioll ul' IIl lc rn l "'\:~ "
While these authors were leaJ from the nature of their critique to the material production of print, radical alterations in the teehnology oC writing itself, caused by the widespread adoption 01' the eomputer, have encouraged authors and publishers to experiment in print forms closer to the functions of data and print management which these new engines ofinseription perform .'ll The multi-colored , icon-ridden print of MOlldo 20()(): A User's Cuide lo lhe NelV Edge simulates the interactive sereen. The new praetice of co-producing a print text with a hypertext , as in l a y David Bolton's Wriling Space, or George P. Landow's H yperl exl, encourages either the page [o emulate the computer's sereenic funetions in print, or the print forms of pages and t he sequential development of ideas on the computcr. This play between the sequential and multiple, branehing arrangements of information is now being staged on the eomputer screen. The printeJ page. by the nature ofits technology, enforces the sequential dcvclopment 01' ideas; while the computer screen offers multiple arrangemcnts 01' data, allowing the reader to form the development of material s in a multitude 01' ways. kon mandalas at the beginnings of hype rlext novel s, as in Stuart Moulthrop's Viclory Carden , (illustration) olTer a topography 01' episodes, whieh the reader may link in several Jifferent patte rns . Readin g this electronic novel resembJes, more, wandering in a maze than adhering to the sequenee of pages. GendcT and sexual praetices, has Irigaray has noted , have long been in scribed in the seq L1ential architccture of meaning. The linear prescription was ali gned wilh gcnderdifICrence and the institution ofheterosexual marriage as ~~a rly as the myth 01' J\riadne and the minotaur. Ariadne's thread translated the maze into lhe line. leading both to the conquest of the minotaur and her ownlll ll rrillge. What was th e Minotaur, part animal, part human, but a ki nd (Ir scx-rad ia ting eyho rg'? T he laby rin th . 01' maze, a mappin g enabled by and !lll)rC u ppr~)pria lc lO \.:om putc: r wr ilin g lhan lbe c11lulation of pages. th us, h rin g.s liS haá Iu Ihal ca dy M illO,lll Ih n;;'11 ilI' O the r, eivi lized by the linear 1 I.'l:hll \lI \l).!i l..:~ 11 1' 1l11':tning.
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These ron the recto pagel quotations on the blackboard are to be pointed at in silence. So that, whi1e reaJing a text already written in black and white, I can count on a certain across-the-boarJ inJex standing a1l the while behind me, white on black .4l' The interplay between new technologies and the "alphabetic culture" (as Grcgory Ulmer terms it) 01' philosophical traditions has brollght innova Iions to print by such authors as Avital Rone1l , who, upon writing on the plrilosophical contiguities 01' te1ephone, the precursor of online virtualit ics , arranged her print in varying columnar, diagonal, spatial relatio.ns, 1'1I!'lhe!' eomplicated by various styles of print, print sizes, line spacings, etc. A:; Ihe "textual operators" instruct, in the opening page of Tite Te/eph une /look:
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Wllal is prolllpl~U by Ih is Il'dI 1l1 1Iog> I~ 11 dli lll pl' ill lile l~rl1ls nI' politica l analysis rrom tllose 01' time, wllich Jct\!rtní lll: l ile h istorie:!1 critiquc. lo llwsc of s pace what is callcu th e Hew geog rap hy u r lile lopological critiquc. As I havc noted elsewhere. gcncratíonallllodels do not serve the lesbian agenda. Homosexual, a considera tion ofsa meness, may lend ilselfbe tter to n o tions 01' s p ace than time. Certainly , as som e late r French Marxi sts argued , includin g Henri Lefebvrc and Michel F o ucault, the correction ofthe crit iq ue fro m time to s pace s uits th e new politics of urba n planning, space exploration, ami , finall y, 1 would ad d th e c o m ing of virtual reality. Ins isti ng upon " performin g lesbia n ," then . mi g ht b e constituted as with in the regime of th e visible, a certain occupation o f space, within the politics 01' space- a scree ning d ev ice that somehow rctains th e bod y, the flesh , the " 1ive" in tandem with tcchn o logy , a nd c1aims visibility through its unique operations. [Part " of thi s cssay will appear in Theatre J o urnal Oclober, 1995.- E d.]
Notes The Ba nana Republic ud was re printcd in thc a rticle "Lesb ian chi c: the bold, brave ncw world of gay women," NC:lll Y()rk 26 (May 10. 19(3): 33. The K. D. Lang cover appea red in Vanily Fair 56 (Aug ust 19(3). 2 Teresa de Lauretis, "The Essence o fthe Triangle o r, Taking the Ri sk 01' Essential ism Seriously: Feminist Thcory in h a ly. the U.S .. alld Britain," DiJlerel1ce.l': A j(Jumal of Feminis/ Cull.urol S/udie.\· 1 ( 1989): 4- 5. 3 Ibid ., 12.
4 Ibid ., 32.
5 Eve Koso fsky Sedgwiek , "Q ueer Perforrniti vity : Hen ry Ja mes's The Au 0./ lhe
No\'el." glq: (J j ou/'Ilal a./ leshian ((/1(1 gay s/udies I ( 1993): l . 6 Ibid ., 2. 7 See the inlroducti o n lO InsideIOu/ : Leshiol1 T/¡cories. Cay Theories, ed. Diana Puss (New Yo rk and London: R o ull ed ge, 1(9 1).
8 Judith Butler, "Critieally Queer," glq 1(1993): 17.
9 [bid ., 28.
10 Ibid. , 18.
II Judilh Buller, " Imitation a nd Gender Insubo rdin a lio n," Puss, 14 - 15 .
12 (bid .. 24.
13 Butler, "Crilica ll y Quee r," 17.
14 (bid ., 18.
15 Aristotle, AletaphY.I'ics. Th e Bl/sic Works Aris/o/le. ed. Richard McKeon (New
York: Ra nd om H o use. 194 1). 1071 a 14- 18. 16 (bid .. [072b 19- 22 . 1074b 34- 36. 17 Butler, " Imital ion and Gcnder Insubo rdinat ion ," 28. 18 [bid .. 24. 19 Butler, "Critically Quee r," 29. 20 'The body you want." interview with Judith Butler. Art/t) rUII1 31 (No \'cmbe r, 1(92) . 21 See Larissa Mac Farquhar, " Pu tting the Calllp Back inh' \ ; 1111 p us," LiIlJ.!,//o ¡ ;¡'(///('{/ 3 (Scpt.-Oct. 1(93): <; 7. 22 .Ianelle Rcinclt. "St:I¡!í ng the Invis ihle: 1 he ( n ~¡., n i VI, d.jli l V ill T h\:at ri cal Rcp rCSClllati o ll ." 'lí' \'! éllI" p,'/:fi J/'l/lilllC'<' Qllor/,.,.h ' 1,1 11 '1') I1 '
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2.1 I bId .• 1. 24 Lylllla lI arl , " h kn til y and Scduclio n: Lcs bians in the Ma instrcam." in Ae/in,!!. 011/: ¡~'lIIilli.l'/ I'('/Ior/l'/al/c(,s, ed. Hart ami Peggy Phelan (A nn I\rbor: Un ivcrs it y 01' Michigall , 19(3), 124. 25 [bid .. 128 . 26 (bid. 27 Peggy Phelan , Ul1Il1arked: TI/e Polilic.l' oI Pe/jimn ance (Ne w Yor k: Ro utl edge , 1(93 ).148. 28 Ibid. 29 [bid. 30 lbid. 3 1 Ibid ., ISO- 51. 32 Ibid .. 152. 33 lbid , 165. 34 Ibid. , 158. 35 Stuart Hall , "Cultural Sludies a nd ils Theoretical Legacies," in Cultural Swdies, ed. Lawrence Grossberg. Ca ry Nc1son . an d Paul a T reic hler (New York: Ro utl edge, 19(2) . 283--84. 36 Roselllary Hennessy, !v/aleriolis/ Feminism and /he Po/ilics 0./ Discourse (New Yo rk : R oullcdgc, [ (93), 9. 37 R oby n Wicgman , " Introducti o n: M appin g the Postlll ode rn ," in The Leshiall Pos//l/ odern. ed . Laura D oa n (New York: Col um bia U ni versit y Prcss. 1(94) , 10. 38 Sagri Dhair yam . " R ac in g the Lesbian. Dod ging White Crit ics," in Th e Lesbi(//{ Posll11odel'l1. 30. 39 Ri cha rd A. Lanham , The Elect/'ollic Wo/'d: De/11ocraey. Technology. une! /he Arts (C hica go : lJniversity 01' C hica go Press, 1993), 74 . 40 Ja cq ues Derrida. " The Do uble Session ," in Dissemina/ion_t ranso Barbara Jo hn son (Chica go: University o fChi cago Press , 1(8 1). 177. 41 Avital Rone ll , The Telep/¡ol1e Book (Linco ln : U ni ve rsit y 01' Nebrask a Press. 1989). opening page . 42 Luce I rigell'ay, "The Powe r 01' Discou rse:' Thi.l' Sex Which Is No/ Ol/e , trans o Ca theri ne P orte r (lthaca: Co rnell University Press . 1985) , 80. 43 Gregory lJlmer suggcsts Ihat " Derrida' , texts .. . a lrea d y reftect a n inlcrnaliwtioll of the electron ic media. " Quoted in M ar k Poster. Th e Mode ¡¡./ In/a nuo/ion: Pos/ .I'uhordinalion amI Social Con/ex / (Chieago: U niversity of Chicago, 1990), 100.
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Part 2 VI SUAL ART A ND PE RFO RM A NC E ART
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75 ART ANO OBJECTHOOO J\1ichael Fried Sourcc: Arl/órum 5(10) (1967): 12 23_
In this essay Michael Fried eriticizes Minimal Art·· or as he calls it, " Iiteralist" art- for what he describes as its ,i nherent theatricality_ At the same time , he argues that the modernist arts, including painting and sculpture, have come increasingly to dcpcnd ror their very continuance on their ability to de/eat thcatre. Fried charactcrizes the theatrical in terms of a particu lar relation between the beholder as suhject and the work as oh/ecl, a relation that takes place in time, that has durati on . Whercas defeating theatrc entails dcfeating or suspending both objecthood and ternporality. Fried was born in New York City in 1939. He took his B.A. at Princeton Universi ty a nd was a R hodcs Scholar at Merton College, Oxford. He is a Contributing Editor for Anforul11, and he organized the Three American Pain/ers exhibition al the Fogg Art Museum , Harvard University, in 1965. He is cur rentlya Junior Fell ow in the I Iarvard Society of Fellows.
Edwards's journals frequently explored and tested a meditation he seldom allowed to reaeh print; if all the world werc annihilated, he wrote ... and a new \Vorld \Vere freshly created , though it were to exist in every particular in the same manner as this \Vorld, it would 110t be the same. Thererore, because there is continuity, which is time, "it is certain with me that lhe world exists allcw evury moment; that the existence 01' things every moment eeases and is cvcry mOl1lcIll rcnewed." The abiding assurance is that " we every moment sce 1hc salllc proof 01' a God as we should have seen ifwe had seen Hilll create the world al lirsL" Perry Miller, J onat!Jall Edwards
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The entcrp risc knuwn vari o lls ly as Mín imal I\r l A B( ' Arl. I)ri ma ry Slruc tures. amI Spccilk Objccts is largdy iucolllgicóJ l. 11 scc ks lo úeclare a nú occupy a positi on- one that ca n be rormula tcd in worús, a nú in 1~lct has been formolated by sorne of its leading practitioners. If this d istinguishes it from modernist painting a mI sculpture on the one han d , it also marks an im portant difference between Minimal Art- or, as I prefer to call iL lileralisl art- and Pop or Op Art on the other. From its inception, literalist art has amounted to something more than an episode in the history of taste. It belongs rather to the history--almost the ¡¡({/lIral history of sensib ility : anu it is not a n isolated episode but the expression of a general amI pervasive cond ition. Its seriousness is vouehed for by the fact that it is in relation both to modernist painting amI modernist sculptur e that Iiterali st art uefines or locates the position it aspires to occupy. (This, 1 suggest, is what makes what it declares something that deserves to be calJed a position.) Specifically, literalist art conceives of itself as neither one nor the other; on the contrary, it is motivated by specific reservations , or worse . about both; anu it aspires, perhaps not exaetly, or not immediately, to displace them . but in any case to establish itself as an independent art on a footing witb either. The literalist casc again st painting rests mainly on two counts: the rela tional eharacter of almost all painting; and the ubiq uitousness, indeed the virtual inescapability, of pictorial illusion . In Donald Judd 's view, when you start relating parts, in the flrst place, you' re assuming you have a vague wholc - the rectangJc of the cclllvas- and definite parts, which is all screwed up , beca use you should have a deflnite 1t'¡101e and maybe no parts, or very few. 1 The more the shape of the support is emphasized, as in recent m odernist painting, the tighter the situation becomes: The elcments inside the rectanglc are broad and simple amI corres pond closely to the reetangle. The shapes and sUIÚce are only those that can occur plausibly within amI on a rectangular plane. The pa rts are few amI so subordinate to unity as not to be parts in an ordinary sense. A painting is ncarly an entity, one thing, and not the inde finable sum of él group of entities and references. The one thing overpowers the earlier painting. It also establishes the rectangl e as a definite form; it is no longer a fairly neutrallimit. A form can be lIsed only in so man y \Vays. The rectangular plane is given a lile spa n. The simplicilY reqllired lO emphas.ize lhe re<.:lungk li mi ls llt el:lrra nge Illcnts possibl e within i1.
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11 Shape has also been central lO the 1110st important pamtmg of the past seve ral years. In several recenl essays2 \ have tried to show how, in the work of Noland, Olitski , and Stella, a conftict has gradually emerged between shape as a fun d amental property of objects and shape as a medillm of painting. ROllghly, the succcss or failure of a givcn painting has come to depcnd on its ability to hold or stamp itself out or compel conviction as shape- that, or somehow to stave off or elude the question of whether or not it does so. O litski's early spray paintings are the purest example 01' paintings that either hold or rail to hold as shapes; while in his more recent pictures, as well as in the best of Noland 's and Stella's recent work, the demand that a given picture hold as shape is sta ved off or eluded in various ways. What is at stake in this conftict is whether the paintings or objects in q uestion are experieneed as paintings or as objects: and what decides their identity as painling is their confronting 01' the demand that they hold as shapes. Otherwise they are experienced as nothing more than objeets. This can be summed IIp by saying that modernist painting has come to find it imperative that it defeat or suspend its own objecthood , and that the crucial factor in this undertaking is shape, but shape that must belong to pailllin¡;-·-it must be pietorial, not, or not merely, literal. Whereas liter alist art stakes everything on shape as a given property of objects, if not, indeed, as a kind of object in its own right. Jt aspires, not to defeat or suspend its own objecthood, but on the contrary to discover and project objecthood as such.
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knnw. " Iuít, '" ~("\llpl\ln: hall Ih is k ind or pl'l!SC I1Cl' bul did nol hill(' bd lÍl1ll ÍI. '1hal sculplun: could hide bc hinJ il jusl as painling did I found oul onl y arter repca lcd acquaintanec \Vith Minimal \Vorks 01' cllt: .Il1dd's M orris's, And re' s, Sleiner's, some but not all of Smrithson 's, sorne but nol all 01' LeWitt's. Minimal art can also hide behind presence as size: 1 think of Bl aden (though I am not sure whether he is a certified M inimalist) as \Vell as of some of the artists just mentioned. Presence can be conferrcd by si7.e or by the look uf non-art. Furthermorc, what non-art means toda y, and has meant for several years , is fairly spe ciRco \n " After Abstract Expressionism" Greenberg wrote that " a stretched or tacked-up can vas already exists as a picture- -thollgh not neccssarily as a successjúl one. "4 For that reason, as he remarks in "Recentness of Sculpture, " the " look ofnon-art \Vas no longcr available to painting." Instead , " the border line between art and non-cHt had to be sought in the three-dimensional, where sClllpture was, and where everything material that was not art also \Vas." Greenberg goes on to say: The look of machinery is shunned now beca use it does not go far enough to\Vards the look ofnon-art , which is presumably an "inerl" look that offers the eye a minimum of " interesting" incident- unlike the machine look , whieh is arty by eomparison (and when 1 think of Tinguely \ would agree with this). Still, no matter how simple the object may be, there remain the relations and interrelations 01' surface, con tour, and spatial interval. Minimal works are reada b le as art. as almost anything is today- - inc1uding a door, atable, or a blank sheet ofpaper. ... Vet it would seem that a kind ofart nearer the condition of non-art could not be envisaged or ideated at this moment.
Truitt's arl did flirt with Ihe look of non-art , and her 1963 sh o w was the first in wh ich 1 noticed how this loo k coukl cnnICr illI clrect of reW:I1( ·c. T ha l p resencc as achieved thr ~)Ll g h ~i/c w;¡ ~ <1I!slhclica lly C~lra nC() II l). 1 a lrcaJ y kncw. T lra l prcscllI':C as al"1 li l' Vl.:d Ihrollg h Ihe look \Ir 11í1ll -;l1"I Wal> li ~l.:wi sc a C~l lr c til'all y 1.:'( 11 ,1I 1l.'O I I·; 1 dld no l yc l
The meaning in this context of"the condition or non-art " is what 1 have been calling objecthood. \t is as though objcethood alone can, in the present circumstances, secure something's identity, ir not as non-art , at least as ncither painting nor seulpture; or as though a work ofart- more accurately, a work 01" m o dernist painting or sculptllre- were in some essential respect nol (/11 ohjecI. Therc is, in any case , a sharp contrast betwcen the literalist espousal 01" objecthood- almos1, it seems, as an art in its own right- and modernist painling.'s self-imposcd imperative that it dcfeat or suspend its own objecthood Ihroug h the Im:diulll ofshapc. In rac\, from lhe perspective ofrecent Illodern isl pa in lin g., Ihe lilcralist position (>vinccs a sensibility not sim ply al ien but alllil hclicall() ils ow n: as th ollgli . fru l11 Ilral perspective , the demands 01" art allJ Ihe cllll dilioll'\ 0 1" objec lhnod ;m: in dir cd cnnllict.
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In his essay "Recentness of Sculpture" Clement Greenberg discllsses the effect of presence, which , from the star!, has becn associatcd \Vith literalist \\'ork. ~ This comes up in connection \Vith the work of Anne Truitt, an artist Greenberg believes antieipated the litcralists (he calls them M in imalists):
It 1 1kl ~' IlIl' ques Lill1l :1 1iSl:.'I; Whill 1', 11 .~1111 11 1 IIhl" dlllll)\! :lS projeclcd :1 mi IIvposl a lll.\.'d by lile Irklalisls 111;11 li la 1-. ," . 1\ . 1I "lI ly 11\1111 lhe perspcdivc 01"
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111 The answer 1 want to propose is this: the literalist espollsal of objecthood alllounts lo nolhing other than a plea for a new genre of theatn: ; and lhealrc is now tht: negalion 01' art. Lileralist sensibility is theatrical beca use , to begin \Vith . it is concemed with Ihe actual cin:umstances in which the beholder encounters literalist \York. MO ITis llIakes this explicit. W hereas in previous art "what is lO be had from Ihe wo rk is loeatcd strietly within [it] ," the experienee 01' literalist art is of an Ilo jcct in a sill/alion--one that, virtua11y by dellnition , inc/udes Ihe beholder:
Tllc better new work takes relationships out 01' the \York and makes I helll a funetion 01' space, light, and the viewer's field of visiono The object is but one ofthe terms in the newer aesthetie. It is in sOllle way morc reflexive beeause one's awareness 01' oneself existing in lhe samc space as the work is stronger than in previous work, wilh its many internal relationships. One is more aware than befo re that he himsclf is establishing rclationships as he apprehends the object from various positions and under varying conditions of light and spatial eonlcxt. Monis believes that this awareness is heightened by "the strength of the Cllllstant, known shape, the gestalt," against whieh the appearanee of the pieee frolll different points of view is eonstantly being eompared. Jt is inten sified also by the large seale of much literaJist \Vork: Tht: awareness of seale is a funetion of lhe eomparison made be lween that eonstant. one ' s body size, and the objeet. Spaee between the subjeet and the object is illlplied in sueh a eomparison . Thc larger the objeet the more \Ve are foreed to keep our distance from it: It is this neccssary, grcater distance 01' the objeet in spaee from our bodies. in order that it be seen at a11, that struetures the nonpcrsona l 01' publie mode [which Monis advocates]. However. it is just this dislance bctween object and subjeet that ereales a more extended silllatioll, beeause physieaI partieipation bcco lllcs Jl~cssary .
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lIJ1i I¡¡ry c ha l ,ld~' 1 • ,IJ,I'(tl//t'('S t he n.:ho lJe l Jl ulju'l' physie:.i1l y but psychicall y. \1 is, onc lnight S¡¡y, preciscly lh il.i Jislallci ng th all/wkC'.I' the beholder a subjcet ami the piccc in quc:-.liol1 ... an ohject. But it does not follow that the largcr Ihe picee the more seeuJ'ely its "publie" charader is established; on the contrary. "beyond a cerlain size the object can overwhelm and the gigantie seale becomes the loaded term. " Monis wants to achieve presence through objccth ood, whieh req uires a eertain largeness of scale, rather than through size alone. But he is also aware that this distinction is anything but hard ami fast: For the space 01' the room itself is a structuring factor both in its eubic shape and in terms of the kind 01' compression different sized and proportioned rooms can effect upon the object-subjeet terms . That the spaec of the room becomes of such importance does not mean that an environmental situation is being established. The total space is hopefully altered in certain desired ways by the presence 01' the object. It is not controlled in the sense of being ordered by an aggregate of objects or by some shaping 01' the spaee surrounding the vlewer. The object, not the beholder, must remain the eenter or focus orthe situation; but the situation itself he/ongs 10 the beholder--it is hi,l' situation . O r as Morris has remarked , "1 wish to emphasize that things are in a space with oneself, rather than . .. [that] one is in a space surrounded by things." Again . there is no clear or hard distinction between the two sta tes of affairs: one is. afler all, alll'oys surrounded by things. But the things that are litcralist works of art must somehow confi'ol11 the beholder- they must, one might almost say, be placed not just in his spaee but in his \Vay , None of this, M o ni s maintains , indicates a Iack of interest in the object itself. But the eoncerns no\-\' are for more control of ... the entire situation . Control is necessary if the variables 01' object, ¡ight, space. body, are to function. The object has not become lcss important. It has mere\y become less self-important. It is , 1 think. worth remarking that "the entire situation" means exactly that:
(/1/ of it ineluding, it seems, the beholder's hody, There is nothing within his field 01' vision- nothing that he takes note 01' in any way- that. as it were,
r he 1I11.:atrica1i ty 01' Mn rris's notio n 01' llit: .. 'l\llIlwr ... ctflal or Pllblic molle" St:l'IJIS ll hvlOilS: 1111.' 1;11 U': Jless o f lhc piel:c. iJll'lIl1 ¡i1l11111l1l \\1 11111, IJllllrt:lalionlll.
dcclares its irrckvance to the situation , ami therefore to the experienee. in l]ucstion. On lhe contrary. ror something to be perceived at aIl is for it to be pcru: iveJ :lO; pa rl nI' thal ~it U ~ll ioll. Everyt hing co un ts - not as part oC the ohjcct, hll! as pa rt 01' the silua li oJl in which it:; objecthood is established and 011 ", bidl Iha! llhjcelhood al kasl part ly dqJl'mls.
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IV rurthermore, Ihe presenec 01" literalisl arL whil:h (, Icc llhcrg wu~ lhc lir~t lo anal yze, is basieally a thcatrieal elreet 0 1' q ual ity a k1l1d \)I",I'/(/gl' presencc. II is a function, not just of Ihe obtrusiveness a mI. olte n. evcn aggressi vcness o l' literalist work, but 01' Ihe special cOl1lplicity that that work extorts 1"1'0111 the beholder. Something is said to have presence when it demands that the beholder ta ke it into aeeount, that he take it ,\·e,.ious~))-and when the fulfillment of that demand eonsists simply in being all'{/re ol' it and. so l O speak, in aeting accordingly . (Certain modes of seriousness are c10sed to the beholder by the wor k itself, i. e., those established by the finest painting and sculpture 0 1' the recent pas!. But, of course, Ihose are hardly modes 01' seriousness in which most pcople feel at home, or that thcy even find tolerable.) Here again the experience of being distaneed by the work in question seems crucial: the beholder knows himsclf to stand in an indeterminate, open-ended- and unexacling- - relalion as suhjccl to the impassive object on the wall or floor. In fact, being dislanced by such objects is not, I suggest, entirely unlike being distanced , or crowded , by Ihe silent presence of another pcrson; the expeli ence of coming upon literalist objects unex pectcdly-·-for example, in some what da rk ened rooms- can be strongly, if momentarily, disquieting in just this way. There are Ihree main reasons why this is so. First, the size of much liter alist work , as Morris's remarks imply, compares rairly c10sely with that al' the human body. In this eontext Tony Smith's replies to questions about his six -foot cube. Die, are highly suggestive:
Q: Why didn't you make it larger so that it wOllld 100m over the observer'? A: I \Vas not making a monument. Q: Then why didn 'l you make it smaller so that the observer eould see over Ihe 10p? A: I \Vas nol making an objeet. 5 One way 01' deseribing what Smith Ivas making might be something likc a surrogale person- that is , a kind of stall/e. (This reading finds support in the eaption lo a photograph of another of Sl1lith 's pieees, The Black Bo.\:, published in the Deeember 1967 issue of ArlfárwII, in which Samuel Wagsta rr, Jr. , presumably with the artist's sanction. observed , "One can see the two by-fours under the piece, which keep it from appearing likc arehitecture or a monument , and set it off as sculpture." The two-by-fours are. in effect, a rudimentary pedestal, and thereby reinforce the statue-l ike quatily 01' lhe pieee.) Seco nd . the en tilics o r beings encounlcred in cVl!ryuay expcrience in terms that most c10sely approach lhe lileralist id c¡ li s \Ir t hc lIoll rl:!a lio nal. Ihe unita ry antl the wlloli st ic a re o/II<' /' 1'('/'.1'(11/.\', Silllila rl y ,h~' 11 11'1 al i!'jl prl!Jitecl io n
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fuI' sy llllllctry . a nd 111 gelleral fur a kind 01" urder lhat "is simply mder ... one lhing arter a nolhl!r, " is moted. nol , as Judd sccms lo hclicve, in new philo snphical a nd seic ntilie principies. whatcver he takes these to be, but in l1alUre. And third, the apparent hollowlless of most litcralist work the quality of having an il1side - is almost blatantly anthropomorphic. It js, as numerous commentators have rel1larked approvingly, as though the work in question has an inner, even secret, lil'c- an effect that is perhaps made most explicit in Morris's Unlitled (1965- 66), a large ringlike form in two ha lves, with fluorescent light glowing from within at the narrow gap bctween the two. In the same spiril Tony Smith has said. 'Tm interestcd in the inserutability and mysteriousness of the thing. "(' tle has al so been quoted as saying:
More and more I've become interested in pneumatic strllctures. In these, all of the material is in tension. But it is the charactcr of the form that appeals to me. The biomorphie forms that result from the construetion have a dreamlike quality for me, at least like what is said to be a fairly eommon type 01' American dream. Smith's inlerest in pneumatic structures may seem surprising, but it is consist ent both with his own \Vork and with literalist sensibility generally. Pneumatic structures can be deseribed as hollow with a vengeance- -Ihe faet that they are not " obdurate, solid masses" (Morris) being il1sÍ.\'led 0/1 instead of taken for granted. And it reveals something, I think. about what hollowness means in lileralist art that the forms thal result are " biomorphie."
v I am suggesting, then, that a kind 01' latent or hidden naturalism. ind eed anlhropomorphism. lies at the core 01' literalist theory and praetice. The eoncept ofpresence all bu! says as much , though rarely so nakedly as in Tony Smith's statement. " 1 didn ' t think of them (i.e., the seulptures he " always " made] as sculptures but as presenees of a sort. " The latency or hiddenness of the anthropomorphism has been such that the lileralists themselves have, as we have seen. felt free to charactcrize the modernist art they oppose, e.g. , the seulpture of David Smith ami Anthony Caro, as anthropomorphic- a eharacterization whose teeth , imaginary to begin with , havejust been pulled . By the same token , however, what is wrong with I¡teralist work is not that il is anthropomorphic but that Ihe meaning and , equally, the hiddenness 01' its anthropomorphism are incurably theatrical. (Not all literalist art hides or masks ils anthropomorphism; the work 01' lesser figures like Steiner wears unthropol1lorphism on its s1ceve.) The cruául dislin cliol1 lha¡ 1 ([In propo.l'il1g .I'ofúr i.l' Ih' 111'('('1I lI'ork 11/(11 isjúndal/1l'l7lall.l' lhealr¡cal and work Ih(/I is nol . It is lhea lricalily th¡¡ l, wh a teve r lhe dilTcrem:cs between lhelll , links artists likc Bladcn amI G I'I)SVCIlOr,7 bü lh 01' wlHln l ha ve all owed " gigantie seale [lo
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becomc] lhe loadeo lerm" (M onis) , wilh olller, ilIOn.' rcslrained figures like Judd , Morris, Andre, McCracken, Le Wilt ami J cspilc lhc size of some of his pieces - Tony Smith .x AmI it is in lhe interest, though not exp licitly in the name, of theatrc that litcralist ideology rejccts both modernisr painting and, at least in the hands of its most distinguished recent practitioners, modernist sculpture. In this connection Tony Smith's description ofa car ride laken at night on the New Jcrsey Turnpike before it was finished makes compelling reading:
way to " frame" his cxperience on the road , that is, no way lo make sense or it in terms or arto to make art of it. at least as art then was. Rather, "yo u just have to experience it"- as it {wppens, as it merely ¡s. (The experience ([tone is what matters.) There is no suggestion that this is problematic in any way. The experience is clearly regarded by Smith as wholly accessible to everyone, not jusi in princip'lc but in fact, and the question 01' whether or nol one has really had it does not arisco That this appeals to Smith can be seen from his praise of Le Corbusier as "more available" than Michelangelo: "The direct and primit ive experience 01' the High Court Building at Chandigarh is like the Pueblos 01' the Southwest under a fantastic ovcrhanging c1irr. !t's somcthing cveryone can understand. " It is, I Ihink , hardly necessary to add that the availability of modernist arl is not 01' this kind, and that the rightness or relcvance 01' one's conviction about specific modernist works, a conviction that begins and ends in one's experience 01' the work itself, is always open to question. But what Ivas Smith's experience on the turnpike? Or to put the samc question another way, ir the turnpike. airstrips, and drill ground are not works 01' art, what are they?--What, indeed , if not empty, or "abandoned". situa!iol1s? And what was Smith's experience if not the experience ol' whal I have been calling ¡hecttre? It is as though the turnpike. airstrips, and dril1 ground reveal the theatrical character ofliteralist art, only without the object, that is, lI'ilhout (he (lrt itse{I- as though the object is needed only within a /'()O/1/9 (or, perhaps, in any circumstances less extreme than these). In each 01' the aboye cases the object is, so to speak, replaced by something: for example, on the turnpike by the constant onrush 01' the road. the simultaneous reces sion of new reaches of dark pavement il1umined by the onrushing headlights, the sense 01' the turnpike itself as something enormous, abandoned, derelict, existing for Smith alone and for those in the car with him. ... This last point is important. On the one hand, the turnpike, airstrips, and drill ground bclong to no one; on the other, the situation established by Smith's presence is in each case felt by him to be !lis. Moreover, in each case being ab1e to go on and on indefinitely is ofthe essence. What replaces the object-what does the same job 01' distancing or isolating the beholder, 01' making him a subject, Ihat the object did in the c10sed room · is above all the endlcssncss, or (lhjectlessness, 01' the approach or onrush or perspective. I t is Ihe explicitness, Ihat is lo sayo the sheer pcrsistence. with which the expericnce presents ,i tself ; l S dircclcd at him from outside (on the turnpike from outside the cal') th a t si ll1ultaneollsly makes him a subject-makes him a subject- and establishes Ihe experience itsclf as something like that 01' an object, or rather, 01' objcclhood . No wonder Morris's speculations about haw to put literalist \Vllrlo. (Hlldoors remain ::;trangcly inconclusive:
When I was teaching at Cooper Union in the first year or two oflhe fifties , someone told me how I could get onto the unnnished New Jersey Turnpike. 1 took three students and drove from somewhere in the Meadows to New Brunswick. It was a dark night and there were no lights or shoulder markers, lines, railings, or anylhing at al1 except the dark pavement moving through the landscape ofthe flats, rimmed by hills in the distance, but punctuated by stacks, towers, fumes, and colored lights. This drive was a revcaling experience. The road and much of the landscape was artificial, and yet it couldn't be called a work of art. On the other hand , it did something for me that art had never done. At first I didn ' t know what it was, but its elTect was to liberate me from many of the views I had had about art. It seemed that there had been a reality there tha t had not had any expression in art. The experience on the road was something mapped out but not socially recognized. I thought to myself, it ought to be clear that's the end of art. Mosl painting looks pretty pictorial alter that. There is no way you can frame it, you just have to experience it. Later I dis covered some abandoned airstrips in Europe- abandoned works, Surrealist landscapes, somelhing that had nothing to do with any runction, created worlds without tradition. Artificiallandscape with out cultural precedent began to dawn on me. There is a drill ground in Nuremberg large enough to accommodatc two million men oThe cntire field is enclosed with high embankments and towers. The concrete approach is three sixteen-inch steps, one aboye the other, strctching for a mile or so. What seems to have been revea1ed to Smith that night was the pictori al nature of painting- even, one might say, the conventional na lure 01' art. And lhis Smith secms to have understood not as layi ng bare the essence 01' art, but as announcing its end. In cOll1 parison with Ihe unmarked . unlit, all but unstructured lurnpike ·-more p recise1y, wilh lile lurnpik c as ~x perienced rrom wit hin lhe l:a r. lra vcling on il arl appcil r~ lo " av.: slrll(;].. SlIIilh as alm os( a bsllf"dl y sm:t ll ("1\11 arl ll.HJa y is <111 "1'1 11 1 pm l , I I ' ~' :, Ia lll ps," h¡; has .~aid) , l:lr\: III1lSl:lihcd, cOll vcn lio na l. ... nt l'f~' \ \.1 ' , Ii r,t'!'lI t', In have f'el l, no
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W hy nll l pu l lh!! work (lul d l)\)fS atld I"lI rlher change th e terms? A real I1ccd l!Xisls lO allow Ihis TIC,,' sh:!, lI t bCI.'OI11i: prat:t ical. .t\rchitcc\urally (h-siplR'd ";l' lI lp llltl' COll rls ¡( Il' II n l I h~' ¡lII SWl~ r 11(11' is Ihe placemcn l 01' I lri -" I
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111Ik'ss lhe pieces are sel down in a wholly nalural context and Morris does no! scmn 1.0 be advocaling this, some sort of artificial but not quite archilcc Imal sclling must be constructed . W hat Smilh's remarb seem to suggest is Lh at lhe more effeetivc- mcaning effeetive as theatre--the setting is made, lhe more slIpertluous the works tltemselves beco me.
VI SlIlilh\ account of his experience on the turnpike bears witness to theatre's pru follnd hostility to the arts, and disdoses, precisely in the absence of the tl hléCI amI in what takes its place, what might be called the theatricality o f oh ,ccl hondo By the same token , however, lhe imperative that modernist (Il1illling dcfeat or suspt:nd its objecthood is at bottom the imperative that it .1':/;'11/01' xlIspend Iheatre . And lhis means that there is a war going on between IIrl.:alre and Illodernist painting, between the theatrical and the pictorial- a w:l r lhal, dcspite the literalists' explicit rejection of modernist painting and ~c lllplure, is not basically a matter of program and ideology but of experi CII CC. wnviction, sensibihty. (For examPle, it was a particular experience tha t I'IIgl'l/c!('/"('d Smith's conviction lhat painting- in fact , that the arts as such \WI"l~ linished . ) The slarkness and apparent irreconcilabihty of this conftict is something II!.:\\' . 1 remarkcd earher tha! objecthood has beco me an issue for modern ist painling only within the past several years. This, however, is no! to say tb a t hl:!ur/, lhc presenl situalÍon came into being, paintings, 01' sculptures ror that mat ll:r, simpl) u'ere ohjects. It would, 1 think , be c10ser to the truth to say that IIrcy xill/ply were noL 10 The risk , cven the possibility, 01' seeing works of art as IIlIlltillg /llore than objel:ts did not exist. That this possibility began to present ilsdJ" arollnd 1960 was largely the result of developments within moderrust paillling. R Ollghly. the more nearly assimilable to objccts certain advanced painling hau come to seem, the more the entire history 01' painting since M;lI1cl (;Quid be understood- delusively, I believe- as consisting in the pro !',n:ssivc (lhough ultimately inadequate) revelation ol' its essential objecthood," alllllhc more urgent became the need ror modernist painting lO make explicil ils COl1ventional- - spccifkally, its piclorial--- essence by defeating or suspend ing ils (Jwn objecthood through the medium or shape. Thc view of modern i:sl r ain l in g as lending loward objecthood is implidt in J udtl 's remark , 'Thc new li./'., Iil eru li s t] wo rk o bvio ll sly rcsemblcs scull1 11tn: mon.' lit an il dnes pai nling. blll il is m:arcr lO r ll inli ng"; a lld il i ~ in Ih is vic\V Ilral lil~' l a l i sl scnsibilily in ¡!cm:ra l is g lllll lldct.1. Li le ra l ¡SI scnsihi lil y is. IIIl' l d 1111' .1 II''¡pIlIlS\! lo I hc .WI/1U' , k:vdl)PIIIClIl s 11r;11 11 :1\111 Iilrgcly I.allllpc lkd IlltldulIl:. 1 p: llllli ll¡' lo II l1 d o ils 1'/11
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ll hjt.:clllO\ld IIltllI.· prcciscly, Ihe sallle dcvclopmenls s('('n dWúenlly, lhat is. in lhealrical ICl"llls. by a scnsibilily (/Iready theatrical, already (to say the worst) corruplCd 01' perverted by theatre. Similarly, whal has compelled ll10dernist painting lo dereat 01' suspend its own objecthood is notjust devel oplllcnts internal to itself, but the same general , enveloping, infectious theat ricality that corrupted literalist sensibility in the first place and in the grip 01' which the developments in question--and modernist painting -in general . - are seen as nothing more than an uncompelling and preseneeless kind of theatrc. Jt was the need to break the fingers orthis grip that made objecthood an issue for modernist painting. Objecthood has also become an issue for modernist sculpture. This is true despite the ract that sculpture, being three-dimensio naI. resembles both ordin ary objects and literalist work in a way that painting does not. Almost ten years ago Clement Greenberg sUlllmed up what he saw as the emergence 01' a new sculptural "style ," whose master is undoubtedly David Smith, in tho following terllls: To render substance entirely optical , and form , whether pictorial , sculptural. or architectural , as an integral part of ambient space this brings anti-illusionism fllll circIe. lnstead orthe illusion ofthings, we are now offered the illusion oflllodalities: namely, that matter is incorporeal , weightless , and exists only optically Iike a mirage. ' 2 Since 1960 this development has been carried to a succession of dim axes by the English sculptor Anthony C aro , whose work is far more .~pecllically resistant to being seen in terms of objecthood than that or David Smith . A characteristic sClllpture by Caro con sists, I want to sa)', in lhe mutual and nakedjuxlaposilion 01' the f-beams , girders, cylinders, lengths 01' piping. sheet metal. and grill that it comprises ra ther than in the compound ohiecl that they compose. The mutual inftection 01' one clement by another, rather than the identity 01' each, is what is crucial- though or course altering the identity 01' any element would be at teast as drastic as altering its placement. (The identity 01' cal:h element matters in somewhat the same way as the fact that it is an arm, or Ihis arm , that makes a particular gesture; or as the fact that il is Ihis word or lhis note and not another that occurs in a particular place in a sentence or melody .) The individual elements besto\V significance on one allothcr preciscly by virtue of their juxtaposition: it is in this sense, a sense inextricably involved with the concepl of meaning, that everything in Caro's artlhat is worlh looking at is in its syntax. Caro's concentration upon syntax al1101lnts. in G reenberg's view, to "an emphasis on abstractness, on radical unlikcncss to naturc. " '1 And G reen berg goes on lo remark , " No other scu lp 1m has go nl! as far from the slrut!lll l'al logic 01' QI'dinary ponderable lhin gs." 1I i~ worth cl11phasiúng. howcvcr, Ihal Ihis is a rllnctio n 01' mo rc than the IOWIICSS , I'I,ellllcss. p;lrt-hy-l'a rtlll·s.... " bsl.·(Il·e orclldusin g p roflIGS anJ cenlers
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inlen:sl. lIllpl' r!' pk u V llS Ill:S S .I: I ~ . 1,1'( ' ;11 \1\ ~~lI l p t lll ~~S. Ratlwl" lhl:y dckat, aIlay , objCd hood by imi lating. nol gCs lll tl:s c'w l'Ily, bul lhe (1]i('([(')' 01' gcsture; Iike ccrtain llIusic and poel ry . th lt)' a re posscsscd by lhe knowledge 01' lhe human body and how, in innumerable ways a lld moods, it makes JT1Can ing, It is as though Caro's sculptures esscntial izc mcaningfulness as suc/¡ as though the possibility ol' mea ning what we say ami do ([/one makes his sculpture possible. A H thi s. it is hardly necessary to add , makes Caro's art a fountainhead 01' antiliteralist and antitheatrical sensibility. There is another, more general respect in which objeethood has become an issue for the most ambitious recent modernist sculpture ami th al is in regard lo c%/" This is a large and difficult subject, which 1 can not hope to do more than touch on here. 14 BrieOy, howcver, color has become problematic 1'01' modernist sculpture, not beca use one senses that it has been app/ied, but beeause the color of a given sculpture, whether applied or in the natural state of the material , is identical with its surface; and inasmuch as all objects have surface, awareness of the sculpture's surface implies its objecthood---thereby threatening to qualify or mitigate the undermining of objecthood achieved by opticality ami , in Caro's pieces, by their syntax as wcl!. It is in this connection , 1 believe, that a very reeent sculpture, Bunga, by Jules Olitski ought to be seen . Bunga consists of between fifteen and twenty metal tubes, ten feet long ami of various diameters, placed upright, riveted together aod then sprayed with paint of different colors; the dominant hue is yellow to yellow-orange, hut the top ami " rear" of the piece are sutTused with a deep rose. and close looking reveals flccks ami even thin trickles of green ami red as well . A rather \ViJe red band has been painted around the top of the piece, while a much thi nncl" band in two different blues (one at the " front" and another at the " 1 t'lI r") l:ircul11scribcs the very bottom . Obviously , Bunga relates intimately to () ht ski 's spray paintings. especially those of thc past year 01' so , in which he Ita .; wmk ed with raint and brush at or near the limits 01' the support. At the sa lile t illle. il alllounts to something far more than an attempt simply to make 111 " llanslatc" Itis paintings into sculptures, namely , an attempt to establish ~illll';l('t' thc surface, so to speak. of painling-- as a medillm of sculpture. The II )C n I' IlIbes. caeh 01' which one sees, incredibly, as jlol- that is. flat bUI rol/('" lIlakcs Bunga's surface more Iike that of a painting than Iike that 01' allllbjccl: likc painting, and lInlike both ordinary objects ami other sculptll re, nI/liga is {/I! surfacc. Ami 01' course what declares or establishes that sllrf~lee is mlm , Olilski's sprayed color. 01' 01"
VII Al litis po il1t 1 want to Ill ake a claim lhat I ca nn l)t hupe lo provc 01' sub bl il l1 liJle hut thJ I 1 bd ic ve ncvc rlhckss ltl b~ IlIle: I,i . Ihat thcu tre and 111t';llrica lil y are a l \Val' toda y. nOI sim ply will! 11I 11Ih'I III SI pail1li ng (or mod (' li ti S! Pll illling a mi sl'1I 1plllrc), hU I wirll url liS ~ I J(" ,lIld III Ih ~' cxlt'lll lhal
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Iltt' dirkn:\I1 ur ls CU II he dcscnbcu as lI1otk m ist , with ll10dernist sensibili ly as slIelt . This clailll call bc broken down into three propositions or theses: 1) n/e .I'l/("('(' .I'S. ('1'('11 Ihe surviva/. lit (he an.\" has comc il1creasil1g/y lO depend 1111 1/lI'ir ohilily 1(1 de{ml Ihealre. T his is perhaps nowhere more evident than witltin theatre itsclr, wherc the need to defeat what I have been calling theatre has ehietly made itsclf felt as the necd to establish a drastically different '5 rdatiol1 to its audience . (The relevant texts are , of course, Brecht and Artaud . ) 1"111- theatre has an audience- it exisls /,o/' one-in a way the other arts do IInt ; in faet, this more than anything else is what modernist sensibility finds inlolcrable in theatre generally . Here it should be remarked that literalist art, too, possesses an audience, though a somewhat special one: that lhe beholder is confronted by Iiteralist work within a situation that he experiences as hi.\· I11cans that there is an important scnsc in which the work in questio n exists rol' him o/une. even if he is not actually alone with the work at the time. It l11ay seem paradoxical to c1aim both that literalist sensibility aspires to an ideal ol' " something everyone can understand" (Smith) and that literalist art addresses itself to the beholder alone, but the paradox is only apparent. Someone has merely to en ter the room in which a literalist work has been placed to become that beholder, that audiencc of one - almost as though the work in question has been \VaitingIó/' him. Ami inasmuch as literalist work dl'!)('l1ds on the beholder. is il1complcte withoLlt him. it has been waiting for him. And once he is in the room the work refuses , obstinately , to let him alone- which is to say, it refuses to stop confronting him , distancing him , isolating him. (Such isolation is not solitude any more than such confronta lion is communion.) lt is the overcoming of theatre that modernist sensibility finds most exalt ing and that it experiences as the hallmark of high art in oLlr time. There is. however, one art that, by its very nature, escupes theatre entirely- the IIlnvies. I (' This helps explain why movies in general. including frankly appall ing (lIlCS , are acceptable to modernist sensibility whereas all but the most SLlC n:ssful painting, sculpture, music, and poetry is not. Because cinema escapes Ihcatre-- automatically , as it were---it pro vides a welcome ami absorbing I d 'uge to sensibiuties at war with theatre ami theatricality. At the Same time , I he autnmatic. guaranteed character of the refuge- more accurately , the fact lhat what is provided is a refuge frolll theatre ami not a triumph over it, ahsorption not convietion- means that the cinema, even at its most experi IIlcnla!. is 110t a lI10denúsl art. :~) /1/'1 degel1e/'(/{es as il appro([cltes ti7/:' condiliol1 o/ll1ca(/'c. Theatre is I It(~ C!lIllIlIOn dCl1ominator that binds a large ami seemingly disparate variety or activitics lo one another. and that distinguishes those activities from Ihe radically dilTcrent en terpri scs 01' lhc modernist arts . Here as e1sewhere Ihe q lH!slio n 01' valul' 0 1" leve! is ccntral Fnr cX
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Iha l the 1\': a I Ú ¡~I IIIl"li \ll1b bCIWCC II II III "¡~ ,llId I hl.'.l ll ~ ill the lirsl inslance allll bdwcen pailllinlj alllllhealre ill lhe SCI,;\ llld . IIC d b placed by lhe illLL'Siun Ihal Ihe ha rric rs bclwecn the arls an: in lhe prnecss 01' ennnbl ing (Cagc and RiIl lsehcnbcrg being scen, eomxtly. as similar) ami lhat lhe arts thcmsclves are al last sliding towards sorne kind off1nal, implosive, hugely dcsirablc syn Iht!sis ,1 7 Whereas in faet the individual arts llave never been more explicitly coneerned with the eonvention s that constitute lheir respective essenees,
( 'haractc l ls lic ur a geslalt is that once il is cstablislred all thc inrorll1a lioll abollt it. q/la gestal!, is exhallsted. (Onc docs no t, for example, scck thc geslalt 01' a gestalt.) . .. Qlle is Ihell both free of the shape and bound to il. Free 01' rcleased beeause 01' the ex haustion 01' infonnalion about it, as shape. and bound to it beca use it remains constant anJ indivisible.
3) The {'o l1ctpfs o/qua/ify and value- rll1d fo lh e exlenl fhaf these (lre cen! 1'(1/ (11'1, fh e cOl1cepf %rt ifse// ore meaning/ul, 01' whol/y meaning/u/, on/r within fh e il1dil'iduo/ (lrfs. Whaf ¡¡es between Ihe urls is Iheafre. It is, I think ,
The same note is str uá by Tony Smith in a statement the first sentenee 01' which I quoted earlier:
significant thal in their vario us statements the literalists lla ve largely avoided lhe iss ue of value or quality at the samc time as they have sho wn considerable uneertainty as to whether or not what they are making is art. To deseribe their enterprise as an a ttempt to es tablish a l1e1l' art does not rcmove the uneertainty; at most it points lO its source. Judd himself has as mueh as acknowledged the problematie eharacter 01' the litera list enterprise by his claim , "A work needs only to be interesting." For Judd , as for literalist scnsibility generally , all that matters is whether or not a given work is able to elieil and sustain (his) il1f er est. Whereas within the modernist arts no thing short of cOl1viclÍol1- specifically, thc conviction that a particular painting or sculpture or poem or piece of music can or cannot support comparison with past work within that art whose quality is nol in d oubt- matters at all. (Literalist work is often condemned- when it is eondemned- for being boring. i\ tougher eharge would be that it is merely interesting.) The interest of a given work resides , in Judd 's view, both in its charaeter as él whoJe and in the sheer speáficily 01' the materia Is of which it is made:
I'm interested in the inscrutability and mysteriousness of the thing. Something obvio us o n the fa ce of it (like a washing machine or a pump) is of no further intcrest. A Bennin gton earthenware jar, for instance. has subtlety ofeolor, largeness ofform , a general suggestion ofs ubstanee, generosi ly , is calm and reass uring · - qualities that take il beyond pure utility. It eontinues to no urish us time and tillle again . We can't see it ,in a second, we continue to read it. There is something absurd in the fact that you can go baek to a eube in the same \Vay.
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Most of the work involves new materials, either recent inventions or things not used before in art. . , . Materials vary greatl y and are simrly malerials - formica, aluminuTn , eolcl-rolled steel , plexiglas, red and cOlllmon brass, and so forth . They are speeific. If they are Llsed <Jireelly , they are more speeilic. Also. lhey a re usually aggressive. There is an objectivity lo lh e obdurate identily of a material. I ,ike I he shape of the object. the material s do not represent. signify , or allude lo anything; the)' are what they are and n Olhing more. And what they are is no!, strictly speaking, somcthing that is grasped or intuited or recogni 7.ed ur cvcn secn once and for all. Rathcr, lhe " obdurate identity" 01' a specifk material , like the wholeness 01' the sha pe. is simply stated o r given or cstab lishL'd al tJ1C vcry outset. ir no! befo re the o lltset; aet:O rdi ng ly. the ex pe rienee ur both is onc ur endlcssnes~ . 0 1' inex hawiti bilily. 01' heing ab k to go 011 a no 0 11 IClling. ror exalll r lc. the material itsdr cO llrro /l1 1111\: ill :rll il s literal ncss, lis "ohjcc livi ly." its ahsc nce nI' a nyt hin1,! h Cyl!ll cl ihdl In a simiJllr vci ll MI)II is Ira s ", fill ell : I X!)
Like Judd ' s Speeific Objects and Morri s's gcstalts or unitary forms , Smith 's clIbe is a/lI'oy.l' o f furlher interest; one never feels that o ne has come to the elld ofit: it is inexha ust ible. It is inexhaustible, however, not beca use ofa ny fullness- lha[ is the inexhaustibility of art- but beeause there is no thing there to exhaust. It is endlcss the way a road mi ght be: ifit were circular, for example. Endlessness. being able to go on and on, even having to go on and on , is central both to the concept of interest and t o that of objecthood. In fact, it sccm s to be the experienec that most deepl y excites lileralist sensibility, and that lileralist artists seek to objectify in their work - for example, by the repc tition of identical units (Judd's "one thin g after a n othe r"). which cani es rhe implication that the units in qllestion could be multiplied ud il1lil1illl/J1 .I~ Smith's aeeount of hi s experiencc on lhe unfinished turnpike reco rds that cxeitement all but explicitly. Similarly, M orris's daim that in the best new work the bcholder is made ,I\vare that " he himself is establishing relation ships as hc apprehends the objeet from various positio ns a nd under varying condi Iinns 01' light and spatial contexl" amounts to the claim that the beholder is malle aware ofthe endlessness and inexhaustibility ifnot ofthe object itselfat any rate (JI' his cxpcricnce of it. This awarencss is further exacerbated by what lIIighl heealled Ihe inc/u.I'il'enl'.I's ofhis silualion , that is, by the fact, remarked ca rlicr, that eve ry thing he observcs eollnts as pa rt oftha t situation and henee is kit lo hear in SOIllC way that rel1lains lInJefined on his experience 01' lhe IIhj cc t.
Ilc n.'li null y I wan l lo ém r kr:-,i¡-c s\ll1wtlling. Ihalma y alread y have become d ear: lhe e;'( pCII Cllec in l) 1I\:sl ioll flC' /' .\' I .\/.\ 1/1 ti/lit '. und the prc:;en lmcnt or IN I
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l'lIdkSSIll'S,~ 111:11, I l,a ve blX lI dai, nll ,p. I ~ 1 ~' 1 1I1 11 tI! ill ~'lil lt~t :111 ¡¡lid tll \! ~lry i:; L;sslJlIl ially a prcscntmcn l or c n dll!~s. ur illdd 11 1111.' dll/l/ l/olI . ()II q; a~aill Slll ith ~ aeeo un t 01' his night drive is relevant , as wdl as his n:lIlark . " WIJ can ' t SClJ it '[i, e. , the jar and, by illlplicalion, the cube] in a scca lld . wc continue lO n:au it." Morris, too, has stated explicitly, "The experience 01' the work necessarily exists in time"- though it would make no d ífferencc if he had not. The literalist preoceupation with time- more precisely, with the dura!ion o! (he experience -- is , I suggcst paradigmatically theatrical: as thoug h theatre con fronts the beholder, and thcreby isolates him , wi th the endlessness not just of objeethood but of lime: or as though the sense which , at bottom , lheatre addresses is a sense of temporality, 01' time both passjng and to come. simu/ lancously appro(lchil1fi und reeedinfi, as if apprehended in an infinite perspect ive ... 19 T hís preoceupation marks a profound differenee between literalist work and modernist painting and sculpture. It is as though one's experienee of the la tter ha.\' no duration- not because one in fae! experiences a picture by Noland ar Olitski or a sculpture by David Smith or Caro in no time at all, but because al every !110menl Ihe \Fork ¡(se/! is n;f10/~)! mani/esl. (This is true of sculpture despite the obvious faet that, being three-dimensional, it can be seen fro m a n infinite number of points of view. Onc's experienee of a Caro is not incomplete, and one's conviction as to its q ua lily is not suspended, simply beca use one has seen it only from where one is standing. Moreover, in the grip of his best work one's view of the selllpture is, so to speak , eclipsed by the seulpture ilsclf-whieh it is plainly meaning1ess to speak ol' as only pan/y present.) It is this continuous and entire presentness, amounting, as it were, to the perpctual creation of itselC that one experienees as a kind of il1s/([/1lone (JI/,I'ness: as though if only one were infinitely more aeute , a single infinitely hrief instant would be long enough to see everything, to experienee the work in all its deplh and fullness, to be forever eonvineed by il. (Here it is worth lIO! ill g thal the coneept 01' interest implies temporality in the form of eon linlling attention directed at the objeet, whercas the concept 01' convietion dol'S IIn!.) I \Vant to c\aim that it is by virtue of their presentness and illslantaneousness that modernist painting and sculpture defeat theatre. In lilcl. I am tcmpted far beyond my knowledge to suggest that, faeed with the need to Jefeat theatre, it is aboye all to the condition of painting and sculpture the eondition , that is. of existing in, indeed of secreting or eonstituti ng, a contillllouS and perpetual pr('senl- that the other eontemporary modernisl
VIII This essa y will be read as (In a ttack on certain a rli)ls (and crit'ies) ami as a lkl"unse (JI' olhe rs. Ami of co urse it is lrul! lha ! Ihc d¡;sire lo tl islillgll is h oCtwCllll w ha l is lo lile lhe auth en tie él r Lnf out' Ihlle a lld (llll e·f work, which, wllalcvc' Ih l' tl cd l l,;~11 ion. pa ~s i()n, é.lnd inl c ll i¡'cl\\ l' 01 1 Ih ¡a ca hll"i. sccms !OIllC
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In shal\' cc rllli l! l'h il rilc tnislics associall.:ó hc f'l': will! th¡; cnncepts 01' lileralisfll alld IlIl~al rc. ha s Iargdy lTlolivalcd What I havc written , In Ihese lasl sell lcllCllS , howcvcr, I want lo call attention to Ihe utter pervasiveness- Ihe virlualllniversality- orlhe sensibility or mode ofbeing tha l l have charaeter il'.ed as corrupted 01' perverted by Iheatre. We are allliteralists most 01' all of ollr lives. Preselltness is grace.
Notes This was said by Judd in an interview wilh Bru¡;e Glaser, edited by Luey R, Lippard and published as " Questions to Stella and Judd ," An N ews, Vol. LXV, No, 5. September 1966, The remdrks attributed in the present essay to Judd and Morris havc been taken from lhis interview, from Judd's essay "Specifie Obiects," ArlS Yearhook . No. 8. 1965, or from Robert Morris's essays, "Notes on Seulp ture" and "Notes on Sculpture, Part 2." published in Arljimllll. Vo l. IV, No. 6, Februélry 1966, and Vol. 5, No. 2, October 1966, respectively, (l have also taken Dne remark b y Mo rris from the catalogue to the exhibition "Eight Sculptors: the Ambiguous Image," hcld at lhe Walker Art Centcr, October- Oecember 1966.) I should add that in laying out \\l hat seellls lo me the position Judd and Morris hold in common I have ignored various differences between thCIll , and ha ve used certain remarks in contcxts for whieh they may not have been intended. Mo reover. ( have not always indiGlted which of them actually said or wrote él parti¡;ular phrase; tlle a lternative \Vould have been to litter the text with footnotes , 2 "Shape as Form: Frank Stella's New Paintings," Anjórwl1, Vol. V, No, 3, Novcm ber 1966: "Ju1cs 01itski," lhe catalogue introduction lo an exhibilion 01' his work at the Coreoran Gallery, Washington, O.e., April- June, 1967; and "R ona ld Da vis: Surface and (lIusion," ArljórulIl. VoL V, No, 8, Aprill967, -' Published in the catalogue to the Los Angeles County Museum 01' A rt's exhibi tion, "American Sculpture ofthe Sixtics." The verb "projeet" as ( havcjust used il is laken from Greenberg's statement, "The ostensible aim of the Minimalists is to ' Project' objeets and ensembles of objects that are just nudgeable into art." '1 "After Abstraet Expressionism.'· Arl Il11 er/'/oliona/, Vol. VI , No. 8, Octobcr 25 , 1962, p. 30. The passage from whieh this has been taken reads as follo\V s: Under the testing ofmodernism more and more ofthe conventions of the art 01' painting have shown themselves to be dispensable. unessential. But no\\' it has been established . it would SL'CI11. that lhe irreducible esscnce of pictoriall,art consists in but t\Vo eonslilulive eonventions or norms: flatness and the delimilation 01' flat ness; and that the observance 01' mercly these t\Vo norms is enough to crea te an objcct that can be experienccd as a picture: thus a slretehcd 01' tackcd-up cam'as alr!;:ady exists as a picture though nol neeessarily as a succes,ljú/ one. 111 ils broad outlinc lhis is undoubtedly correct. There arc, however, certain qu:tlilicaliol1s lhat can be made, Tn be¡.o;in \Vilh , il is nol quitc enough to sa y that abare can vas tacked to a waH is 1101 " l1cccssaril y" a s u¡;¡;es~rul pi¡;ture: it \Vould , 1 think. be less of an cxaggera Il un 1\) liay 1ha! it i~ 110! ('(J/'/c('il'ah!y Qne, 11 may be countcrcd that future eireulll s lll ncc~ llIigh l bc sLleh as lo 1I/II" l' il a SUL'ccs~ rul painting: but ( would argue that, rol' ,ha' lo ha ppcll 11Ic CI1IC ll'li ,;c 0 1 pailllil1 ¡.! would have lo change so drasticajly 111 : 11 IIPlhillg 111()1\~ Ihan Ihe; 1111111" II'llldd f'¡'I¡.¡ail1, (11 \Vlluld requir!;: arar grcater
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ch ange Ihall thallhat pll lntill )"' h;¡ ~; I/ lIdctP'I1II 111 " ,1 M 11,\' 1 1\ ' Np l.l1ld, ()hlski. ;11 11.1 Stellal) Moreówr. sccing Sll llu.: lhin g a~, ;; 1''(11111 11)1 lit III\' SC II SC 111i11 IIlIe NCCS Ihe tacked-lI p canvas as a paint illg, ami hcill g ('OI IVlll ced Iha l a pil rt icular work can stand comparison with th e painting uf the Pilst wh ns..: qua lit y is m)1 ill donbt, are altogelher different experiences: it is , I want to say, as though unlcss sOIllc.thing compels conviclion as 10 its quality it is no more tha n trivially or nominally a painting. This suggests that flatnes s and the delimita lion of t1a t rtess () ughl not to be though t ofas the "irreducible esscnce of pictorial art" but rathcr as something Iikc the mínima/ colldiliol1s ./ór somelllinx's heing se en as (/ p(/Ínling: and that the crucial question is not what these minimal and, so to speak , time1css conditions are , but rather what, a t a gi VC11 moment, is capable of compel1ing conviction, of succeeding as painting. This is not ro say that painting h((,I' 110 essence; it is to c1aim that that essence-i.e., that wh ich compels conviction- is largel y determined by. ane! therefore changes continual1 y in response to , the vilal work ofthe rccen! past. The essence of painting is not sOlllething irreducible. R ather, the task of the modernist p aLn ter is lo discovcr those conventions that, at a gi ven ¡iIlOment, a/one are capable of establishing his work's identit y as p,linting . Greenberg approaches this position when he adds, " A s it seems to me , Newman, R othko, and Still have swung the self-critieism 01' modernist painting in a ne\\' direction simply by continuing it in its ole! onc. The question now asked through thcir art is no longer what constitutes art. or the art ofpainting, aS such , bul whal irreducibly constitutes good art as such. Or rather, what is the ultimate source of value or qu al ity in art?" Bul I IVould argue that what 1Il0dernism has meant is that the Iwo questions--What constitutes the art of painting? And what constitutes guod painling'I_--are no longer separable; the first disappears, or increasingly tends to disappear. in lo the second. (1 am , of course, taking issue herc with the ve rsion of modernism put forward in m y T/¡ree America/l Painlers.) For more on thc nature ofesse nce and eonventi o n inlhe modernist arts see my essays on Stella and Olitski mentioned aboye , as well as Slanley Cavell, " Music Discomposed," and " Rcjoinders" to crities of that essay, to be published as part of a symposium by the LJ niversity of Pittsburgh Press in a volume entilled Arl, l'vlind (lnd R e/igio/l. Ca\ie1l's picees \ViII also appear in Musl We ¡'vfeal1 W/wl We Say'), a book of his essays to be published in the near future by Scribner's. 5 Quotcd by Morris as the epigraph to his "Notes on Sculplure, Part 2. " 6 Except for thc Morris epigraph airead)' quoted, a l1 stalements by Tony Smilh have been takcn from Sarnuel W ags taff, Jr. ' s, "Talking to Tony Srnith", ArlfilrwTI. Vol. V , No . 4, Deccmber 1966. 7 In the catalogue to last spring's Prirnary Struclures exhibition al the Jewish M uscum , Bladen wrote, " How do you makc the inside the outsideT and Grosvenor, "1 d on't want m y work to be thought of as 'Iarge sculpture: they are ideas that ope rate in the space between floor and ceiling." The relevance ofthese statements 10 what I have adduced as evi dence for the theatricality of literalist thcory and practice seellls obvious. 8 It is theatrica lity, too , thal links all these artists to other figures as dispara te as Kaprow , Co rnell, Rauschenberg. Oldenburg, flavin, Smithson , Kienholz, Segal, Sama ra s, C hristo, Kusama .. . the list could go on indefinitely. 9 The concept Of él room is. mostl y clandestinely. impo rtant to litcralist art and thcory. In fact, it can often he substituted for the word "spacc" in thc lalter: sornething is sa id to be in rn y space if it is in the sal1lc room with me (amI if il is placed so th at 1 can hardly füil tu noticc il) . lO Stanlcy Cavell has remarked in sel1linar tha l rol' K :III( 111 Ila: ('riIÍc/I/(' oj'J/ldgl1lelll el work ~)ral'l is nOI anobiect. I will takl: Ihi s UPl hllllll lÍ ly 1<1 ;lI'kllmvl\ld l!C Ihe fact
IIIal \Vil """1 1I11111ClnllS C"IIV¡,'I'S¡¡ li,lIIS wilh C lI véll durill A tlle past few ycars', and lI'illl"lIl wllat I I" IV\) (¡;¡¡ l'IIcd frlllll Ilil ll in cuurses and seminars, thc prcse nt essa y ;lIld nut it alu ne- wlluld have hccn illconceivahlc. 1 want also to cxpress my gralitllde amI indcbll:dncss to the composer John Ilarbison, who, toge¡hcr with his wil(;, thc violinist Roscmary llarbison, has given me whatever initiation into nwdcrn music I have had, both for that initiation and for numerous insigh ts hcaring on the subject 01" this essay. 11 Olle way of dcscribing this view might be to say that it draws somelhing like a Calsc inferencc from the fact that the increasingly explieit acknowledgment 01' th e literal character 01" the support has been central to the development 01' rnodernist painting: namcl y, that ¡iteralness as such is an arlistic value 01' supreme import ance. In "Shape as FOfln" 1 argued that Ihis inference is blind to eenain vital considerations: and implied that Iiteralness- more precisely , the literalness of the supporl ..- is a value only wilhin rnodernist pa inting, and th en on ly beca use .it ha s bccn 11I(1(/e one by thc history of that l:nterprise. 12 "The New Sculpture," Arl afUI Clllture, Boston, 1961. p. 144. 1:1 This and the following rcmark are takcn from Greenberg's essay, " A nthony Caro, " Arls Yea/'{¡ook, No. 8, 1965 . Caro's first step in this direction, the e lilllina tion of the pedestal, seems in retrospect lo have bccn motivated not by rhe dcsire to prcsent his work without artificial aids so much a s by the need to underllline its obieethood. \-lis wOl'k has revea\ed the extent lo w hich merel y putting something on a pedestal cOl1jirms it in its objecthood; though merely removing Ihe pedestal does not in itself undermine objeclhood, as literalist work p rovcs. 14 See Greenberg's "Anthony Caro" and th e last section ofmy "Shape as Form" ror more, though nol a grea t deallllore, about color in scu lpture. 15 The necd to achieve a ncw relation to Ihe spectator. whieh Brecht felt and which he discussed time and again in h is writings on thea tre , was not simply the result 01' his Marxism. On the l:ontrary, his discovery of rvfarx seems to have been in part the diseovery of what this rc1ali on might be ¡ike, what it might mean: " W hen I read Marx's Capila/ J understood rny play s. Naturally J \Vant to see this book \Videly circulalcd. It wasn't of course that I I"ound I had unconseiousl y writte n a whole pile of Marxist plays; but this rnan Marx was the only spel:tator for my plays I'd ever come aeross." (Brechl (In Tllealer , edited and translated by Johll Willctt, New York , 1964, pp. 21 - 24.) 16 Exaetly ho\\' the movies escape Iheatre is a bcauliful question, and Ihere is no doubt but thal a phenomenology of the cinema thal conlJentratee! on the sirnilar ities and differences between it and the the at re -·- e.g., Ihat in the movies the actors are not physically presen t, the film itself is projeeted mvay from us, the sereen is not cxperienced as a kind 01" objeet existing, so to speak,,j¡l a specific physical relation to US , etc .- would be extremely rewarding. Cavell , again, has called atterition, in conversation , to the sort of remernherillg that gocs into givin g all al:count of a 1l10vie, and more generally to the nature of the difficulties that are involved in givin g slIch
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The truth is thal Ihe di stinclion betwecn the frivolOlls alld the scrious bccomcs more urgcnt, even absolute, every day, and the enterprises 01' the modernist arts more purel y Illotivated by rh e felt need to perpetualc the standards and values 01' the high art of the past. 18 That is, the ac!Ua/ number ofsuch units in a given picce is fdt lo be arbitrary. and the piece itself- despite the literalist preoccupation with wholistie forms- is seen as a fragment of, or cut into, something infinitel y largcr. This is one of the most important difrerences between literaliSI work and lTl ode rnisl painlillg, which has made itself responsible for its physicallimits as never before. Noland's and Olitski's paintings are two ob\'ious, and different, cases in point. It is in this connection, too, that th e important:e 01' the paintcd bands around the boltom and the top of Olitsk i's sculpture, Bunga, becomcs clear. 19 The connection between spatial recession and sorne such experience oftcmporality - almost as if the first werc a kind of natural metaphor for the secolld- is pre sent in much Surrealist painting (e.g .. De Chirico, Da li , Tanguy, Magritte . .. j. Moreover, temponl'lity- manifested , for example, as expectation , drcad , anxiety, prescntirnent, memory. nostalgia. stasis- is often the explicit subject 01' their paintings. There is, in fact, a deep affinity between Iiteralists and Surrealist sensib ility (at any rate, as the lalter makes itself felt in the work 01' the aboye pailJters). which o ug ht to be no ted. Both employ imagery that is at once wh o listic and o iTl a sensc, fragmentar)'. incomplete; both resort to a similar anthropo morphi zing of objects 01' conglomerations of objecls (in Surrealism the use of dolls and man nikins makes this explicit): both are capable of achicving remarkable elTects of " prese nce"; and both tcnd to deploy and isolate o bjects and persons in situa/iol1s - the dosed room and the abandoned artificial lan dscape are as impo rtant to Surrealism as to literalisrn. (Tony Smith , it wil1 be recalled , described the a irstrips, etc., as " Surrcalist landscapes.") This amnity can be summed up by saying that Surreali st sensibility. as manifested in the \York of ceFtain artists, and lileralist sensibility are both lheatrica/. I do not wish , however, to he understood as saying that because they are theatrical , alJ Surrealist \Yorks that share the aboye charac teristics fail as art; él conspicllüus example of major \York that can be described as theatrical is Giacometli's SlIrrealist sculpture. On the o ther hand , it is perhaps no t without significance that Smith's supreme example 01' a Surrealist landscape was the parade ground at N uremberg. 20 What this means in each art will naturally he differe nt. For examplc, lIlusic's situation is especially difficult in that music sharcs with theatre the cOIl\'ention, if 1 may eall it th al, of duration- a convention that, I am sllggcsting, has itsdr beco me increasing ly theatrical. Besides, the ph ysica l circullls!am:cs 01' a concert cl osely rese mble those of a theatrical performa nce, 1I rn ay Iwvc hee n Ihe d ~si rc fo r sOlllelhing like prese ntness Ihat, al leas! lO SP!l1e I!XIC III. kd Il réc hl lo ad vocate a no nillusi o nis!ie Iheal re, in which rorcxlI mplc Ih \:! S1:I )'I.· lill ltl illl'. w(lllld be visiblc lo
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Ihl' ;IIIJ i\'II Ú' 111 Wllldl Iltl' ac1<.rs WlHlld II!JI iJc llli ry wilh Ihe c haraclcrs Ihey play hu i ru lhe! wlI llld sltow Ihelll l"ol'lh. and in w hit.: h h:m pora lit y itscl!" would be pn:se lllcd ill ;¡ lIe\\' way: Just as the acto r no lon gcr ha s to persuade thc audience that il is Ihe autho r's character and not hilllselr that is standing OH thc stage, SO also he need not prctcnd that the evcnts taking place on the stage have never bcen rehearscd, and are 1I0W happenin g for the first alld ollly time. Schiller's d istinction is no longer va!id: that the rh a psodist has to treat his material as \Vholly ill the past: the mime his, as wh o lly here and no\\'. It should be a ppa rent all through his performance that "even at the start and in the middle he knows ho\\' it ends" and he must "th us maintain a calm independence throllghout." He llarrales lhe story of his character by vivid portrayal, a lways knowing m o re than it does and treatin g "n 0\\ " and "here" no t as a pretence made possible by ¡he rules of thc game bul as something to be distinguished from yesterday and some other place, so as to Illake visible the knotting together 01' the events. (p. 194) Butjust as the exposed li ghting Brechl advocates has become merely allother kind of theatrical convention (one, moreover, that often plays an important role in the preselltation 01' literalist work, as the installat io n view of Judd's six-cube piece in the Dwan Gallcry shows). it is no t clcar whether the handling of time Brecht calls for is tantamounl to authentic presentness., or merely to another kind of prescl1ce- i.e .. to the presentment of time itself as th o ugh it were so me sort or lileralisl object. In poetry the need for presenlness manifests itsell' in the Iy ric poem ; this is a subject that reqllires its own trealment. f'or discu ssio ns of theatre relevant to this essay see Cavell's essay on Beckett's Du/-Gal11c, "En ding the Waiting Gallle," and " The Avoidance of Love: A Re ading 01' King Lear," to be published in Must We lv[can Whal We Say?
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76 THE OBJECT OF
PERFORMANCE
Aesthetics in the seventies
llenry Sayre Sllurcc: Th e (jeorg;u R el';l'lI' 37(1) (1983): 169 188.
"A modernist would have to rewrite Pater's dictum that all art aspires to the condition of mllsic," Susan Sontag announced in her scries 01' essays On Pho/Ography. "Now all art aspires to the condition ofphotography .'" In fact, one of the most important aesthetic devc\opments of the seventies will probably turn out to be the art establishment's embracing of photography. epitomized by the popular success ofSontag's book itself. And at least part of the 1970's affair with photography is directly attributab1c to the medillm 's insistence on complicating- and accommodating--Pater's dictllm. That is, Pater defined the art object as something we know only through "i mpressions , unstable, flickering, inconsistent, which burn and are extinguished with our consciousness of them. " He was never intcrested in anything of " solidity," but only in "experience itsc\f ... that continual vanishing away, that strange. perpetual weaving and unweaving of ourselves." 2 For him , the art object was the mere token, the trace , of an aesthetic experiencc forever 10st, a thing al ways announcing absence. For Sontag, photography gives Pater's diclllm Ihe modernist turn o A photograph is, of course, an object in its own right, irrefutably present. To borrow Murray Kreiger's phrase, it can be "plucked out of all discourse as its own c10scd system ," just like any poem or painting':' From this sort of formalist perspcctive, aeslhetic cxperience is never absent: it is always dyn amical1y present before us , endlessly recoverable in the work of art ilse1f. In o rder 10 j ustity itseJf as art, photography has consistc ntly insisted tha t il be co nsidercd as jllsl such
amI abscncc. Wc cx pericncc ph olography as prescncc itsclf - as a formalist objcCI amI as a presence signifying the virtual absence 01' sorne a priori cxperience. I think it is fair to say, for instance. that even the tourist or family l11an photographs in order to capture the present- - ·that is, with more or less iml11anentist intentions- but he looks al photographs in the slide show or ramily album (both of which can be usefully described as the mnemonic devices of a new oral history) actually aware of that present's loss. "AII photographs are 111f'l17enlO mori," Sontag \vrites. "To takc a photograph is lo participate in another pcrson 's (or thing's) mortalily , vulnerability, mutab ility. Precisely by slicing out this moment and freezing it, all photographs testify to time's relentless mell " (p. 15). What Ied the art world to rcad photography as the cmbodiment of such él dialcctical play between presencc and absence is, probably more than anything else, the way in which conceptual and performance art- -th at is, contemporary art's most antiformalist, experience-oriented forms- have come to rely on the medium as a mode of " presentation. " By the late sixties it was clcar to virtually everyone connected \Vith the art world that the art object per se had become, arguably, dispensable. As early as 1966, Harold Rosenberg had titled a collection ofessays on contempora.ry art The Anxiolls Objeu, and what t.he object was anxious about \Vas its very slIrvival. In 1968 Lucy Lippard's important and influential essay "The Dematerialization of Art " announccd the birth of conceptual art , in which "matter is denied ." And by 1975, when Barbara Rose isslled a new edition 01' her Americul1 Arl Sil1ce /900·-a work so univcrsally used as a classroom tcxt that it pro bably rep resents the consensus viewpoint- she \Vas compelled to inelude a new chapter on the seventies simply entitled "Beyond the Object."5 i\s this development became more and more obvious during the last decade, it became increasingly clear as well that the museum-designed to hOllse and display objects after all- was as deeply in trouble as the object ilself. What saved the museum , what in effect gave it access to objectless art, was the document , the record of lhe art event that survived the event. More often than not this document Imned out to be a photograph . The importance of this photographic record was probably first established by kan Tingllcly 's famolls Homage 10 New York , the \Vondcrful machine sClllpturc which destroyed itself in the Sc ulptllre garden 01' the MlIsellm nI' Modern i\ rt on 16 March 1960: the photographic record asscrted itself l110st horribly in the photographs of Rudolf Schwarzkogler's 1969 piece-by picce amputation of his own penis, exhibited at Kassel in 1972. By the early scvcllties, at any rate, mosl self-respecting modern collections inclllded sorne kinJ of performance pieee, which often meant only that it " owned" ;) l"rJllcep lu al idea 01', more malerially, the rights to pholographs ooc ument IlI g al! CVCllt (a s the M lI seurn 01' M~)Jcrn Art still owns the rights to the ph()l ographs ofTingllc ly's IIl1l1wgC') , Whíl l has !> lI rp riscd even the Illuseum, hmvCVCI . is Ihe p~)wc r lhcse dOI'lIlIIl.'I1 I .. "1:\.'11 1 lo pm;s\!ss, IH)( \lI1ly in lhe
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Pllhlic il1lilginu lillfl h uI IlVl~1 1111' IIlI hl'\ 1I 11 I h~' II'. wllld l has h,:c ll rncl a lllor phúsiL.cd hy Ihcm inlo SOlllClhillg ICSCIl l bl lllf : 111 , ltl'll ~lIl(l g il.:al Jeposilory. The inlrusion 01' the photographil.: d ()~uJllcn l illll' I he pailll ing amI sClIlp ture collcclions of the maj or museums ha:; helpcJ . in rad , lo make cxplicit a transformation that has been going on since alleast Abstract Expressionism. In a gesture that ca n be seen as the impetus for the acsthetic devclopments under discussion here, the Abstract Expressionists recognized that the Action Painting itself was the mere record of the series of moves which was the action 01' painting. The " work " as activity is privileged in this way over the "work " as product. A museum might well have purch ased a Pollock. but it could never purchase the action 01' Pollock painting--the event itself, the real work. When we begin to approach paintings in an art museum, cspecially in a modern art museum , in the same way that \Ve approach , say, the arms and armor collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art--that is, when we approach tbem as relics- we are at the edge 01' admitting a profound shift in our collective attitude about the nature 01' art. Art is no longer that thing in which full-fledged aesthetic experience is held perpetually present; art no longer transcends history; instead , it admits its historieity, its implication in time. But J said that \Ve are at the e(~~e of admitting this transformation beca use the aesthetics 01' presence has a final line of defense- the audience. The audience has the privilege of ignoring the art\Vork's eontingent status as a kind 01' documentary evidence; in fact, the audience knows first that it is experiencing art (it has come to the m useum in order to do so), and the real presence 01' the one experience (the audience's) quite literally masks- and paradoxically depends on--the absence 01' the other (the artist's) , Even the documentary status 01' the photograph can be altered by the audienee. When it approaches, ror instance, the photographs 01' Tinguely's HO/11age or Vito Acconci's 1971 Seedbed (the famous image 01' a solitary woman, hands in jacket pockets, standing in the Sonnabend Gallery on the ramp beneath which Acconei was purportedly masturbating), it sharcs precisely the same direct, ocular vision which the photographer, eye pressed to viewfinder, witnessed at the scene , What the photographer knows for having seen, the audience knows. His presence becomes their own. They contemplate with his eycs. And the museum, of course, does everything in its power to foster the audience's sense of presence by creating exhibition spaces which bring antiquity into the present. Thomas Hoving, when director of the Metro politan Museum of Art, was something of a master at this. From his first exhibition , the tellingly titled 1966 "In the Presence of Kings" (which drew together most of the objects in the museum associaled with royalty in order 10 achíeve él st ri kingly reg'dl atmosphere). 10 t h~ ncw 1 d unan wing 01" the nlllSClIll1 (wh ich esscntia lly repl icares Lch nl:1 n's hPlllc ,lI1d which a llows olle nol mcrc1 y lo cX [1cricllcc arl nul tll C\pC ll elll'~ Wll il l il 111 liS! have le ll
It ke lu he I \,; 11 11 1111 1 allJ ,111 '/1 il) , lhe flId alll\ll'phusis which lhe dOclllllcnt/ \lhjc!,;1 wrcak cJ 111)(,,111 lhc IllllSeU I\l, lran sfonning it inlo él mausoleum. is l'ulIllll~rL'd lhrough éln :tudicllcc in Wh0111 the dead pas! is seemingly broughl hack lo life_ (iranted. this audicncc is l11anipulated in that its experience of presence is Ically the experiem:e 01' what Sontag has called a kind 01' " pseudopresence"; llL'wrlhclcss, it seems clear to me that by the sevcnties the site 01' -presence in (lrt had shifted frol11 art's object to art's audience, from the textual or plaslic to the experiential. Art/órul1I magazine, which clearly attempts to stay dosely attuned to currents in contemporary art , inaugulaled the eighties with a <.juestionnaire asking a number 01' aJtists to consider the proposition that scventies art was "characterized more by a change in attitude toward the audience than hy a change in actual forms , or even content." Specifically lhe magazine's editors asked , " What shifts in emphasis, esthetic or otherwise, have impermanence and specificity of project and performance art brought ahout,?"6 The range 01' responses was predictably broad , but it seems to me lhat the artists agree more or les s on three fundamental points, articulated well by Vito Acconci , Scot1 Burton , and Eve Sonneman:
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A cconci: [By choosing to] use the gallery as the place where lhe " art" actually occurred .. , I was shifting my coneentration from " art-doing" "art-experiencing" : an artwork would be done speeifieally .tó¡- a gallery- in other words, for a peopled space, for a space in which there were gallery-goers. The gallery, then , could be thought of as a community meeting-place, a place where a cOlllmunity could be formed, where a community could be called to order, called lo a particular purpose. Burton: A new kind 01' relationship [with the audience] seems to he beginning to evolve, a deep shift beginning in our needs: toward a visual culture of design 01' applied art. The new descriptive phrases 101' the culture haven 't been coineu yet, but it might be called public art. Not beca use it is necessarily located in public places, but beca use the content is more than the private history ofthe maker. It might be called popular art , not because it is a mass arto but beca use it is not unpopular art, not a "difficult" or "critical " art. Visual art is moving away from the hermetic , the hieratic, the self-directed, toward more civil.', more outer-directed, less self-important relations with social history.
a multiplicity of choices in lhe final wo rks : to observe meaning in gestures, motion, perceptual cha ngl!s from hlack am i whi lc lo color, in invented time sequences bClwccll lhc fralm:s. Thc alld icnw I.:ould huild ils own :.yntax 01' cSlhl!l il' pk as urc \)r inll!l k-I'lll :t! W\ II (.. . JI was opcn, Sonnemall: The audience was given
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I I I ~ sl nl l ill llw :I l:l'l: pleu slle 0 1 pl'l'Sl'lIll' 11Ilplili l in Ihcse I\!sptl nses, I"mm objccl Lu a ud ience, has had prnlú lI ml ~' '' I..'~' I .. 1111 ,11 1 gC lIcl'ally. It has llpelled ;t ri to lhe plurality 01" intc rpretatioll. 11 has IHld Iht: clrec\, more and more prollollllL"ed as Ihe sevcnties progresscd, o l"valori/i ng "popular" art I"onns such as photography itself- -over " high" art, or at least blurring the dis tinclion betweell high an<.l low. And it has given rise to a grea t <.leal oflllore or less po/i{ica//y orientcd artlt'ork- that ¡s. artwork ex.plicitly addressed to the co m l11l1nity as a social institution. In fact, as Michacl Fried has pointed out (in perhaps the earliest essay to examine lhe acsthetic assumptions of pe rfo rmance art, his 1967 "Art an<.l b.iecthood"), one of the distinguishing, and to him disturbing, character isl ics 01' performance art is its ide%gü:al thrust. If art gives priority to the audience --- the masses, as it were- then art must also divest itself 01' its more ditist assumptions, which tend to be defined in terms of the academy- that ¡s. traditional Iiterary alld art eritieism- most especiaJly the academy's priviluging 01' the art object as a formal and authoritative entity. Fried, for IlIslam:e, is vehement in his attack on Minimal Art-" Ar{ ck:generales as iI ellll/machc.\' {he tondilion olt/¡eatre" [his em phasis]- because he is a formalist wllll recognizes the inappropriateness of a formalist approach to an ar! which "¡/¡ 'llend,l' 011 lhe beholder, is il1tomp/ete without him ... has been waiting fo r l1 illl , , , rcfuses, obstinately, to let him alone- whieh is to say, it refuses to stop ctll1fronting him, distancing him , isolating him. " For Fried it is neither Ihe cnndition of music nor the condition 01' photography-- certainly not t "ca ter . to which art ought to aspire, but "to the condition of painting and sClllpture -the condition , that is, of existing in, indeed 01' secreting or const i tllting a continuous and perpetual prcsent."7This is a profoundly immanentist (,Jc/inition 01' the condition 01' art --and it implicitly posits that art, since it is "o ut nI' history, " is by definition free of ideology, or ought to be. By now it should be clear that the primary ditTerence between an immanentist aesthetics of prescnce and what I \Vould like to refer to as an ,lesthetics of abscllce--that is, an aesthetics which admits the place of absence in art- is preL'isely one of history. An aesthetics of presence seeks to transcend history, lo escape temporality. An aesthetics of absence subjects art to the wiles of hislory, embraces time (though , as is true of Pater, not always happily) . An aesthetics 01' presence defines art as that which transcends the quotidian ; an acsthetics ofabsence accepts thc quotidian's impingemellt upon art. F or lhe (lne, art is absolute; for the othcr, it is contingent. The one sees itself as bcyond the politics in which the other views itself as inevitably implica teu. In a discussioll 01' thc public and political poetry o f Denise LeverlOv, Charles !\llicri has ou tlin eJ lhe politicallimitatio ns 01' tlw iJl1rnanentist position:
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sccnc. Th c d lClI lI1 is Ihat pm pcr actioll will I"oll ow from a correct 1IIlIIerstalldilll', or, morc radically, a correct positioning in which the 1ll1derstanding receivcs its "sentences" from the situation . But how ever appealing the metaphysics of this vision might be, the realm 01' politics is largely constitutcd by the need to correlate different visions and priorities. When faced \Vitb practical choices, one can hardly escape the fundamental d ualist conceptions of the elifTerences between people 's perceptions and. when perceptions agree, elilTer ences between th e priorities accoreled to what is perceived. (p. 235) An aesthetics of absence, on the other hand, is essentially pluralistic. It believes that its voice will at least be a significant one in the dialogue of the political arena, and it drcams that it \ViII be the voice which correlates the differing visions and priorities of polítical reality. As opposcd to an aesthetics 01' pres ~nce, \vhich conceives of art as a mode 01' consciousness, an aesthetics 01' abseoce considers art a mode 01' praxis or action , an instrument 01' social change.
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r he a\,;sLhc lics 01" prcscncc is esse nti all y 1I 1()lliN IIC ('o lluciv illg cvil as basically o nly n privat io ll , a fa ilurc I() Pl'fl 'l'IVl' nl/IL'( lI y m lo a lign 11l 1l.: ' S l' I H1Sl'itl Will~'SS will! Ihe Jal en l hillll1l11lhlll' l lld l' l~ or a givclI
It is hardly accidental that the rise 01' performance art in the United States during the sixties coincided \Vith the growing politicization 01' the nation as a whole. To sorne degree the Civil Rights Movement, but espeeially lhe Vietnam War, fueled antiformalist and antiacademic sentimen ls alread y indigenous to the art world (the formalist aeademics were, by and large, also the critics who sometimes maele but more often simply ignored an artist's career). The new polítical c1imate demanded 01' the art community a level 01' involvement which in the more hakyon fifties would have seemed absurdo In lIorthern California , performance art emerged in connection with the 1967 San Francisco Be-Ins in Gol<.len Gate Park , at the Peace March ofthat same ycar, and during the 1969 Peop!e's Park demonstrations in Berkeley; in the lIlore conservative southern part 01' the state, it developed later, but still frol1l a political base-the feminist movement 01' the early seventies. ~ In New York, performance \vas one of the strategies which grew out of the overtly pnliticized Art Workers' Coalition , a diverse group of New York artists ami frientls who organized early in 1969 in order to take on the Museum nI" Mot!ern Art, which was chosen to represent "the Art System" by virtue of its "rank in tbe \Vorld , its Rockefeller-studded Board 01' Trustees with all Ihe attendan t polítical and economic sins attached to such a group, its prop aga tinn 01' the star system and consequent dependence on galleries and col I CCI ()r~. its l11uülten a nce 01' a :;alc , b lue-chi p collection, and o pa rt ieu Jarl y, its lack 0 1" cllnLacl wi th lhe é1rt comm llllil y a mJ recent ar1. " A t the open heari ng whic h Icd lO 111\: c\~¡¡J ilil)l1's I"IHlIlI.hlll' al l ¡;ri , i\.' .llId edilor G rcgory Battcock stal cd th e pp lllical pmhl clll L::( plid ll y'
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The trustees of the museums direct NBC and C BS, The Nell' )'ork Times , amI the Associateo Press , and that greatest cul t ural tra vesl y 01' mooern times-·--the Lincoln Center. They own I\.T. &1"., Ford, General Motors, the great multi-billion oollar foundations, Columbia University, A1coa , Minnesota Mining, Uniteo Fruit, ano I\MK , besioes sitting on the boaros 01' each other's museums. The implications 01' these facts are cnormous. Do you realize that it is thosc art-loving, culturally committco trustees of the Metropolitan ano Mooern museums who are waging the war in Vietnam?~ The coalition eventually issueo a set of oemanos to the M useum of Moo crn Art, most of which were ignoreo . tt manageo to close the Modern , the Whitney, ano the Jewish muse ums on the occasion of the first Vietna m Moratorium Day (15 October 1969), but coulo only establish a picket line arouno both the Metropolitan ano the Guggenheim since they rcfused to dose . In shorL the coalition hao little effect on the System. But it dio alert a large number 01' New York artists to the commodity status of their art, ar ralher to the horrifying possibility (horrifying especially in the context of the war) that the investment consumer, often incorporateo , was metamorphosiz ing the artist's aesthetic object into the marketplace's eommooity. The strategy Illost often offereo as a counter to this metamorphosis was , of course, to Illake art which was objectless, art which was conceiveo as uncollectable and IIllbuyable because intangible. In these terms, art became a useful instrument I,r change, insofar as it absenteo itself as an object. But objectless art- whether conceptual or performance orienteo 1°- has Inoven itself analogous to Borges' famous hrónir of Tlón , the accioental but apparently inevitable proo ucts of mental activity undertakcn as pure concep IlIal play. Harolo Szeeman, one of Europe's most sensitive critics 01' Conceptual Arl, unoerstooo as early as his 1969 survey at the Berne KunsthaIle, entit1eo II'/¡ en Allitudes Become Form , that the term Conceptualisl/1 was a misnomer which tenoeo to renoer the very material products 01' Conceptual practice IIlsignificant, when in fact the concept's apparently inevitable material mani kslation was part of its intercst. This \Vas one of the points 01' the Szeeman· Ilrganizeo Documenta 5 exhibition in Kassel in 1972, the exhibition which IIllveileo the photographs ol' Ruoolph Schwarzkogler's " amputation piece. "11 The point is, as critic Luey Lipparo , one of the 1eaoing flgures in the Art Workers' Coalition. would come to aomit: "[Many], like myself, hao exagger alL'J illllsions about the ability of a ' oematerialization of the art objcct' to slIbvert the commooity status ano political uses to whieh suceessflll American arl hao been subjecteo." It becamc obvious to Lippard. ano many others, thal "Iemporary, chcap, invisible , or reprooucible art has ma Je little Jifference ill Ihc wa y art and arti st are ecollomically anu ideologica lly c xp l(l it l!d . " I ~ In ma ny respccls, pelfl'rm a ncc has cllcirdcd iLsl'lf wll " :1 llIyth o logy 01' presence in orlll:r t\) oc!"c.:a l. or al Icast mit igale. l it\. l'tlll Il IlC ICI:l1 cxploilalil11l I'}II
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III il s lraces. By ~ I v ill g (1 ' illrily lo Ihe cx pnien cé or IIJc Pl'lforlnallLT ilsdr I'ilhl'llhe artist 's ex periencc 01' lIJe a udieucc's , allllOugh, as in lhe Ilappening, dislinclions bCl wccn artisl and audicnce tend to break oown so Ihat both hccLlll1e whal mighl be callcd an "cxpcrielll:íng cOlllmunity"-·· the oocument ary rl:cord 01' lhe evenl is eondcmned to seconoarity. In fact , performance ¡(oculIIcnls generall)' appcar so eonsciously "a rtless " ano amateurish in oroer II! contrasl wilh what \Ve must assume was the arl!úll1fSS of thc event itself, Ihcrcby emphasizing the oistance of the trace from its source. But again ano i1 gain these oocumenls nevertheless manage to assert themselves as art objects ill Iheir own right- -at limes their ability to malerialize seems almost perverse and it is nol solely the tireless invenliveness of the marketplaee which rein\lcsls them with aesthetic priority. The issues are probably clearest in the new oral poetry movement in liter alure. Like conceptual ano performance art, the new oral poetry was a reaction ag:ainst a rormalist ano acaoemic criticism which overvalueu the poem as an objeet in its own right, as a closeo syslem which is wholly, steaoily, ano per lIlanently before uso But it has become increasingly clear to American poets, especially as they have become more ano more familiar with post-Saussurian linguistics ano the N ew French Criticism, that the sanctity of thc written lext- the very possibilily of its possessil1K any meaningful signification . is at lea sI q uestionable. 1n the face 01' this absence of meaning, the tenoency has been to create a new mythology 01' presence- that is, a mythology 01' performance. In the new oral poetry, meaningful significatíon is often mereJy relocateo in the voiceo utterance ·- the supposition is that the written lext is inherently removeo from meaning because it is the mere recol'O oftlle 1Il0ment of primary signification in the speech aet. Bul in this scheme, experi cntial presence merely supplants textual presence, ano oral poetry falls victill1 lo Ihe same beliefin the simllltaneity ofsouno ano sense whieh Plato posits in Iris Phaedrus ano which unoerlies Saussurian linguistics, the notion ofs ·e/llendre !lar/er which Derrioa so convincingly occonstructs in OI Grmnmatology.1.1 The work of each of these poets - in fact th e work of almost any poet who can be placeo in the Williams/Olson traoition that conceives of the poem as a "licIo of aclion " whose unit of measure is the " breath " (poets like Duncan , ('reeley. ano Levertov)- is susceptible to the same oeconstruction to which Derrioa submits Sa ussure. Take, ror example, Allen Ginsberg's oiscussion of " Woros ano Conscious IICS::; " : "A la nguage oescription of an event is not ioentieal with an even\, is an abslraelion 01' the event. ... Howcver, if someone wantco to, they coulo redefine the whole use 01' language ano say there's another use 01' it which is Pllrely exprcssive, subjectively expressive, where the breath exhaled is a ml1scious articulalion 01' feeling ... [ano] therel'ore spoken breatll , ' Ah-om ' or "Oh" or " lJ uuh ," is identieal witlr the cvent that it describes. beea use it is Ihc cvcnt. "14 T lris idea c.xpluins Ihe lit lc Grnsberg's 1977 M ind B realhs: Ihe poc m is a Illind hrea th, <111 ultcra llCC whidl hc lkseribes in lhe tille pocm
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,1 ' , "1111: vasl brcalh 01' ('u nscio us m:ss ' l · 1'III'l tl 1v hlllll IIII.! s\.!vcn ties, thl.!lI, (il/ls!lerg's boo Ks- lhe printeJ lcx ls h ave hl.'l.'ll hy his l)WIl ddinilioll. ab ,~Iraclions 01' the event 01' Ihe poelry ilsell': thl!)' Call11()t bl.! identical with tnae poetry beca use they are not spoken. T his stance is lIlHkrscorcd in Ginsbcrg's latest work by bis inclusion 01' musical scores ror the performance 01' many of the son g/ poems- a habit he began in his Firsl Blues. Rags, Ballads und Har/11ol1illl11 SOllgs 197 / 74. a book which grew oul of his improvisation sessions with Bob D ylan in Ginsberg's apartment on th e Lowcr East Side. In these terms. the oral poelry-reading Iradition. which de veloped in New York City between 1960 and 1970 with Paul Bl ack b u rn at its center and which in tmn spawned a revival of poe lry readings around the country . can he sccn as the necessary condition 01' poetic art. Sinee /lO one can ever trust his ()wn reading of a wri tten poem , he has to experience the poet himself H.:a ding it (and Blackburn's sometimes manjc desire to record every reading (111 tape is a further manifestation 01' this desire to capture the "authentic" 1" )cm). The supposition is that in hearing we understand (s 'en/ene/reparter), nI' al least he/ler understand. But tlle poetry reading is such a small- if not tf()wnright e1itist- event , governed by the eontingencies of time and place, I hal il ignores the major portion 01' poetry 's already small audience. It would ul' comse be possible for the new oral poetry to address that heterogeneous crowd of book readers v..-hich is its larger audience in the same way that music addrcsses its larger audience--that is, it could disseminate its performance by means of record and tapc-and to a certain extent it has tried to do this (ror instance, through the Poet's Audio Center in Washington, O.c.). But the ovcrwhclming impulse has been, instead, toward the printing 01' trans criptions of the performed piece- what Cieorge Quasha has called " the tcxtualization" ofthe new oral poetry.16 The relationship 01' the oral poet to his written text differs from poet to poet. Jerome Rothenberg, for instance, illsists on the wrillen nature ofhis work , bul it is written down not with "the idea of book or text as the authorit alive, coereive version of some absolute tnath , changeless because written dnwn and visible." Instead he writes. in both his translalions of tribal/oral pl1etry and his own work, so that for the poem to be appreciated it must be pe rl'orm ed heard- as 1 think this textualization from " The Tenth lIorse Sllng 01' F rank Mitchel1 (Blue)" suggests:
(Jo to her my son N \Vnn & go to her my son N wnn N wnnn N nnnn N gahn Go to her my son N wnn & go to her my son N wnn N wnnn N nllnn N gahn . 17 David AnUn , llll Ihc nlll\.!r hanJ , Ihin ks 01' lhe rnarr illkss ¡¡Ild ]lllllcluat io n les ... Icx ls lll' hi l'> nolllrio ll s "tulk-pocms" as ;1 \~,¡ v I d II ~·~'IIII'. Ihe lIótu tional :'\VS ll'llI 11'11 /11 ¡¡ "l:o nvell lIPll ali/cú" sl ylc "whid l 11,1 ': IWi 111 111 (1 /'I cid l,hsLl clc
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lo adlicvi llg a lly lhill g al all inlanguagc" bccau sc ils paragraphing, capitaliza lion, and hi crarchical logica l markcrs al1 rcpress " real talk." Traditional Illltalion has Ihe "appearance 01' a language nobody talks. " and since Antin's ]luclry is lalk , he callnol use it.' ~ Rothenberg in effect uses the text as a \vay lo Illake it possib1c ror the 01'<11 lo be reoralized. Antin as a way lo document "'Iive presence," to represent the experience of"real talk. " Still . cach stance, in its separate way. is immanentist: each projects the force oftbe presence which \Ve expcricm;e in speech. But, paradoxically, each lea ves the presence of speech for the secondarity 01' the texto the oral moment for its Íllscribed reprcsentation . The problem with performance art is tbat in valorizing the l'xpcriential - the moment ofperforrnance - it reduces its audienee lo the status orthe coterie. What drives performance to objectify itself, lo ¡mee itself, is the racl of its larger audiencc and the neeessity it feels to both ack nowledge and address that audienee. But then the presence the audiencc feels in speech is not the "Iive presence" 01' the artist. The larger audience always revoices the poem for itsc1f. 1n its textualization, the oral poem accedes to interpretation , lo hearing itselfspoken. perhaps unrecognizably, in the myriad dialects ofthe vox populi .
UI. Those who see oral poetry as a revolutionary rejection of the text are mis reading, ifnot its more idealistic and initial intentions, then at least its curren t practice. Oral poetry is rejecting not so much the text itself as the logoce ntric and quasi-metaphysical attitude toward the text which invests it with priority alld ultimatc authority. Even the A11en Ginsberg 01' Mind Brealhs conccives ol'the text in this way, more or less explicitly in a poem Iike " Returning to the ('ountry for a Brief Visit. " The poem consists 01' nine briel' translations 01' !\mitendranath Tagore's Sung poetry and Ginsberg's annotations of each olle. Hcre is part 01' one and the entirety or another: '" YOIl ¡¡ve apor! Off rillers alld seas . . ."
Vou Iivc in apartments by rivers and seas Spring comes. waters !low murky, the sa1t wave's covered with oily dung
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Ginsberg is not merely returning to the country; he is returning to the le XL both the Sung text and his own textua!ization of il (small things- like th e comma aftcr " book," which inscribes disrllption- indicate that this poem is first of all IFri/len down). The poem is the scene, in facC 01' lrtlnslaliol1 , in all senses of the word , an inter play between interprctation and rcpresentation. presence ano absence, stasis and change, poem-as-object ano poem-as-evenl, the translation of each term to the other and back again. But most of all the poem suggests that poetry approaches the conoition of its criticism, ano not merely because it consciously engages in the interpre tation 01' a text. What Ginsberg's poem suggests is that the critical act is an integral part orthe creative process. Since the Sung poem is open to Ginsberg's re-vision of il, the implication is that Ginsberg's poem is in turn open to uso We can ano willuse it, or abuse it (the point, l think, ofhis " oily oung") as we wish. This is likewise the point. 1 think , of a poem like John Ashbery's " Self Portrait in a Convex Mirror," which for many is the quintessential poem of the sevenlies. Ashbery conceives of Parmigianino's self-portrait as " a recur ring wave/ Of arrival " which is also like " the game where/ A whispereo phrase passeo arouno the room/ Enos up as something oifferent. " 19 The poem posits two kinos of presence: on one hano, "the portrait 's will to enoure" as an object in its own right over ano aboye what we wish to make of it, ano on th e other, the series of presents which constitutes whatever "present" meaning the painting holos for us , each a little oifferent from the last, each conoitioned by what Ashbery labeJs le lemps, the exigencies 01' time ano place. The oialogue between the recalcitrant object ano Ashbery 's interpretation of it the way each impinges upon the other. art upon lite ano !ife upon art- is the subject 01' the poem . The eminence i\shbery 's "Sclf-Portrait" holos in the oecade 's critical canon is probably more oue to this willingncss simply to problematize- and not resolve··-art 's relation to its auoience than anything else. Photography, especi ally the more it asks us to approach it as art, embodies more or less the same problematics; not surprisingly, in poems Iike "City Afternoon " and " Mixeo Feelings" photography is explicitly i\shbery's subject matter (and I woulo ~ lIggest that pcrhaps the best way to read the very beaulirul "Voyage in th e Olue" is as a reveric ins pired by a photographic illl agc). T his is lO S3y that b(l lh i\shbery's "Scl f-Portrai t" an u photogra ph y in gl.: nl'ra l have r\!t:o.!Íved so IIlIll'h ¡,:rilical atlcn lio n bct:a usc lhey so Ih o roll ~lil y ;Idd .. ·ss IIIt' nitical issuc ori lle uc¡,:alk' Ihe Ihrea l 1\) Ihé a rl llb jl!l.:t 's a ll llH1ri lv IlIl d ill ll'g llty wh k h lhe alld ll' III.'l''s rlc~JllI lI lu ill lCrp rd inevila hl v rll:SII PIII',I''i
Still an o lher \Vay 01' puUing this is to say that criticism in lhe seventies has had to respolld in one way or another lo a critical position that has bccn best articulateo by Jacques Derrida. In an important sense, Derrida is to lhe !iterary establishment whal performance ano conceptual art are to lhe museum: he exposes the weaknesses of the System, points out its strategic ellipses, and undemlines its authority- to borrow his word. he decO/1.\.".uCls it. Derrida has exerteo the influence he has beca use he has articulated an antiformalist aesthetic- an aesthetics of absencc- better than anyone clse. The vocabulary of absence is above all Derridean . His phiJosophical project has been to ex pose those \Vho belong to " the Illetaphysics of presencc," who dream 01' " the simple exteriority of death to life, evil to good , representation to presence, signifier to signified, represen ter to representeo , mask to face , writing to speech ."20 He does not seek to substil ute absence for presence (death 1'01' life, evil for good .. . writing for speech), but rather to collapse the distinction between presence and absence, priority and seconoarity, not b y synthesizing them , but by oefining the trace (or more specificalJy, for Derrida, writing itself) as the grouno 01' their interplay. Most of the vocabulary which Derrida has developed to oescribe this ground (and which has in turn been appropriated by American literary criticism) is markeo by the same intentional doubleness ano purposeful ambiguity of reference which distinguishes the word [race . Spur. différante, borderline, hinge, silllulacrum, supplement--all are presences that announce absence. And alJ are words which Sontag could substitute with little or no oifficulty for her metaphor 01' photography. To say that alJ art aspires to the condition of photography is to say that alJ art aspires to the condition of the lrace, the spur, the supplement, to lhe conoition 01' diff"éral1ce. For Sontag, Derrida's two essays on Artaud in Wrilil1g and Dijference constitute the "single most brilJiant analysis" of Artaud 's work beca use he not only recog nizes that Artaud's quest was for "an art without works, a language without a trace . .. apure creation of life, which woulo not fall rrom the body then to decline into a sign or a work , an object," but that " in[acl , against all his intentions, Arlaud hao to reintroduce the prerequisite orthe writtcn text into ·productions.' " 21 1t is this same dialectical interplay be1\veen the object and its performance, a rt's presence ano absence. that informs Derrida's attraction to Ja bes, whose Livre des quesliol1.1' embodies the paraooxical nature 01' writing itself, the "sacrifke of existence to the word, as Hegel said, but also the eon sccralion of existence by the word."12 (" The force 01' photographic images," writes Sontag, "comes from their being material realities in their own right, richly informativc deposits left in the wake 01' whatcver emitted them, potent Illcans 01' tu rn ing the tables on reality-for turning il into a shadow. Images are morl: rca l than anyone cou ld have supposed " [p. 180]. Existence is at once sacrifi \.JCu and cllnsccra ted in 1h¡; plH)togr
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formation of concept into cOlTImodity--is inevitable and negative. Art con ceived as praxis or action contains within ibelfits inevitable return as a sta tic and reifled object. Art conceived outside the System will find itselF inside it once again . The na'ive politics of an Art Workers' Coalition are , of course, doomed to failure . But just as Lévy's La Barharie is a reductive reading of Derrida, this is a reductive readin g of the possibilities o f performance art in the seventies. IL seems to me beyond q uestion that in denying the authority of the textlobject and in opening itself to the interpretation of its audience- a gesture calcu lated to create a comJ11unity cxperience- -performancc also inevitably in vitcd its mi sintcrprc ta tion a nd rnis use , including its transfnrma1 iofl into an inslrll lTIent 01" commodi ty satisfadion ano commcrcia l explnil ulion. T his is nollo ~ay th at lhe cOl1lm odily st at us " I" lll l IN 11 11..' unly e nd In which pcr l"\Hm alll:c ill lhe scvc nt ics has PUil1h:d , It hui'l IIls.. ¡lil\l os! un il"LlJ"1ll Iy.
positcd IÍle idell 01 Ihe es tablis hmen t 01 /'/111 111 11 lIIity as Ihe allernative end 01" ar\. ""'cd n c Jal1l \!sOI1 has suggcstcd that in recent ycars " the only aulhentic cullural prnduction" that has avoidcd rcification has ell1anatcd frorn just such altcrnative cOlTImunities. Yet these comll1unities can only be defined as "lIlarginal pockcts" of authentic production within society as a whole: " bl ack litcraturc and blues, British working-class rock , women's literature. gay literaturc. the ruma n québécois, the Iiterature of the Third W orld; and this production is possible only lo the degree to which these forms of collective Iife or collective solidarity have not yet been rully penetra ted by the market and by the commodity system ."25 Jameson admits that what shatters the commodity system is collective praxis, but he is unwilling to agree that such collective praxis is possiblc under industrial capitalism. I would suggest, however, that art's drive toward community formation throughout the last decade- -the desire to articulate itse\f From within a community conceived as subversivc al' antagonistic to the larger syslem in which it finds itself- is a Illanifestation 01' a desire to counter not merely art's exploitation in the marketplace but
100
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be.:ause it is a book abou t preSCJ1l:e ill Wllldl" lu JlIl:SI.' IH'l' II \:slja mais présl!ll!c," and his own G/as conceives or thc text as <1 11 IIll clplay hdween lhe titlc's " death-knelr' and the typographical COIUIllIIS orthe lex t itllcl 1", columns meant to suggest a phallic structure or "resurrection.'·Z.1 The dialectical interplay 01' abscnce and presence/sacrifice and con sideration/death and resurrection which the Derridea n projcct describes undermines the very structure of hierarchical opposition in such a way that, for many, Derridean theory leads in the political arena to neutrality or even indiFFerence. In an essay on la Ilouvelle phi/osophie which spccitlcall y places Bernard-Henri Lévy's notorious 1977 attack on EurocommunisJ11. M a rx, and socialism generaIly (in La Barharie el visage humain) wi thin the Derridean tradition (Lévy was, in fact , Derrida's student), Michael Ryan has summarized the logic which transforms Derridean dialectics into political pesslmlsm: By problematizing the very structure of opposition, deconstruction neutralizes the specific oppositions which sustain political practice -conserva ti \'e/radical , fascistlsocialist, reactionary/revol utionary and it thus theoretically , and for all practical purposes, suspends the possibility of radically opposing any system from a position outside that system. The outside would mercly be the inside once again . ... This way of thinking ... produces the facile , existential despair of a Lévy , the professional prophet of doom . Here, Derrida 's argument for the return 01' the same in the opposite, becomes grounds for indi vidual despair is well as for moralistic political neutrality: if socialism is merely fascism once again [the lesson of the Gulag, for Lévy] , the same though diFferent , why bother to struggle? Why take any part?24 In these terms, the materialization of contemporary art--- the textualization
01' the oral poem, the valorization 01' the photographic document, the trans
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T!l is i!\ a n: adill)'. Ihal 11\: is lIIore or Icss willillg lu :ICL:Cpt , as he is willing lo aCI.:CplllH.rc 01 Icss :lnylhing. " 1 have Social Diseuse." he says in his ancL:dotal l'olkclioll (JI' socicty snapshots shots called /ü po.l'ure.l': Thc sylllptoms o/' Social Disease: You want to go out every night because YOll ' re arra id ir you stay home you might miss something. You choose yOlll' friends according to whether or not they have a limousine.. _ . Y ou judge a party by how many celebrities there- if they serve caviar lhey don't have to have celebrities. When you wake up in the morning, the first thing you do is read the society columns. If your name is actually mentioned your day is made. 29 ACL:ording to this reading of himself, Warhol is the llltimate fan , sna pping candids of the rich and famous with his Polaroid or his Minox , and , \Vith a fervor unmatched in New York since Paul B1aL:kburn 's poetry-reading days, laping conversations with everyone in sight for his magazine In/erl'ielV. Bul according to this reading, Warhol is merely the syL:Ophant par excellence of his day. and everybody, most 01' all Warhol, kn ows he is more than simply this. He is the exploiter 01' the exploiters , the poor kid from a working-c1ass, illlllligrant background \Vho turned the tables on Ihe rich. As much as h is is a kind of art-world Horatio Alger story, it is also the record 01' a cultural COllp d'état. By appearing to aspire lO the starry heights of Fi fth Aven ue, hc has brought Fifth Avenue down to th e r-actory. Warhol's Exposures, for instance, are at onL:e icons and exposés , his SOL:ial Disease a perfect Illetaphor I'or the ills 01' a decadent and socially diseased society: This book is about the people at the top, or around the topo But the top's the bottom . Everyone up therc has SOL:ial Disease. It 's the bubonic plague of our time , the black and white life and death. (p _ 19) l.ike Derrida, W arhol collapses distinctions between life and death , good and evil , represented and represen ter, face and mask. His art not only aspires lo the condition of photography. it is photography- or half photography , since his paintings are almost always literally photographs silk-screened onto canvas. i\nd Warhol addresses the question of the lllateria.Jization of the (lrt cxpericncc directly. He refuses to mask the question either by valorizi ng the illllHed iacy 01' the art experience or by aestheticizing arl 's objed. He con sistcntly fo rces us to ask ourselvcs jusI what the object of his performance IlIigllt bc_ A nd he consistcnl ly kcc ps liS wo ndering. Warhol is not the most coll1l ú rl ablé ligllrc with whom lo S\II11 IIp lhe aesthetics of the seventies . hlll his w~) r" ..:mhllJ ics cvcry I) IICSlilif\ w hich Ihe tlcC
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Notes Susiln SOl1tag, 0/1 P/¡%gmp/¡y (New Yo rk: Farrar, Straus & Giroux , 197X), p. 149. SuhsequelJI pagc references are lo this text. 2 Walter Paler, '/'l/e Rellaissa/1ce (London: Maemillan , 1(10), pp. 2:\5- 36). 1 Murray Krieger, Theory ()/' Crilicism: A Tradi/ioll {Ind lts 5j'ys/el/1 (Baltimore: J() hns Hopkins Univ. Press, 1(76), p . 212. 4 The lerlll i/lmanen/isl is C h,lrles Altie ri's; see his En!arging //¡e Temp!e: Ne\!' /)irccliOl1s in American Poelry During /h e J960s (LeIVisburg, Pa.: Bucknell Univ. P ress, 1(79). :'i II"rold Rosenberg, lJ¡e Anxio/./s Ohiec/: Ar/ Today {1m/l/s Audience (New Y ork : Mentor Books, 1(66); Luey Lippard, ''The Dematerialization 01' Art. " Art Inler lIa /ional.. 12 (February 1968), rpt. in Changing: Es'\"ays in !Ir! Cri/icis/17 (New Y ork: !)\ll lon , 1(71), pp. 255-76; and Ba rbara Rose, AlIlerimn Ar/ Sil1C!' J900 (New York: Praeger, 1(75). " Scc " Situation Esthetics: Impermanent Art and the Seventies Audience," Ar!fárlll11, IX (Jalluary 1(80),22- 29. Michael Fried, "Art and Objecthood ," Ar/forwn, 5 (June 19(7), rpt. in Minim({! ArI: A Critica! An/ho!ogy, ed. Gregory Battcock (New York: Dutton, 1968), pp. 1·10, 146. :-: hlr a more detailed discussion, see Moira Roth , ''To w¡ud él History of C alifornia I'(Tformance," Arls Magazine , 52 (February 1(78), 94 - 103 and (June 1(78), 113
24. ') Lul.'Y Lippard, " The Art Workers' Coalition ," in Idea Arl, ed. Gregory Batteock (New York: Dutton , 1(73), pp. 103 , 111'. 10 1 shollld perhaps make it clear that l am treating Conceptual and Performance Art as onc. Many have implicitly Iinked them (see Fr,i ed's "Art and Objccthood, " for instance). bUl RoseLec Goldberg has stated the connection most satisf
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(i¡';\lrv.¡,; Q l hl ~lllI. I kl hlglls: Ik lWI!CIl 1111.: W nl ll:1I allli Ihe O ral in l\JII lc rnporary l")l!lt-y." N<'II' I i""'III'.I' lIis/til'y , X (Sprin g 1977 ), 41:\)- SO(,. 17 See J CrLJllIl: Rlllhclllx:rg, 1'1'1'~ fÍl('('s (~ O/!Wl' J,Vl'i/ings (N e w York: New Direetions, I()!)I), pp. 10, ~~. 1K Dav id Anlin, " A Correspondem:e with lhe Edilors William V. Spanos and Roben Kro etseh," BOlll1dal'y 2.:1 (1975). 677. 1') .101111 Ashbery, Sefj~P()I'/l'ai/ in ({ Convf'x ¡j,tirl'o/' (New York: Penguin , 1(76), pp. (,8 83. 20 (i1'(1/I/lIf(//O!ogy , p. 135. .! I Anlonin Artaud. Se!d/ed Wl'i/ings, ed. Susan Sontag (New York: Furrar, Straus & Giroux. 1(76). p. 589 ; Derrida, "La Parole souffté, " pp. 175. 191 . ")") Jaeques Derrida, "Edmond Jabes and the Question of the Book ," in H/ri/ing ({I/(I f)iffá l'l1ce. p. 70. 21 Jacques Derrida, La Dissémir/!//ion (Paris: Editions du Seuil , 1(72), p . 336; and Gla.\ Paris: Ed itions G alilée, 1(74). 24 Gavatri Spivak and Miehael Ryan , "Anarehisrn Revisited: A New Philosophy." maeri/ i('s, 8 (Sumrner 1(78), 75- 76. 25 Fredric .Iameson, "Reification and Utopia in Mass Culture," Socia! Tex/ , 1 (Winter 1(79), 140. 76 "Ecriture et Revolution: Elltrctien de .Iacques Henrie avec Phihppe Sollcrs, " TMorie d'ensemh!e (Paris: Editions du Seuil, 1(68), p. 67. Subsequcllt page referenccs are to this text: the translalions are my 0\V11. '27 David Bourdon. "Andy Warhol and the Society Icon." An in A 111 aica, 63 (January- February 1(75),42- 45; and Peter Schjelddhl , "Warhol and C1ass CO I1 tent," Ar/ in Aml'rica , 68 (May 1(80), 118. :'~ Andy Warhol and Pat Hackett, POPism: The J1farllO! '60s (New York: Harcourt Bmee and J'ovanovich , 1(80), p. 195. 29 Andy Warhol, IVi,t h Bob Colaeello, Amly 'Warho{'s EX{io.l'ures (New Y ork: Andy Wmhol Books, 1(79), p. 19. The idea of reading Warhol's Expo.wres as a docu menl underseoring his status as a Can is Carter Rateliff's; see his "Starlust: All dy's Photos," An in AlIlerica, 68 (May 1(80), 120- 22. 1(1
1')4 (1978). :19. (..) Lucy Lippard , " The Strlletures, the Structures and the WaJl Drawings, the Strue 1mes and Lhe Wall Drawings and the Books. " in So! Le Will , ed. Alicia Legg (New York: M useu Tll of M odern i\.rt, 1(78), p. 27. I \ Jacq ues Derrida, DI Gran/11a/()/ogy, transo Gayatri Spivak (Baltimore: Johns Ilopkins Univ. Press , 1(76). Fm another, briefer example of Derrida's decon slrllelion 01' speech's priority see "La Parole soufflé," in Writillg (1m! Díjjérf'll ce, Iralls. Alan Bass (Chicago: Uni\'. ofChicago Press, 1(78), pp. 177·-78. 11\ A Ih.:ll G insberg, A{{el1 Verho/im: LeClures 011 Poelry. Po!ítics. COIlS!'iOll.\·/ICS.I', ed . (; ordoll Hall (New York: MeGraw-HilL 1(74), p. 2(,. C:ornpme Charles Oboll 's 1'; \1 1\0 Wi dislinction bctw ~ 11 "Ianguagc a s lh e Helor lhe inslan! and languagc as lIl e ;Ie l ( lr 1hOll g hl a 110 ul lhe iI1SI'111 1." in "1 rum an LJ !\ivcr~c, " ,.. . cf('c/"c! Wri/ ings o( ( 'Imrl,',\ 0 1.\'0// , cd . R oberl C' rccley (New Y p rk . N¡,;\\! l)i l\:~ li,"IS , 1'J(6), p. 54. 1'-;; A ll c lI (i ills hc rg. Millel IIr('(/II,s. PWIII.\' ¡ 1)7 1 1'1'11 I I.{. III 1 "\I\C' i ~t·,) : Ci ty Lighls. 1'>77 ). p , lO. S uhscq llclIl pa ue n~ re n: II CCS ¡liT 1\1 Iltl \ "'\ 1
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Rather than qucstion this c1assification and the insuffieient consideration it g iws to men of the theatre like Craig or Appia , and to theatrical practices
Inhunlud l'IllI l Nllllér/ú/'ll/(II/('('," artistic perf'ormance enjoyed quite a h l) lll1l in the lifLil:s. especially in Ihe wake orlhe experiments ofAlJan Kapro\\' amI ./llhn C age, Conceived as an art-l'orm at the juncture of other signi fy ing practices as varied as dance, music, painting, architecture, and sClllpture, Ill~rf'ormance seems paradoxically to correspond on all counts to the ne\\' Ihcatre invoked by Artalld: a theatre 01' cruelty and violence, 01' the body amI its drives, 01' displacement and " disruption ," 3 a non-nanative and non n:prcsentational theatrc, 1 should like to analyse this experience of a ne\\' genre in hopes of revealing its fundamental characteristics as weIJ as the process hy \\'hich it works , My ultimate objective is to sho\\' what practices like these, helonging to the limits of theatre, can tell us about theatricality and its rclation to the actor and the stage. Of the many characteristics of performance, 1 shall point to three that, thc diversity 01' practices and modes notwithstanding, constitute the essential f'oundations 01' all performance. They are flrst, the manipulation to which perf'ormam;e subjects the performer's body - a fundamental and indispens able elcment of any perJ'orming ac\; second , the manipulation of space , which Ihe performer empties out and then carves up and inhabits in its tiniest nook s and crannics: and finally , the relation that performance institutes between the artist and the spectators, between the spectators and the work of art, and between the work of art and the artist. a) Firsl. the l1111nipulaliol1 (~r (he I}(xly. Performance is meant to be a physical accomplishment , so the pcrform er works with his body the way a painter does with his can vas. He explores it, manipulates it, paints it, covers it, uncovers it, freezes it, moves it, cuts it, isolates it, and speaks to it as ifit were a foreign object. It is a chameleon bod)' , a foreign body where the subject's desires and repressions surface. This has been the experience of Hermann Nitsch , Vito Acconci , and Elizabcth Chitty. Performance rejects all illusion, in particular theatrical illusion originating in the rcpression of the body's "haser" elements, and attempts instead to call attention to certain aspects of the boJy - the face, gcstural mimicry, and the voice that would normally escape notice. To this end, it turns to the various media · telcphoto lenses, still cameras , movie cameras, video screens. tclevision - which are there like so many microscopes to magnify the infinitely small and focus the audience's attcn tion on the limited physical spaces arbitrarily carved out by the performer's desirc and transforllled into imaginary spaces, constituting a zonc where his own emotional Aows and fantasics pass through. These physical spaces can be parts of the pcrformer's own body magnified to infinity (bits of skin. a hand , his hcad , etc.). but they can also be certain arbitrarily Iimited. natural spaccs Ihat the pcrformer cho oses to wr a p t1p and thus reduce to the dimen sion s o l'm un ipul a ble o bjecls (t.:r. ('hri sto's expe riments with this technique 4). T hc boJ y is mallc conspicllollS: a body in picces, fragmcnted and yet one, a booy r crCt.'iw d a nd renJercJ as ¡I /IIa(( ' (I/dn¡r(' displaccmcl11, and fluctuation,
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77
PERFO RM AN C E A NO
THEATR I C ALfT Y
The subject dernystified Josette Féral Sourcc: Translaled by reTeSe Ly" ns, /vlodem Drama 25( 1) (1 <)~ 2) : 17 1 18 1,
Dcpending on one 's choice of experts, theatre today can be divided into two different currcnts which 1 shall emphasize here by referring to a remark of Annette Michelson 's on the performing arts that strikes me as particularly relevant to my concern: There are , in the contemporary renewal 01' performancc modes , t\Yo basic and diverging impulses which shape and animate its major innovations. The first , grounded in the idealist extensions of a Chris tian past, is mythopoeic in its aspiration , ec1ectic in its forms, and constantly traversed by the dominant and polymorphic style which constitutes thc most tenacious vestige of tha t past: expressionism. Its celebrants a re: fo r theater. Artaud. Grotowski , l'or film , Murnau and Hrakhage. and for the dance, Wigman . Graham. The second . con sistently secular in its commitment to objectificati on, proceeds from Cubism and Constructivism ; its modcs are anal)'tic and its spokes men are: for theater, Meyerhold and Brecht, for film , Eisenstein and Snow , for dance. Cunningham and Rainer. 1
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¡I r " " I~'p l ~'~~" d ¡' lid 1I i.es lo free cvcn al the cost nI' greater violcnce. C onsider, túr cx alllp lc, 1h(! in lentionall y provllc alive scenes where Acconci plays on stagc with his vari o lls bouily prouucts. Such demonstrations, wh ich are brought to lhe surLlce mo re or lcss violently by the performer, are presented to the Other' s view, to the view 01' other, in order lhal lhey ma y undergo a collective veritication. O nce this exploration of lhe body, and therefore of thc sllbject. has been complcted, anu once cerlain repressions have been broughl lO light, objeetified, anu represenleu , they are frozen under the gaze of the spectalor, who appropriates them as a for lll 01' knowledge. This leaves the performer free to go on t o new acts and new performances. For tbis reaso n, some: performances are unbearable; Ihose of Nitseh, for exam ple, which do violence not only lO the performer (in bis case, a violence freely consented to), but also to the spectator who is harassed by images that both violate b im and do him violence. 5 The spectator has the feeling that he is taking part in a ritual that combines all possiblc fransgressions - sexual and physical , real and stageu ; a ritual bringing the performer back to lhe limits of thc subjcCl conslituted as a whole; a ritual that, starting from the performer's own "symbolic," attempts to explorc the hidden face of what makes him a uniticd subjcct: in other words, the I'semiotic" or "chof(f" haun ting him. r, Vet this is not a return to the divided and silent body of the mother, such as Kristcva sees in Artalld, but inslead a march ahead towards the dissolution of the subjecl, not in explosion, scattering, or madness - which are other ways 01' re Lurning lo the origin - but in death. Performances as a phenomenon worked through by the death drive: this comparison is not incidental. It is based on an ex tensive, conscious practice, deliberately consented to: the experience of a body \Vounded , dismembered , mutilated, and cut up (if only by a movie camera: e l". Chitty's Demo Jvfode/), a body bel o nging lo a fully accepted lesionism .' The body is cut up not in order to negate ir. bul in order to bring it back to Ji fe in each of its parts which have, each one, become an independent whole. (T his process is idcntical to Buñuel's in Un ehien andalou, when he has one of the charaeters play wi th a severed hand on a bllsy road.) Instead of atrophy ing, the bouy is therefore enriched by all the part-objects that make it up ami whose richness the subject learns to discover in lhe eourse of the per formance. These parl-objects are privileged, isolated, and magnified by the performer as he studies their workings and mechanisms , and explores their under-side, thereby presenting lhe spectators with an experience ;n vi/ro and in slow motion of what usua 11y takes place on slage. b) First the maniplll a tion ol' the body, lIJen ¡he manipulo/ion o/ "'pace: 1he re i:; a rlll1~~tional identily between them thal Icads 1he re r rormer to pass lh ro ugh Ihese places wi thollt cvcr m a kiJlg a dclini ti vc slll p. C a rvi ng out imaginu ryor rea l spncc:; (¡;I ~ I\ ~o nci\ R,'d /'If/II'.\'). \ \111.' IIHll1wn l in nnc placc alld lit!! lIexl lI111n a!nt ill Ihe o lhcr, lhe p ¡;rf¡) 11 111 1 IH'''tI ',l'lIles wilhill [hesc
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I'llysical a nu imaginary spaccs, bul insleau traverscs , ex plo n:s. amI IJH' a~lIrcs thCIll , clTecling displacemenls and minute variations within them . Hc uoes not occupy lhcm , nor do they limit him: he plays wilh thc performance space as if it were an object and turns it into a machine "acting upon thc sCllse organs." x Exactly like the body , therefore. space becomes existential to the point 01' ceasing to exist as a setting and place. It no longer sllrrounds and eneJoses the performance, but like the body , beeomes part ofthe performance to such an exlent that it cannot be distinguished from il. It is the performance. This phenomenon explains lhe idea that performance can take place ol1ly within and for a sel spaee to which it is indissolubly tied . Within this space, which becomes the site of an exploration of the subject, the performer suddenly seems to be living in slow motion. Time strelches oul ¡¡nd dissolves as " swo11en, repetitive , exasperated" gestures (Luciano ¡nga Pin) seem to be killing time (el'. the almost lInbearablc slo\V motion of some 01' Michael Snow's experimenls): gestures that are multiplied and begun again and again (Id injinÍlum (cf. Acconei 's R ed Tapes), and that are always diffe r ent , split in two by the camera recording and transmitting them as they are being carried out on stage before our eyes (cL Chitty). This is Derrida's différ once made perceptible. From then on, there is neither past nor futllre, but only a continuous present - that oflhe immediacy oft'hings, of an oc/ion wking place. These gestures appear both as a finished prodllct and in the eourse 01' being carried out , already completed and in motion (cL the use 01' cameras): gestures that reveal their deepest workings and that the performer executes only in order to discover what is hidden underneath them (this process is comparable to Snow's camera filming its own tripod), And the performance shows this gesture over and over to the point of saturating time, space, amI the representalion with it sometimes to the point of nausea. Nothing is len but a kinesics 01' gesture. Meaning - all meaning ~ has disappeareu. Performance is the absence of meaning. This stalement can be easily sllpported by anyone coming out of lhe thealre . (We need think only 01' the audience's surprise and anger with the first "stagings" of the Living Theatre, 01' with those 01' Robert Wilson or Richard Foreman.) And yet, if any experi cncc is meaningful , without a dOllbt it is that of performance. Performance does not aim at a meaning, but rather makes meaning insofar as it works right in those extremely blurred junctures out of which the subject eventllally emcrges. And performance conscripts this subject both as a constituleu sub~ jlTI amI as a social sllbject in order to dislocate and demystify it. Performa nce is the death of the subject. We just spoke of the death drive as being inscribed in performance , conscioLIsly staged and brought into play by a set of fredy intendcd anu accepted repetitions. This death drive, which fra )! l11enls the hody and makcs il fun d ion likc so many pa rt-o bjects, reap r cu rs at lite cll d nI" lhc pcr l"Orlll;IIHX wltcn il is fixcd 011 l he video screen. Ind ccd, il is nI' inlc l'cl'l 1n II n 1l: Ih 111 ~vcry Iwrforrnance ultimatel y meelS l il e vid¡,;\) scn:c 11, W\¡¡':I'C lite ~kI1l Y" l tll4' d '; lIhjl'l"l is frozcn and lIies. T hcre, '11')
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perlúrrmlJ ll:C (1111':0 a g a i ll em;ollll te ls n 'p rcsClIlll lII II I. 110111 which il wan tcul o escape al all cos ls anu which lIlarks bol h ils fultilr lll'lIl alld il:; elld. c) In point Oft~lct , the artisl's relati on to his own perfo rmance is no longer one of an actor to his role, even if that role is his actua l one, as the Living Theatre wanted it to be. When he refuses to be a protagonist, the performcr no more plays himself than he represents himself. I nstead, he is a source of production and displacement. Having become the point of passagc fo r energy 110ws gestural, vocal, libidinal, etc. - that traverse him without ever stand ing still in a {lxed meaning or representation. he plays at putting those flows to work and seizing networks. The gestures tl1at he carries out lead to nothing if not to the flow of the desire that sets them in motion. T his respo nse proves once again that a performa nce means nothing and aims for no single, specific meaning, but attem pts instead to reveal places of passage, or, as Foreman would say, "rhythm s" (the t rajectory of gesture. of the body, of the eamera, ofview, etc.). In so doing, it attempts to wake the body - the performer's and the speetator's- from the threatening anaesthesia haunting it. It seems to me that all of us here are working on material, rearrang ing it so that the resultant performance more accurately reflects not a perception of the world - but the rhythms of an ideal world of activity, remade, the better in which to do the kind of pereeption we eaeh would like to be doing. We are, lhen, presenting the audience with objects of a strange sort, that can only be savored ifthe audience is prepared to establish ne\\' perceptual habits - habits quite in conflict with the ones they have been taught to apply at classical performance in order to be re~ warded with expeeted gratifieations. In classical performance, the audience learns that if they allow attention to be led by a kind of childish, regressive desire-for-sweets. the artist will ha ve strategically placed those sweets at just the "crucial" points in the piece where attention threatens to c1imax. 9 This technique accounts for the "sc\eetive inattention" that Richard Schechner speaks ofin Essuys 0/1 Perjórl11u/1ce. 10 No more than the spectator, though, is the performer implicated in the performance. He always keeps his viewi ng rights. He is the eye, a substitute ror the carnera that is filming, freezi ng, o r slowing down, and he causes slides, superpositions, and enlargements with a space and on a body that have beco me the tools of his own exploration. In our work , however. wha t's presented is n ot whal' s "appealing" (th e min ute som clhing is a ppealin g it's él refe rence lu the past and lo inhcrit cd "ta::;te") b ul ralher what h
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hL' rel\)J'llIC "c~ caped Ilolice." And the ternptation cach of us fights, I I hink. is lo becol1le prematurely "intcrested" in what we uncover. 11 This situation is all the more difficult ror the spectator since performance, caught up as it is in an unending series of often very minor transformations, escapes formalismo Having no set form, every performance constitutes its IIwn genrc, and every artist brings to it, according to hi s background and dcsires, subtly different shadings that are hís alone: T risha Brown 's per t"ormances lean towards the dance, Meredith M onk 's towards music Some, however, tend in spite of themsclves towards theatre: Acconci's Red Tapes, f"or example, or Michael Smith 's Dow/1 i/1 lhe Rec Room. AH 01' this goes to show that it is hard to talk about performance. This difficulty can be seen also in Ihe various kinds of research on the subjeet. often in the forms of photo alhums recording the fixed traces ofperformances that are forever over, with I he few critical studies 01' tibe subject tending towards historicism or descrip lion. Here we touch upon a problem identical to one presented by the thcatre IIf non-represcntation: how can we talk about the subject without betraying il? 110\V can we explain it? From descriptions of stagings taking place else where or existing no longer. to the fragmente\l'y, critical discourse of scholars, I he theatrical experience is bound al\Vays to escape any attempt to give an accurate account of it. Faced with this problem. which is fundamental to a1l spectacles, performance has given Üselfits own memory. With the help oft he video camera with which every performance ends , it has provided itself with a past.
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Ir one judges from everything that has thus far been said about performance, il certainly seems difficult to ascertain the relationship between theatre and performance. And if \Ve turn to the statements of certain performers, that n:lationship would even seem to be, of necessity , one of exclusion. Michac\ l :ried \vrites to that effect: "theatre and theatricality are at war today, not sil11ply with modernist painting (or modernist painting and sculpture). but with art as such - and to the extent that different arts can be described as IlIodernist. with modernist sensibility as such."'2 F ried sets forth his argu IIlcn! in two parts: 1) '¡hc Sl/ceC,I's. CI'C/1 lhe surl'il'u/.
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1IlH.ll' rJlIilll:S il, ami if we a lso ill:! llT I ha 1 1" l'Ull l' ~'tlIIIIOI ~'''ca pc lIarrativity (all the current theatrical cxpc ricllccs rm vc as IlIlH.: h , I:X(,:C pl pcrhaps ror those 01' Wilson and Fo reman, which alrcady bclong to performance), thcn it \Vould seem obvious that theatrc and art are incQmpatible. "In the thcatre, every form once boro is mortal ... ," Peter Brook writes in The Empty Space. 14 But as I havejust stated , performance is not a formalism. It rejects form, which is immobility, and opts, instead, fol' discontinuity and slippagc. Jt seeks what Kaprow was already calling for in happenings thirty years ago: "The dividing line between art and lite should remain as fluid and indistinct as possible and time and space should remain variable and discontinuollS so that, by continu ing to be open phenomena capable ofgiving way to change and the unexpected, performances take placc only once.'·' .I Are \Ve very far from what Artaud advocateo for the theatre , or from what the Living Theatre ano Groto\Vski , following Artauo , have demanoeo as the mooel for theatre 's rellewal: Ihe stage as a " li ving" place ano the playas a "one time only" experience? That performance shoulo reject its oepe.noence on thea tre is certainly a sign that it is not only possible, but without a oOllbt also legiümate, to compare theatre ano performance, since no one ever insists upon his oistance from something unless he is afraio 01' resembling it. I shall not attempt, therefore, to point out the similarities between theatre and performance, but rather show how the two mooes camplement each other ano stress what theatre can learo from performance. Inoeeo , in its very strippeo-oown workings , its exploration of the booy. ano its joining 01' time ano space, performance gives us a kind of theatricality in slow motion: the kino \Ve find at work in tooay's theatre. Performance explores the unoer-sioe of that theatre, giving the audi ence a glimpse of its insioe, its reverse sioe, its hiooen face. Like performance, theatre oeals with the imaginary (in the Lacanian sense of the term). [n other woros , it makes use 01' a technique 01' constructing space, allowing subjects to settle there: first the canstruction of physical space, ano then of psychological space. A strange paralle1, mooel1ing the shape of stage space on the subject's space ano vice versa , can be traceo bet ween them . Th US , whenever an actor is expecteo to ingest the parts he plays so as to bccome one \Vith them (here \Ve might think ofnineteenth-century theatre, of natllralist theatre, ano of Sarah Bernharot's first parts) , the stage asserts its nneness ano its tota1ity . It is, ano it is Ol1e, ano the actor, as él unitary subjcct, hclongs to its wholeness.
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Closer to us, in experiences of present-day theatre (experimental theatre. alkrnativc theatre here \Ve might think 01' the Living Theatre 's first ex perirnents, or, more recently, 01' Bob Wilson's), the \Vay theatrical space is cnnstructed attcmpts to ma ke ta ngibl e a mI appa rent the \Vh o lc play 01' the imagin a ry as it seLs subjects (and nOl CI slIbjcCl) (lB Slilgc. T hc proCCsscs whc rc hy Ihe Ih ca tril:a l r hcn olllcnon is w ns lrllCl c\ 1 as \Vc ll ;IS lhe f'olln J a li on Ill'l h¡1I ph Cl1 mnCIlO II a n I.!xtcnsivc play (1 rd oU hllOf IlId pc,,'rf1l lllal ion lha t is I1h U\,.' 01 Icss .,hv iolls <1m.! llJ \l rl: 0 1' Icss dllk ll'II f1 i1l n l dl' Pl'lldil l!' II p O Il IIIc!
specilic d irt:cll1l a mi aillls lhlls beco me ap parent : the oivision bctwcen actor amI characlcr (a slIhjcct that Pirandello dealt with very well) ; the oOllbling 01' the actor (insofar as he survives arter lhe oeath of the text) ano the character; the ooubling of the author ano the oirector (cf. Ariane Mnouchkine); amI lastly, the ooubling of the oirector ano thc actor (cL Schcchncr in e/o/hes). As a group, these permlltations forl11 oifferent projcction spaces, reprcsenting different positions of oesire by sctting oown subjects in process. Subjects in process: the sllbject constructeo on stagc projects himself into objects (charactcrs in cla ssical thcatre , part-objects in performance) \vhich he can invent , multiply , ano eliminate if neco be . Ano these constructeo objects, proollcts of his ima.gination ano 01' its oifferent positions of oesire, constitute so many "a"-objeets for him to usc or abuse accoroing to the neeos of his inner economy (as with the use of movie cameras or vioeo screens in ma ny performances). In the theatre , these "a"-o bjccts are fro zen for the ouration of the pl ay, In performance, on the other hano , they move about ano reveal an imaginary that has not been a1ienateo in a fi g ure 01' fixation like characters in the classical theatre, or in any other fixeo theatrical formo rol' it is inoeeo a q uestion of the " subject," ano not of characters. in today's theatre (Foreman , Wilson) and in performance . 01' course, the conventional basis of the actor's "art," inspireo by Stanislavski , requires the actor to live his character from within ano canceal the ouplicity that inhabits him while he is on stage. Brecht rose up against this i11usion when he calleo for a oistancing of the actor from his part ano a oistancing of the spectator from the stage. When he is faceo \Vith this prob[em , the performer's response is original, since it seems to resol ve the oilemma by completely renouncin g character ano putting the artist himse1f on stage . The artist takes the position 01' a oesiring - a perform ing - subject , but is nonetheless an anonymous subject playing the part of himsclf on sta ge. From then on, since it tells of nothing ano imitates no one, pcrformance escapes all illusion ano represe nta tion. With neither past nor fllture , performance /ak e.l' place. It turos th e stage into an event from which the subject will emerge transformeo until a nother performance, whcn it can continuc on its \Va y. As lon g as performance rej ects narrativity ano repre scntation in th is way, it also rejects the symbolic organization oominating theatrc ano exposes the conoition s of theatricality as they are. Theatrica1ity is maoe of this enoless play ano 01' these continuolls oisplacements of the position of desire , in other words, 01' the position 01' the subject in process within an imaginary eonstructive space. [t is prccisely when it comes to the position ofthe subject, that performance ;lI1d thcatrc \Vollld seem to be mutllally exclusive ano that thcatre \Voulo per h l;lp~ havc sOl1lcthing to learn fro m performance. Inoeeo , theatre cannot do wilho ll llhc su b jcct (a co mpktdy tlss urm:d subject) , ano the exercises lo which Mcycrhrlld '.Ind , la ter on , <.irotowsk i slIbjcctcd thcir stuoents cOlllo only (.'o ll solidu lc 1he pllsil io n ()I' 1111' IIl1i llll V sllhjl.'cl 0 11 sla ge . Performance, how L've r, all hll Llph bc~j lllli llg will! 11 11l'11 l'l' IIV ; 1~;t; lIl l1l'O su bjcCl, bri ngs clllu tional
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wa y thal il is intcrcsted more in (In actoion as it is being produced than in a lin ishcd product. Now, what takes place on stage comprises f1ows, accumula tiollS , anJ conneetions ofsignifiers that ha ve been organized neither in acode (hl~ncc the multiplicity 01' media ami signifying languages that performance IIlakes use 01': bils 01' representation ami narration and bits of meaning), nor in strllctures permitting signification. Performance can therefore be seen as a nlachinc working with serial signifiers: pieces of bodies (d. the dismcmber lIlent and Icsionism we have already discLlssed), as \Vell as pieces 01' meaning, rcpresentation , and libidinal f1O\vs , bits of objects joined together in m uJtipolar l'IlIlcatenations (cf. Acconci 's Red Tapes and the fragmentary spaces he moves ahout in: bits ofa building, bits ofrooms , bits ofwalls, etc.). i\nd all ofthis is without narrativity . The absence 01' narrativity (continuoLls narrativity, that is) is one of lhe dominant characteristics 01' performance. 11' the performer should unwittingly 1'.ive in to the temptation of narrativity, he does so never continuously or l'onsistently, but rather ironically with a certain rcmove , as if he were quot ing, or in order to reveal its inner workings . This absence lcads to a certain rrustration on the part 01' the spectator, when he is confronted with perform ance which takes him away from the experience oftheatrieality. F or there is lIothing to say about performance, nothing to tell yourself. nothing to gr
l'crjúrnwl1ce. 19 Performance can therefore be seen as an art-form whose primary aim is to lindo "competencies" (which are primarily theatrical). Performance readjusts I hcse competcncies and redistributes them in a desystemati7.ed arrange menL We cannot avoid speaking of "deconstruction" here. We are not , how ('vcr, dealing with a "Iinguistico-theoretical" gesture, but rather with a real gesturc, a kind of deterritorialized gesturality. As such, performance poses a challenge lo the theatre and to any refiection that theatre might make upon ilsdr. Performance rorients such rcllcctions by forcing them to open up and by compc lling lhelll lO expl o re Ihe Illargins 01' theatre. For this reason, an I,lxc llrsioll inll) performance has sccnll:d 11\)1 onl y interesting, but essential to IIltill lHh.' Cl)lh.;crn , which is lO ¡Jllllll! h¡¡¡;k 1\l lhe Lhl:atre arter él long det o ur hc hilld the SCCI1 CS uf lhca l1 i ~: di l y
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N I,h" A lIlI ll tll.: Mi chdsOll , " Yvollnc I{:lim:r. 1'01 1 (l IH' 1111' 1);lIIl'llr :111(1 Ih u 1):lIIl'C," Ir(jimllll , 12 (Janua ry 1(>74),57 . 2 RoseLee GolJbcrg, Pcr/im1/ancc: Lil'c Art, IVOY lo 1/1(' Prc.\"('/Il (N(~ w Yo rk , Il)7(». 3 Lueiano Inga- Pill ~ ay s this in his prefacc to the pho to album on pc rforl11i:1l1cu. Per/ímnan(:e.l', J-Japfienings, AC/ion.\', Erenl.\', Aclil'ilies. Jllslallaliolls (Padua, 1970). 4 By wrapping up diffs and entire buddings in their natural sunroundings, Christo isolates them. He thus sirnultaneously ernphasizes their gigantie sÍ2e and negates it by his ve ry project, and estra nges his objects from the natural setting frol11 which he takes them (cf. Photo 11 0 . 48 in the illustrations to Inga-Pin). 5 The performances ofthe Austrian artist Hermann Nitsch were inspired by aneient Diollysiac ami C hrist ia n rites adapted to a modern eontext designed to illustrate in él praetical fi:lshion thc Aristotelian notion of eatharsis through fear, terror, 01' cornpassion. Ilis Orgies. Mys leries, Thealre were performed on nurnerous occa sions in the scventies. A typieal performance lé1sted several hours. 1t began with loud rnusie followed by Nitseh ordering the cerelllonies to begin. A lé1mb with its throat slit was brought into the midst ofthe participants. Its earcass was crueified , and its intestines removed an d po ured (with their blood) over a naked rnan or woman lying beneath the animal. This praetice originated in Nitseh ' s belief th a t humanity 's aggressive instincts had been repressed by the media. Even ritual animal saerifiees , which were so eommon alllong primitive pcoples, have tot a lly disappeared frolll modern experience. Nitsch's ritual acts thus represented a way of giving full rein to the repressed ene rgy in mano At the same time, they func tioned as aets of purification and redemption through suffering. (Thís description is based on Ihe diseussi on found in Goldberg, p. 106.) 6 These notions are borrowed fr om Juli a Kristeva, La R évol/ltion da !angage p oétique (Paris, 1974). 7 " Lesionism " refers to a practiee whereby the bod y is represented no! as an entity or a unitcd wh ole, but as d iv idcd into P,HtS o r fragments (cL Inga-Pin , p. 5). 8 lnga-Pin , p. 2. 9 Stephcn Koeh , Rich a rd Foreman , et al. , " Pelformance. A Conversation ," Arlfárum, ,1 \ (Deeember 1972), 53 - 54. 10 Richard Schechner, El-says on Perjórr/'la/'lce Theo ry. 1970 /976 (New York, 1977), p.147. 11 Koch ,54. 12 Michael Fried , " Art and Objecthood ," Arlfárwn (Junc 1(67), rpt. in Minima! Arl. ed. Gregory Battcock (New York , 1(68), p. 139. 13 Ibid. , pp. 139 141. 14 Peter Brook , Tll e Emply ,'>'p({ce (Ncw York , 1(69), p. 16. 15 Allan Ka p row , A.\'semhlage. Enl'iro/lmenlS a/'le! Happenings (New Yo rk, 1(66), p. 190, quoted in Pnjrmnallce hy Arr¿\'IS , ed. A. A . Bronso n and Peggy Galc (Toronto, 1(79), p. 193. 16 See Jaeques Derrida, La Vérilé 1'11 peil1lure (Paris, 1978). 17 Ro land Barthes, "Baudelai,re 's Theater," in Critical Essays, transo Richard Iloward (Evanston , 1972), p. 26. 18 See Donald W. Winnieott. P!ayil1g (//1(1 R ('a lily (New York, 1971). 19 Schechner develops the idea 01' "selective inattenti on" in his discu ssio n 01' Wilson ' s Tlle Lije a{u! Times of.fosepll Sla!in (Schechner. pp. 147 - 148):
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' Li v.: ¡\rl: Dcfinitioll & Dm:umcntatinn '. Conteml'orary Th eatre Re viell' 2(2) (1994) : 1 7.
Ilisl orically, the term Performance Art has referred not only to certain ;IIIISI's pn:sentation 01' innovative pcrformances to audiences in galleries or IllL'alrc spaces, but to a wide range 01' inherently interdisciplinary practices whidl have expanded the notion of art into performance and challenged the i¡ka 01' a pcrfOlmance as something 'done by' a performer 'for' an audience, I'LTf'ormance Art may be 'done by ' a spectator, it may be 'done' with lhe artist, nI' ill the absence of the artist in accordance with an agreement. Performan ce t\rl Illay or may not indude Body Art, which may or may not mani fest illiclr through an artist's presentation of his or her own body. Performance Arl relates strongly to Concept Art, in which a 'performer' may present the doelllllentation of a ' performed' act which was unseen by an audience. Per rormance Art may even refer to a re-conceiving of the object as if it were a scme, or the work of art as an 'event'o In these ways, Performance Art practiccs have effectcd a blurring ofprecisely the kind ofdiscrete category ils II Sl' a..~ a gefleric term would imply. III Ihc U K, which has had its own history of Performance Art since the late (,Os. Ihc dcveloping crossover of 'art', 'performance art ' and 'theatre' prac li ~~s siJl~c lhe early 80s has given rise to increasingly explicit concerns for th e 'illll:gration ', 'intersection' or 'hybridisation ' of arts practices in 'time-based', ' Iive' work. Giving emphasis to performance over a critique of the object in arl. Ihis work has come to be known as Live Art, a term given eurrency, like I\;rrormancc Art itself, by its use rathcr than any final sense lhat its meaning h;ls hCl~n lixed. Yet in referring to both art and performance, lhe term 'Live Al\' Iwt only indicates its debt to 'perfol1llance art' , but signals its own Iihcrating conrusion of conventional category and definition. Yel despite lhc 1'.lowing inlcrc~t in interdisciplinary performancc, Live Art rem ains a rcl ali vd y lJOd()cu m~ nlcd and certain ly undertheori:ic4..1 area 01' contclll pom ry IlJ aclil'c ill Brilain. In rl'cognising this. IIa rwoüú Acadcmic Pross will s)lOrtly Pil hli:sll I3ri lish !,i l'/' 11'1: h.l',I"{/.I'.I" {fI1I1 f)(}( 'WIII 'lI lo (¡IIIIS. t'd il cd hy Nick Kayc. as 11<
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Vlllllllle 2, P:JlI 101' Ilarw()od's .Í¡Hlrnal ('OIlI I!/II{!OfllI'V /11('(/II'e Revin\!. The lúll(}\"ing cssay, which explores the rclationship between Live Art and Per I"IHlnancc Arl, as wcll as the distinctive character of contemporary inter disciplinary practices, is drawn frolll the introductory essay to the volume. Ikf'c lre anything cisc, the tcrm Live Art marks out a space 1'01' experimentation, a nallle given. as in the biannual Natiol1al Review (I/ Live ArI, to a forum in which practices derived from a diverse set at of disciplines meet in perform :IIlCC. Yet, as the N aliol1al Revieu: ilsclf tcstifles, that Live Art is linked to performance does not mean that it offers ilself up straightforwardly as eL )',cnre 01' 'theatre' or 'drama'. Live Art, in this sen se, is as much an attitudc as it might be a performance practice, a term that invokes a particular way of Inoking al \York , a frame through which presentations generated in relation h) sculpture, installation , dance, music or 'theatre' present themselves as lime-based 'Ii"e' activities implicitly sharing some vocabulary, interest or acsthetic. Such circumspection over a drawing out 01' the formal characteristics and boundaries of Live Art is hardly unfamiliar. As distinct frol11 'the live arts', Live Art is invariably identified with interdisciplinarity and a challenge to the rccognisablc limits and distinctions between media, whelher these are theatre, dance, installation , sculpture or musical composition. For this reason , the definition of what Live Art is as a practice. as dislinct from recognising it whcn you see it, is frequently taken , even by those who think ofthcl11selves as praeticing, teaching or writing in the area, as a critically uncertain, conlen tious, evcn an unhclpful exercise, Indeed, this very slippcriness, the resistance 111' Live Art to being pinned down by explanation or prescription, might itself be attractive, smacking as it does 01' the 'contemporary', the 'experimenta\'. nI' something in the process of being formed , 01' something yet to be absorbed into an agreed set of terms or practices. lt is important lo aeknow1edge that these aspects of Live Art are not unprecedcnted , nor do lhey stand in opposition to the question of dennition . Indeed. the very difficulty of pinning down Live Art form and vocabulary speaks of the character of this field and. where the Live Art work takes this c\lasiveness onto ilself. 01' the nature and effeet of Live Art praeticc. In thcse respects, Live Art has rnuch in common Pe.rformance Art. Associ atcd with a diverse set of practices deriving, certainly in North America ami wntincntal Europe, from artists breaking of the stabililies and Iimits of the (lhice! within fine art, Performance Art might be understood as at once a precursor 01' Live Art and a part 01' contemporary Live Art practice. Emer )'.ing. in the carly 60s and , again. in the early 70s, through a re-conceiving 01' lhl~ objeet in sculptu re. a reaching beyond the physieal frame 01' the work in painling. lhrou gh new composil ional proccu ures in Illusic and developments ill dance. su¡;h ' pcrf'onmlll¡;C' has . ill rclll tion lO Nor lh American work parl ic ub l'y. bCl:n IhUMi'ZcU :lY.ili IlSIII H: II.'IIllS :Ind inl cgritics cJ rlhc work in art 1¡¡ lhl:r Ihall in rc lllli on III ' Ihl:illl~" (11 -" I,\l IIU'} , 111
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111 lile l/ K. lhe hisl\lry 01' I'C Jl \llltl; III~'l '\11 .11101 p~l tl1rln ll n CC l:Iilicism is a wl'y dilferenl o ne. Emel'ging :su me lell y¡,;a ls .dl e l 11r- cnllll lc rpa rl ill Ihe IJS and continenlal Europe. Uritish Pe rformance Árt. o fl hl' l.. tc 60s a ntl ca dy 70s was not ool y shadowed by lhe strength 01' the polil ically radical and largely text-bascd allernative British thea tre, but shared some of its practices and concerns. Developing, largely, through work in art or music shools, ami shadowed by the well-established American a vant-ga rde Z, companies such as The People Show, IOU Theatre and Forkbea rd F antas)' d rew o n lhe popu la r J entertainments through which many radical political theatres were attempt ing to define a new working e1ass thea tre. 4 Quite distinct from the fo rm a li sl strategies ofthe North American Thea tre of Images o r Bod y A rt emerging at the same time, these highly visual theatres were characterised by an intuiti ve rather than systematic play between image, text ami narrati ve, by inventi ve ness and a marked comic eccentricity. P laying visual imagery and poetic and comic text across each other, the People Show, thro ugh Mark Long, developed a style ofperformance, a f1exibilit y o fform and a relationship with thc audience reminiscent ofthe music hall. ro u Theatre's site-specific fantasies made idiosyncratic use of a rieh folk imagery and style, while Forkbeard hllllasy's comic sagas drew skilfully on clown and e1owning. Such means I'('ma ill cvident in contemporary performance. Performances by Rose English c\llllhi nt: monologue, references lo myth and a sclf-conscious theatricality wilh will y a nd self-depracating exchanges with the audience. More recently c:; la blis hed groups, such as The Glee Club, whose name refers 10 the com 1111111al singing which preceeded music hall itself, combine a tongue in cheek Ih l::t trica li ly with a skilfull play through surreal and comic narratíve. r~wll where British performance practices echoed those of their North Alllcrican and Ellropean counterparts, a marked difference in sensibility SéC llll:d \!vident. Performances by Ting: Thcatre of Mistakes 5 c1early parallel Nt)rlh A merican 'systems' art amI, in performance, the Structuralist Theatre(, 7 ;1111 1 aspccts of postmodern dance which emerged in response to serial 01' II l1l lil llal art rrom 1968. Yet the complex ruJegames of the Theatre 01' Mis I;l k¡;s SCC Ill , llnlike their American counterparts. to pose the question ofwhat Il:lp PcllS at the moment the system itself becomes unsustainable, where th e 'l'll o r' c nlers into the performance ami generates unpredictable patterns a nd ~'vc lIls M hreaks the system down completely . Conversely. Stuart Brisley"s p!o:lfonnu nccs. while obviollSly related to the emergence ofBody Art in North A lIlI,a ¡ca and continental Europe from 1968 , departed sharply from the for mu lisl slralegics of man y male American performance artists, articlllating n vcrll y polilical contcnts through acts of endurance and Jirect negotiatio ns w ilh Ihe viewer. x
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y cl !.: vcn whc rc il :;hares ' theat ricaJly' roo led in n llcnces a nd concern s, Ih is Br¡ Iish performallce is still mu rk ed by ils origins o lll ~ id t.: convcnliona l thculre rl ,1I: lico. (b luinly. Ihe work ofThc PC\lnIC Silo\\! 11111 , on d Iltltc r gro ll ps ('J I' Ih e 70s is c!luracl criNl·d hy pracl i¡;es un í! v\\!" ilh lll nl¡l'~ IIt )1 Il';¡t1i ly n.:cmlclh!d
\Vilh Ihe pulilkal ¡Illd l¡;x lllal disL"\)\lrsc:; 0 1 lOs polilical lhcatrc. Indccd . il is Ihis sens!.: o!" 1d alinnsh ip ano yd dislancc. 01' a 'lheatricality' somehow cOllllccleu lo ami yet rcmoved from the prevailin g languages and practices of ' lhcatre' amI 'drama· th a t marks out another diffcrence from wo rk outside Ihc lJK. Whilc in Norlh Alllcrica , particularly, Performance Art emerged within the highly theo rized field of ' avant-garde ' art, in Britain the 'new per lúnnance ' secmcd to strike up an ambivalent relationship \Vith a British theatre rcsistant to these kinds of theo retical debates. Whereas North A merican and continental European artists were clearly concerned to theorise lheir own aclivities. frequently siting ' performance ' bet\\feen theatre, the legacy of the art-object and 'concept art', debates oyer lhe identity ofthis Britisb Perform ancc Art have invariably ret urned to an uncerlain relationsh ip with domin ant theatre practices. T hus, in Per/órmllnce magazine , and at conferences in Ihe ea rly 80s, ' perform a nce' is invariably characterized, first of all , as ' not Iheatre'9, belying a sen se that, at this time, a separate field has not someho w bcen fully marked out or made suff¡ciently distinct. Yel it is around this uncertain point 01' 'difference ' that, since the 80s, North American 'avant-garde' perrormance a nd British Live Art have con verged in ways which the earlier Perfo rmance Arl ra rely did . In the UK, as carly as 198 1, Performance magazin e identified a shift within Perfo rmance Art to\Vard a more direct, self-conscioLls address to the term s and vocabulary nI' conventional th ea tre practice associated \Vith Lumiere & Son. Hesitate & Demonstra te and M ov ing Being, a kind or work the Institute of Contem porary Arts in London presented as operating ' both across and o utside thc bOllndaries that are defined by the terms: pl ay, dance. mime, perfO mlaDce. opera'.' o Latterly, in the us, and particularly from the mid 80s, Perfo rmance Art strategies have increasin gly come to meet theatre forms and figures, using 'performance' as a lever to address the construclion , efrect and limits 01' I hcatrical vocabulary, even bringing the strategies of Performance Art to !Jca!" upon the rea lisation of playtext." Such coincidences have drawn British perfo rmance criticism , and British performance itself, into a wider exchange of ideas and practices. It is in thi s l'ontcxt that Greg Giesekam , in /1 ViellJ./i"ol11 Ih e Edge, a doc umentation of ( 'Ianjamfrie's The Wor/d's Edge, traces o ut the recent development of overtly ' post-modern ' approaches to performance in the work 01' Scottish groups slIch as Test Depa rtment (Scotland) and R a ndom Optic. In the essay framing !lis description or the piece. Giesckam goes on lo associate The World's Edge , :1 pcrrormancc linkcd to the quincentena.ry ofColumbus' a rrival in the Amer icas, with a ncw political theatre described by the American writers Philip i\lIslalidc r amI Johanncs Birringer.' 2 Identify ing in Clanjamfic's fragmented alld !"rcq uc ntl y self-rcflexi ve Illlllt i-medi a perfo rmance a 'dialogic' intenveav ill g o r cQ llllidin g c lll tural ami pCI"S\1 na l hi stories. G icsekarn obser ves the effect \Ir Ihl' work 's resi sl ancc 1.0 ..1 t-. l n ~ l c '1111 1huris in g' narrali vc in ils treatment 0 1' 'liargcd his lorica l und po lil ical ill lll)'l'l v W hi lc (i icsckam scls C'lúnjamfric 's
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WI II 1,. aga in ~1 I he t~l li IS llf"1 his N uf! h .'\II I~ Il l'" 1I lid 1,1 k, ill I hei r conll ihll l i(lns Anórcw Q lIh.:k, S lIsan MGlrosc anu S ll n~1II " lile., "ltlk I,lwuró lhe discollrses which have underpinneó rnlluh 01" this pc rfÚrlll HI Il'e critieism, drawing in various ways on continental Europcan critical thcory and phil osophy to elaborate problcrnatics within British Live Art. It is within this nexus 01' ióeas, too , that the irnplications for the performance critic o f the 'intcrdis ciplinarity' associateó with Live Art become clcar, Wh ile contemporary critical theory And notions 01' post-modernism might draw the critic into rctkcting upon the nature of the oetinition theoretical analysis inevi tably brings to iLs object ,13 so the attempt to cngage critically with the ' interoiscipl inarity' 0 1' Live Art ocmanós reflection baek on the project ano practice 01' criticism, a rdkxivity evidelll in current performance theory.'4 Ir the 'interóisciplinary' aspect 01" Live Art indicates more than an eclectie 'experimental theatre '. it surely points towards an interoisciplinarity within Lhe Live Art work itself. Such a work might be constituteo by a playing of one set 01" terms through or against another, it mighl be a work that is located belween points, forms 01' practices, 01' one which plays upon the terrns through which it is seen. In the t~lce of such events, the critic cannot easily, o r unselr-conseiously, oraw on the verities of a single set 01' terms Cit's theatre', 'it 's art ' , even, 'it's performance art ') to oescribe 'the work ', as the very stabilities these terms assurne are calleo into question by that which is being adoresseo . Here, withollt dOllbl , definition is itself an issue. This is not to suppose that 'Live Art ' has an overbearing concern for its own formal oefinition, but that the meeting and mixing 01' practices and vocabularies it invariably presents give rise to a slippage, a move that resists being pinned down , but which is evioently important to a wioe range 01' work. Although rormally quite distinct frorn Clanjaml"rie's work , Mike Pearson and Bobby Baker's discussions in interview, oftheir solo performances, take up these kinds of concerns. Here, both performers reflect upon thcir o wn SCllse 01' 'self as source' in the generation ano presentation of work, a notion Ihat Mara de Wit is concerneo to theorize in her text for the ' Perforrnance Lcctllre', Se!{ as Source, Par( JI. For Pcarson ano Baker, ano despite rhe o bviolls oil"ferences in their work , 'gossip', the personal narrative and hist o ry, ;)lId ;) conflation of the perl"ormer ano performance, work to displace the a 111 hority ofthe 'big narrative ' or myth. Thus in F/"Om Mell10ry (199 1) Pearson sets his O\\'n feat of rnernory, a remembering of his personal history, and a rcading ofhis body as a 'site '. against the folk memory ofa peculiar interscc lion nI" WeJsh history and the Wild West. Baker, meanwhile. skilfully wra ps I'if,~rill/ '.1' Progre,I',I' around an everyday event, a shopping trip, as a challengc lo the dism issal ofthe experiences ofdomestic life. T hc result is witty, Ill ov ing ;)lId sharply politica!. Oaker herself suggests U1at 11011' (o S/¡op: 1"he Lec(l/rl' (1 '.)9.1) 'was abn ut
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IIn.IJ da nec' ,111\1 I iv~ Art sinec Ihe /Os, Mara d c Wil rcllccts upon her posi ll1HI as hnth 'o hjcct' ami 'sourec' at tll(: O1 l) nwnt 01' her prescnce before the VIl'WCr. Obscrving the interpcnetralion or 'performance' and the perforrner's Jire, shc traces he!' conslrllction 01' work through a multiplicity of selves and l"IHlsiJcrs her articulation 01' these voices through the intersection 01' Live Art IIlId 'new dance' , Live Art and ' reallire'. SlIch work has obvious connections wilh the 'post-mode rn ' ' de-centring' Giesekam outlines, resisting, as it does, Ihe dominance of a single narrative or myth through the presentation of 'other' voices and stories. While De W it emphasizes her awareness of her presence berore the alldience, ami Pearson and Baker self-consciously tell their stories direclly to the spec lator, in their essays, Tirn White. Andrew Quick and Sirnon Jones lin k the l'I"ficacy 01' recent Live Art to an acute awareness 01' the ' Iive event'. Address illg in this context practitioners as diverse as Robin Blackledge, Forkbeard hllltasy, Forced Entertainmcnt Theatre Co-operative, OV8, ami Gloria, l hese articles consioer the resistance of recent performance to the stabalizing point of view. Setting recent work by Robin Blackledge ano Forkbeard Fantasy against l"ontcmporary rnultimedia performance. Tim White , in The Screen: Looking I/I/"Ough il, )Valking lhrollgh il. observes this performunce' s critical addrcss to the 'screen' as 'window and barrier', Observing the play between rnedia in this work, ano its construction through a sustained deferral between live ano lIIediateo presences, White traces out these perforrnanccs' ernpowcring of the viewer through their invitation to reflect critically upon the aet of seci ng and Ihe effect of meoiation. Writing against the backdrop of postmodern theory, Andrew Quick seeks, in Searching/or Redempliol7 in Cardhoard Wings: Fo/"ced FI/(cr(ail7l11en( ami (he Suhlime, to move between Forced Entertainmcnt's sl:lr-conscious explorations 01' 'tlctional worlds saturated by a sense of loss ' and Jcan-Fran<;ois Lyotaro ' s account of the sublirne as 'the unpresentable in prcsentation itself ', a moment which Lyotaro sees as an inherently political disrllption of thc terms in play. In doing so, Quick looks toward the corn pkxities of the Iive evenl which writing invariably suppresses, and with it Ihe corruption of 'the " proper" space 01' representation ' which performance IlIi~',ht cfTect and eriticism reinstate. Addressing these tensions in another \Vay, Sil1lon Jones rcflects upon his own engagement as spectator and critic with Il'~cnt Live Arl 's resistance to critieal oiscourse. Orawing on aspects 01' the 'sl"icnces orcol11plexity' in Demol1ology: sorne lhollghls toward (/ science o/,chu().I' ill re'I'cn( jJcr!(¡rnwnc(', .Iones engages self-consciously in a 'figuring (of) theatre ;IS ,:vcllt-scrics and fl LlX ' , an cxploration of recent performance's 'refusal to he sta bilized as tcxL' , Jones' position echoes an anxiety underlying mueh poslll1ml crn discoursc. as he attcmpls to rcmcmber that which the perform alll.:<: mau... cvi d cnt as it was seén htll wh ich cannot be adequately re-presented whc tl it is wli llclI aholl\. I> raw ín l' . 11t Ihe :-¡c icnces again. Jo nes calls into ,!lIeSl io" Ihe r Osi lioll 01" Ihe ... ri ,i ~· 1I\ll irW 11 1;11 :
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'Qu anturn m t.:~h anlc~ has sh\l wll lla;11 II11.:US II II.:IIII.:1l1 IS no l I1ClIll"al , without l:Ollscquel1ce ror lhe systl.:l1I ~lh~crVl:d. My n:marks m a kc; and in making the demon, it evapora tes 011 me at the very instante 01' its compliancc, its coherence within my theories.' Such concerns are reflected again in Susan M elrosc's essay, Please please me as she considers the nature of 'new performance' and the cost of 'translating' performance into discourse. Defining Live A rt as a perfomlance practicc whjch is ' about (not as in "subtext" , but as i.n " around. and a bo ut " ) performance' , Melrose seeks to test and challenge the ve racity of recent critical diseourse through a notion of ' new performance ' as 'metapraxis' . Arg uing that dis coursive practice, or the production of critical Jiscourse. is itself a 'complcx performance practice' , M elrose unpacks variolls critical approaches to recent performance through a self-refiexive mode of writing which is ,I\vare of ilse1f as practice. In this way, Melrose takes on the implications of the object she writes toward , engaging in a critica] meta praxis just as she speculates on the 'interpraxiological' nature of Live A rt and the satisfaction s it might have to offer. It is at this moment , too , that the rclationship between critical discourse and 'documentation ' comes into question. Where a critical engagement with Live Art might force a reflection back upon the practice 01' criticism , so this difference between performance-practiee and critical discourse mu st h ave consequences for the ' recording' of work. The point is an ill1portant one, retlected not only in the tendency here by critics to draw on post-modero theory in their discussion and in these artists ' particular re-presentations of work through 'docume ntation ' , but in the dialogue between 'essay' a nd 'documentation ' through which Brilish Live Arl: Essays and Documenta/ions is constructed. Like contemporary critical theory, Performance Art has had much to say about the 'trace' ; the rclic, recording or document that remains afler the 'event' . In particular, where Performance Art arises as a challenge to the 'object ' in art, 'documentation' invariably presents itself as threatening lo n:instate those stabilities and terms this very move toward ' performance' l:hallengcs . Similary, where performance sites itself between vocablllaries, disrupts expectations or stresses the ' Iiveness' of the event , it can be under slood as evading precisely the kinds of determinations a documentation' re-presentation ofwhat did happen implicitly lays daim too Indecd , this ver y assumption, that documentation might have aecess to what has happened. supposes a transparcncy and stability the event it would remember lllighl onn: have called into question . In this way, the n , and like critical JiscO llrse ilselr, d(lcumentation mediates between the 'pro b le m ' 01' the work (its chal kngc lo Ihe vicwer in being done) a nd the o ne who no w vie ws. In sile-spe<.:il ic w\)r". Ihc 'rccording' invariabl y su pp rcsses Ihe llnl:erta int ies the intcr pcllCl ra li ( lI l ~ hClween Ihe ·malh.:· a nd Ihe ' rounJ ' rl ()\'~l"~' W hl:rc pcrl "ormancc a mi ~:!.~
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pe l fq rlll:lltw sl ylc shadows, dispbn:s ami Gdls into question tcxt, 'role' and the conve nlional fig ures of dramatic presentation. or where a performance shirts between Illedia. doclIl1lcnlation invariably finds itself unable to speak adel.JlIatcly of lhe dialogue o ut of which the work is constituted. It is in th is context, that, in creating él 16 page graphic 'documentation' of bllll1anuelle Enclwl1led, Tim Etchells and Richard Lowdon 01' Forced Enter lainment Theatre Co-operative use material derived from the performance to readdress concerns for excess information and ineom pletion . R a ther th a n spcculating upon the ' meaning' 01' Emmanuelle Enchan/ed 01' reeounting the II1cchanisms by which it operated , this presentation offers an ex perience ana logous to that 01' a meeting with the event which preceded it. C alling on the ' rragmented/atomised ' nature of the p e rformance, its rhythms and structures, and the framin g and processing 01' information these moves effeeted , this ' re-presentation ' resists being read as a transparent record , bul furthers the work's dissemination through a variety 01' forms , a process which Foreed Entertainment have pursued more recently through installation-work in col laborations with I-Iugo Glendinning, such as Red Room (1993). Within Live ¡\rt such a play between means is not uncomm OIl. Brith Gol', in particular, ha ve reeently pursued site-specific performance , video , 'docurnentation ', tele vision , anJ music-recordings around a single project, l!aearn (1992). Sueh 'documentation' presents itself as provoking or extcnding the very questio ns lhe work may have posed to the viewer. refusin g to resol ve the issue of w hat the work ' is' (and so \vas') ' about'. Whi1e such presentations would seem to acknowledge the ul1reproducibitity ofthe 'event', treating 'doeumentation ' as another mode of wo rk , Simo n Jones takes a similar attitude toward criticismo In constructing his es say through a Illontage 01' ' parallel texts' , he. Iike Etchells and Lowdon, organises the page so as to make an event 01' reading . Such addresses to the act of reading evoke, again , that which cannot be written about without being transformed , and which Andrew Quick, arter Lyotard, introduces in terms ofthe radical singul arity 01' the ' event' . Mara de Wit's essay takes up another aspect of t h is debate, siting itse\f between essay and documentation . Thus S elfas Source, !'ar{ // offers itself to the reader as a documentation 01' a ' Performance Lecture' , a mode 01' writing through which de Wit is able to refiect upon the viewer's meeting with the page as she speeulales upon her meetin g as per formcr with an audience. Such challenges are refiected in different ways in differing 'documentations' . .ltllian Ma yna rd Smith provides a record of T/¡e Orade, a site-specific per formance by Station I-Iouse Opera presented outside and inside the Serpcntine <. ialle ry in .1 une 199 3. Rather than record its 'effcct' in this space, Maynard Sl11ilh seIs ou t in formation nccClisary for ils rcstaging. inc1uding texts , adions, pé rrMma nC(! pl uns a nd ph ol ngw p hs . Y el, Iikc Stalion I lou se Opera's own ' n.:s lagin !;ts· in other p la L:cs. sud l :\ pClfunn a nL:c w ould fi nd ils ' ~pecificity ' ;lIICW, q\lil,' upu rl l"ro lll lhe l)Uc!\II\l Il ·: .. 1 p~ll \ lrnl ;lncc-s l y \c an J <¡Dund, whk h
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a pCrrOrOlanC<: uf 1 '/¡e 0 /'( /1'/1' wh il:h lilld Ih<:IHsc h l.!" h~'I WCI: II radically dilú:r ing evenls, as if lo stress lhe singulari lY 01' ..::1(.;11 'sit \!-~ Jl<:<:ilic' realisation. In contrast again. Greg Gieseka m ' s essay ofTe rs a vil:w uf lhe workings and conlents 7/¡e World'.1 Edge intercut with comments and recollecti ons fmm members 01' the company. In working in this way. G iesek a m balances an account of the operation of the piece with the performer's inte rruptions and digressi o ns, echoing the formal construction 01' th e work itself, Sueh interpenetrations, as well as through their vari o us engagements with eontemporary critical and theoretical disco urse, many of these presentations a ltempt to recall the very evasions and ephemerali ties of Live Art and th e Live Art work th a t make these events and p raetiees diffieult to define. In this respect, the debate over L ive A rt is to be found as much in the form a l dialogue between contribulions, between radieally differing geslures toward performance, and in the moves between 'essay' and 'documentation ' , as it is in the content of the individual papers themselves . These differences demon slrate thal the terms hy which ' Live Art' can be approached nol only remain in flux, but are perhaps al their most honest and useful while they are still in lhe process determination , still subject to a sharp, self-reflexive questioning of their nature and effect.
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.1 , Bil'llll ¡J.\.'1 n",tII"" J'/WOf\' , /'o s/II,o ,k l'll ism . IlId ialla 1I11iwrsit y Pn:ss, 1l1oontillg tun & I m.! i; \ll:Ip.,lis, I'NI. 1 \ .l. lIaudri lla rd , 'f'¡'(' /:;'-s/asl' O{ COII/II/I/II;crilio/l , SCll1io(cxl(c) , New York . 1988 . T. Dllchcrly . A/;(',. 171m,.y , RoUllcdgc, Nc\V York & LOlldon . 1990. I,l 1'. Auslandcr., cssay revicw . The f)rml/{/ RCl'icIV, vol 37. 110:1 ( 1993), ppl96-- 201 .
Notes
2 3 4 5
D . M. Levin , 'Postm o dernism in Dan<:e: Dance, Disco urse, Democracy' in PoslIHodernism Philo.\'ophy and lh e Arls, edited by H. J. Silverman , Routled gc, London. 1990. N . Kaye, PosllI1oc!ernism ({mI Per/órmilI1Ce, MacMillan , London, St Martin 's Press, New York , 1994. H. Sayre. The Ohj e<:l oI Pe/jrmnal/ce, U nive rsity of Chiea go Press, Chicago & London , 1989. J. Nuttall , Per/órnwnce Arl, Volllme One: ¡l,{mlOirs, Jo hn Calder, London, 19 79. A. Henri, Er/I'irol1/11cl1lS ({I/(I Happcl1il1J;s, Thames & H ud so n, Lo ndon , 1974. J. McGrath , A Good Nighl 01/1 , Mcthucn , London. 1981. A . Howell and F. Tcmpleton , Elemel1/s oIPe/jórmal1('e Arl, Lonc!oll: Ting: Thea/ re o( M iS/akcs. 1977.
6 M. Kirby, A Form({lisl Thea/re , University of Pcnnsylvania Prcss, Philadelphia , 198 7. 7 S. Banes. Terpsichore il1 SI1e{{kers, 2nd cdition , Wesl eyan Univers ity Press, M iddleto n, 1987,
8 S. Brisley, Conversations, 'Audio ArlS ¡\;/agmine, vol 4, no 4 (1981).
9 R. La Frenai s, 'Live Art ha s its Da)', Perjim l1{(/1Ce, no 14 ( 1981) pp 5- 6.
10 Perjimnal1ce. no 9 (1981) pp15 - 16. 11 M . Vandcn HeuvaL Pe/jimnil1J; Dralll((IDr(/m({/i ~ ;l1g !'"r/iml/(II/('(', Univcrsity 01' Michigil n Press. Ann Arbor, 1991. ! 2 P. Ausl;w der , Prcsel1 ce (//1(/ Resis/(/I1(,{,: P/>.IIII/O¡/j'/'I/ /I'II/ (I/I ,{ ( 'I/I//o',d Poli/;,',\' i/l 'o/llemporarr Amerimll Perjórmal1(,i'. U ni vl:l1Ii l y (JI Mil'l ll ll;1II I'n:ss, Michi gall . 11)92.
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PE R FO RM A NCE A RT
ANO R I TUAL
Bodies in performance
Erika Fischer-Lichte SPLlln:: 'IlImlre ResearcJ¡ IlIlernal/olla/ 22( 1) ( 19')7): 22 37.
1. Discovcring performath'ity DlIring the summer school at Black Mountain College in 1952, an ' untitl ed cvent ' too k place, initiated by John Cagc. The participan ts induded , besides Cage, the pianist David Tudor, the composer Jay Watts, the painter Robert Rauschenberg, the dancer Merce Cunningham and the poets M ary Caroline Richards and Charles Olsen. Preparations for the 'event' were minima!. Each performer was given a 'score' which consisted purely 01' 'time brackets' to indicate moments of action , inaction ami silence that each performer was cxpected to fil!. Thus, it was guara nteed that there would be no causal rela tionship between the different actions and 'anything that happened arter that, happened in the observer himself ' .1 The audience \Vas gathered from other participanls at the summer school , members of the college staff a nd thei r ramilies, ami people from the sUlTounding countryside. The seats fo r the spectators \Vere set out in the dining hall ofthe college in rront 01' eaeh \Vall in the form 01' four triangles, wh ose lips pointed to the centre 01' the room without touching each other. Thus, a large free space wa s created in the centre ol' the room in which, as it happened, very little action took place. Spacious aisles between the triangles erossed the room di ago n ally. A white cup was placed on each seat. The spectators did not receive any explanation: some used the cup:.; as ashtrays. From the ceiling were hung paintings by Rohert Rauschenberg- h is 'wh ite paintings' . ( \ lge, in a hlack suit ami ti e. slood o n a step laducr ami read a text 0.11 'the rclati on or musi<.: lO /cn Budd hÍlnTl ' and ex<.:erpls I"ro m M astcr Ed lla rt. La ter hl! pcrf Mmcd a 'cnrnpositi o n with a raJio'. I\ t tl le s:lI m: time, Ra llschenhcrg pla ycd llld rccnn ls 011 a wiml- up gral1l ophollC wlll l 11 II IlI lIpcl whi le a Ii stcning
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d ng. sal hrsld c il. alld D uv id TlIu or playcd a 'p rc pa red piano' . 1\ littlc la Le r, TwJor ~la rt ud to pom water rroll1 onc b ucket into a nol her, while Olsen and Richards r~a d rrom their poetry, eithcr amongst the spectators, or standing 011 a laddcr leaning against one 01' the walls. Cunningham and others danceJ I IIrollgh the aisles chased hy the dog \Vho, in the mea ntime, had turneJ maJ . 2 Rallschcnberg projected abstract sliJes (created by coloured gela tine sand wiched hetween the glass) and c1ips ol' film onto the paintings on the ceiling; the film dips showed tirst the school cook, and then , as they graJually moved rmm the ceiling do\Vn the \Valls, the setting sun. Ja y W a tt sat in a comer and played different instruments . At the end ofthe performance four boys, dressed in white, serveJ cofree into lhe cups, regardless 01' whether the spectators had lIsed them as ashtrays or not. There ca n be no Jouht tha t the ' untitled event' is to be regardeJ as a I'cmarkable event in the theatre hist ory 01' Western culture, as lTlueh of the relationship created between performers anJ spectators, as of the kinJ 01' interaetion betwcen the differe nt arts. At first glance, it may appear as though the spatial arrangement favoured a rocllsing ofthe centre. During the performance , however, it hecame cIear that such central focus did not exist. The spectators were able to Jireet their attenli on lo different aetio ns taking place simultaneously, whether in different parts 01' the room, or joining ami overlapping. Moreover, they were in such a posi lion lhat wherever they looked , they always saw other spectators involved in the act of perceiving. In o ther words, the action s were not to be perceived in isolation from each other, nor were they unrclated to the o ther percei ving spectators, despite the f
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is ,d ways Il'ah /\.'d a~ lIl1 l1\'1 l l1 l1 01' movell1ent. Thc ' u Ilion 01" lh\.' arts ·. 1111: IlallsAII.!s~ i!l1l .ll lhl: honJl:ls 0 1' lhe dissolution ofthe bordcrlinC!i separal III /;'- !lile a rl 1'111111 allolher. was accomplished here because all were re~t1 izcJ in a perrorJllalivc lIloJe, nllls lhe perforll1ative fun ction was foregrounded , eithcr hy raJically rcducing lhe rercrenlial function (for instance, in the unre1atedness 01' lhc acliolls. which could not be connecteJ into a story or a Illeanin grllI 'sYllIbolic' conflguration; or by the refusal to give the 'untitled ' event a title), or by elllphalically stressing the performative function (for instance, by the arrangell1ent of actiolls 01' by the emphasis put on lhe fact that it was an 'lIntitled erent'.) '!'hus. one can conduJe that the historical relevance of the 'untitled event' is l'ounded on its diseovery of the perfonnative. That is not to say that Euro pC
1lIl llIall itics, hlll also 01' olhe!' l'ldllll'al dOlllaills, In IIK'atre. rol' example, the (ll: Jl o l'lllali w alt 11(11' . ' '(('('l/('/)('('. the Meininger foregrounded the Iiterary In l 01" Ihe drallla. on the one hallll-- which arter many years of adaptation \Vas 1hen no lon gcr open to revision- and the preser\lablc elcments of the pellúrma nce such as the set and lhe l:Ostullles, on the other. Culture, aeeord II II! 10 nineteenth-l:entury cOllllllon belief. \Vas manifested by and resulted in a Ileracts whil:h could be preserved and handed down to the next generation . It was against this that avant-gardist 1ll0Velllents sUl:h as the futurists, dadaists and surrealists direeted their flerl:e attacks, proclaiming the destruc li¡)n orthe museums and hailing velocity and ephemerality as the true culture \'reating torces orthe fllture. In this respect, the Futurist seral e and the Dadaist \"fIirh',\' can be seen as 'forerunners' to Cage's 'untitled event'. But while the lúlllrists and dadaists roeused on the destructive rorces of their performanl:es ill order to shock the audiences- 'épatcr le bourgeois'--and to destroy bour 1'-:ois l:llltllre, Cage's event emphasized the new possibilities opening IIp not only for the artists but also for the audiences. The performative mode here was applied as a means 01' 'Iiberating' the spectators in their al:t of perceiving ami creating meaning. In the 1950s, perrorrnativity was not only reclaimed by the arts. In anthro pology the notion of cultural performance \Vas recognized , in Iiterary theory Roland Barthes rocused on the creativity of l'écrilure instead of the static text (as in Le Degré zéro de l'écrilure, published in 1953) and in philosophy John 1.. !\ustin defined what he chose to call 'the speech act'o Austin developed a philosophy oflanguage, which he presented al the William James Lectures at Ilarvard University in 1955 under the title: 'How To Do Things With Words'. I k put rorward the pioneering, ir not revolutionary idea that linguistic lI1terances do not only serve to describe a procedure 01' to state a faet but con1,'IHled that the mere uttering ofthem simultaneously perrorms an aet as, ror l'xample. the act 01' describing, stating, promising. congratulating, l:ursing, and so on. What speakers oflanguage llave always known intuitively and pral:tised accordingly was , for the first time, artielllated in a philosophy of language: lan guage not only serves a rererential function , but also a performative one. That whil:h Austin 's theory of speeeh al:t accolllplished with regard to the J..nowledge ol'language, Cage's ' untitled event' realized for theatre. Suddenly, Ihat which theatre artists and spectators had known intuitively and practised rOl' ages beca me evident: theatre no! only fulfils a rererential functi on, but a pnrorlllative one, too. Whereas, at the beginning or the I950s, the Western dl'alll
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l"1l1l1l:l\1porary stage IIsually 1>11'.111111: 11 ,lIl\1 lh ~·t "pan: Willy Lom un's liv ill " 1Olllll, ror instance, or lhl: mad whc l \: I )Id l u nLl <. ;ogo arl: wailing ror (ioulll llw dining hall in Black MoulI la in (. 'o lkg\! did nol signiry any o thcr spucc_ O lll: l11ighl spel:ulate on whelher lhe spccili c arrangements o f lhe I"our lrian gles I'ormed by the spel:tators' seats pointed lo a fi gure 01" the Yijing ami coulo be inlnpreteo accordingly_ But this is quite another matteL Fi rst, there was 110 particular segment in the room delineated for the perfo rmers to which a pa rticular meaning could be attributed; second, any mea ning deri ved from lhl: Yijing would have to be related to the whole room and, third , reference 10 lhe Yijillg does not provid c any due to the meaning 01" the act ioDS_The space was a real space, and it did not signify another (fictiona l) space. R a ther, il Sl:~' IIIS lhat it provoked a kind of oscillating reception. The spectator who ti il:d lo make sen se of the event and ils single elements/actions, became a ware tllat hl'r/his usually applied patterns ofconstituting meaning did not fit. The II su.II patterns were not discarded as uselcss, however, but rather held in ahcyam:e, called up, present, and yet somehow inapplicablc. Trying to apply 1h('1I1 did not provide answers, but led to further q ueslioning_ The dining hall wa.s thc dining hall- to which the cup as wcJI as the film clip showing the scl]()()I's cook alluded--and, at the same time, it was refunctionalized : during 1hl~ lime the untitJed event took place, it was another space, neither the dining hall nor a particular fictional space. None the less, the spectator was not prl'vented from perceiving it as a particular fictional space, if lhat occurred tu her/him, nor from asking the question: ' What does this space signify or mean?' In this case, the spectator might have conduded , at lhe end of lhe performance, that it did not mean anything (in the sense of a referent attrib lIled by the event). Space and its perception underwent a metamorphosis, a transformation, as did Ihe search for possible meanings 01' its single elements Iike the cmpty centre, the aisles, and the step ladders. Similar conclusions can be drawn concerning the sen se 01' time in the perl'ormance and the performers. The time of the performance \Vas the real time 01' its being performed. I t did not signify another time of the day , another yca r or epoch, nor a time in which a fictitious character performs a particular al·lion. It was the time that passed during the performance, structured by the actioll , inaction and silences as indicated by the 'time brackets' of the score, alld not necessarily another, fictional time. Whereas in the theatre of the 1950s, the aetors used their bodies to signify ficliona l characters, to perform actions that are supposed to signify aetions hy lhese characters, and uttered words which signified the characters' speeches, tho perl'ormers 01' the 'untitlcd event' employed their bodies in order to pcrl'orm particular actions: to playa gramophone, different instruments or a ' prc p¡n'el! pia no ', lO dance through lhe aisles, dimb a ladder, or operate the projcctor. a mI so o n. When lhe perro rmers spoke, they ei ther reci lcd t bei r ()WII Icx ts nr Ihcy ¡nade it dea r th al lhey werc reading rrom texts by ot11c r a IlI IH1IS. l nl hi.. wa v. q lll.!slipllt>w ncern il1.l' ficti o na l characlcrs , Iheir hisl0 ries, }I\::!.
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psydwfllgll.·lIl mn livall nns C() lIld 1101 ¡Irise: roal people pcrfo rmed re, lI nt..IIOIIS in a real spa ce in a real time. W lIat \Vas at stak e was lhe perform ;1I1 <.:e OL ll'l ion s I\(lllhe relalion 01' aclions to a tictional character in a fictional story in a lictional \Vorld, or 10 one anolher, so that a 'meanin.gful \Vhole' IIlight come illto existence. 1~Vl:n lhe role 01' the spectator was redefined. Since the referential function lost its priority, the spectators did not need to search for given meanings or SlruggJc to deciphcr possible messages formulated in the performance. Instead, lhey were in a position to view the actions performed before their eyes a nd Cars as raw material, and let their eyes wander betweell the simultaneously pcrformed actions; lhey were allowed not to search for any meaning, or to accord whatever meaning occllrred to them to single actions. Thus, looking on \Vas redefined as an activity, a doing, according to their particular patterns 01' perception , their associations and memories as well as on the discourses in which lhey participated. At the beginning of the I 950s, the artefact in Westcrn culture was held to be the absolllte constitutive factor of any arto Dramatic theatre proceeded from a literary text, music composed or interpreted scores, poetry created texts and the fine arts produeed works. Various hermeneutic processes of interpretation proceeded from such artefacts, and returned lo them in order to substantiate 01' jllstify different interpretations. The artefact dominated the performance process to slleh an extent that its production (writing_ compos ing, painting, sClllpting), or its transformation into a performance (in theatre and coneert) as well as of the performance itself and its receplion . had almosl entirely slipped out of sight. The ' llntitled event' dissolved the artefact into performance. Texts were recited, music was played, paintings were 'painted over'-- the artefacts becamc the aetions_ Thus, the borders between the different arts shifted. Poetry, music, and the fine arts ceased to function merely as poetry, music, 01' fine a rb they were simuItaneously realized as performance art. They all changed into theatre. Nol only did the 'untitled event ' redefine theatre by focusing on its performative function; it also redefined the other arts. These were realized and described as perForma/1ce. But. as mentioned before, the different arts did not 'lInite' in a Wagnerian Ge.wlI1lku/1SIWerk, bul into theatre, the performative art par excellence. Thus, the ' untitled event' not only blllrred the borderlines between lheatre and the other arts, but al so those between theatre and other kinds of ' cultural performance'. i\ theatre performance is to be regarded as a particular genre nI' cultural performance which, by realizing the features identified by Singer, partly differs from other genres ofcultural performance as, for instance, ritual, po litical ceremony, festival, games, competition, Iectures, concerts, poetry rcud ings.., fil m shows, a nd so on, amI partly overlaps with them . Thc ' unt itlcu event' wa.., reali /.cu }IS a theatre performance in the Cllllrse 01' whid , Ict:I Jlrl'S, p ~)Clry rcaoings,,, fi lm show, " slidc-shQw, concerts, lah!eaux
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vivanl.\' (dog and gramophone, 'His M a!;ter's Voicc'), dance and él kino 01" ritual o r feast (in the sharing of the coftee) took place. Ilowevcr, these cultural pe rformances were not re-presented as in dramatic theatre, opera , or dassical ballet; rather, the performance \Vas the realization , or the realization Ivas the performance. Since, in this instance, thca tre occurred as a non-cau saJ, non-linear sequence of discrete actions, represented before an C1udience. its difTerence from other gen res of cultural performance became insignificant. Performativity turned out to be the most important characteristic 01' theatre, arl. culture. Theatre, art ami culture. thus, were redefined as performance. F rom today's viewpoint, the ' untitled event' 01' 1952 appears lO have been a rcvolutionary event in Westcrn culture. The trend towards performativity w hid . has gradually grown since the 1960s in theatre, the other arts and in cllltlln: in general , was lInmistakably articulated and uncompromisingly realizcd in the ' untitled event'o Qne could state that Cage 's 'untitled event' anu Austin 's speech act theo ry herald ed the era of a new performative culture and were its first momentous manifestations. ror such a performative culture, theatre understood as perfolmative art /'lIr n :cellence- as rea1ized in performance art--- could serve as a model. I I"theatre is understood as the paradigm of performative art ami, in this sense ;IS lhc model ofperformative culture, what, since the I 960s, has it contributed lo lhe development of such a new performative culture? This issue will be addressed by drawing on some examples from so-cal1ed perfo rmance art. Many performances consist of the performance of everyday practices. For instance. in the piece Cyc/e .lor Water Buckels, first performed in 1962, the FLUXUS artist Tomas Schmit, knelt in a cirde formed by ten to thirty buckets or bottles, one of which was filled with water. Clockwise, he poured its contents fram bucket to bllcket- - until all the water was spilled or evap Mated . By taking the action out of al1 possible context, the search for its intcntion, purpose, conseq uence or meaning was doomed to be as unsuccess fuI or, at least to remain as undccided as in the case of the elements in the 'u lltitled event'o The focus lay on the very process by which the action was perl"ormed. The spectators witnessed how Schmit pomed water from bucket lo bucket ami since the context in which such an activity could be performed in l:veryday Jife was lacking, one could not attribute a meaning to it- as, for l'x ample, preparing to c1ean the flnor, extinguishing a fire , filling a trough . d caning a bucket/bott1e, demonstrating a safe hand , and so on: Schmit's aelion cOllld mean a]] this, sOlllething else or just what it was : pouring water fmm nne bucketlbottle into the next. Other perforlllances al1ude to or draw on different genres of cultural Ill: rl"o rlll a nee: rituals , festi va ls , services of a1l kinds, Céu'nival, circus perform ;lIlees, shows al a (~.irg round . story-te l1 ing, bailad si nging, conce r1 :;. sporls, .U. 1I11es, and S() 011 . I n suc h c ult ural performanccs, C III!Uf'l' a l way ~ was (and is) dc filll.:d anu rca lil.cd .IS pcrl"orll1utivc. Tha1 is nol 111 say 111.11 :lI ld; \I: ls are not II sed or do Ilnl p l••y , . IlI'ollJ inenl rok Q ll i1l' 1111' l'l ll tl l,1I V in Ill illly c ll l1 ural ~; I
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IK:rforma m:I.:S SO /lll' k ind 01" artcf~lcts are nceded , some are cven essential for tk realization uf the pcrformance. Ilowevcr. they only function or are able tu display their special power as e1ements 01' a performative process, and not as artefacts. Therefore the use of artefacts in a cultural performance by no means entails a reduction of its performativity. Since cultural performances emphasizc the performative character of culture, it seems wise to proceed from performances that reter in one \Vay 01' another to a genre of cultural performance when embarking on an investi ga lion of theatre's contribution to the developmcnt of a nc\\' performative cul ture. In view of the great variety of possible genres of cultural performance~ rcferred to by performance artists, however, I shal1 restriet my explorati oll s to performances which , in one way 01' another, have taken recourse to a particularly basic genre, namcJy the performance of rituals.
2. Performillg ritual or tbe ritualization of performance? SeCO/Id actüm 01 Nitsch's 'OI'XY my.\·te'T theatre' The wal1s of the main room are covered in white hessian splashed with paint , blood ami bloody water. on a meat hook, at the eod of a rope hanging from the ceiling, hangs a slaughtered, bloody, skinned I
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inlpression , Nitsch himselfhas listeo a number of sy mbulal' a S:-;\l¡,; i:lli (l l\~ Ihal can be presupposeo for any ofthe e1ements. Concerning the enlrails he spL'ó lics: 'slaughter house, sacreo killing, slaughter, animal sacrifkc. human sacrilic\!, prilllÍtive sacrifice. hunt, wa r. surgical operation'. Amongst possibk sensual irl1prl~ssions he mentions: 'blood-warm, blood-soa ked, mallea blc. resilicnt, sllirtl~d lo bursting, to puncture, to crush, a strea m ofexcremen t, the intensive ud ollr ofraw meat and excrement '. To tbe elernent 'bJood ' Nitsch assigns sym holic associations: 'red \Vine, Eucharist. tbe blood oC C hrist , sacri.ficc. human ~¡¡ u ilicc, animaJ sacrifiüe, slaughter, primitive sacrifice. sacred killing, Jife illiccs'. and sensuaJ impressions: ' body-warm , warm from the sJaughter, blood " l;¡ ~Cd , wet , bright , blood-red Jiquid, to be spJattered, po ured, paodleo in, ~¡¡ l lIy tastc, wounding, killing, a white dress smeared with blood , menstrual hllllld , thc stench ofblood'. With regaro to 'flesh' Nitsch names the following syrllholic assocíations: ' bread , Eucharist, the transforrnation ol' bread in to II ll' hody of Christ (flesh). sacrifice, animal sacrifice, human sac rifice, sacrcd kilJillg, slaughter, wounding, killing. war, hunC. The corresponding sen sual illlprcssions he cites are: 'body-warm, waml from the slaughter, blood-soaked, \WI, n lW, bright blood red, malleable, resilient, the taste ofraw meat, wound illJ:¡, killing, the steneh orraw meat ,.7 The 'tea-rose', according to Nitsch , pro V()kes the symbolic associations 'erotic flower (Iust) , rosary (Madonna) , queen ()l"lhe Ilowers' and releases the sensual impressions 'seent oftea-roses, the taste (JI" tca-rose petals, the voluptuous opulenee 01' tea-roses, the tea-rose stamen, the pollen of the tea-rose'. s It is striking that most of the symbolic associations Nitsch assigns to the COl1stitutive elements of his actions point either to archaic/mythic or to Christian/Catholic rituals. They are intended to operate as links between the action/perforrnance taking place here and now (in the early I 960s) and cer tail1 kinds 01" ritual which still oporated in the context of Western culture (in Vicl1na in the early I 960s) such as the rituals ol' the Catholic church or those \Vhi~h we imagine as having taken place-or which stil1 do take place- in ;llh..:icnt Greece and other cultures, This does not necessarily imply that the sPl'~talors shared the symbolie associations proposed by Nitsch. But, al IItl' very least. we can assume that as members of the Viennese culture of the I%()s. they disposed of a universe of discourse which was open to the possi b ilily ofsueh associations. 9 11] any case, not only the symbolic associations but also the sensual impres s inl1s were aceessible to pe rforrne rs and spectators alike. In Nitsch's actionsl (1l.!rJ"ormances, the spectators were involved , evcn acted as perrormers. Thcy WCl'e splashed with bload , excrement odish-water and other liquids a nd wera .! ivl'1') the op po rtunity to do the splashing themselves. 1.0 g ut the lamb, to ·o n).¡ umc the meat and the wine. 'r he sens unl il11prcssio n:; a nd Ú1c symo()lic assw.:i;lli PIIS Iriggercd by the d irf en:nl ch:rlll: lII S o rlhe perr~) rrllancc, h uw~'V\;, \\In,' lI, d.',,'d ;tlld stnrctu l"\!t.J Ihl Cl lllc·h rc l~ rc r lt:c lo Olll: ¡(llmillil lll clerl1elll ' 11 11 1.1 111" 111 W.'/,Icrrl C (¡rist ian
The rituals to whieh Nitseh refers are scapegoat-rituals, exorcisms , c1eansing and/or transforming rituals. Like a ll rituals they do not only signify a particu lar action, they al so perform it: the referential function indicated by the symbols used in the process of ritual is c10sely linked to , even oominated by, t he performative funetion . The ritual is able to aehieve the desired erfeet to which the symbols (objects and/or actions) allude---as c1eansing the COT11 ll1unity. healing an individual, transforming a group of individuals, and so on . only because it is performed in a particular way. By equating his performances \Vith ancient Greek und Catholic rituals the artist c1ail1ls that by perfonning his actions he perforrns a particular kind of ritual. Such a c1aim seerns pro blema tic in m an y respeets, for it ignores basie dilferenees bct ween ritual ::; tha t o p.:ra te wi thin a com m Ll nity and the actio ns (lerrorl1lcd by the arti sl. W hen. lú r installce the Holy C ommunion to whieh Nilsch rdeIs, is per l"ol'lncJ as a ¡ill lid litis p roceclure is cert ified as a ritual ,
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Illl: larllh sYlIIhnli/.cs l'hrisl alld his s;l¡,;rilice. Thcrel"orc , the Jamb , as Ihl' f()ta l ccn ln: M almost ¡¡ II \ )1" Nitsch's pcrfi.mnances . opens up a dimen :>It>r l whieh strcJ1gthens the allusioll to C hristian rituals to which the possiblc ~y ll1h(llie aclions m¡J)' rcler. Nitseh labels it the ' mythicalleitrnotif of the orgy lIlysh:ry thcutre (ll1ythical expression 01' the collective need to abreact) the I ransformation ' .
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co mmunion : T AKE, EAT, TI-lIS lS MY RO O Y. BROK EN F OR YOU FOR Tri E RE MISSION OF SI NS ... DRJNK YE ALL OF THIS, FOR THIS IS MY BtOOO OF T l-IE NEW COV ENANT: SHEOFOR YOU ANO FOR MAN Y . .. the crueillxion of jesus ehrist the tearing apart 01' dionysus the blinding 01' oedipus ritual castration the killing of orpheus the killing of adonis the castration of attis ritual regieioe kining ano eonsuming the totemic beast the primitive excesses 01' sado-masochism consuming l'ood : meat and wine in sumptuous measure 'O
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h~'~',¡ 11 :,1.' ,111 ;1 11 t hl>1 i/( '11 pI.' 1S(l ll C'H'I.'III¡;~ 111 .: oIl lit I,,~ 111 ti pilrl icula r conlcx I a Il U IIl1de l pa l lin tl ul cOlld rtil)l\S a ntl IlL'Ca uM: Ihe I.'lIl1glcga lion is cO l1 vi nccd lhal he is l'l1lillcd l O perfllrml he aClions, 111 Ihis rc~rL'c l th ~ rilual is comparable t a spcl.'l'h al't. It call11nly succceu when il is perro rmcd in a particula r space, al 1 rU1l Íl.:u lal lime, in a particular way by a person who is entitled lo pcrform il. Ir SlllllCOI1C olher lhan Ihe priest sprinkles water 00 somebody's forehead and IIlI e/ s lhe w(mls: 'Ego te baptisto in nomin e Pa tris et Fili el Spiritus Sancli', lit' 11:Is by no Illcans performed a christening- at best , a joke, Benven iste /lIakcs lhc po inl succinctly:
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I\ppl ll:J lo rilllals. it mean s that they will only work when performed by persono Thus, s/he is pa rt 01' the particular framing which the 12 /1 111;11 IICCOS in ordcr lo succeed: the fram e may indudc a particular occa ',IP II , place. time. setting, specific actions: in any case, it will be put up by 11(.' 1SO liS who are entitled to perform these actions. Therefore, when an artisl 111-. ..: N ilsch prodaims that he is performing a ritual by perrorming particular adiulIs, Ihe qllcstion arises as to what entitles him to perfo rm a ritual whcl hc r in his ()wn eyes o r in the eyes of participants/spectators? A llutlll'r lfllL'stion concerns the relati o nship between the performed actions alld I hl,i,. pnssihle meanin g. I f we assumc that the action he performs sllcceedb 111 ~::lIIs ill g cxactly tha! effcct which it signifies, we have to explain how sign :11111 sigllifkd Illerge. In the rituals to which Nitsch a lludes. this occurs either 11~'ca ll sc 01' lhe presence 01' di vine o r cosmie/magic forces/energy reJcascd by Ihe r1ll1al. What, in Nitsch's performance, operates as a substitute for such ii)1 ces? Wh
Iku ys starleJ his action durin g the tli ght lo the United States, before even rL'aching lhe American continent. Ile closed his eyes in order not to see any Ihing. Al l. F. Kennedy Airport, complelely wrapped up in felt, he was taken lo lhe gallery by an ambulanee. He Ieft the sa me \Vay . During his seven-day slay he did not see anything 01' America other than a lo ng, bright roOJ11 with Ihree windows in the René Block Gallery- which he shared with a wild coyote for a full week . The room was divided by a wire screen which separated Beuys and the eoyote rrom the spectators . At the far comer, stra\\' was put down for the coyote. Beuys brou ght along wilh him two lon g fclt c1oths, a walking stick, glo vC!i, a lorch and fift y issues of the Wa!1 Street ]our!1a! (to which , each day. lhe latest issue was added). He presented them to the coyote to snitT at and urin ate on . Beuys placed the two felt c10ths in the cenlre of the roo m. One he arranged as a heap in which he hid the lit torch so that only its glow could be perceived . The issucs of the Wall Street ]ouf/1al were piled up in t\\'o stacks behind the wire screen to the front of the room. With the brown walking stick hooked over his a rm , he approached the o ther felt c1 oth, put o n the gloves and covered hiJ11self completely \Vith the felt ; all that could be seen \Vas the staff slicking out. Beu ys created the image of a shepherd who underwent a series of transformations thanks to the position of his staff: squatting down in an upri ght positi o n, he hcld it up, swung it horizontall y, pointed it to the f100r. In response to the m ovements of the coyote, the figure turned on its o wn ax is. Then, unexpectedly it would drop sideways to the fl oor where il remained stretched out. Then. all 01' a sudden Beuys would j ump up, letting the felt slip down and hittin g the triangle which hung around his neek three times. W hen the last sound had died away , he turned on a tape reco rder placed before thc hars, so that for twenly seconds the noise of running turbines was heard . When silence returned, he took off his gloves and threw them to the coyote which maul ed them . Beuys went to the issues ofthe Wall Slreel ] ournal whieh Ihe coyote had scattered and torn , and rearranged them into pi les. After wards he lay down o n the straw to smoke a cigarette. Whenever he did this, Ihe coyole would move towards him . Al other times, the coyote preferred to líe on the heap of felt. It looked in lhe same direction as the li ght of lhe to rch and avoided a position where the spcctators wOl/ld be behind its back. Often it restlessly paced the room, ran lO a window ami sta red out. Then it would return to the papers and chew them , dra g thel1l lhrough the room or shil on them. Tllc coyotc kepl a ccrtain dislance from the figure in telt. Occasion a lly it l'irclcd hil1l snirli ng anu exciledl y jUl1lping at the slick , it bit the felt amI shred il i"lo pil..'Ccs. W hcnl he fi g u rc lay slrl'l chcd o ut on the !loor lhecoyotc sniffed alld rroddcd hl l11 . pawcu 01' sal do wlI bcsidc hil1l amI 1riel! lo cnrwl undc rl he kll, M oslly, howcvc r. il sl ;I )'!!d .. \\1.1)' . 11 '\i Il)' th l: lig un: wil h ils cyes. O nl y
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De loulc maniere, un énoncé pcrformatif n'a de réalité que s'il est aul llcnlil ié comme ([cte. Hors des circonstances qui le rendent per /'PI/lJalir, un tel énoncé n'est plus rien, N ' importe qui peut crier sur la place Pllbliq ue: 'le décrete la m obilisation générale.' Ne pOLlvant etre ,1, '1,' ralll\.' tle I'autorilé requise, un tel propos n'est plus que paro/e: il 'l' I(:Ju il ú une clameur inane, ent~lntillage ou démcnce . Un énoncé 111:/ 1i)l'IlIalir qui n 'est pas acte n'existe pas. 11 n'a d 'exis tence que 1 (1I 11111C aclL' d'autorilé. OL les actes d 'a utorité sont toujours et d'abo rd d, 's 1.· II\H1cialions proférées pa r ceux ú qui appartient le droit de les "lIollcc r. 11
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WI/l' lI Ik ll Ys SllIo kcd Ili s l:igalt.'1l1.' ,)11 Iltl.' "II. IW d ll.l il ap prom: h Irilll. Ila ving IIIIISIIL'U bis clgarellc, Belly:; gol lo lIis lél'\. 11.'1I 11a ngw lite tell ami covcn.:u lI ullsell agaill. Whcll a wed had passcd, Beuys very slowly scallered lhe slraw all over lhe roolll hu gged lile coyole good-bye amlleft the gallcry by lhe same route he had a rrived . 111 co nl rasl lo N ilsch, Beuys mainly used everyday objel:ls- such as lhe papcls, l~igarcllcs, lorch, slraw , felt, wal k ing stick , glovcs - and performed cVl:rydayal:lions such as arranging Ihe papers, smoking a cigarctte, sw itch illg 011 a lape n:cordcr. Aceordingly, neither the objeets nor the actions implied :tll y a llllsion whalsocver lo ritual. Moreover, it is diffleult, if not impossible, 1., asnihc lo Ihe objccls and actions symbolic associations shared by artist allcl spcclalors. Ilowever, the elements were accorded a symbolic value b y lhe ;11'1 iSI, 1101 in lhe sense of flxcd symbols but of ' vehicles of experience, trans IlIilll'rs alld communicators [ ... l. They represent hidden el"fects and can be IlIade cOllccivable and transparent. '/4 Th is is particularly true 01" the materials and objects. For instanee, Beuys c·.la hlíshcd a rclationship between the possible implieations ofthe felt and hili IOlrll\'!' actions when he sta tes: 'the way in which relt operates in my aetion, \\' 1111 dOllble mcaning, as isolator and warmer, also extenos to imply isolation 1'1'1111 All1erica ano the provision of heat for the coyote' ./ 5 He used the loreh as ' illl agc 01' encrgy': 'First, the lorch houses Ihe energy in com:entration , then , Ihe cnergy disperses throughout the course 01' the day until the battery has ItI IK~ renewcd. ' /6 The lorch was hidden in the felt beca use it was not to be prl'sL'nled as a technieal object: ' It should be a source of light, a hearth , a disappearing sun glowing out from under this grey heap.'/ 7The brown gloves which Beuys threw to the coyote after each turn represented ' my hands [ ... ], Ihc rreedom given mankind through the hands. They are free lo do all kinds tlr IlIings, an inflnitc range of utensils are at their disposal .. . The hands are IIlliwrsal. ' lx Beuys showed the manifold meanings of the bent walking stick ror lhe (irst time in his action Eurasia (1965): it represented the streams nI' cnergy lhat ftoat in EURASIA from east lo west and wcst to east. The 11'111/ Slrccl ]ounwl, on Lhe other hand , embodies ' lhe calcifieo death-starc 01' <- 'A PITAL thinking (in Ihc sen se of being forced to capitulate to the power of l110 ncy ano position) f .. . l Time is the measure 01' Ihe symptoms 01" the faot Ihal C APITAL has long bcen the only artistic concept. That, too, is an aspcct 01' IIH; United States:/ 9 Even the two sounds produced in the performallces. 1he hitting 01' lhc triangle and the noise 01" the turbincs, were accorded sLlch lIIl'anings. The noise 01' Ihe lurbines was ' lhe echo 01' the ruling technology : l'lIl'I"gy which is never harnessed ', while the sOllnd 01' the triallgle is reminis CI.:1l1 nI' ' Ihe uní ly and Ihe one' ami is conccived 01' 'a s a slrcam co m;c;olls II CSS d irl'clcd a ll he coyo lc'.' tl 111 l ~rn l S ni N il sch's pe rformallce, 11It.' SYlllhllll~' .1'iSI1C iali.II1 S assigncd lQ v;lIicll lS dl?lIl1:11l'< hy I he ar'lisl are nol I Wel' ~ ... IfI I't' ·,". I l~'d I,y his sflix la lnni ,
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allhoug ll;1 ""111 (,1 CIIlIIlIlllllio11 was 1I11imaldy possible, since lhe clcmenls 01' his pc rrOnnanCl' hclollg lo a general 1I1livcrsc of discourse. In Beuys's per forrnallce, this assul11ption cannol be madc. Ralher, it is Illost likely that lhc Amcrican visitors did not share lhe associations suggesled by Reuys at all and , accordingly , made quite difl"erent associations when perceiving the objects. However, therc are two aspects which overcome such objcctions and poin! to Ihe special slatus of the performance. First, the objects were not linked to lhe meanings explained by Beuys in the sensc 01' fixed symbol s. Rather thcy were Ihought to be able to unfold and realize lheir potential meanings and clTects only in Ihe context of the event thal constituted the performance: the meeting 01' Beuys and the coyote. Second , a eertain mythical dimension was ac¡;orded lo both partners. Beuys designed and staged himself as a shepherd-like figure , alluding to Ihe Good Shepherd, on one hand, and to a shaman, on the other- that is lo say, to a figure which possesses di vine and/or cosmic/magic forces . As his partner in the performance he chosc a coyote which represents one of the mightiest Indian deities . The coyote is said to be b1essed with the power 01' tran sforma tion, able to move betwecn physical and spiritual states. The alTival of the white man changed the status 01' the coyote. lts inventivcness and adaptabil ity admircd and revered by the Indians as subversive power \Vas denounced as cunning by the white mano Thus, it became the ' mean coyote ' which could be hunted and killeo as a scapegoat. Accordingly, Beuys's performance louched on a ' traumatic momen!' 01' American history: ' We should settlc our score with the coyote. Only then can this wound be healed .'2 1 Beuys undertook the action in order to reach this goal. I t was performed as an 'energy dialoguc '12 between man and animal, aimed at triggering the spiritual forees necessary for ' healing this wound' in the performer. He acted as a kind 01' shaman who pcrforms a healing ritual that will save the eommunity by restoring the destroyeo- cosmic- order. Although the parlicipants/spectalors were not in a position lo share the possible meanings accorded the objects by the performer it was assumed that they would benefil from the shaman's actions as he conjurcd up or exorcized the hioden potenlial meanin gs and effects of the objeels employed , thus releasing the 'healing forces ', i.c ., the spiritual forees within himself which enabled him to ael as a representative 01' a community---at least in his own vie\\'. That is to say in terms 01' Beuys's performance. thc questions formlllated abo ve bccome even more pressing.
The lips 01 T1lOnras Thc lhird example radicaliLes ami , thus, brings into focus an aspect that was simil a rly conslitu live the two other performances , namely the use and lrl'allllcn l ur lhe perl'ormcr's bouy . In her perform a nce, 7he lips 01' Thomas , Marina Ah lall1l\v ié ahuseJ hel' ()wn hody I'\)r Iw() hours in variolls ways .
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Abralllovié started by undressing total1y all ~ l l'WI ylllillJl. slle l/id Was pcr formed naked. She then sat down at atable CU Vc,;1 el! \Vil ha whil e dolh and sel with a bottle of red wine. a glass of honey. a ~ rys lal glass, a silver spoon and él whip. Slo\Vly she ate the honey with the silVl:r spoon , poured the red wine into the crystal glass and drank it. Arter swaIJ owin g the wine, she broke the crystal glass in her right hand , hurting hersell'. She got up, went to the back wall where, at the beginning of the performance. she had fastened a picture 01' herself and framed it by drawing a five-pointed star around it. She then took a razor blade and cut a five-pointed star into the skin of her belly. T hen she seized the whip. knelt down LIndel' her picturc, her back to the audience, and started to llog herself violently on the baek . After this, she la)' down. arms stretched out, on ice cubes laid out in a cross. A radiator hung from the ceiling was directed towards her belly . Through its heat, the slashed wounds of the star began to bleed copiously again. A bramovié remained on the cross of iee for thirty min utes until some spectators spontaneously removed the ice and thus broke off the performance. No doubt, the most striking aspect of this performance was the self mutilation. However, the objects Marin a Abramovié employed in order to execute the self-mutilation al so allow for a variety of symbolic associations. The five-pointed star, for instance, may be interpreted in various mythic
perflll mlT wlto 111 Ulckd lhe pa in 011 hersclr a nd lhe speclalors were the onc.s lo end lhe onlea l by rell10v ing lhe ice. As in lhe case 01' the per form a nces by Nitsch and Be uys. though in other rcspccls very difTerent , Abramov ié's performance alluded to a particular genre 01' ritual without actualIy realizing it. AIl these artis1s introduced or used ritual structures in their performances. They followed, for instance, the three phases of a rite identified by van (¡ennep.21 They started with a clearly marked separation phase: Nitsch, by arranging the environment and by puttin g on a white garment: Beuys, by lctting himself be wrapped in relt at the airpo rt; Ab ramovié, by setting the cnvironment and by undressing. The actions described aboye constitute the transformation phase. The final incorporati on phasc was indicated by the shared meal at the end of Nitseh's ritual/performance, by the wrapping up 01' lhefi gure in Beuys's, and by the spontaneous actions 01' some spectators in Abramovi é's performance. It does appear that the structure and the process of these three perform linces de rive from rituals. I hesitate, however, to class them as rituals despite lhe claims and interpretations of the artists themsel vcs, as my initial q uestion remains unanswered: ' What entitles an artist to perform a ritual not onl y in his/her own eyes but also in the judgement of the other participants, namely, lhe spectators'?'
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3. The body in performance In eaeh of the performances which 1 have described, the artist used her/his body in a striking manner. Nitsch polluted his body with blood a nd excremcnt; he put his hands deep into the entrails of the lamb and thus , allllost IitcralIy, carried out the lamb 's disembowcfment himsclf. He exposed his body to various sensations through contact with blood, wine, paint, di sh -water, m ine, excrement; and he inflictcd violcnce on the carcass of the lamb with his own hands . Nitsch' s body was the locus of performance. By using differe nt ma tcrials and objects, he not only changed them but also transforllled hi s own body . In Beuys's perfo rmance the performer's body obviously served a different purpo se. By living in the company 01' a wild coyote for seven days and nights, Beuys crcated a particular situation. On the one hand , he exposed hi s body to Ihe risk of bcing attacked , bitten or perilously hurt by the coyote. On the other, he cmployed his body to cOlllmunicate with the animal. The energy 01' lhis ·dialogue' proceeded from and was received by his body. The spiritual forces which were mean1 to bring about the ' healing' were to be releascd in alld oul orhis bod y. A no this blldy, in turn. did n01 rcmain unchanged alllidst alll hese risks and dan g~ rs cv~n ir i! was ulli lll a lcl y unh armed . T hc sevcn days aml nigills shareu wil h Ihe COyotl' Id'! !hl'ir illlrrin l.
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i( ahu:i('d 11,')" hlldy, lilcral ly l'Il! illlo IIcr OWII fksh , intlicled injuries PII il Ihal I.:l\uscd pain alld lel'l lasl ing lraces. Bul shc did nol a rticulate her pains by scn:am ing . Sh\: simply pcrform eJ sell'-mutila ting actions and pre sl:ntl'tl hc r blccding, sufl'cring body to the speetalors. She exposed the process (11' hurl and its visible traces, but not hc r pain- this hall to be sensed by the spcctalors. But obviousl y this sense bccame so strong and unbcarablc that Ilwy interfercd and put an end lO the pc rformer's tortures. 111 these actions the performers put their bodics a t risk lhrough trans {úrlllations, thrcats ami injuries which Iegitimized the performance. Since thc p CI formcr put her/his body in danger, the construction ofher/his own '[¡ction' - l he ll1ythical dismemberment 01' a god , t he dialog ue with a coyote, the acqui sltillll 01' a ncw identity- was substantiatcd and , in this sense, transformed inlll 'n:ality'. It was preciscly the dctiled , endangered , violated body that l'lIlilkd the performer to perform such actions as {('the performance were a 1 il ua 1. r his condition c1carly marks thc principal difference between an acknow h.:d!'\fd ritual and an artist's performance. TraJitional rituals originate in col h.:t: 1ivc constructions . such as myths, legends and other traditions; to pcrform a rilual is to re-substantiate them and to reaffirm their effects. The artist's pcrl'ormances, on the contrary, proceed from subjective constructions. Bere, il is only the defiled body of the artist, the endangered and still unharmed hndy , the boJy in pain , which is able to substantiate these constructions for thc spcctators. The perfo rrncrs' acting and suffering bodies , thus, gain the power 01' evidence of proof in the eyes of the spectators. Ilowcver, the spectators do not participate in a ritual as do the members 01' a Catholic congregation at Holy Communion, 01' the participants at a shamanist Jemon exorcismo For even if the particular use of the body may substantiate the performer's subjeetive constructions in the cyes of the spec t:ltors , it does not follow that they will ' believe ' in these constructions, i.e., Ihal they will be convinced that they are participating in the dismemberment uf a god , in the healing of America's traumatic wound. in the birth of a ne w itkntity, 01' a sacrifice. At best , they wilI sense 01' even believe that the artis t's lis\! 01' Ihc body manifests and reveals a new attitude towards the body: lhe attitllde 01' 'being my bod y' instead of only having it, as Plessner put it. 24 Lwn if the particular use of the body Joes not entitle the artist to perform rilllal or transform the performance into ritual , it endows the human body witll values long sin\:c forgotten and ignored in wcstern culture ·va llles tha!, al othcr times 01' in other cultures, were realizcd when such rituals were pt'l"formed as those lo which the artist's performance alludes. I f \Ve condude that the artist does not pc rfo rnl ritual, what ha ppens to the rdal iollship net wcell the actions perforln cJ und/uJ' 1111: l1 biccts lJsed a mi t he ir p()s~ i hlc rnca nings, lO lhe rclation sh ip bctwcclI 1111.: sl !' lIil icr s 1I 1lJ lhe s ig ni fi eJ ? I:i rsl. Ih\! ,> p..:cl all lrs pe rt'civc how t h~ a rtisl~ !1('I I() llIllhl ¡1I.;l ioIlS : po u ri ng hluqd un a wh" c \: aI1 VllS , k aring IlI c l'lI l l1l1 l , 11 11 11\ l!r t' l ' al l'a ~s (Ir a lalll h . A h !. I II " )\
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wrappin g him sdl' in a long kit doth, arranging papcrs, ~ mokillg a cigarettc. drinkin g rcd WiIlC, clltting a fivc-poil1tcd star into her belly , ami so on. And sincc the ar tists perform these actiolls not only themselves but as themsclves, in their own name (not in ordcr to represent actions 01' a given stage persona) Ihe spcctators will ascribe to thcm these obvious meanings: Nitsch tears entrails from a lamb's carcass, Bcuys wraps hjmself into felt , Abramovié cuts a five-pointed star into the skin ofher belly. In this sense one could state a Illomentary merging of signifier and signified. Hut all these actions and objects cOl1tain an abundance of possibilities which trigger symbolic associ ations depending on the universe of diSCDurse of each spectator. This sema ntic accretion prevents simple merging of signifler and signified . However , the performance does not structure lhe process of perception and meaning con slitution in such a way that any symbolic associations are emphasizeJ and foregrounded. Therefore the semantic accretion may result in a similar pro cess as the merging: it may draw the speetator's attention away from possible meanings of a gesture- that may mean anything- and focus on Íts materiality. back to the body of the performcr. Such focus , at the same time, emphasizes that the action causes certain cffects on the performer's body. When Nitsch tears the entrails from the lamb ' s carcass he is tainted by them ; when Beuys wraps his body in rclt , he makes it disappear ami creates a particular image; when Abramovié engraves a five-pointed star in her belly , it bleeds . Thus, despite the semantic accretion. the semantic dimension is devalllated as seco nd ury , The spectator's attention , in this case, is not directed towards a po ssible meanin g, but focuses first on the physical execution of an action , then on the effect it has on the performer's body. While participants in a rituai may take recourse to the collective constru c tion which enables them to assume that by performing the ritual exactly only ¡hose actions are caused which it signifies- the transformation ora wafer into Christ's body , the exorcism of the demon--because the merging 01' signifler ami signified is based on collective construction, in the artis1's performance they fall apart. Though the subjective construction may be substantiated in the eyes ofa spectator becallse ofthe particular use ofthe body, none the Iess, the spectator will be able to relate signifier and signified to each other without considering this construction. The divine/cosmiclmagic forces which the col Icdive construction presupposes and whose working the 'corred perform ance 01' the ritual will guarantee, are replaced in the artist 's performance by hcr/his individual demonstration or her/his being a body and not only having a body (as the common basis of human culture) ami the spectator's individual n:sponsc to it be it particular sensations , emotions, reflections 01' even the cxccution 01' certa in acti ons (as in Nitsch ' s performance) or in preventing the perl',wme r fr o m co nti n uing he r ac tio ns. T hu s, Ihe pe lf onner 's b~)Jy, in ma ny rcs pc¡;ls, ap pears lo be the basic con di tio n rM Ihi! ':¡ucccss' of lhe pCII IlIIII:III CC. Th..: risks Laken a nJ Ihe inj uries su bslanlialt: 11 1t: al li s l's '>lI h jcc liw ~'I \II s tl Ill'li llll in Ihe e yes nI' the spcctators "Lo
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Ihal is end nwcd wlllI lhe power to Lran SrOrlll subjective construl'lion into sl'lIsllally pe l'l.:ci vab1e realizations which, in turn, become the point 01' depa r ture ror other subjective constructions. However, a theory 01' culture that would proceed from the moment of performance, taking this as its pivot, is still to be developed. Regarding the process of reception, the artists' performances described here fund amenta lly question lhe lraditional concept 01' aesthetic distance. When the spectators' bodies are splashed with blood, when the audience bccomes cyewitness to actions by \Vhich the artist exposes her/his body to risks amI infticts on it severe injuries, how wiIl they be ablc to kecp an aesthetic dis tance? In such performances, is it stilI valid to hold aesthetic di stance as the 'adeq uate' attitude of reception? A theory of aesthetic perception taking into consideration the body in pain has stil1 to be developed. For it is highly q uestionable as to whether the aeslhetics of the sublime al ready deal \Vith this aspect satisfactorily . And such a thcory seems al1 the more desirabl e, since theatre, fmm the 1960s and I970s, incrcasingly employs the performer 's body in a \Vay which literalIy puts it at risk and violates it, whether in the perform ance of individual artists or of thcatre groups. In the 1960s and 1970s the Viennesc artist Rudolf Schwarzkogler, for instance, abused his body \Vith cables a mI bandages (1960); Ch ris Burden had himself locked up in a locker measuring 2' x 2' x :r for five days, nourished only fmm a water bottle placed in a locker above (1971); in the same year, in a performance entitled Shooting Piece, Burden was shot tbrough Ir is left arm by his friend ; Gina Pane was cut on the back , lace and hands and , Iying on an iron bed , scorched and burned her body by candles placed underneath .26 In the 1990s, Sieglinde KalInbach \Valked on fire and trickled hot wax onto her skin ;27 in The Reincarnalio/l 01 [he Ho /y Orlal7, 2~ the french performance anist Orlan, underwent cosmetic surgery to shape her face according to a computer-synthesized ideal that combined the features of women in famoLls paintings- such as BoticeIli 's Venus, Leonardo's Mona Lisa, Boucher's Europe, Diane from the Fontainebleau sch ool, Géróme's Psyché. The opera tion was directly tran smitted from th e surgical theatre to a New York gallery. Since the 1980s, performers increasingly use the bod y in violent ways , both in dance amI theatre groups. Injuries and pains are infticted on the per rormer's bodies as, for instance, in the theatres of Jan Fabre, Einar Schleef, Reza Abdoh, Lalala lIuman Steps or Fuera deIs Baus. In productions of Ilany K upfer, Frank Castorf, Leander Haussmann amI others, singers amI actors are thrown about a mI made to fall dangerously. Ir the elld a ngercd , scorched , pierced o r otherwise injured body is th e focus nI' attention, the quest.iQn arises as to how this affects aesthetic perception. As Ua ine Scan'y has sh()wn, pain C
rol' Ihe ren;~Hl in pai n. SI' illn 1ll k Nt;¡ hly Ull d lI nncgot iahly pn:sent is il tha l ' lIavin)'. pain' lllilY ~'lm , (.' 1\1 h\: 111 1111 )'.l1 t oras Ihe 1l1 ()s l vihranl
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cxam plc ofwhal il i:- 'lo haví: í:í:rtailll y' , \Vhilc l'or ll'll~ olhí:r pcrsnn it is so elllsivc thal 'hearing abolll pain ' may CXiiil as Ihe pn m ary moJe l of what it is ' to ha ve dOllbl'. Thus pain comes unsharab ly inlo our midst as at once thal which cannot be d enied and tha l w hich cannOI be confirmed .2~ To perceive pain can onlymean to perceive one's own pain, never the pain 01' another. The spectators perceive the action by which lhe performer hurts her/himself but nol the pain whicb s/he suffers. They are only in a position to assume that s/he feels pain. Thus, a kind of pa rad oxjcal situation presents itself. The fteeting instant at whieh an action is pcrformed and, thus, signifi er and signified seem to merge, is experienced by the spectator at lhe very moment when perception and meaning fall apart and the signified irretrievably separ ates from the signifier. While the action 01' hurting herlhimself is perceived, the pain which it causes can only be imagined. A gap opens up for the spectator between what is pcrformed 011 the performer's body, and what happens ;/1 the performcr's body, a gap that seems to be bridgeable only by way 01' imagina tion. While the performer makes her/his body the scene ofviolent actions, the spectator is forced to move the scene into her/his imagination. The 'real presence' ofperformance is questioned not only by the subjective constructions of the artists and the spectators, but also by the performer's pain. For her/his pain can only gain presence for the spectators in their own imaginations and not in the performance 01' the action by which the performer hurts her/himself. Thus, the perfomlance, in a way, turns into a scapegoat ritual. The performer exposes her/his body to risks and injuries against which the spectators aim to protect their bodies; the performer causes herlhimself the pRins which lhe spectators seek to avoid . The performer, in this sense, suffers in place of the spectators. S/he saves lhem from their own physical sulTering. The ' sacrificial victim' at the torment and death of a martyr, or even at the exccution 01' a repentant Christian up to the eighteenth century, held 'a magic power' and the onlookers ho ped for ' the healing of certain diseases and similar miracles' from the tortured o r execllted sinner , from 'his blood , his Iimbs or the rope' .llJ WhiJe here it was the tortllred and violated body of the sinner that seemed to promise and to guarantee the onlookers' own physical integrity, in the artists' performance, it is the imagination of the spectator which replaces the magie. Their imagination 'saves' them from the anxieties ofviolence and pain direeted towards their own body by imagining the performer's pain and by attempting to sympathize with it and to sense it themselves. The aesthetic perception, thus initialed, triggered and provoked by Ihe per formance ean hardly be described as 'disi nlcrcsled pleasurc'. On the one ha nd, lile spectators fcel shocked a nu deny whal they sce; o n the other, Ihcy are fascinated beca use someone viola tes h im/hefsd l' vll llllllaril y and bcc ulL.~c Ihe aclion conjllres IIp labnos nr lorl u.n: ;J OU phYSll'lIll' lIl1 ishlllcn t. ~rCdtltllrs
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lIorms, Ihey S!Jllllld tCd disgusl o r hurror. Il is Ihis ulllbiguily in Ihl~ rcccplion prll\.;ess lo which the performam;e arlisl Rachel Rosenlhal refers: 'In per
fornlél11ce art, lhe audienee, from its role as sadist, subtly becomes Ihe victim. Il is forced to e11dure lhe artist's plight empathetically. or examine its OW11 responses 01' voyeurism and pleasure , o r smugness anel superiority. [ ... ] In any case, the performer holds Ihe reins. [ ... ] The audience usually 'gives up , before the artist. ' 11 Here, aesthetie perception may be described as a kind 01' perception which transfonns the spectators into involved participants ando in this sense. into performers themselves by projecting the scene of the body onto the scene ofthe imagination- an imagination which, however, is tied to the body , or is even part 01' the body, i.e., a physical imagination that causes physical sensations. Therefore, the spectators usually 'give up' before the performer; Iheir imaginations have replaced lhe performer's body with their own and, thus, penetrated into the realm oflhe incommunicable- to the pain of the other, which, 110W becomes manifesl in a physical sensation, a physical impulse, in a physical response in the spectators. As van Gennep has ShOW11, rituals work in a community in order to secure a safe passage from a given status to a new one at moments of life or social crisis in an individual (such as birth , puberty, marriage, pregnancy, illness, changes in professional positions, death). The performances created by indi vidual artists over the last thirty years alluding to or transforming rituals seek lo secure and accelerate the passage of Western culture from lhe state of a prevailingly material culture lo a new performative culture. This passage is also to be understood as a passage from the given order of knowledge, the given sign-concept, as well as semiotic processes, towards a new, yet unde Ilned order of knowledge. The performances, thus, operate as the signature 01' a time of transition.
Notes John Cage, quoteo in Roselee Goloberg, Perjiml1ol1ce ArI, Prom FUlur;sm lO lile Presenl (New York: Harry Abraham, Inc., Publishers, 1988), p. 176. 2 Rauschenberg's oog barkeo louoly throughout the performance, running after anyone moving in the hall. l~he oog hao been a ve!:y popular performer in the nine teenth cenlury, but not lO everyone's laste. Rumour has it that Goethe resigned his direclorship at the Weimar Court Theatre becaúse in f)a llund Fon Allhry él hve dog \Vas desecrating lhe holiness (JI' the stage. :~ Richard Wagner. Gesol11l11elle Sc/¡rrfien lIIul f);cltlungen , I- IX , Vol. IV (Leipzig: E. W. Fritzseh, 1887/8: 2nd edition), p. J. 4 M ilton Singer, ed., Trad;lio//olln(/;o: Slruclure Ilnd C/¡ol1ge (Philadelphia: Amer ican Folklore Society, 1959), p. xii. 5 [bid. p. xii fT. (, He rlllalln Nitseh, /)e/l' O rg;I'/1 Mysl,.,.;c/I n/mler. f);c Porliluren al/a oul~('fi:ihrlen kl;(lI/('/I/W)(i 1')(1). I':rst llr Balld, l . .t!, Ak linll. (Ne;l pe Il M ünchen/ W ien : Editioll Frc ihol',l.'" 11)71)). p. 50.
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7 I krnwnll Nitsl:h, 'I>il: Rcalisatioll \f\:sO. M. I'hca tcrs ' ( !In'l). In I krmann Nits('\¡ , Das Orgicl1 Mvslaiel/ 'I'I/I·lIlel'. Malli/<'sll'. i/llf.i'iil:::e. Vol'/rüge (Salzburg/ W kll: Residcnz- Verlag. 1990), pp. 67- 107 & pp. 1(J] Ir 8 Ibid. pp. 105 fL 9 This is not the place to inves~igate lhe special trauitions on which Nit~ch tlraws - in particular the Viermese tradition. Concerning this question, ~ec Ekke hard Stiirk , Hcnnwl/1 Nilsch, Dos Orgien j\;/y sleriel/ Thealer um} die H ysterie del' Griec/¡m. Quellen L/lid ]i-aelil iOl1en ZUlI/ ~Viener A I/Iikenhilel.l'eil /850 (M ünchen : F ink- Ver lag , 1987). I (J Das Or¡;iel/ M y slerien- Thcaler, p. 87.
11 Émile Benveniste, Prob/emes ele lín¡;ui.l'/ique genem/e (París: Gallimaru 1966),
Jeanie Forle p. 273: 'In ally case, a perforrnative stalemcnt can only aehie ve reality w hen it is conllrmed as an al:tion. Out sidc the Circumstances w hieh rnake il performa tive, such a statcment is nothíng more than a mcre stat\jlll ent. Anyonc can cal! out in thc rnarkd square, ' 1 decl a re general rnob ilization'. But this statement eannot Sourcc: Thealre ]olll'l/al 40(2) (19););): 2 17- 235. beco me action because it lal:ks authority, ít is just speech: it is limited to an empty shout, childishness, or madness. A perforrnat,ive statcment without al:ti on l:annot exist. An authoritative adion wili! always bc derived from sta tements made by those who ll ave the right to exprcss thern.' 12 Conl:erning thc l:oncept 01' frarne , sel: Gregory Bateson , 'A theory of play and rantasy; a report on theoretical aspects of thc project for st ud y 01' thc role of para Limiting one's critical focus to a particular group of performance artists or doxes ofa bstracti o n in cornmunication ' , in: APA Psycl/ialric R eseorc/¡ RqiOrts 11, their performances has always seemed inappropriate, sinec that project would 1955). 13 Marina Abramovié is Yugoslav. But it would restrict her perfomlance to , take it appear to perpetrate the very act of denning and categorizing that anything as a staternent about Yugoslavia. called performance art actively resists. Neverthelcss, the overtly pQlitieal 14 Josep h Beuys, in Caro lin Tisdal!. .!o.\'eph Beuys Coyole. 3rd edition , 1988 (M linchen , nature of much women's performance art since the 1960s has invited just Arst pub1ished in 1976), p. 13 . (My description of the perfonnance follows the such a critical distinction , treating feminist performance as a rccognizable description given by Tisdal+l). sub-genre within the field. Through the len s 01' post-modern feminist theory, 15 QlIoted in TisdaIl , p. 14. 16 Ibid . women's performance art (whether overtly so or not) appears as inh erently 17 [bid. p. 15. political. AII women's performances are derived from the relationship of 18 Ibid . p. 15 ff. women to the dominant system of representation, situating them within a 19 (bid. p. 16. leminist critiq uc. Their disruption of the dominant systcm constitutes a sub 20 'bid . p. 15. versive and radical strategy of intervention vis ú vis patriarchal culture. The 21 Ci tedin Tisdal! , p. 1(J. 22 Tisdall , p. 13. implications of this strategy may be understood through readings of feminist 23 Arnold van Gennep , T/¡e Riles o/ Pas.\'age, trolllslated by Monika Vizedom and theory-- cspecially in relation to performance during the 1970s. Whether or Ga brielle Caffee (Cllicago: LJniversity 01' Chicago P re ss, 1960). not such considerations must change for the 1980s is taken up at the end 01' 24 Scc Helm uth Plessncr, Alllhrop%gie del' Sil1/1e. Gesarnmelle Sc/¡rifien in drei thc essay, Biindl! l1 (Frankfllrt am Main , 1980), and He lmuth P1essner, Laughing al/(I Crying. Arguably all performancc art, particularly in the earlier years, evidenced a A Sll/dy oIlhe limil.\' o/ Hunwl/ Bl!haviour (Evanston , IL: Northwcstern lJniversity Prcss, 1941 , reprint 1970). deeonstructive intent. As the manifestation of a burgeoning postmodernist 25 See also Thomas J . Csordas, ed., Emhodil1lel1l CJl1d Experie/lce. Tlle Exislelllia/ sensibility, the violent acts of Chris Burdcn or the enigmatic exercises ol' Groul1d oI Cullllre (11/(1 Se(/'(Carn bridge: Cambridge lJ niversity Press, 1994). Vito Acconci cast into relief the problema tic relationship between lite and 26 Tlle CO/7{liliol1ing, Part ( of ' Auto-Portrait ' 1972. art, between a Rcnaissance conception of self ami a postmodern subject 27 Frankfurt am Maiu, 1991. constructcd by cultural practices. Performance art made understanding (in 28 New York, 1990 ff. 29 Elaine Scarry , The Boc(v in Pain: T/¡e Makillg (//1(/ Un-Making oIlhe Wor!d (N cw any con venti onal sen se) difflcult, critical analysis frustrating, and absolute Yo rk: Oxford University Prcss, 1985), p. 4. definitian impossible, As a co nti lluat io n 01' the twcntieth-<:en tury rebellion 30 R ichard von D ülmen , Theal er de.\' S cI/reckel1.1'. Geric/¡ I.\prax is ul1d Slr([(rilua/e in
agai nst C0111 111odili ca tio n, pc r['nrm;r nec al t promiscd a radical de parture from del'/i-ühen N eu::eil (M ünchen: Bcck P lIblishing [[ ouse. ]\)RR, 3rd ed.), p. 163.
;omlllc n:ia lislll , ",ssilll il a lil'l1, ;llId Iriv ia lil y. dCl:Ollslructing lhe cOlllmercial art ] 1 Rache! Rosenthal , ' Performance ami the M asoc hist J' radili()!l'. In : Nigh Per(imll
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80
WOMEN'S PERFO R MANCE ART
Feminism and postmodernism
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very real sense, it is thc strudurcs a mi instituti o ns 01' modernism which performance art attacks, throwing into d o ubt the acceptcu p ractices 01' kn ow ledge acquisition anu accumulation. Within this movement, women's performance emerges as a specific strategy that allies postmodernism and feminism , adding the critiq ue 01' gender/patri archy to the already damaging critique ofmodernism inherent in the activity. In the late I 960s and early 1970s, coi ncident with th e women's movemen t, \\lomen used performance as a deconstruc tive strategy to demon Slra te the objectification 01' women and its results. In "Waiting" (1972), Faith Wilding rocked slowly ÍJl a chair, quietly listing item after item for which she waits as "woman," from childhood to old age: Waiting for someone to pick me up I Waiting for someone to hold me . .. I Wa iting to be somebody I W aiting to wear makeup I Wa it ing for my pimples to go away ... Waiting for my ch ildren to come home rrom schooll Waiting for them to grow up, to lcave home I Waiting to be myselr I Waiting ror excitement .. . Waiting for my ftesh to sag I Waiting for the pain to go away I Wa iting for the struggle to end I Waiting for release l . Wilding eloquently expressed the frustration 01' a woman rendered incap able of independent action 01' thought. rorced to wait for her life to happen to her. Always "waiting to be myself," Wilding's monologue shares with her a udience the specific status of the objectified, the fceling of selflessness when constructed and delineated by male-dominated society. Initially performed for an audience 01' women only, the performance also served as a kind of consciousness-raising, feeding the group's awareness orthe subtlc \Vays in which women are denied an active role in the constructed path of their own lives. As a dccon structive stratcgy, women' s performance art is a discourse ofthe objectified othcr, within a context which foregrounds the conventions and expectations ofmodernism. This decon struction hin ges on the awareness that " Woman ," as object, as a cu lturally constructed category, is actllally the basi s of the Western system of representa tion. Woman eonstitutes the position 01' object, a position of other in relation to a socially-dominant male subject; it is that "otherness" which makcs representation possible (the personification of male desire). Prccisely beca use of the operation of representation , actual women are rendered an absence within the dominant culture, and in order to speak , must either take on a mask (masculinity, falsity , simulation, seduc tion), or take on the unmasking 01' the very opposition in which they a re the opposed , the Other. Michele Montrelay identifies \\lomen as lhe po tenlia l " r ui n of rcpresentati on"2 precisely beca use 01' thcir positio n wi th in lhe Ha:epteJ system. Th is is an ident ifiGLtion in rormcJ p,II'lic lIlal'l y hy Iic llliotics Iheory anu Ihe unde rst anoi ng Iha ! " Woman as sig n" j... I h ~ h:lsis rc prescntu ti\m wi tholl! whidl diliC\llll'Sl' cO llld 1101 CX ISI.
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Women's perrormance art operates to unmask this function of " Woma n," responding to Ihe weight 01' representation by creating an acute a\Vareness of all that signifies Woman , 01' femininity . The Waitresses, a performance group in Los Angeles, have foregrounded the connections between images 01' fem ininity, women's oppression, and the pa triarchy: in "Ready to Order'!" a per former \Vore a waitress uniform with multiple breasts on rront , approaching unsuspecting customers in an L.A. diner and asking for their order. In 1979 the group expanded its ranks and march ed the streets of L.A . as a band dressed in waitress uniforms, playing kitchen-utensil instruments. Apart from the obvious content regardin g the exploitation of women in underpaid labor. these perrormances evok e an awareness 01' Woman as a sign, blatantly por traying the masterlslave relationshj p inherent in her exploitation; Woman is merely the negative in rel a tion to Man; a sign for the opposite of man , in service to his needs and dominanee . In "Sitting Still" (1970), Bonnie Sherk sat for hours in an overstutTed chair in the middle of a flooded vacant lot , in elegant evening dress and hairdo. Like Wildin g, she seemed trapped in a con dition of waiting, but her costume also pointedly chose an image of elegant " femininity" ror deconstruction: situating hersclf in rel a tion to the ga rbage and discarded objects in the lot, her imagery simultaneously foregrounded accepted appearances ror women and rejected lhem . I-Ier stillness and silence also reflected a feeling 01' helplessness , an immobility as a real woman caught in the cultural signification process that demands certain behaviors in order to be Woman. f'or the final scene 01' a three-week long performance event in Los Angeles created by Suzanne Lacy and Leslie Labowitz, called "Three Weeks in May " (1977), lhe audience entered el dimly-lit gallery, wherein a massive win gcd lamb 's carcass hung from the center 01' the room . Above the carcass, four nude \Vomen, painted red , crollched quietly on el Iedge. On the floor below was a graphic depiction 01' sexual assault scrawled in chalk on asphalt. Tape recorded voices spoke haltingly ol' rape and assault experiences. As the cul mination of three weeks of rape-awareness performances which included giant maps pinpointing the locations 01' rapes , the final gallery portion of the event invoked the stark physical reality 01' the dots on the maps, suggesting the bruta lizing effects of the sexual objectification of women. The nude women mutely perched on the ledge bore striking resemblance to the count less nude women hung on the walls of Western museums, deepening the critique ora cultural practice that has m
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show an illtrillsic 11l1th: rsLan J illg 01 cu l! tlll' Il lld sigllifkat iol1 a ppan:ntly reachet! solcly through thei!' OWIl klllinist cOllscipuslIl.!ss-raising ami political acumen; 1l1anifcsting the metaphor most central lO ICminism, that "the per sonal is the political," these performe rs ha ve used th e condition 01' their own lives to deconstruct the systcm they nnd oppressive, and their peTlo rmance practicc shares com:erns with recent theory interested in unmasking the system of representation and its ideological alliances. This type 01' subversion of the accepted social order goes much deeper than demands for equal pay, demands which are themselves only an acceptance 01' part of a larger system , of its discourse. As Teresa de Lallretis notes, " W ho ever defines the cod e or the context, has control ... anel all answers which accept that context abdica te the possibility 01' redenning it." J One must be "willing to begin an argument," that is, to confront the language and meta phors which promote \Vomen's oppression. By challenging Ihe very discollrse 01' representation , \Vomen's performance art begins such an argument , and begins to postulate an alternative discourse, a discourse which shuns the traditional hierarchies bui1t on power and knowledge, the breeding ground of oppresston. Women 's performance art has particular disruptive potential because it poses an actual woman as a speaking subject, throwing that position into process, into doubt, opposing the tntditional conception ofthe single, unined (male) subject. 4 The female body as sllbje'ct c1ashes in dissonance with its patriarchal text,' chalJenging the very fabric 01' representation by refusing that text and posing new , multiple texts grounded in real women's experience and sexuality. This strategy is understood particularly in relation to Lacanian psychoanalysis which "reads" the female body as Lack, or Other, existing only to reftect maJe subjectivity amI male desi re. Derived from Freudian con ceptions of the psyche, Lacan 's model articulates the sllbject in tcrms of processes (drives, desire, symbolization) "which depend on the crucial instance 01' castration , and are thus predicated exclusivel)' on a maJe or mascuJine subject."(' Lacan uses the terrn " phalJus" to designate the privileged signifier, the signifier 01' power; but he insists that this is not the same as the biolo gical penis , amI therefore does not necessarily reside only with males. How ever, such a distinction ignores the political implications of the terminology. The clear connection between the sexual signifier of privilege amI sexual poJitics has been handled humorously by many women performance arti sts, as in Vicki HalJ 's "Ominous O peration" (J 97 1), wherein wom en were led behind a curtain, later emerging with huge phalJuses attached. The changes in the performers' behavior and references to societal power maJe obvi ous the relationship between dominance and the biol ogical member. In a sim ila r vein, Pat Oleszko created a giant ph alJus rOl' her cost UI1le, "Mac rJasher," which she gleefu lly n:vcalcd lO passcrs-hy rmm llll dc r a n oversized Lrc n<.: hcoal. rllnnin g with notions 01' pen is ellvy amI wlllllcn 's s upposcd lack . "\;1
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I 'o r I.acall, 11!lwcr rcla tionships are determined by the ::;y m bolic order, a network 01' llleaning amI signification that is internal Izcd with the acquisition oflanguage; amI which Lacan sums up as the Name llr-thc-Father. recognizing tJle inherent patriarchy. Theorist Julia Kristeva, by naming woman as the "semiotic" on which the symbolic order depends, lTeatcs a radical inversion of Lacanian theory, effectively negating his para digm . 1n describing the semiotic as the " underside" 01' symbolic language, she alJies it with the maternal , the femininc, although it is not necessarily delineated by sexual difference. T his notion nevertheless alJows for breaks in Illeaning in the language structure, a possibiJity of authentic difference articu lated as an alternative to the authoritative, Name-of-thc-Father lingualJy constructed society.7 It further foregrounds the psychoanalytic fou ndation ofWoman as Other, as a construction necessary for social interco urse in the Western world. Woman has had to be constructed as opposite to man to validate and shore up the dominance ofmale subjectivity. In "Do not Believe that 1 am an Amazon," German performance artist Ulrike R osenbach made her refusal of this Otherness vivid: dressed in a white leotard , she dramatic alJy shot aHOWS at a madonna-and-child target. ~ While obviously an attack on the oppression of women imbedded in patriarchal Christianity, her per formance al so illuminated the Amazon myth as a male construction designed to separate woman from man by designating her as not-man, as his opposite. 9 The opening up 01' alternative spaces or breaks in the language structure is al so implicated in feminists ' uncovering 01' issues that Lacan ignores, such as tha! of " the female speaker"- or, how does a woman speak (if it is not possible for her to be subject)?IU In the Lacanian model, woman , as the cul turally constructed, as Other, is trapped in man 's self-representation, existing only to reftect back his image ofreality, "only as a function ofwhat she is not , receiving upon her denied body the etched-out stamp of the Other, as a signature orher void amI a mark ofhis identity. " 11 As Kaja Silverman points out, Lacanian psychoanalysis is roliant on the close interdependence 01' the terms "s ubject" ami "signification," beca use " the discourse within which the subject finds its idcntity is always the discourse of the Other- of a symbolic order which transcends the subject ami which orchestrates its entire his tory."1 2Then how is a woman to speak as subject, to affirm, discover, 01' insist upon her own identity? It is preciscly this denial 01' women as "speaking subjects" that women in performance art both foreground and subvert. The intensely intimate nature 01' the work, the emphasis on personal experience amI emotional material , 1101 " acted" nr distanced from artist or audience, is what most characterizcs this alternati ve. hcterogencolls voice. In 1975, in a piece called "Interior Scroll," Caroll:c Schnecma nn SI\lOd nude in front of a mostly-female audi cm':í!, rit ua listic r a int on her r: I ~'c :1 1111 Imd y. In dim Iighting, she bcgan l'x lraclin g n na rro w. rop~-Iikc "Ie\ I " 1'1(1111 IIél vagina. rmm which she pro cccucd 1(1 .. n;~l( l" . lin g llistically-l~ncOllcd
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The filmmaker finishes his remarks by telling Schneemann that she is not "a filmmakeress . . . . We think o f you as a dancer. " J3 This performance vividly links together a number of elements relevant to femini st thcory in rclation to the postmodcrn subject. The performance refers to her insistence on "personal clutter," highlighting the feminist perspective on the personal as the politica!. but also contrasting " masculine" from " feminine " modes of addressing the world; not that these are necessarily biological modes , but derived from the different ways in which men and \Vomen, constrllcted and conditioned as such, experience the \Vorld. As is clear from Schneemann 's example, the feminine mode is devalued by the male-dominated art world for its lack of logic, rationality , and distance (attriblltes Derrida identifies in "phallogo centrism "). Sehneemann's " personal clutter" thus defies conventional (male) preferencc for artistie detachment: [Her works] are personal , not only in the usual sense of being based on particular experiences of the author, but in a radically ditlerent sense as well; they are conceived as artistic accretions deli vered to the reader or viewer by Schneemann from il1.1'ide the emotional enviro n ment within which they develop. Wordsworth recollected in tranquility and then wrote; f lemingway sometimes wrote to release the pressure engendered over a period of time by particular past expe ricnees. [Schlleema nn] wants to use the ma kiog 01' a work lo prese rve, con ·ider. anu rco rie nl the process 01' lhe cmolion (all(llhc iJlu lll ina tio nJ con rusinn il brings) as she cx r cricncc'i il I,{hl' wurb l from a posit i\ln <' 1' ill lill la9 , IHlt fw m ;t pn<;i liolllll d, '¡f ,lI w" 11 , '1(1
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Tltis "posilioll nI' illlilll:lcy " is nlle 01' tite lIlost lI()tl~wortlty charaeteristics Ilf wome n's pcrl'ormance. amI olle 01' the primary appeab 01' the genre ror wOll1en . As C atherine Ehvcs (herself a performance arlist) notes, "Perform ance is abo ut the ' real-life ' presence of the artist. She takes on no roles but Iter own. She is author. subjcct, aetivator. director, and designer. When a \Voman speaks \-vithin the performance tradition , she is understood to be l'onvcying her own perceptions, her own fantasies , and her own analyses. ,, 1) The performance context is markedly different from that of the stage, in that lhe pcrformers are not acting, or playing a character in any way removed from themselves: the mode provides \vomen the opportunity for direct ad dress to an audienec, unmediated by another author's "scripting." Rather Ihan masking the self, women 's performance is bOrll from self-revelation as a political move; to quote Manuela Fraire, 'The practice of self consciousness is the way in which women retlect politically on their own condition ,'>I(, and lhe articulation of self through women's performance cannot help but 1'ore ground gender critically. In a Lacanian context, women performance anists Ihus ehallenge the symbolic order by asserting themselves as "speaking subjects," in direct deftanee of the patriarchal construction of diseourse . " A woman performer combines active allthorship and an elusive mediul1l to assert her irrefutable presence (an ael of remini sm) within a hostile envi ron rnent (patriarchy)." 17 One might paraphrase this as the assertion 01' subject ivity within a symbolic order hostile to the female subjecl. If the Lacanian paradigm of the symbolic order is taken as an accurate description of West nn culture, then it is debatable whether women (01' meno for that matter) ca n ever " escape" its identifying power: but women performance artists challenge its limitations, even its very foundations, through their direct expressjon 01' subjecthood . The intensely autobiographical nature of women 's performance has l'videnced the insistence on a woman 's ability to " speak " her subjectivity. In .. Deer/Dear" (1978) , Nancy Bllchanan recounted her horrifying dreams of violence, then related them to the waking ni ghtmare of violence against \Yomen through recalling the violence she has hersclr experienced. In " Trick (JI' Drink " (1984), Vanalyne Green painfully reveab her bulimic past and olher addictive behaviors, traeing a childhood obsessed with dieting and shadowcd by fami ly alcoholism, all ofwhich she al so relates to her experience ofthe world as a woman . Linda Montano's deliberate blllrring orart and life .. long with her focus on the articulation of personal experience challenges the dcnial 01' her subjectivity. In "Three-Day B1indfold ," the " performance" l'(Jnsislcd cntircly 01' Montano's self-il1lposed temporary hlindness, intended lo ['I l'\l ll1ote her own consciollsne~s-raising regarding such a physical chal Il:nge. As "(,hickcn-woma n," Moutano drcssed in chiffon ami daneed wildly in tite slrccts 01' San J-'ranciseo , (JI' on 1Ill' (, p iden G ate Bridge. crcating an image tltat ha tl !leer pursonu l sign ilk a nn: 1111 hl:r. In pl!rltaps her most ro wcrrul pUJ IÚnll a lll:e t U l' all a 11 dJ1,; 11 l'\. , Mllt lwll'o¡ Ik atlt ," MOlllano uppcurcd with
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whll ~ rll'J f¡¡\:c. pie n;ed by acupllllctllrc IlcL'dles , ami spokc intenscly 01' hcr fedi ngs rcla( eo lo hn rriend and cx-husbanu's slIdden ueath. SlIch see1l1 i\lgly d Isparate wo rks have in common the interest in asserting anu cxploring perso nal , lived cxpcricnce, and are "performed" primarily for herself- in lulal disrcgaru ror any wltural negation of ber status as a speaking sllbjecL By insistently occupying this crucial space of sign ificatian as a speaking subject anu forcgrounuing individual, lived expericnce, lhe wom a n perform ¡\\lCC artist sllbverts the symbolic ordcr's limited parameters for women, "Since signification rcsults in an aphanisis of the real , the speaking subject a\ld its discursivc reprcsentative- i.e. the subject of the speech [in this case, Woman]- remain perpctually dissimultaneous, at odds."'X In other worus, actual women speaking thcir personal experience create dissonance with their represcntatian, Woman, throwing that fictianal calegory into reliefanu ques lion. Shock waves are set up l'rom within the signification process itself, rcsonating to provide an awareness of the phallocen tricity ol' our signil'ying systems anu the eulturally-determined otherness of women. Ilowever, the personal and autobiographical for wo men is inextricably linkeu with fema1c sexuality- "that which is most personal anu at the same lime most soeially uetermined." 19 The challenge presented by \Vomen's alltobiographical performance gains strength when seen in conjunction \Vith \lotions 01' female sexuality arising from the theoretical work of some fem inists. For women , sexuality cannot remain private: since one is constructeu as "Woman" through sexuality in relation to male uesire, the interrogation nI' this construction is a political acL The corollary problem in relation to postmodern theories for feminists is that "ir langllage , the symbolic order, is .. . phallocentric, then female drives are by definilion incapable 01' repres entation within it."20 Far women performance artists, the assertion of female drives and sexllality is crucial, anu their work redaims the female body frol11 ils patriarchal textualization through "writing the bouy," borrowing the term from Frcnch feminist Héléne Cixous. CiXOLlS agrecs with Lacan that it is throllgh language that we acquire patriarchal vallles , but asserts that it is therefore possible to dismantle the palriarchy through language, specincally by encoura.ging and exploring wOlllen's language, a language rooted in the female body anu female sexual ily. She sees this "other" language as both created by and a manifestation of \Vol11en's sexual uifference, anu exhorts women to "write the bouy" in order ll) speak their subjectivity. For CiXOllS, " the fcminine te¡\t cannot rail to be IIInre than subvcrsive," a perspectivc which echoes Montrelay's earlier remark regarding women as the ruin 01' representation? Becallse of th e position to which women have been allocated by patriarchal language, they have tb e pOlénliél l lO general e s lI bversion of that very la ngllagc rrom with in: b ut in rev oll agil ill sl lhe psychoanalytic model 0 1' subjcct ¡,;onstruction in which d(!sill! i~ arliI.: L¡\¡¡ I(!d us (!)H;l usi vcly malé, il i~; rl'mak dcsi rc tha t is mos( di slll ptlVC . At; IaL' ~ n: th:¡;ti ng nn lv ma \l 's Jl'''"~ W¡lIl ICII MC lIot pcrlllitled II ' 5~
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evcl1com:cived oras having or owning their own uesire. Cixous's mandate for women is thererore to tcrrorize pa triarchal discollrse by writing from the locus nI' the inscription of differenee. i.e. , female scxuality: " anything having lo do with the body shoulu be explored ."22 Ilawever, many Anglo-American feminists ha ve criticized Cixous's the mies, arguing that a Lacanian notion of language preduues "feminine" subversion frol11 within. In this regaru , Cixous is often associated with L uce Irigaray, in their similar emphasis on the need to discover and develop a ll1eans of expression for women that is not conceived within the phallocentric system of representation , since "all Western discourse presents a certain isomorphism with the masculine sex : the privi1ege of un ity, form of the self, of lhe visible, of the specularisable, of the erection."23 Irigaray \Vas hersc1f a Lacanian psychoanalyst lIntil she indirectly criticized his theory in her land \l1ark \Vork, Speculu/11 (i{ lhe O/he,. WOll1an , which prompted her dismissal from his academy. 24 In refcrring to the speclllllm, she challenges the Laea oian "mirror" stage (in which the subject first rccognizes himself as distinet from lhe first Other, the Mother) \Vith the concave. reflective mirror used particu larly to view a woman's sexual anatomy. Like Cixous, Irigaray promotes a dose identificalion 01' women's language with women's sexuality, and sees writing as the arena ror new possíbilities relating to women 's subjectivity. 25 Feminist critic Rache] Bo\Vlby questions the possibility 01' realizing this aim lhrough simply \\Titing: "if language, the symbolic order, is, as they [Cixous and lrigaray] claim, phallocentric. then fema1c drives are by definiti on incap able of representation within it. "26 And ror Ann Rosalind Jones, establishing a connection between physicality and writing is problematic: "The practice 01' wnmen's writing is out in the open, for all to see; its basis in the body and id is 1css certain. "27 This prob1em in rdation to \Vriting becomes pointedly rhetorical \Vith women 's performance art, an activity whieh challenges the symbolic order on Illore than just the linguistic leve!. Cixous's anu Irigaray's strategies are much lIIore vividly realizeu in the context of women 's performance than in writing. rhe very placement of the female body in the context 01' performance art positions a woman and her sexuality as speaking subject, an action which l'lIls across numerous sign-systems, not just the discourse 01' language. The SCllliotic havoc created by such a strategy combines physical presence, real 1i111L" and real women in dissonance \Vith their representations, threatening 1he patriarchal slructure with the rcvolutionary text of their actual bodies. t\llhollgh most women performance artists are probably unfamiliar \Vith ('i:'wus , lhl~ y employ lhe stralegy nI' disruption through expression of the kilI:! \!.: body and sexllality. In tite ri ~cc by Schneemann already cited , for l·'(;\m pll!. il s0cms as lho llgh her va¡lÍ \l u ilsclr i~ repnrting the scxi:;m. ll annah Wil kc's pi cc~ ha ve .. lways lIt-ocd hCI UW II Ilude blll.ly as her primary "mater 1.,1. " fll rC!llllu lIll ill g lit!.: l'onVl'llt ill llfd I I"l'~ ;\1,, [ ubu se:-i nI' liJé fe llla lc hod y. Ir Iltl' k ll lalc hndy Ita s IWl'lIlI ll' tlll' 1111 '1'< u l Ilw íll sc npl illll uf di tl cn': lIl.:e. IIIl' 1.1
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" text" by which iden tity i~ rcad, thcn wOl11cn 's rcrl úrllluncc a rt is a lways Ihr positioning of a female body as subjcct in dircct opposition to its patria n.:IJ;l1 text. Women performers challenge the very fabric 01' represental ian by rcfl l<, ing that text and positing new, multiple text~ groundcJ in real \VOnlcn \ experience and sexuality . To dismiss this work as cultural feminism ignores its ramificatiollt-; wilh in representation ami the psychological encoding of the Western signifying sy~ tems, and focuses instead on nudity as an assertion 01' fema le superiori ty.2R Such a critique parallcls another common critique 01' Cixous 's \York , citing the threat 01' essentialism , " in which biological diffe rence is ma de the basis 01' subjectivity, and of the very forms 01' re presentation by which women a re oppressed. " 29 T he insistence on " writing the bod y" is an aspect of thesc theories that creates él problem for many feminists , sinee it would seem lo apotheosize some innate essence that is "\Yoman" and threaten to perpet ua Lc the basis on which the current objectification of women operates. JO More over, the philosophy of cultural feminism lauds th ,lt supposed essence, in a simple reversal of tenns. Jones ehides Franco-feminist crities saying that "every bdief about 'what women are' raises political as \Vell as aesth et ic q uestions. " :\1 Others say it is naive to describe women's subjectivity on lhe basis ofbiological traits that might derive from and produce different effecls in different social circumstances . '~ And Bowlby warns that " it remains to be shown ... that the female body is itself productive 01' a distinctive mode of subjectivity." But through women 's performance art , the body speaks both as a sign and as an intervention into language; and it is further possible for the female body to be used in such a \Vayas to foreground the genderization oC culture and the repressive system of representation. It is not, as Jill D ola n argues in a recent Thealre Journal essay, that the nude female body is mea nl to stand " somehow outside the system ofrepresentation;"" rather, the female body's significan ce within the system affords the performance artist the pos sibility for frustrating fetishistic practiees and assertin g an al ternative viewi ng practice: When Rachel Rosenthal had assistants mark her physical " ball points" in " Bonsoir Dr. Schan ," it \Vas a means of conquering societal j udge ments ofbeauty and offinally recognizing and claiming her body as her OWI1 ; in short, of peeling a\Vay the cultural constructions that had condi tio ned hcr self-image. It should be noted that this \Vas only one scene of a larger wOlk that was precisely about sexual politics and personal power. 34 Dolan's argument ultimately condemns nudity in performance: "Froll1 a materialist feminist perspeetive. the female body is not reducible to a sign free of connotation. "15 Yet women performance artists foregrou nd. this vc ry connotation , pointing to the seriolls consequcnccs 01' signification with in cultural parameters. Performin g nude heu;, ror sume pc rformc rs, providcd [lit opportunity for dec pening Ihe cri tique o f ccn l urics ni clIl! ura l lul1l inali nn.., 111 lhe body. Far from a " puri sl" or ··sclf- rig hl\!Il U'i pos!,; " il1 sClv icc \)f ¡¡n asexual philnso phy. nH)st km" lc nude Ill'rlú ll1 l:lIh.\·~ "il V~· lk; "1 quil \! spcci lic:tlly and
blanlantly \Vil h Ii:male sexuality and its cultural suppression. Harbara Smith , for examplc. explores her sexuality publidy, through performance, and her works such as " Feed Me" have raised problems for feminists in the past. The superficial "content" might seem lo be yet another "'peep show." but th e performance enacts deconstructi ve strategies when viewed in light of the above discussion . (n this all-night event lhat was part of a group of perform ances in San Francisco, Smith let it be known that she wo uld rcmain in a small room fo r the duration of th e " show," and that she would inleract with whomevcr wished to see her, on an individual basis. Nude, she grceted each visitor as a friend , bricfly encountering them in her room personalized with rugs, cushions, and incense. Her obvious ease with her own sexuality and un abashed cxploration of ncw possibil ities boldly asserted her ownership 01' her body and her desire, allowing for both vulnerability ami stren¡"rth . Defin itely not an assertion offemale superiority or an erasurc ofsexuality, Smith 's work invited the re-examination of cultural standards as well as participants' own sexualities. Women's performance actively intervenes inlo the process of construeting the viewing subject through the disruption 01' the " maJe " gaze. Dolan and others have questioned the sexual aspects Df these works , asserting that the work merely re-inscribes th e body as object, as a so urce of voyeuristic pleas ure. In faet, it is the ver y choice of the performance art context which denies the aceepted path for voyeurism. which subverts the malc gaze and the fetishism of the female body. M uch of the feminist theory regarding notions of fetishism has come from the \Vorld offilm theory , wherein the cinematic image pro vides a clcar para digm for the workings of fetishism in a patriarchal- and psychoanalytically encoded -- culture. The mechanisms offetishism are rooted in Freudian models, hinging on the fear of castration in males. Woman, as the castrated , provides an opportunity for desire but also of danger: shc lacks the penis, implying a threat and the possibilit y of unp1casurc. 36 Since the woman is sexual dif ference , she operates both as a n icon (the object of the male gaze for the pleasureable exper,ience of desire) and as a source 01' anxiely over that differ ence. As Laura M ulvey pointed out, the maJe unconscious has two avenues of escape from thi s anxiety: preoccupation with the re-cnactment ofthe original trauma, which entails invcstigating the " mystery" that is Woman; or sub stituting the anxiety with a fetish object. or "turning the represented figure itself into a fetish so that it becomes reassuring rather than dangerous . "'.7 The sccond avenue, fetishistic scopophilia, builds up the physical beauty 01' lhe object. transrorming it into something satisfying in itself. Unlike voyeur ism, wh iéh needs narrative. fetishislll ca n exist o utsidc linear time as the crotic instinct is focLlscd on the loo k alone. IX ( 11 f rcudian terms, felishi sm ma kes lhe wOllla n's boJ Y'1 phallié :'Yl11 l1ol whicl l r~() nsl ,. ucts hcr absen t penis, making her tcmpura lil y Sll ll: rOl" !l1l: si lc \Ir th:"irc. Thc look 01' the film camera rerlicatl:s Ihl!sC Iwo "IUllks" nI" pll lti:ll ~ h;t1 ~;(Il.i el y in ma inslrcn nl cinemu, as
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ha s beclI d Cll lllll slr<:ilcd hy kll1l11 l ~ 1 !I!l1I IIII.'P II ~.h ~lIdl as M II lwy , F. AIIII Kaplan, Ma ry Aun J)O :lIlC. h :rcsu de JjHl I\:li ~. ,111<.1 nlh ors . Catherinc Elwes suggcsl s thal, altholl gh it is Ilot possiblc lo cn lircl y escape th is process, theatre and live cntertainment do nol provide the perfed illusion necessary for voycuristic narratives: the raet that perfo rmcr and spedator occupy the same physical/temporal space makcs more diflklllt the dislancing needed for safe fantasizing. In such cases, successfu l voye urism depcnds on predictable outcomes. 011 the eo nventions 01' narrative form which presum ably guarantee safety in "Iooking. "39 F rom this it follows that women 's performance art, in totally abandoning and disrupting conventional nar ralive, thwarts the illusion 01' distance and ex poses the (male) spectator "(o the fearful proximity of the performer aud the dangerous consequences of his own desires. His c10ak of invisibility has been stripped away and his spectatorship becomes an issue within the work ."40 It is also important to note that (he stripper or entertainer is al so offering up her body as an object of exchange for anothe,.'s pleasu re, with no reference to her own. Her identity, other than that of performer, is erased in service of providing pleasure, in keeping with her fetishistic function within the society. In LOntrast, womeo performance artists expose their bodies to recIaim thel1l, to assert their own pleasure and sexuality, thus denying lhe fetishistic pursuit to the point 01' creating a genuine threat to malc hegemonic structures of women. Instead ofthe male look operating as the controlling factor (as it does with cinema), the woman performance artist exercises control : " In defining the rules of the game and holding the clement 01' surprise as her trump card, a woman may take unprecedented control 01' her own image. "4 1 In a similar sense, the woman performance artist may work to uncover her own zones of resistance to the patriarchal " texl" of society, exemplifying the search for an alternative to patriarchal discourse, one in which women can speak their own experience, as subjects, from a non-patriarchal frame . Ritu alistic e1ements in women's performance are designed to catharticalIy shed the patriarchal images 01' women and embrace ne\V, self-generated images. M. L. Sowers, in the nude, had hersclf completely buried in beach sand, then slowly, painstakingly emerged in a dramatic and moving personal rebirth . A very private performance, it \Vas witnessed only by her friend and photographer, who documcnted and gave confirmation to the transformative process. Her nudity and the ceremonial quality of the performance served to reject social 01' institutional constraints. In a more public performance, Mary Beth Edelson created a ceremony for herself and a large group of women to mourn the persecution and murder 01' witches, those nine million women victimized by a patriarchal society. One () f the most predominant images of Woman in culture and literaturc is that of the wilch, the cmbodiment of the unkn o wn and powerful who threaten!; male do mina ncc ami rherefore must be pro claimed evil and destroyed . T he fe ar M wi tches has o lh:n becn idc ntified as a rea r 01' reméde sexuality (ag
comes lu Hlllld). :lIId h lclson 's I.:crcnlOlly a ilIled lu recia im rema le sex uality as a n ~ lO · lhJ'c¡lIc llill/', lik-li.lIu:. T he femal e body in performance arl , whether nude 01' not, can also articu late women's sexuality as never before possible, in a most non-cssentia'¡¡st multiplicity of voices. To dcconstruct the oppositions based OD gendcr en trenched in patriarchy, \Vomen's performance art provides paths to alternat ives, to ne\V concepts 01' difference, subverting the canon of codified sexuality imbedded in centuries of theatre and cultural works. and revealing binary sexuality as another construction complicit in the oppression of women and their full exploration of female sexuality. Bonnic Greer's "Vigil" highlighted the erasure of a black woman's sexuality in her bondage to white culture. In "Leave Her in Naxos," Rachel Rosenthal showed slides of her various lovers , male and female, and discussed intimate aspects of her relationship \Vith each , effectively speaking herselfin different sexualities. A group ofperform ancc artists identifying themselves as lesbians performed "An Oral Herstory 01' Lesbianism ," in which each spoke of her particular oppression as a lesbian while also frank1ly revealing sexual intimacies. And Carolee Schneemann's "'Meat Joy" (1964) was so graphic in its celebration of female sexual pleasure (contrary to Dolan's notion) \Vith both \Vomen and men that one perform ance \Vas disrupted when an irate malc audience mcmber rushed on stage to attack Schneemann. In refcrence to patriarchal culture, Annie LeClerc has written: "They invented the whole ofsexuality whilc silencing ours. Ifwe invent ours, they will have to rethink their own."42 As the creation of alternative points from which to deconstruct traditionally accepted meanings ofwoman , women's perfonn ance art constitutes the continuous "invention" of authentic, heterogcnous female sexuality, acting as the concave mirror held up to view \\lomen 's sex in al1 its detail and diversity. Although clearly a graphie rcalization 01' the theories of Cixous and Irigaray, such strategies should not be disregarded in haste because of the threat of essentialism. As Jane Weinstock notes:
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In defining the woman as "Other, " doesn't it construd a single point of reference- the maje? The \Voman is simply the opposite, the " non "-·. ... Perhaps it is becoming necessary to move doser to what has been called the French "essentialism" in order to escape a position of perpetual otherness. Recent French psychoanalytic ami post-psychoanaJytic writings on sexual diffcrence have focussed on the female body, or "female specificity." Might not this attempt to return the body to the subject lead to a differentiated viewing subject?41 Michcl fiou ca ult, who was a lso concerned \Vith forms of resistance to po wer, describcd strategies ror em powering the subject that am plify this dis0ussion . F(J \I~:\l IlI ch ~U"a dcrizcs :;tralegics of resistallcc as struggles which
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ljucstioll thc status (Ir Ih!; govcl'Ili zt!d il1divlll ual. slInull;tl1l:ously asscnillg lhe right to be dillerent and resistillg the dcslrudion of cO ll1 l11Lll1ily. Thcsc slral egies oppose the privileges 01' knowledge. secrccy. deformation . and mystify ing representations imposed on peoplc. They are a refusal of abstraclions. 01' economic and ideological violence which ignore who we are or determine who one is: "lhe mélÍn objective ofthese struggl es is to attack .. , a technique, a fo rm ofpower."44 Women 's performance art is a powerful manifestation 01' this struggle, as a resistance to the economic and ideological violcnce done to women. As such it foregrounds the genderization 01' culture and lhe over determination ofsexuality, both which are instru mental in the s ubjugalioll of women , the repression of femal e subjectivity. Th e charge of individualism has been levelled at performance artists in general, and Foucault's emphasis on lhe internal workings of power would seem to feed into such critiques, distancing the particular strategy ofperform ance from " real" politics, certainly any politics of coalition. Wb ile the history of performance art as a whole might be especial1y vulnerable to this critique, women's performance art in particular has promoted both col1aborative and collective performance, generating numerous performance groups with specific political interventionist goals. However, even apart from the more obvious political stance, women's performance art provides an instan¡;e ofwhat Teresa de Lauretis has called the " heterogeneous and heteronomous " face of fem inism ;45 that is, bolh the differences and the commonalities among women are made visible and celebrated . Whilc women performance artists speak their personal , lived experience, and explore the most intimate aspects of their individuallives, their explorations relate directly to the common category of their woman-ness, As women. their relationship to representation is unique, so that the performance context necessarily creates a dissonance with the representations of " Woman. " Thus the woman perfonnance artist cannot help but assert an image that is simultaneously heterogeneous and heteronomoLls; singular and yet eategorical1y related to all women . While 1 strongly believe in the value ofthe aboye perspectives on women 's performance, there is a sense in which the terms ofthis discussion are shifting, "even as we speak." This mobility is a problem endemic to the study 01' performance art yet is a problem only for the critic/historian- for perform ance artists, such perpetually shifting sands are a virtue and even a goal. Th e terrn "performance art " is rapidly losing any viability as a gcneric possibility -as performer/dancer Wendy Woodson recently noted , she used to avoid the label performance artist occause 01' its association with the violent, masoch istic, and nausea-producing performers (Burden , Stellarc. Paul McCarthy , etc.), Now she eschews it becausc performance has become slick, eomrnercial , more "theatrical" in a negative. assimilati ve way.4() In the past year. I not iceJ another new Lrend in perfo nnances on both coas ls. Th is trcnd is towa rd con vc ntional actin g amI all lhe pa ramcl ers thltl il irnplbr whicn in lurn invites assessmen t 01' Ihe picce on thc basili 01 ' IIL' ctlllvcn lional :,l¡tnuards hy
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whidl acting I ~ lI~I Hl ll y j udgcd , i.c., Il:chniq ue, As Lind a UUrIlham no ted in hn rece n l essay 1'01 '¡he /)r(/lIIt1 Re l'icll'. prior perf0n11anCe art may indeed have ind udcd role-playin g. singing, dancing, whatever. lhat was frequently nol "good" by ordinal")' slanuards, but lhat very discrepancy led viewers lo considcr a different perspective on the work. The piece was not about " doing something \Vell," but about something else, including the re-examination of those standards. 47 ln 1987, performances by Iris Rose of Watch-face amI John Fleck in "PsychoOpera" depended crucially 0 11 the ability to "act \Vell " and on a coherent overall dramatic strueture. Instead 01' deconstructing theatrical eonvention , performers now seem to court it, encouraging judge ment of the wo rk on more tech nical grounds. Women performance artists, in general , dominate the field less than in the I 970s- perhaps precise\y beca use ofthe encroachment of conventional stand ards of professionalism. However, some performers evidence the shift in focus in a desire for a medium \Vith more visible or permanent results: Laurie Anderson wants to work more with film (despite the lukewarm reception of Home of (he Brave) and also likes the fact that her performances can be pre served on video and record: Meredith Monk , after remarking in an interview that she wants to make a film , has apparently withdrawn from performance art for a time, focusing instead on chamber music and the production 01' a new record of vocal works; and Yanalyne Green and Pat 01eszko, among many others, are channe\ing their energies jnto film or video rather than performance,4HGreen says that she can manipulate lhe visual image more completely in the film medium , thus allowing a hi gher degree 01' artistic precision. In general , the mid 1980s has brought about a regroupin g, perhaps in response to a reactionary polítical climate, perhaps in the percei ved failure of 1970s strategies to achieve more measurable, visible effects. Rachel Rosenthal, having explored her personallife, has moved to an overt focus on social issues which are not specifically feminist (but which are clearly informed by her feminist sensibility). Recent works have dealt with animal rights , the nuclear threat, pollution , and other, more global issues. Her continued engagement with the deconstructive strategies of performance art combined with her dedicated political consciousncss still serves to u 'eale some of lhe most po\Vcrful work around in the 1980s. Rosenthal's perfonn ance style, always highly theatrical in effects and presentation , \Yas once criticized for ils kinship with theatre; now , others seek to emulate the theatr ical cohcrenee of her \York, but often lack the skills to pull it off. Then therc are performers like Karen Finley. whose re\ative\y obscure performance work has suddenly been thrown into the lime\ight. Banned in London. praiscd (and then villified) in the Village Voice, suddenly invited to performance venues everywhere, Finley's particular brand of violent scato logical rant and self-ubusc shot:ked even the jaded New York art scene. Not lhal othe r WOll1cn haven' l pursucu violen l or offensive performance styles, wit h a w nsdo lls feminisl agcm.l,, ; Ya lie F xport. L ydia Lunch, and even (\ S
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Roscntllal lla ve ,k llh\; I, lldy \V \ I, kéd ll¡!.a ins l " pn:lty" imagcs OC' cOll vcnlional aesthctics. In lsl ra 1ing vOYl'u rism, a ll d chalknging sociclal conccptions 01' women as arli~ts. Thc violcncc and/o!" "d isgust" t~lCtO!" in these wo rks fuc\s the exploration 01' aesthetics as
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Nutcs Moil'a Rulll , l:d. , ¡he A/lw::illg /)eCIf(/C : WOI1lCI/ il1 Per!cm"l/ol/cc Arl. 1970 1980 (Los i\ngeles: i\slro i\rtz. 19XJ). 144. .' Miehele Montrelay, " Fclllininity ," mlt aj'eminisljou/'Ilo/l (1978) . .1 Teresa De Lauretis. Alice J)o esn'l: Feminis/II. S ern io lÍcs a/l(1 Cinema (Bl oomillgton: Indiana University Press. 198J). 3. 4 Diek. Hebidge. Su!J('u!l/Ire: T/¡e l\lJealling (Jl Sly le (London: Methuen) . 165. 5 See Kaja Silverman , Th e SuhjeCl 4 S ellliJilics (N ew Y o rk: Ox fo rd Universit y Press, 1983). 197. for remarks on the potenti a l dissonance uf a speaking subjeet and its representation. (, Josette Féral. " Powers and DitTerem;e," in TIr e Fulure of Diffá ence, ed . Eisenste in and Jardine (Bostan : G. K. Hall , 1980), 90. 7 Carolyn Burke, " Irigara y Through the Loo kin g Gl a ss." Feminisl Sr lidies 7: 2 ( 1981): 111. 8 RoseLee Goldberg. Pelfimnal1ce: UF(' Arl 190910 Ilre Presenl (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1979), 114. 9 F o r a m ore extended diseussion of the Amazon as él male-eo nstructed im a ge of women, see Sue-Ellen Case. Femil1isl'/l (f/1d 71¡ealre (London: MaeMillan , in press). ID Burke, " lrigaray Through the Looking Glass." 111. 1I Fe ral. " Powers 01' Differenee," 89. 12 Silvcrman, Srrhjec r (Jl Semiolics, 194. 13 Quo ted in Roth . Th e Amazing De cade, 14.
14 Seott MaeDonald , " Carolee Sehneeman 's ABC: The Men Cooperated," Aper/moKe
12: 9 (1985): 12. 15 Catherine EIIVes. "Fl o ating Feminity: A Look at Performance Art by W o rnc n." in WO/l'len ' .\· /mages o/ lv/ell , ed . Kent and MOHeau (London: W riters and Readers Publishin g, 1985), 164. 16 Quoted in De Lauretis, Alice Doesl1'l . 185. 17 Elwes, "Floatin g Feminity," 165. 18 Silverman , Suhjecr ofSemiolics . 197 . 19 De Lauretis. Alite Doesn'l . 184. 20 Rache! Bowlby, " The Feminine Felllale," Social Te XI (Spring/Summer 1983): 58. 21 Héléne Ci xous. "The Laugh of the Medusa," in New Frencll Fe/l1ini.\'II1. ed . Marks and de Courtivron (New York.: Schocken Books, 1981). 22 CiXOLlS in Helene Wen zel , "The Text as Bodyl Polities : An Appreeiation ofMonique Wittig's Writings in Context." Feminisl SIl/dies 7:2 (1981): 266. 23 Luee 1ri garay , "Women's Exile ," /deology & (.'OI1SÓOUSlless 1: 1 (1977) : 64 . 24 See Luce Iriga ray , Sp ec ulum o/ Ihe Olher WOI 11 {/n , transo Gillia n C. Gill (New York : Cornell University Press , 1985).
25 Burke. " Irigara y Throu gh the Looking Glas!>," 289.
26 Bowlby, 'Teminine Female," 58.
27 Ann Rusalind Jo nes. " French Theo ri es of the Felllinine." in Mokil1g (( Oijj'e rel1ce: Femi/lisl Lilerary CrilicislI1 . ed. Greene and Kahn (London: Methuen , 1985). 106. 28 Sec J il D olan. "The D ynamics o f Desire : Sexualit y a nd Gender in Po rn ugraph y and Performance," Tlrealre ./ounral 39: 2 (1987).
29 Bowlby, "Felllininc Female ." 62.
JO WCl1 ze! , "Text élS Body/Polilics ," 266 .
.\1 J O I1 CS, " h cnch Theorics," 1()(,.
\2 Bcv.:r1 y BrllIVn and ParwclI i\d ; IIH ~ , "Thc h :mi nine Body amI reminist Polities."
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11 1).. lall.lI .., ¡\I '.~ II \h¡':S 1111 ' \VPlk h\' 1~1\ hl' I"Ii , d 111 111, ""lIl" ull',dlll¡¡II I l" I\ II I1 ~' n . wl lll:h 111 11," P:lI II (.;II I:1 l l:aSl: i~ c;t¡l'l'I '1 1"1111 11)' 1 1I1 ~k, I\ I III I'. ·0111....: R (,selll hal ill 11 1) W; IY 11l~l i l:v ~:; Ihal W()III C1 1 an.: hi() klg ically rlr Sl'illlll;lIly ' .11 111"11\ >1 1.. 111,'11 Olllall\ n:h:l encc ill Ihis cOIIIl.:xl d{,c:,¡ hel" ¡¡ Jissc rvice. 35 IbiJ .. 160. 36 See Laura Mulvey, "Visual Pleasure and N arrati ve Ci nema ," Screen 1(,: 3 (1975). 37 lbid., 158. 38 Ibid, 158. 39 Elwcs, " Floating Feminity," 172. 40 Ibid ., 172- 173. 41 Ibid. , 173. 42 A nnie Leclerc, Parole de Femme (Paris: G rasset , 1974), 42. 43 Jane We instock , quotcd in Maureen Turirn, "What is Sexual Diffcrence'.'··
81
N EGOT 1ATI N GD EVI A N CE
A N O NORMATIVI TY
Performance art, boundary transgressions, and social change
Ajierlmage 12:9 (1985): 5. 44 Mil.:hel FoucaulL " W hy Study Power: The QlIcstion of the S lIbject," in ¡'.fichel FOllcalll/: Beyond Srrucruralisl1I ({/Uf lJermel1l'lIlics, ed. Hubert L. Dreyfus anJ Paul R abino\V (Chicago: Univcrsit y 01' C hica go Press, 1982), 21 1.. 12. 45 T eresa de Lauretis, "Feminist StuJies: Reconstituting Knowleoge ," Unpublishcd m::;. (Spring 1985). 46 R emark madc on a panel discussion ofperformance art, October 23 , 1987, Harnp shire Collegc. Amherst, Massachusetts. 47 Linoa Burnharn , " Performance Art , High Performance ano Me," Tite Drama Rel'ielV 30: 1 (1986): 36. 48 Remarks rnade in various interviews or conversations with the author: Anderson ano Monk , 1983; Green ano 0leszko, 1987. 49 As Dolan notes, F inley "does llot offer hcrself as a passive object ... shc oesecr ates herself as the object of[rnalc] Jesire." See 161 ·-63. 50 As recoun ted by Mark R ussell , producing director of Performance Space 122 , Ncw Y ork, October 1987.
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Sourcc: Murilyn Corsianos and Kclly Amanda Train (cds), lnlerroga /ing ."ocial JlIs/ice: Poli/ir,\', CI/I/lIre, and Idemi/y. Toronlo: Canadian Scholars ' Prcss, 19')'), pp. 155 179.
Introduction Contemporary art explores identity and challenges taken-for-grantcd as sumptions about self and society. These practices come from the tradition of Ihe avant garde and promote social jllstice through art, which often uses provocative and direct modes of representation to enact difficult subject Illatter and to call attcntion to social problems. Thc history and practice of avant garde art, specifically performance art, relies on the use of disjunctive and contradictory images, boundary transgressing methods and shock tacties lo subvert status quo ideals and institutions. Thus contemporary avant garde artists and their work are often known , construeted, labelled, and stigmat il.cd as deviant by those who do not understand or disagree with these art world 110rmS. Deviance is, however, contextual- in the eye of the beholder determined not by inherent qualities in the aet but by the power to label and Ihe power to enforce the label (Backer 1963; Erikson 1966). But a paradox cxists in the realm of art: rule-breaking behaviour is thought to be preserved against sanctions imposed on common sociaJity because of its context inside Ihe art frame. and it is conversely labelled and sanctioned as deviant by those lIutside of the art context who find it a real threat to more conventional lIotions of social and artistic decorum. Cutting edge contemporary art is intcn Iionally dcviant; pushing lhe limits of accepted boundaries, on one hand, and Ihe victim 01' bci ng la belled Hnu sanctiollcd as such, on the other. Thus, hecause 01" the work 01' contem purary pl!rfn nnan ce él rtists , the contradiclions 't,')
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cm bci.hh:ú in thl' 1\Olioll u l' wlwl is IWIIII:!I alld good (Inl WII OlIl, w lll.: n:, Ullt! when) becomc increasingly visibk as the: slakcs o ver lhe sI l ugglc lo d ct illc normality heighten when artists challen ge non11S nf' acccpt able rer rcsent ation and a conventional status quo ideal 01' art amI pu blic cx prcssiVII. In this chapter, I discuss the ways performance artists produce sOl:ial change by experimenting \Vith and confronting social and personal boundaries, thc limitations imposed by these and thcir con struotions. F irst I describe the works o f m o re radical performance artists and their uses 01' artistic con tem and form to in voke social change. Then I talk about the resista nces to artiSlS' \Vork by a conserva ti ve bal:klash in a controversy ovcr US government fund ing for the arts . ,In lhis public crisis, divergent groups competed over author ity to define core societal values and the symbolic represcntation of these. Finally I show how artists use pedagogical strategies to accomplish smaller social and politica l ehanges alter tb e outery against radical art. I use data from field \York, in terviews a nd public reeords of performance events and con troversics.
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199 \ ) s ll g!'~"; I :, 1I H1 1 ¡¡valll go rJ c arl illd lld\! ' lIch cu llural pwcJ lIctioll as punk Itlck 1ll1l:;1\..: a nd a ttlludcs hCl:a nsc lhey b rillg a r! into lhe everyday , Illaking it I\'k-vant lo sllI.;ial Jiscoursc. This d elinition or avant garde art dilTers from a III1)rl: convcntlOnal onc rocused primarily on avant garde art as primarily an ¡Ir( world innovator located in museums and for the purposes ofmaintainin g :nt world uistinctions of high and low culLure. But crossing boundaries , even hdwccn gencralit.cd concepls Iikc art and lile , is not always casy and is o ften lakcn as rulc-breaking. Performance artists in the late 1980s pushed limits of acccptable represcntation in their attempts to crea te social change and awa re Ill:ss . In doing so , definitions of deviance and the moral order of society were rallcd into question .
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Performance art pro vides a creative locale where art making and socio political concerns mergc because of thc open-ended natlire of thc art form, its historical basis in radical intention , its anti-aesthetics, and low-tech require ments. Performance artists are interested in broadening traditional moral boundaries a nd oppressive a ssumptions about marginal members of society and hold the possibility 01' creating a :>ociety based on an overall acceptance of difference rather than an either/or, good/bad set of definitional assump tions. They creatc ritual art and performance art that cross the boundarics between art and Iife and resist traditionally confining definitions of identity, providing space where alternative realities are examined and presented . By doing this they contest deflnitions ofmarginal identities, including that ofthe artist as irrelevant to the regular mechanisms of society . Performance art intentionally plays with the Iines bctween art and audi cnce , content and formo Artists may confront audiences \Vith work that docs not fit convcntional definitions 01' beauty. The artist may bring the audiencc into the art work by directl y confronting thern or making the work on the street 01' in other non-traditional artistic venues. This work poses more of a threat to social norms than art that provides more 01' a distance between art and real lite or art and audience beca use it refuses audiences role as passive observer (see Wheeler 1997 for a discussion of aesthetic distance and contem· porary art). Thus, the use offormal techniques , perhaps those that asscrt the oppositc oftraditio na l aesthetics, works also to subver l mt world hierarchies. Avant garde performance art rejects of the separatiol1 M a rt ("ram society an d c haUenges lhe institution 01' art that promo tes lh is di vision be tween lhe aesl hetic
Sllciological theories of deviance rest on a common assumption that defi ni lions of what is known as devian t change over time and place. Deviance is l'onlingent on processes 01' symbolic and act ua l labelJing, prevailing defini tions ofthe normative moral order and the power to deny legitimacy to those labelled deviant (Goode and Ben-Yehuda 1994; Pfohl 1994; Sumner 1994) Therefore , labelling ,is concurrent with social norms , but these norms challge over time and place. Deflnitions of deviance are constructed through conftictcd social p rocesses :Ind organiz ed efforts to change collective meanings of social behaviour. Scllin (Sellin 1938: Kelly 1993) marked the way that con ft icts betwee n d ive r gent cultures arise when norms and symbols conftict in the borders between thcm. This occurs " when the law of one cultural group is extended to coye r the territory of another" 01' when members 01' mi grate across groups (Sell in 19~8: 74). Thcse boundary crossings produce tensions and struggles and orten result in membcrs 01' one group taking action to define the situation accord ing to their own goals. They promote causes in order to shape social norms to coincide with their vision 01' the issues at hand . These " moral entrepreneuIs" (Backer 1963: 128) use organized means to gain publicity for perso nal inter l'sts ano makc or enforce social rules through individual promotion and l':Impaigns for their causes. Performance artists are moral entrepreneurs in that they promote social vhange in their art work . Their goals are loosely constructed aro und an artistic practice ofidentity politics interested in gaining a public voice and to increase visibility ror individuals and groups with traditionally marginal, silcnt and illvisible idcntities (Hirsch 1972; Marsh and Kent 1984: Phelan 1993). Artists do l!lis by lalking openly amI assertively about race, sex and gender. When Iwrfnrmance a rtis ts cross bo unuarics 01" standard social deeorum , they meet I esistulll"C fro m o thers olTemlcd by Iheir opcn ness a n d d isregard for norm ali vc social r ules . Thu:; a c~lII tli cl ~~(.:\,; l l rs over ddiniti ons, represcntations an d Jllod es 0(' n:prescn lalinn . !\ "111011 :1 1 pa llil."" (I l isl:S whe n s uch con tcsla tions
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pcrson s emcrgcs ti) bccnlllc ddi llcu as a 1III I.'jl! (11 ~U\; i d al va h.c:-. allJ inl<.: r csts, .. " (Cohen 1972: 9). In the conlro vcr,y \ )V\': I' liS arls fu odi ng in Ihc la le 1980s and I 990s, wmpeting groups 01' moral cntrcp rcncurs artisls on one hand, consc rvative coogressmen , on the other attempled to defi ne arl a nJ the soci al good in different ways to gain support fo r their respective reforlll strategies. Thus a cultural cl ash ensued over the definition of art, publi cly acceptable modes of expression, the government funding of art and lhe use or symbols as markers of social norms in each al' these. Turner's theory (Turner 1969) of " social dramas," similar to the idea o f moral panics,' frames such collective crises as momen ts of possibility th a t show social processes as a set of events, li ke a narrative, occurring in seq uence and leading to a range of possible social functions am I outcomes. Social dramas can reveal ongoing reproduction of social relations that are othcrwise obscurcd by routine daily practiccs. A social drama can become the focal point and functional remedy for a society in crisis a nd artists who intended their work to promote such a moment 01' possibilit)'. Crisis moments reflected in a social drama may allow for an increased level of reflection to occur and may provide potentially "liminal" moments (i.e. , a moment of activity that is difficult to define; one that causes uncertainty), which allow for social trans formation (Turner 1969; Wagner-Paciflci 1986). Artists attempted 10 create social drama through thcir individual performative practices in order to call attention to their concerns on a larger stage. A social drama allows change beca use pub lic themes are called into q uestion as a result of the conflict being playcd out in (he social drama. Subsequently a re-evaluation of the conflicting themes takes place, creating sorne form of social change or renewal of social values. Pe rformance art strategies that conflate life with art allow liminality to happen beca use taken-for-granted boundaries are crossed, thus highlighting a boundary that was previously invisible. In the words of performance artist, Ray Langenbach
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[in a performance that crosses boundaries] people are able to become more aware ofthat which already is. [This social behaviour] beco mes a dynamic thing: the figure to look at rather than just the ground. The perceptual field around it changes. 1t is not always clear ifthings get better or if things get worse, it becomes a moment of crisis. Then hopefulIy some resolution of that crisis, you know, comes out of il, but that is something that generally either in politics, religion, or in performance art, the performer, in the larger sense of that word , has very little control over. It beco mes a social dynamic, and the per former is basica lly just scratchi.ng the edge ,md then Ihe thing hap pens o ut of that. .. . It is very problemal ic in some way'> . but there is that elemellt in social lile and a gro up will dca l wil h il when Lhey have to . When Sl)melhing a ppea rs ill il d iIÚ:n.:n l rtarnc lhan IIsuaL
!\rtists '\:reate a crisis" in order to instigate liminality in the hope of erea t illg ncw awareness and social change. Performance artists assert their mar I'inal identil)' statuses to create crises as points of empowerment' and , during I he late 1980s and throughout the 1990s, artists gained the most attention when confro nted those identities most directly embedded in the conflicts over sexo sexual identity, sexual politics and AIDS. As a response to the AIDS cr,isis, I he ongoing degradation 01' women, and the denial and repression of él Iterna live sexual identities, artists openly di seussed and displayed sexual acts in the Pllblic realm in order to increase objective understanding of sexual cxperi l'nce. Performance a rtists David Wojnarowitz, Holl y Hughes, T im M i11er and .101m Fleck vocalized the expcricnce of being gay and refused the negative sllcial stigma attributed to it by enacting the ACT- Up 4 tenet that " silence = dcath." They addressed the public denial and the unequal positions of being gay in society by using their art speak directly to powerfu l public figures and lo redefine normativity based on their experiences. David Wojnarowicz wrote an essay for an exhibition catalogue in which he allacked puhlic figures who stood against funding AIDS research a nd publicly opposed homosexuality. Wojnarowkz described Cardinal John O 'C onn or as ;¡ "fat cannibal 1'rom that house of walking swastikas up on Fifth Avenue" amI with increased outrage in his angry tirade , he imagincd ho\\' he could "douse [.Iesse] Helms with a bucket of gasoline and set his putrid ass on fire" alld "throw Rep. William Dannemeyer off the Empire State Building" (Wojnarowicz 1989). He also made complexly layered colIages that combined political imagery with homoerotic subject matter and performed his angry lIlonologues as critiques of "cultural excesses and politics of exclusion " . Ilo11Y Hughes created unequivocalIy lesbian plays that re1'used any adher1'llCC lo whitc male hcteronormativity by simply ignoring it. (Heteronomlativity is ¡t tcrm that suggcsts the social construction of social sexual relationships Iltal are taken for granted in most contemporary cultures. In other words, tltis tcrm rcfers to the notion that heterosexual unions and the societal IIlslitutions that support these are not nccessarily natural , but require an !lllgoing enforcement in order to maintain them.) "There is no subterranean appeal lo dominant culture for understanding" (Davy 1993: 55). Taking the ~;Ialldroint of a Icsbian subjectivity subvcrted traditional normative rules ;dllllll being silcnl and submissi ve aS a person with an outsider status. Tim MilIer's wor k took r>1¡¡~c in perr(lrmance spaces and with ACT-tJP/I.A. IlIlc!!rali ng his slagcd work wil h (' Ihc\' lili.: wl)rk s. Miller's performance art Ipo k Ihc t'mlll ()I" m ga ni7in l' lbl ,',ily \;ol11 lT1 uni ty, asscrting the social a nd
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Appropriation of the social drama The frank nature of the material and the combination of public and private realms provoked rapid moral outrage from right-wing members of the US Congres s who used the excuse of government fund ing to crea te a nati ona l panie over gove rnment funds for " pornography. " These artists hit the core social issues ofrepresentation, meaning and the authority to define, and through their work called direct attention to the social , political and representational injustices against marginalized groups occuring at that time . The social drama crisis created by artists was quickly appropriated by more institutional ized and powerful members of society.6 Social dramas unfold as a series of tour steps: naming the threat, building a consensus for this dennition , eontinued labelling and implcmenting insti tu tional power (Alexander 1988). Individuals and groups with institution al power come to take control of a social drama by defining another group as d eviant and cnlisting others in a consensus to label this dev iant behavio ur as a concerted threat to the core values ofsoeiety. 7 For resolution ofthe threa l to oceur, institutional and legitimate means of social control must be drawn upon to stop these potentially " polluting forces" in order to resolvc the conll ict posed by them . Counter-centres emerge when these social control efforts rely on multiple contingencies to enforce centralized norms as the generally agreeJ upon outcome of the conR ict. A nd lastly, in this process 01' crisis and rencwa 1. sym bolic processes d crived rro m a n alliam:e or lhose intc reslcJ in con tain ing social transgression con tinue lo label a no J illercnlia tt' no nn al ivc sOtial val Llcs froOl those Ihat pose él signilka nl lh rca t 1\1 Ihe:;1..' va llJcs , r hc s()cial d ra ma a~ ) 7 ,1
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,1 'o llllg¿·k· "Vel v.d IlC~ alld Ihl':;c 11 1\(' 11 111" 111 Jd lllL'lhe ~ ,I ell.:d Cl'lItre IIrs~)ci cly " Val llsl 1111 II SI.lICSS I Vl: act illllS rcvCil ls t hl' hlOadl'J' IIIcd", 11 iSI1IS 01" I hc social 1'I1IIsI rud it ," ot' dcvianee ill clrcet in this crisis. Artists alkll1plcJ to lahel oppressive social systcms deviant by calling them Ollt, L'nading thclll , rcl"using and ignoring them. However , arlists' power lies i" shock al1LI confrontation and in redefining the social landscape through arlislic action. The moment at which artists cease to perform for audiences alrL~ady cOlllll1ilted to their causes is the simultaneous m oment 01' most and kast power. It is these moments of provocation and their accomplishmen ts that show the relative power 01' the marginal and the institutional. Right-wing congressmen and the family values coalition redenned this lTisis as one about good amI evil and used this religious platform to attack rllnding of the arts. The NEA-funded (i .e. , the Na tional Endowm ent for the Arts) exhibitions by photographers Robert Mapplethorpe and Andres Serrano led to this controversy over artistic representation of social values because of their use of directly sexual and religious imagery . Mapplethorpe and Serrano lIsed similar techn,i ques as those 01' performance artists to cross over the dis linctions between what is real and what is staged . Therefore, as photographs, ,'ven staged works take on the tone of reality . An initial lctter from April 5, 1989, written by the executive director of the American Family Association , called attention to Serrano' s photograph " Piss ( 'hrist. " The primary focus of this initial letter \Vas the " bias and bigotry" against Christians by both popular cultural productions as well as ones slIpported by government funds. l t was Jesse Il elms 's May 18, 1989 letter lo the NEA chairman, Hugh Southern, protesting the use of government funds I"m the art 01' Andres Serrano that brought attention to " govern mcn t supported infractions against Christians. "
Mr. Presiden!. several weeks ago, l began to receive a number 01' Ietters , phone calls, and postcards from con stituents throughout the State concerning art work by Andres Serrano. They express a feding of shock , of outrage, and anger. They said , " lIow dare you spend our taxpayers' money on this trash." They all objected to taxpayers' money being used for a piece of so-called art work which, to be quite candid , I am somewhat rcluctant to utter its title . This so-called piece of art is a deplorable, despicable display of vulgarity. The art \York in question is a photo graph of the crucinx submerged in the artist's mine . This artist received $15,000 for his v,:ork from the National End()wlllcnt for the Arts , through the So utheastern Centcr for Con tcm po ra ry A rt. Wcll il" Ih is is what c()ntcm pmary e1rt has Sunk to , this level, this o ul ragc, thi s ind ignity Sll l1lC may wu nt lo sa nctio n that , and that is finco 13ut nol wilh the m;¡,: o r lnxpayers' ll mllcy. T his is no t a question of
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I'rl'l! :;p~cdl. This is a quest iOIl OLlhllsc o t laxpaycr:-.' IlIOIH,y I I'wc allow lhis grOllp ofso-caJlcd arl cx perts lo ge l a \Val' will! lhis, to defame LIS and to lIse our money, well tIJen wc do not descrve to be in oftke. That is whl', MI". President, 1 am proud of the Members, who in literallya matter 01' minutes - over 20, about 25- joined me in sign ing a strong letter 01' protest to the Endo\VmenL B ere is a picture, and the title is "Piss Christ. " lncredible, ... The purpose for which the l:ndo\Vment was established, and 1 quote, " to support the survival of the best of all forms that reliect the American heritage in its full range 01' cultural amI ethnic diversitl' and to provide nat ionalleadership on behalf 01' the arts." Mr. P resident, 1 submit this is a distortion of those purposes. It does not retlect on the fu)) range of cultural and ethnic diversity; rather, it is a perversion of those principIes. If people want to be perverse, in terms 01' what they recognize as art or culture , so be it, but not with my monel' , not with the taxpayers' dollars, and certainly not under the mantle of this great Nation , This is a disgrace. (Bolton 1992: 28 9) Helms uses the authority of traditional religious morality to assert his detlnition of deviance and to implicate the government use of arts funds in this matter as an assault against the normal moral good. His statement makes blanket assumptions about the unification of religious communities and the values of the American people, and simultaneously crea tes Serrano as the criminal against these general moral concerns. It is al so interesting to note how Helms distances himself from the "government" while aligning with the concerns of "vast majority of the American people." Buildillg CO/I.~ellSIlS
Along \vith the religious organizations and individuals \Vho found art tha t dealt \Vith sexual and religious identity offensive, the old guard art world became confused and concerned about the recent turn towards broad incl u sion 01' a range of aesthetic principies and multicultural themes im bued \Vi th political messages. Consensus, then, \Vas bllilt over loosely structured gen erational alliances rather than traditional political or religious affiliations. Painter Helen Frankenthaler provides an example ofhow this occurred as slr e expressed her concerns in the Nell' York Times in July of 1989.
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. .. 1, 1'01 lllll', \Vllllld nol wallllo slIpporl thl'lwo arlisls I1lentioned, hlll om:e ~lIppmted , \Ve musl allmv Ihelll lo be sl!own . With all the fllss.1 Ilrink a llllmher nI' crucial poinls have to be made. Grallled, \Ve are "red" by Government permit and budgets, but ccnsnrship and Govern11lent interference in the directions and stand ards 01' arl arc dangerous and not part ofthe democratic process... . Ir Ilrat healthy atmosphere is censored or dictated , the Jife of every citizen is at stake.... But lherc are other issues in these pa rticular cases. It is heart brcaking both as an artist and as a taxpayer(!), for me ro make these rcmarks. and as a painter on the council 1 find myself in a bind: Congress in a censoring lIproar on one hand and, alas, a mediocre art cnterprise on the other! Sad, indeed. By "mediocre art enterprise" 1 mcan: Has the council run its course in terms of doing a necessary quality job? Shollld it change its course from within? Is it possiblc? I myself find the counci l- the recommendations of the panels and the grants given- o f dubious quality. Is the council , once a helping hand, now beginning to spawn an art monster? Do \Ve lose art along the way, in the guise of clldors ing cxperimentaotion? ... Despite the deserved grants, I see more and more non-deserving recipients. I feel there was a time when I experienccd loftier minds, relatively unloaded with politics, fashion and chic. They encouraged the endurance of a great tradition and proteeted important devel opment in the arts. I reca]) spirited, producüve discussions and arguments. Natura])y, it is assumed that many of us often fcel aghast at some uf the awards, but 1 feel that way more and more, and I am not alone. Have \Ve "had it"- like many, now defunct, once productive, agencies? (Fmnke nthaler 1989)
When I \Vas appointcd to the advisory (;ouncil ofthe National Endow ment for Ihe A rts, I understood tbat lh e co ullciJ received it:> cha rlcr from t hc Federal government. It functions as <111 a ulOl1o lll t)us bod y dc vo led lo the pursuit am.I supporl o/' qu;¡ lil y ill lite arl ¡¡ntl c ul lure uf A mc rica pa<;1, presenl, anJ fUlurt!.
Tire elite consensus \Vas built not along the lines of tbose for or against arts IlIllding but fr0111 the vie\Vpoint that American art and culture had become "Ill' 01' increasingly questionable quality. One can only assume this disinte )J la lion of culture is a result of the increasingly blurred distinctions between IlO)Hrlar culture and high art amI the contillued inclusion of multicllltural mlllenl, which 01'ten deals specifically \Vith identity issues and challenges the \' I ~wcr lo look al clllturally constructed assumptions about these. \ 1I1sc ns lls aro und the misusc (JI' government funds occurred throllgh a ~',!.! lIcral l11isundersta nd ing 01' l.:ol1l crn porary éut. The complexities 01' artistic ·pcl·ia li/.alions anJ Ihe pa ra J il' l\ls ' !rey e:qm:ss cann01 be ul1c1erstood and 'Iil iqucd hy imn l\!dial c jlld¡rmellh 111\: val lle is nOI al ways self-cvident, IlIplI)'lI ll1c rcasOII:; tÚ I di~ ll li.,:-; , rlllI l l , II I' p l';l r 1, \ be. Si1l1 plislic inlcrpn.:t'll ioll!-l
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wa '" ('ul ill hall h :lwcc ll 1990 and liNK lo a Icvcl llr $IJX milli ün . Each yea r a ha llll' CI1SUl'S in ( 'o llg n:ss when Ihe Il cg o lialinn rol' Ihe NI :A budget is on the
lo quote all nflieial or the Hirshhnrn MlISCUIll in Washinglo n, 1).(' ., llla l ;.t rI " ortcn dcals wilh extrcmilics of the Iluman GOndition. It is nul lo be c,xpn;lcd Iha l . . . cvcryone is going to be pleased or happ y with iL" The ni lc rion ora l t lhus becomes its ability to outrage, to (in the H irshhorn officia l's worLls) " really touch raw nerves" (Lip11lan 1989, in Bolton 1992: 41). Thus, social conservatives tapped into a ripe place for public outrage.'¡ Signilicanl social conscnsus bctween the elite groups privy to this argument cenlred on the disdain for public funding of SUL:h art a nd fou nd that the fu nd ing o r Ihis art and the art itself were outright affronts o n taxpa yers' ex peeta Iions. A rtists , politieians, rcligious leaders, and the media were all surprised al lhc power of art to L:ausc up heaval in moral and sodal sensibilities.
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Conlinued /abe/ling rllc performance artists discussed a bove served as targets of the Right for the L:ontinucd process of labclling needed to further take control 01' the social drama and so lid ify the institutional mechanisms to contain it. After the initial attaá on Mapplethorpe and Serrano, social conservatives dosely scrutin izcd other uses of NEA funds calling attention to Karen Finley. Tim Miller, Holly H ughes and John Flcá. The NP.A recalled grants given to these four performance artists and they became the object 01' L:ontinued controversy over free speech , the definition 01' obscenity and the use of government funds for art. 111.1'1 i Il/l iOl1al
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Social conservatives were succcssful in creating a public controversy and a climate of fear for artists a nd arts presenters as weH as imposin g restrictions on the arts in the u s, but they did not easily define and control what kinds of values were regarded as central and important to the majority of Americans. A poli taken in 1990 revealed that mosl U nited States citizens believed that even if they were offended by particular illlages, others had the right to view them , and supported the National Endowment for the Arts a gainst fundin g cuts and other restrictions (Poli by Forecast, ,1ncorporated , J uly 13, 1990, see Bolton 1992: 249), hence revealing a disjuncture betwee n the power and interests of the rule-makers and the overaH beliefs of the population . Despite the voice of the populous siding in favour of artists and gove rn ment funding of the arts, real economic sanctions did take place, D uring J uly of 1989, a sYlllbolic cul of $45,000 was implclllented lo the NEA b udget as p unishment for eq ui valent funding lo Serrano a nd Ihe Mapplcthorpe retro specti vc. Indi vidual a rt isl gra nls were eli mi natcd in I I)().\ :l11d t he N.~A bu d ge l
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Tllc arg ulllent over m ts fUllding and Ihe crisis over the renewal 01' valucs \Vas nol resolved in a ny casy or clean way for eilher group. Senator Jesse I klllls's 1989 ~lbscenity c1ause JO suggesled restrictions against arls fundin g alld dcnieu support for artwork deemed objectionable. A year later an inde Jl('ndcnt cOlllmission investigating the gran tmakin g procedures
Artists try other techniques Ill'I'e I discuss the performance practices ofthree artists who are intercsted in social change, but do so in a less radical way than the artisls I mentioned previollsl y. l:> These artists negotiate boundaries by usin g interactive pcd agogical strategies -· listening, then pushing, Ihen pulling back and knowing Ihe contcxt in which change is possible. Thcy understand the power of art IIlaking as a tool for both individual and social change, and they walk the line hctwccll mak ing art consistin g of more overt confrontations and using their skills lo slIbtly disrupl social boulldarics. \{a y Lan ge nbach , an American-born arti st living and teaching in Singa IUlIC, uses lhe mOlllcnl or cha o s/cri sis liminality ror potential change, hui he d m:1O Ih ll CXpcd lo he able lo speu k lo a h roaJ audience with his wo rk. " 1 see Itly pcrl'\' nn ,, "cc as somchow h.... III!· ahl c In ll ave a n i mp~IL:I in a limited r'lI rt gc. , .. Wl' hCL:ol1lc Sl r'\)ll l!l'l by l'll ll\l llill P 1111 r:-¡\:!vcs" (pcrsllmtl in lCrv icw).
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lhl: pl:rlilfTYlalln : pla I 1'111111 lo ¡;ha lh:ngu Iik¡;-Illilldeo and intl ivitlu uls . In a pcrforman¡;e al lhe 1996 Pcnn Sla tc SYll1pOSill111 for C ullllrc, Perfor1l1 am:e Art ano Pedagogy, Langenbach challenged lhe mostly white, mitldle dass, highly eoucateo audience by crealing a situalioll 01' lIncerlainty among the conference presenten;. Sending letters from a Si ngapOrCaTl artisl, wbich con lained condemnations about the hegemonic nature 01' the US a rt world and veiled threats, to each of the conference presenters, he ereated a stir among those in the inside circles of lhe confereu ce. A buzz over these threat, occured through gossip nctwork~ . La ngenbach 's formal presentation took place on the last evenin g 01' the conference in the man ner of a highly theoret ical monologue de1ivered in a milita ris ticall y fascist fa shion. The meanillg 01' the words was hard to eomprehend bccause the delivery was intensc1y focu sed and engaged in a high levc1 01' theory . Many of the auoience members fe11 alienated and angry as a result. M ost did not real ize the connection between the earlier \ctter and the staged performance. The meaning of the entire performance became clear in an informal dia logue at the post-performance receplion when Langenbach and a group 01' other performance artists in attendance put all their interpretatiolls together. After much heated dialogue , Langenbach revealed his intentions to scath ingly critique US cultural aUlhority in the world and the seemingly unified assumptions of the art world . He presented his criti q ue as someone with the same cultural skills as most of the artists in attendance but shattered these assumptions of a unified art world discoursc and intention when his perform ance justified fascism oThus, he called attention to the way performance artisls reproduce a hegemonic discourse even when they disrupt sllch dominant representations. De1ivering this presentation to a less sophisticated audience \vould have led to cven further misunderstanding and outrage. To Langenbach, the art becomes ineffective when it is presented to inappropriate audiences and taken out of a certain ran ge. He speaks to the audiences \Vith whom he ls most connected in order to effect change there; when there is less of a soci al distance betwecn artist and audience , there is less resistancc to the message being given. By working within one identity location- -here that of the art \Vorld- rather than speaking to audiences across different perspectivalloca tions, Langenbach finds the technique of boundary crossing most effective when there is a limitcd range of differences between artist and alldience. T his performance had a limited influence on a like-minded audience, but it was eye-opening to the artists in attendance beca use it too k them off gua rd, provided a new perspective from which to view lhe relationship between lhe artist and the world of cultural production and allowed artis ts to critiq uc their own re1 ationshi p to global product io n 01' a rt. Langenbach li mi ts bouno ary erossing to sellings where individua ls wi ll be 11 10 re rcccplivc lo engaging in the themes of lhe pcrforma nüC a nd be enlighlcncd hy il IhrOUJ.!h the lahoUl 01" undcr:;ta no ing il. l ik e-ctl u~al¡;d
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I lcnd to find roles within institutions where I gel to have my own creative inlluence. B.W: Isn 't that threatening to them , sometimes? W.M .: That has not been my experience . . .. I have Ica rned a [great deal] from lhe work 01'] Liz Lehrman [froro W ashington , D.C.] ... She's got one company called " Dancers of the Third Age" which is made of a1l seniors. Liz does a lot of teaching and I remember her saying once that if she goes in and she's working with a group of people and she's coming up with resistance, it 's because she missed a step somewhere along the line. She skipped something. She didn ' t break things down. I think that if 1 come up with resistance it's because I missed something. It's like I' ve gone too farther than they were ready to go. W.M.:
MOrTis uses her knowledge derived from different groups of people. So part of it is working with organizations depending on where the organizalion is al. .. . I did a session with these-I mean these are insurance brokers who are owning the country.. .. One time durin g a break , I noticed they started to get tight in their abdomens... . We were just gossiping about office stuff, and I noticed a man's root tapping. And while we were talking, carrying on this convcrsatio n .. . without anyone noticing it , I just had a Iittle ball in my pocket and I slid it on the floor to him . I dropped it on the floor and I kicked il to him. Meanwhile they ' re carrying on this conversation and he kicked it back to me. I kicked it to him again. Hc kicked it to somebody clse. And then another one. five minutes la ter, without anyone knowing how it happened , there's fiftecn people in the room running everywhere, twenty balls on the f1oor , kicking them back and forth and somebody said, " how did this happen'?" This is , you know, this was their bathroom break ... and so ies all about look ing for whcre the point ofopening is. You knO\v , that's all the skills of itnprovisation. The body gestures are dues. Morris uses her skills as él da ncer lo pay attention to e\ements outside the l10rmal ra nge l) f \ i~i on. Shc is ahle lo tlcglJl iale between knowing how muc h In pllsh a llo ill wll al d ireclio n <1 l1d sll.:ppi ng hU l~k. 'hlk ill~ a mu re d islallccd rcl;l\ l'd Il ppl oad l, Ii kc Morri:; úocs. may not get IIII II¡.'.S d Oll e will! as 1I1111'h c1nllIHl 01 \ 11'" 111 01 l"f~'a l c a l1 a liona l c risis, hut lit is
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appruach starls frolll lhl' J)lacl: \'vill:IU tlll' pil ltil'ipil lIlS a llJ a ud icl1 ces a n.: able lo begin lhe process 01' b uilding IWW a W4I n; tll~::;S and unJerl> landillg. These openings dirtcr from place to place in a Illlllticultllral soéid y. Worki n¡! in corporations may on ly allow individuals to simply fed more creative anO may enable them to contin ue to work from the same basic ass urnptio ns aboul entitlement and indi vi dua lism that th e more radical a nd oe via n tized art ists condemn. Bue this technique of Llsing the context of tne sit uation at hand lO determine the amount 01' Jistance an artist can go in pushing an agenda is useflll in understanding the relationship between bOllndaries a nd resista nce. Jt may help those interesteJ in moving towards greater social change to un de r mine resistances and stalemates. To other performan ce artists, the teaching process is integral to w bat making art is all about. Charles Garoian, a p rofessor at Penn State, thi n ks of his site of art production as the c1assroolll. Perform ance to him is done within the context 01' academia [rather than the art world or alone in one's studio] in order to basically question and critique the structures 01' learning that tend to inscribe themselves on the bodies of lhe students. [When 1 first started teaching] the only thing that ca me out of my mouth was, "Look, you guys. I know a little bit about art and that's what I've been studying for several years no\V . You gllys know a lot about your lives a nd your cultures, and so what we' re going to do is Iearn from each other. " And , therein lies the basis for my teaching, in that I began to realize that the best way to get my kids to get creative was to make room for their own cultural identities, their own memories amI histories anJ other things that they were studying, their experiences as a whole. That \Vas going to be the only way to get them to think critically and creatively, to create works 01' art that were meaningful. Garoian uses performance art as a way to get students to understand their own stories allll to sho\V them \Vhat it means to be collaborative. In a society so fully invested in competitive strategies, collaboration can be a stepping stone for social and political cognizance. Garoian developed his performancc pedagogy while teaching high school art: Performance became el way ofcontesting the assumptions ofhistory. [One example 01' doing this was] tho ice piece .... Thero were fj"e tons 01' ice delivered to the sch ool on the particula r mom ing. The admini stration called me on the ca rpel ... beca use I \Vas dis rupting c1asses, and I sa id. " Well , the sculpture stuucnls a nJ I . .. have been working in plastcr, we've becn wo rking in w~)od lInd melal anJ now we're bcginning to talk a ho ut the cr hcmcr.'1 1\,'(mdili oll:> \l f ar!. . . . You knew qlll~s li oni ll g whelhcr o r 1I11lllh jccls (Hlllhl h ) h~' lllu dl' tnlusl I'or ,)< ,
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celllu ries \'r wlll' l her SO 111 el h ing 1ha I was crhclllcra I could funclion as an arl wu rk . OkayT So I al ways prescnted my administrators the ralionale as it was a n opportunity to educatc thcm. In lUuch the same \Vay that Suzan.ne Lacy has worked \Vith the public policy-makers. .. . I lerc is an opportunity for me not only to educate students anJ myself but also to educate lhe administrators to think about larger ramifications 01' a rt within the culture at large, but more importantly, within the context 01' the curriculum of the school. And , they got it. And you know, five tons 01' ice showed up that morning and the students had to decide. bascJ on the way ... beca use we asked for the water to be frozen in any shape or form , anJ people pul it in plastic bags, they put it in milk cartons, they put it in plastic buckets, so \Ve had all these different shapes anJ the students had to come up with some sort 01' an architectonic form in order to assem ble all these parts. Well , at nrst it was one big pile, then they realized that they weren ' t really taking advantage 01' the shapes, so they in a sense created a wall, a wall that was transparent and a \Vall that \Vas melting away. Rather than looking at art as merely this kind of discipline-based enterprise within the school, o ne that was most often marginalized within the context of the curriculum , that it had to go underground and work in ways that one \Vould not expect. You know , no one wOLlld have guessod that \Ve were doing anything but monkey busi ness or playing around like a bunch of k ids until nnally the rationale 01' ephemerality \Vas presented . That rationale was too strong. But that becamc an underground means in order to question the very stability of what curriculum is all about. In other words. just as a bronze sculpture willlast thirty thousand years, so does a curriculum last for; you k nO\",., it comes across in a very structured manner to the point whero it's no! even permcated by any kind of human life. Using the art making process to create metaphors for social life allows students to start to qucstion basic assumptions about what is given to them. as wdl as to question the role of authority in providing the normative deflnitions 01' reality. Garoian 's art making and teaching strategies bring ne\\' IInderstanding to the students, lhe school aJministration , and the community who brought the ice. By giving lhe rationale 01' the project anJ framing it pedagogically, the school administration Jid not nnJ it threa tening, but fúund lheir own opening ¡nto it. Pcr fo nl1<JI1ce
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contCX I ~1 11J Lh(.: /11 o lllcll l whl.!l'c apPw pl i;lt ,' ;(," 1<111 cal! lu kl! "Iaú! , unJ n: fus ing lhe vcry nOl ioll 01' no n nality. Wl u.:n lIl t is l,,"en 0111 01' ils imml'di,,1L: context and lhe audience fo r which it was c rcu ted, Ihe stakes l'ür ilS reccptio n and understanding increase. Using performance art/lif'c tcchniques redefines wha t is known as sacred by opening up the taboos surround ing it. Work in this realm can be relatively smooth, with the use 01' a p pro priate bounda ries and expectations about relative inn uence, understanding the contexl and the Jimits embedded there, and the use of a clear rationale. Or, it can be con fro n tational and jarring, with the inlentions of L1sing shock value to provoke changes in social groups who resist these changes. Changing society depends on \Vorking al differcnt paces in many different a renas.
Conclusion Through these examples we see the way artists use boundary crossing tech niques to both crea te erises and invoke more subtle cbanges in personal a nd comm unity belief systems. Several kinds 01' q uestions occur as a result 01' this discussion. Does art cause social change? Does social change depend 011 deviance? Is boundary crossing an integral part of the way artists attempt social change? The more radical artists discLlssed here did cause social change in the form 01' provoking a social drama , calling attention to themselves and the meaning and definition of art. But the changes that occurred were not necessarily lhe ones they had intended . Arts funding was the target. However, artists were successful in pushing their agenda and pushing the acceptable limits 01' public discussion of sexuality and representations 01' alternative sexualities in the mass media and the wider culture generally. For instance, gay and lesbian lifestyles were depicted on prime-time television when women were shown kissing. In terms 01' arts fllnding, the historical avant garde held a goal 01' bringi ng art back into life and ending its separate status as a patronized part of an el ite art world institution. In terms of this goal, artists were successful at Ill a king new links between popular culture and the art world and at attacking the institution and elite definition 01' art. The result of this is mixed. On one ha nd , funding of art is now held to a stricter standard , there is less money available, and the status of art has diminished. On the other hand, more diversity is acceptable in po pular representations. When postmodern identity-based in dividuals, socialized in a mediatized, fluid and Illomentary cu ltllre, come into contact with Illodernist hierarchies, a conflict over central social values occu rs. Radical artists accomplished a goal of killing the institlltion of art by gettinl:! defunded , bri nging the work into the real m 01' lhe soci al. political a mI lite personal. Wh at was once uefi ncd :; s\lcicly is now ol1 ly dehncu a s such by a small gro up who happen lo inha hif r llw¡,;rl'ul soci ul posit ions, Because 0 1' Olis, dclini tio ns 0 1' d cnHlcra..:y ~ h (l"l d :11"10 l'(IfJW II IlUC I' sCI'IILi ny . )<;,1
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\VII,:II al tisIS ,'()lIlillllt~ to cr¡,;aLc works 11r.. 1 c1wlknge tak¡,;n-for-granted :lSSLlmplÍlll1S abo ut Llrl! wider social Jife or in smaJler occupat ional settings, Ihe work ()fsm:ial changc conLinues. Even the most min ute in crease in aware IIt'SS Illay be part or a larger errort to gain further equality, if all awareness kads lo increased social juslice. But this remains a question for díscussion :llld future research.
Notes Though the licld 01' performance art is very diwrse and has become more so since the 1989- 90 debates over arts l'unding, my definition 01' performa nce art here rests 011 the particular form of perfo rmance art that became most visible at that tim e. Since that timc perfo rmance an has burgco ned alld has, as is the case when a ny "vant garde art becomes widely accepted and practiscd, becorne less radical and shocking. I will discuss so me of these adaptations at the end ofthis papel'. Firstly , however, 1 focu s on th e detlni ti on 01' performance art during the late 1980s an o early 1990s, which denoted intcnlional no rm reversal practices. Performél11ce art has become a term which den otes a broad range 01' art , theatre, dance activities, 1110st 01' that are not interested in shocking a nd reviling audiences. 2 Moral panics, Iike social dram as, "serve as a mechanism for simultaneousl y strengthelling and redrawing society's moral boundaries- that tine betwecn mor alily and ill1ll1oratily , just wllere one lca ves the territory of good and enters that of evil" (Goode 1994: 52). The dilTerence between the t\\'o concepts ties primarily il1 th e use 01' devianee. For Goode an d Ben-Yehuda, m oral panics are negotiations of deviance. Turner, on the other hand, sces th e crises in social dramas as mechan isms for defining normativity . I use them as two sides 01' the same coin. :1 The ac tions 01' performancc art ists are similar to subcultural resistance to domina tion as described by Hall an d his colleagues in their \Y ork on British yo uth culture . Hall el a l. discuss subcultures and resistancc to he gc monic social controls as a result of class locati ons, but artists hold a very paradoxical class location in contemporary society which cannOI be solely desoribcd as \\'orking cla ss. Bourdieu (1993) best cxplains the particular class locati on of artists as bcing the " domin ated among the dominant," caught in the d o uble bind of an "eco nomic system I'eversed." Tradition all y, when an avant garde anist makes a large sum of money , the artistic value ol' her wo rk diminishcs as she " sells out" to the "profa ne" values 01' Ihe rnundane ecol1omic \Vorld . Though artists in contemporary LIS society have mostly overturned this notion , the ro le of artists, especially performance a rtists , is slill cclUght between class locations, and either held up as geniu s or dismissed as Illadlless. This dichotom ous position 01' artists in society is still a tension despite recent changes in both economic conditions alld technologica l advances. Perform ance artisls are ofte n opposed \O the commoditlcatioll 01' a rt , which in turo plaees Ihem in this ditist 110tioll that art is beyond 01' above ulilily and practicalil Y. Perfo rmance "rtists generally crea te th eir work withoUI Inuch pay a nd are rarely able to make a livin g froln il. In faet , performance an ists often ad voca tc a regular day job as cenlra l lo thcir cOlllmitmcnt or kecping art outside of Ihe cornmodity culture. Thc aCliolls 01' ra dica l ¡¡ rt.ist s rely on a rcsistance to thc dominan! c ulture. Th us thc class locatioll nI" pcrf'o rlllll ncc ur tisl s, thou gh differe nt in some crucial wuys 1"1'\1I11 wOl'king, c1a ss )'(l Lll h c llltlll'c, ~ tilll'all be 1I1lderstood in Il.a ll 's Icrms. .1 1he AIDS C:o;¡\ itioll to l l llk:l~ h P( ,w,'r 1:; a p:a y acl ivist group Ihat uses public pli rlú rl11allC:cs us part .11' il S ~t l: II' T V 1'''1 :,IIl1vc nill g AIDS discrilll inatioll (see K i ~tc l1"crJ!. II)L) ~)
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5 SOl1le, bul nol all, of Ihis w Il rk 1 ~(c i Vt' d m il " ! I II ~ ', IIJ 'I'III I rr'Hl! Iill' Nalio",,1 Millcr ;lllll.hlhll I''lcek Endo\Vment ro r the Arts. Ka rl'1I I'illley, I loll y 111 11'111'\ had their NEA grants re~cirtded b<:<:ause 01' lhe ll " ~ ;I' 01 cx plicil sex ual "'ateria!s. They beeallle known as the " N EA Four" beca use uf Iileir suil against lhe NI~A and their ehallenge to Jesse J-Ielms's 1989 al1lendl1lent lo Ihe NEA g uidelines which inc1udc:d an "obscenity eluuse" which pro hibits the funding of " obscenitics" as a rt. 6 The relative power betwcen various socia l groups is important to highlight here. Though some suy marginal gro up s hold a powerfu l social positio" in this case, lÍt lies prjmarily in the powe r ofthreat through words and symbo ls anu is not backeu up by institutional power. 7 F rol1l ¡¡ Cunc\ionalist perspceti \ e a normative o rder of society exists around a set of core va lues. l argue along with Fouea ult ( Foueault 1979) that these normati ve values are continuall y being contested , revised, asserted anu appropriated. Anu, while it may appear that dominant va lues remain pervasivc, they a re "ot static and unified nor are they resistant to sub ve rsion. 8 The 1990s conflicts about mt and government support oCthe arts are no! ne\V. The National Endowment for the Arts has been controversial sinee its inception beca use the Puritan history ofthe Un ited Sta tes makes support ofthe arts suspect. When theimplementation of arb funding beca me manifest , it \Vas a response to the fear of falling behind in the Cold War competition (Ayers 1992) and an attempt to use the symbolic as a force for politica l power. COflsensus for the idea of national Sllpport for cu ltural production oce ured when conservatives could see the utilitar ian vallle in using cu ltural prominence to assert authority over t he R ussians. The National Endowment for the Arts was establisheu in 1965 alld grew to a blldget of 171.22 million in 1990 (Bo lt on 1992). 9 1t could be argued that the photographers and performance artists in qllestion here were also tapping into this public sentiment , trying to ereate spectade to eall attention to themselves and to tap into public outrage about ineqLlality. Several crucial points show the distjnetion between these two arenas. 1) Art is made within an "art frame." Things that are ealled art are traditionally kept sacred and separ ate from the regular workings 01' ralionul soeiety. 2) Art is viewed and llnderstood from a different set ofassumptions than is public policy. Contemporary ar! works form the notion that , even though it looks and feels to rhe viewer Iike it is " real life" it is not , even though it is pla yin g with this distinction and prefers to remain ambiguous in its contemporary forllls. More th an likely it is aski.ng the viewer to look beyond what appears to be happening in the speeific art pieee and to question the underlying cantent and assumptions involved both in the mt anu the readion to il. 3) Senators are expecteu to be rationaL. thoughtful , non-erratic individua ls who eallupon logic of dcmocraey to support their arguments. Religi o us fervour is to be kept separate from policy analysis. 10 1t stated , " None 01' the Cunds authorized to be appropriated pursuant to this Ad may be used to promote, disseminate, or produce 1) obseene or indecent materials, inc1uding but no t limited to uepictions of sadomasoehism , homoerotieism. the exploitation of ehildren , or individuals engaged in sex acts ; 01' 2) malerial which denigrates the objects 01' beliefs 01' the adherents 01' a particular religion or non religion: or 3) material which denigrates. debasc:s. or reviles a persono grollp, or class ofcitizens on the basis of raee, creed , sex , handicap, age, or national originO' (Bo lton 1992: 347). 1I Aeeording to Nina Totenberg on N alion a l Public Radio (M ,Il'l'h 31. 19(8) (his \Vas a " lose- lose situation " fm the NEJ\ beeaLlse CVC II ir Ihe Su pn!Jl1e C Ollrl sided in ravour of the contin ued ro le 01' govCrTllllCnl in fUlldi,,!, rice s pel'l'h, incvilably
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References Alexander, J. 1988 . " Culture alld Po litical Crisis: 'Waterga te' and D urk heimian Soci ology. " Dllrkheünia/1 S ocio!ogy: CU!fUro! SLUdies, J . A lexander (ed.). C am bridge: Cambridge Universi ty Press: 187- 224. Ayers, S. M. 1992. Tlie Se!ee/ion Proces.l' 0./ /h e NlI /iol1a! Elldowm cn/ ¡ár /h e Ar/s Th ear.er Progral/'/: A/1 His/orimIlCri/¿ca! S lUdy . New York: Peter Lang. Becker, H. 1963. Ou/sider,I': S/udies in /he Socio!ogy o/ De!'ial1ce. New York: The Free Press. Benjamin , W. 1968. JllUlnina/iIJlls. New York: Schocken. Blinderman, B. (Ed.) 1990. Darid ,rvoillo/'OlI'ic;;: TO/lgues o{ F!ame. Normal. IlIin ois: Ulliversity Galleries IlIinois State lJniversity. Bolton , R. (Ed.) 1992. Cu!/ure Wars: f)O('Uflli'll/ .I·./i'OI/'/ //¡e Recen/ Con/l'Ol'er.l'ies i/l lhe Ar/.\'. New Yo rk: New Press. Bourdieu. P. 1993. Tlu' Fie!d o/ Cultural Produc/ioll: I~·s.l'ays 011 Ar! am! Li/era/ure. New York: Columbia U niversi ty Press. Carr, C. 1993. "lJnspeakab le Practiees, Unnatu ral Aets: T he Taboo A rt of Karen Finley. " AClÍl/g Out: Feminis/ P,eljámwlu·es. L. Hart and P. Phelan. Ann Arbor: Univers ity of M ichigan Press: ,141 - 152. Cohen , S. 1972 . Fo!k De !'i!s 1I/1(! ¡Hora! Pal1ics: The Crell/io/l o/ Mocls 1//1{! Ro('kers. London: MaeGibbon allo Kee. ))avy, K. 1993. " From Lady Diek to Lauylike: The Work ofHoll y Hughes. " Ac/il1g 01.1/: Fell1il1is/ Per/iJrll1al1ces . P. P. Lynda llar\. Alln Arbor: U ni versity of Miehigan Press: 55 - 84. 1:rikson , K. 1966 . Waj'lI'wd PI/ri/ans: A SlUdy in /h e Socio!ogy (J{ Del'il/llce. New York : John Wiley and Sonso Fin1cy . K. 1990. Letter to the Editor. Washing/on PO 'f/. Washington . o.e May 19, 1990. 1'- ollcault , M. 1979. IJiscip!ine (/I/(! Punis/¡ : The Bir/h 0//11 1' Prisol1. New York : Vintage Books. Frankcnthaler, 11. 1989. "Did We Spawn all Arts Monster?" Nell' York Times. New York. July 17, 1989. (¡oode. E . and N. 8ell- Yehuda, 1994. Mora! POllics: Th e Socia! COr/S/WC!iOIl o{ /)(')'ian(' c. Cambridge, M ass : nIaekwell Press. Ilall. S. ¡¡lid T. Jcrtersoll , fEds.) I()7(¡ . Ue.l'i.l'/af1(,(' //¡rough Ri/ua!: You/h Suhcu!/ure.\ in /'0.1'1-11'(/1' Bri/(/II/ Lnndon : Il a qXi " ( '( IllillS. II
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Ilirsch , P. 1'J72. " l' n1l'cssiJlg I:ads aJld I'a slll llll" AH O lfl.I Jll/atillll se.t i\ u;tlysis 01" Cultural Indllstry Sy~ tcI1lS." / //I/('ri("(/I/ ./111//"1/(/1 o/' S " l"iolo,l!.I' 77: h.l'> (5 1) . Kclly . D. 11. (Ed.) 1993. Devil/It/ Bc/(((vior: A J"x/-Uc(/t!a ill /lIc .S'ociologl' uf Dl'l'i allce. Ne w York: St. Martin's Prcss. Kistenberg, C. 1995. Al DS. Social Change anrl 1'hl'a/er. New York: Garland PlIblish ing lne. Lipman, S. 1989. Say No to Trash. N elV York Times. New Y ork. June 23, 1989. Marsh, A . and J. K e nt, (Eds.) 1984. Live Arl: Aus/ra!ia (flld Arnerica. Adel a idc: i\nne Marsh and Jan e Kent. Nehring, N. 1993 . Flowers in lhe Dus/hin: Culture, Al1archy, (/nd Pos/lvar ¡';¡¡gllllld. Anll Arbor: U niversity of Miehigan Press. Pfohl , S, 1994. !/I1oges (Jl De vial/ce (//ul Social COl/lrol: A Soóologiml His/ory. New York: MeGraw-Hill. Phelan, P. 1993. Unmarked: T/¡e Poliúcs oI Pe/jármonce. London: Routledge. Ridless , R. 1984. Ideology and Ar/: TheoriesoIA1ass Cullureji"1JI11 Wal/a Bl'njamin/o Umher/o Eco. Nc\V York: Peter Lang. Schncider, R. 1997. T/¡e Explicit Bo!!y in Performance. London: Routlcdge. Sellill. T. 1938. T/¡e Co/!/lic/ o/ Conduc/ Norms. A Reporl o( /he Suhcolr/l/1illee 011 f)elinqul'l1cy ofllle CO/llll1illee 011 Per.\{)/lolily and Cul/ure. New York: Social Science Rcsearch Council Bulletin. Surnner, C. 1994. T/¡e Sociology 01 Deviance: An OhilUO/y. New Y ork: COlltinuurn. Turner, V. 1969. Tile Ritual Process: Structure and Anli-S/ruc/ure. Chicago: Aldinc. Wagner-Pacifici. 1986. Tlle AIo/"() ¡'I/!omli'.)! Play: TerroriSII1 amI Social I)ruma. Chi cago: U niversily of Chicago Press. Wheeler. B. B. 1997. 'Thc Perforrnance 01' Distance and Ihe Art 01' Catharsis: Per fonnance Art, Artists and Audience Response. " Tlle .!ollrlllll olAI"/.\· Monoge/1/en/. Lml", 01111 Soóe/y Vo!. 27 (No. 1): ]7- 49. Wojnarowicz. D. 1989. "Poslcards frorn i\rnerica: X-rays from Hel!." Willlesses Exhihiliol1 Catalogue. New York: Arti sts' Space.
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Part 3
MED IA A N D TEC HN OLOG Y
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The big question is whether there is an unbridgeable division , cvcn opposition , between the two arts. Is there somelhing genu incly "theatrieal," difrercnt in kind from what is genuincly "cincmatic'''1 Almost al! opiniorr holds that there is. A commonplace of discussion has it that film and theatre are distinct and even antitnetical arts, each givi,ng rise to ils own standards ofjudg ment and canons 01' f0n11. Thus Erwin Panofsky argues, in his celcbrated essay "Style and Medium in the MOli o n Piclurcs" (1934, rewritten in 1946), that one of the criteria fo r eva luating a movie is its freedom fr o m the impurities 01' th ea t ricali t y. To talk about film , olle must ¡irsl define " Ihe basic nature of the Illediu m ." Those who th ink prescriptively about the nature 0 1' live dra ma , less confi de nt in the future 01' their (lrt Ihan the cinéphiles in thcirs, rarely takc a comparably cxclusivist lineo
TI\(; history of cinema is often treated as the history of its emancipation 1'1'0111 theatrical models. First of all from theatrical "frontality" (lhe unm ov in/-', camera reprod ucing the situation of lhe spectator of a playnxed in his ~ca t), then from theatrical acting (gestures ncedlcssly stylized, exaggerated IIccdlessly, becallse now the actor eOllld be seen "c1ose up"), then frorn theatrical rnrnishings (unneeessary "distancing" of the alldienee's ernotions, disregard ing the opportllnity to irnmerse the alldience in reality). Movies are regarded ;I~ advancing frorn theatrical stasis lo einernatic f1uidity , from theatrical ;lItiliciality to cinematic natllralncss and immediacy. But this view is far too :,illlple. S lI ch owr-si l11 p li(jc~lli o n l est ilil:s lo I h.: a mbiguous scope o f the camera ,,: yc . Uccausc Ih e cilml.! ra {'(/II he uscd lo JlI ojcct a relati vely passive, lIllselective kll lll t\f visi un as wc ll as I h ~ 1t1 ~'l\ l y 'IdeClive (··cuitcu") visi o n gcncra1\ y H} I
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l'i n~ m !l is ¡¡ "lI lI'd ""II" as WI.; II ;I ~ al1 a rl, 111 the scn ~~ lh a t il can cncaps ula lc ally 01' li te pCI'I 'unrllllg alls and IC IHJcr il in a li lm lranscriplion. (T his " medi um" or non-a rt illipccl ~ )I'lilnl attaineJ ils I'outinc incarnation with the advenl 01' le1cvision. T herc , l11 ov ie~ them sclvcs hecamc another pcrforming art lo be transcribed , miniaturized on film.) One ("([n film a play or ballet or opera or spo rling event in such a way th at fil m becomes. relatively speaking, a tra ns parency, a mi it seems correet to say t hat one is seeing the event filmed . But thea tre is never a "medium ." T hus, becau$e one can make a movie " of" a p lay but not a pla y "of" a movie, cinema had ao carly but, I should argue, fortuitou!:i conoection with the stagc. Some of the earliest films were film ed plays. D use and Bernhardt and Barrymorc are on film- m aroo ncd in time, absurd , touching; there is a 1913 B ritish film of Forbes-Robcrlson playing J lamlel, a 1923 German fil m of Olhelfo starri ng Emil Jann iogs. More recently, the camera has "preserved" llelene Weigel 's performance of MOlher Couruge with the Berliner Ensemble, the Livi ng Theatre production of The Brig (fllmed by the Mekas brothers), and Peter Brook 's staging of Weiss 's Marat/Sade . But from the beginning, even withi n the confines of the notion of film as a "medium" and lhe camera as a " recording" instrument, él grea t deal other than what occurred in theatres was taken down. As with still photograph y, sorne of the events captured on moving photographs were staged but others were valued precisely beca use they were no{ staged- - the camera being the witness, the invisible spectator, the invulnerable voyeuristic eye. (Perhaps public happenings , " news," constitllte an intermediate case between staged and unstaged events; but film as " newsreel" generally amounts to llsing film as a "medium. ") To crea te on film a documenl of a transient reality is a conception quite unrelated to the purposes ol'theatre. l t only appears related when the "real event" being recorded is a theatrical performance. And the first use of the motion picture camera \Vas to make a documentary record of unstaged. casual reality: Louis Lumiere 's films ol' crowd-scenes in París and New York made in the 1890's antedate any use of film in the service 01' plays. The other paradigmatic non-theatrical use of film , which dates from the earliest activity of the motion-picture camera, is for the creation of il/usion , the constructi on of fantasy. The pioneer figure here is, of course. Georges Mélies. To be sure, Mélies (like many directors after him) conceived 01' the rectangle of the screen on analogy with the proscenium stage. And not only were the events staged; they were lhe very stuff of invention: imagin a ry journeys, imaginary objects, physical metamorphoses. But this, even add in g the fact that Mélies situated his camera "in front oC" the adion and ha rd ly moved it , does not make his films theatrical in an inviJio us sense. lo lhcir trcatmen t of pe rsons as lhings (physieal objects) a nd in thelr Jisj Ullclivc presentation of time a nd space, M6lies' lilmstll'c q u il1 l CS~c l1 t ¡ally '\.:incrn alic" so Car as there is slIch a lhinS.
Ihe conl ras l bl'lww l1 Ihcalrc ami /ilm s is IIsu all y takcn lo lie in the rnah:rials Icprcscn ted DI dcpictcJ . Bul exactly whcrc docs the dillcrence Jie?
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Sorne locate the di\lisio ll between theatre and film as the difference between the play and Ihe filmscript. Panofsky derives this differenee from wh a l he takes lo be the most profound one: the difference between the/ormaf cond i tions of seeing a play and those 01' seeing a movie, In the theatre, says Panofs ky, "space is static, that is. the space represented on the stage, as well as the spatial rela tion ofthe beholder to the spectacle, is unalterably fix ed." while in the cinema " the spectator occllpies a fixed seat, but only physica lly, not as Ihe subject 01' an aesthetic experience:' In t he cinema , the speclator is "aesthetic ally , . . in permanent motion as his eye identifies \Vith the len s of the camera, which permanently shifts in distance and direction ." Trlle enough. Bul the observation does not warrant a radical dissociation 01' thcatre from film. Like many critics, Panofsky is assuming a "Iiterary" conception oftheatre. To a theatre which is conceived ofbasically as dramat ized literature, texts, words, he contrasts cinema which is. according to the received phrase, primarily "a visual experience." In effect , we are being asked to acknow1edge tacitly the period of silent films as definitive of cinema tic art and to identify theatre with " plays," from Shakespeare lo Tennessee Williams, But many of the most interesting movics today are not adeqllalely described as images with sound addeo . Ano what if theatre is conceived 01' as m Ore than, 01' something different from , plays? Panofsky may be over-simplifying when he decries the theatrical taint in movics, but he is sOllnd when he argues that, historically , theatre is only one of the arts that feeds into cinema. As he remarks, it is apt that films ca rne to be known popularly as moving piclUre.l' rather than as " photoplays" or "scrcen plays, " Movies derive less from the Iheatre, from a performance art. an art that already moves , Ihan they do from works of arl which were stationary. Bad nineteenlh-century paintings and postcards, wax-works a la Madame Tussaud , and comic strips are the sources Panofsky cites. What is surprising is that he doesn 't connect movies with earlier narrative uses 01' still photography- like the family pholo-album. The narrative tech ni q ues developed by certain ninetcenth-century nove1ists, as Eisenstein po intcd out in his brilliant essay on Dickens , supplied still another prototypc ror cinema, Movies are images (usually photog raphs) that Illove. to be surco But Ihe distinctive unit 01' films is not Ihe image but the pri ncipIe 01' co nnecli on betwcen lhe ima ges, lhe re latíon 01' a "sho t" lo lhe one lhal preceded ii a nd the one tha l comes artcL There is no pcc llJiarly '\: jlll'llIal ic" as opposed lo " lhca lrica l" mode nI' lin kill l! images. (/
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I'dl\ol sl.. y IIIC" lo 11I1IJ 111l' lilll: a ga lllsl Ihc 1IIl1111aliuII ur lhcalrc by cinema , \Vd l as VI(;C \'ersa. 111 Ihe Ih ca lré. 1101 o n ly eall Ihe spcclalor nol change hl" .lll gle of vision bulo ulllike 1Il0vics, "Ihe ~cttings 01' Ihe stagc cannol change "111 ill g ulle ael (excepl rol' such incidentals as rising moons 01' gathering dllllds and slll:h illegilimale reborrowings from film as turning wings or gliding hackdrops)." Werc we to assent to this. the ideal play would be No Exil , the Idcal sel a realistic living room or a blank stage . No less dogmatic is lhe complementary dictllm about what is illegitimate in hlrll s aceording to which , since films are " a visual experience," all compon l'lIls Illusl be demonslrably subordinate to Ihe ima ge. Thus, Panofsky asserts: ' Whcrever a poetic emotion. a musical outburst. 01' a literary coneeit (even , 1 alll gricved lo say , sorne 01' the wisecracks of Gro ucho Marx) entirely lose I'ulllad \Vith visible movement , they strike the sensitive spectator as, literall y, IHII or place," What. then , 01' the films of Bresson and Godard , with their ;dlusive, densely thoughtful texts and their characteristi c refusal to be visually kautiflll? How couJd one explain the extraordinary rightness ofOzu's rclat ivdy immobilized camera'? The decline in average quality offilms in the early sound period (compared wilh the levcl reached by films in the 1920's) is undeniable , Although it wOLlld he I'acile to call Ihe sheer uninterestingness of m ost films 01' this period simply ;r rcgression to theatre, it is a fact that film-makers did turn more frequcntly lo plays in the 1930's than they had in Ihe precedin g decade, Countless slage successes like OWlVard Boul1d. Dil1ner al Eight, Blilhe Spiril. Faisol1.1' un U(:l'e. TlVentielh Century . Boudu Salivé des Eaux, She Done Hil11 Wrong, Al1l1o ( 'hri.l'tie, Morills, Animal Cracker,l', The Pelri/iee! Foresl, \Vere IlJmed. T he suc e l'SS of movie versions of plays is measured by the extcnt to which the script Icarranges and displaces the action and deals less than respectfully with the spokcn text- as do certain films of plays by Wilde and Shaw, the Olivier Shakespeare films (at Ieast J-/enry V) , and Sjobcrg's Miss ./ulie, But the basic disapproval of films which betray their origins in plays remains. A recent ~ .\alllple : the outright hosti lity which greeted Dreyer's latest film , Gertrud, Nol only does Gerlrud. which 1 beJieve to be a minor masterpiece. follow a lurn-or-the-century play that has characters conversing at 1ength and quite IllI"ll1ally. bul it is fiJmed almosl entirely in middle-shot. Sorne 01' the films I have just mentioneo are negligib1e as art; several are lirsl-rale. (The same for Ihe plays, though no correlation between the merits \)1' Ihe movies anO Ihose of Ihe "original" plays can be eslablished.) However, Ih~~ ir virllles and faults cannot be sorted out as a cinema tic versus a theatrieal l'IclllclIL Whelher derived from plays or not films \vith comp1ex or formal dialogue . fi lms in whic h Ih e CtUl lera is slatic or in which the action stays IIldoors . a re nol. necessarily thealrica l. p('/' COl1tra, it is no more part 01' the pll lU livc "esscllce" ol' movil's Iha l Ihe ~': lIm:ra m usl ro ve ovcr a la rge physical ¡rca. lhall il is Ih a l muv lcs IH I}·hl 11> IR' :-. ill'll l. T hu ug h IIlOsI 01' Ihe aclion 01' l" IIr()~ a wa 's 1'' '(' f ,o\l'c/ f J¡ p t /!.I' ¡¡ I.lI tly 1.11 111 11 1\ I l all~ c ripli o n ~)r (i\)rki' s play. ;1 '0
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as lile sa rn t.: d irCl: lo l ':, 1'/¡/'OI/I' Me/che//¡. T he quality l)!" Melvillc's daustrophobic Les En/úllls T('f/'ih/es is as peculiar to lhe movies as Ford's The Searche/'s or a train journey in Cinerama. What does make a film theatrical in an in vidious sense is when the nar ration becomcs coy or self-conscio us: compare Autant-Lara 's ()c clIpe- Toi d'Amélie. a brilliant cinem atic use of th e con ventions and materials of lhea t ricality, with Ophuls' dumsy use of similar conventions and materials in O Il C
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AlIardyce Nicoll, in his book Film I.JIId Theatre ( 1936), argues that the difTer ence may be understood as a difference in kinds of characters. " Practically all effectively drawn stage characters are types [while] in the cinema we demand individualization ... and impute greater power of independent life to the figures on the screen." (Panofsky, it might be ment ioned , makes exaetly the opposite point: that the nature of films , in contrast to plays, req uires flat or stock characters.) Nieoll's thesis is not as arbitrary as it may at first appear. I would relate it to the fact that often the indeliblc moments of a film, and the most potent elements of eharacterization , are precisely th e " irrelevant" or unfunctional details. (A random example: the ping-pong ball the schoolmaster toys with in Ivory's S/wkespea/'e Wal/ah.) Movies thrive on the narrative equivalent 01' a technique familiar from painting and photography, off-centering. It is this that creates the pleasing disunity or fragmentariness (what Nicoll means by " individualization ",?) 01' the characters of many of the greatest films. In contrast, linear "eoherence" of detail (the gun on the wall in the first act that must go off by the end of the third) is the rule in Occidental narrative theatre , and gives rise to the sense of the unity of the characters (a unity that may appear like the statement of a " type") . But even with these adjustments, Nicoll's thesis seems less than appealing when one perceives that it rests on the idea that "When we go to the theatre . we expect theatre and nothing else." What is this theatre-and-nothing-e1se? tI is the old notion 01' artifice. (As if art were ever anything else. As if some arts were artificial but others noL) According to Nicoll, \Vhen we are in a thea tre " in every way the 'falsity' 01' a theatrical production is borne in upon us, so that \Ve are prepared to demand nothing save a theatricaJ truth." In lhe cinema, however, every member of the audience, no matter how sophistic ated, is on essentially the same level; we all believe that the camera can not Iie. As the film actor and his role are identical , so the image cannot be d issociated from what is imaged. Cinema . the re l"ore, gives w; wha l is cxperienced as Ihe truth of life. COlll dn '1 lheatre di ~~íl l ve lhe J isLi nction helwi!cn Ih,' trll tJ, 0 1' arl jl ¡~'e
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Ir an irreducible distinction between theatre anJ cinema does exist , it may he this. Thea tre is con fined to a logical or COl7lillUOUS use of space. C inema (lhrough editing, that is , lhrough the change ofsh ot- which is tbe basic unit of lilm construction) has access to an alogical or disrol1til1uous use of space. In lhe theatre, people are either in the stage space or "ofT." When " on," they are always visible or visualizable in contiguity with each other. In the cinem a, 111) such relation is necessa rily visible or even visualizable. (Example: the la st shot ofParadjanov's Jnlhe ShadOlvs (!tOur Anceslor.\'.) Sorne films considered ohjectionably theatrical are those which seem to emphasize spatial contin uities, like Hitchock's virtuoso R op e or the daringly anachronistic Gerlrud. But c10ser analysis 01' both these films would sho\\' now complex their treat Illent of space is. Tho longer and longer "takes" toward which sound film s have been moving are, in themselves, neither more nor less cinematic than the short "takes" characteristic of silents . Thus , cinematic virtlle does not reside in the ftuidity of the positioning of lhe camera nor in the mere frequency of the change of shot. It consists in the arrangement 01' screen images and (now) of sounds. Mélies, for example, lhough he didn't get beyond the static positionin g of his camera, had a very striking conception 01' how to link screen images. He grasped thal editing olTered an equivalent to the magician's sleight of hand--thereby suggesting lhat one 01' the features of film (as distinct from theatre) is that Clnyllúl1g can happen , that there is nothing th at can 't be represented convincingly. Through editing, Mélics presents discontinuities of physical substanee and behavi o r. In his films, the disl;ontinuities are, so to speak, practical, functional ; they accomplish a transformation 01' ordinary reality . But the contin uous reinven lion of space (as well as the option 01' temporal indetemlinacy) peculiar to film narration does not pertain only to the cinema's ability to fabricate "visions," to show us a radicall y altered world . The most " realistic" use ofthe Illotion-picture camera also in vol ves a discontinuous account of space. Film narration has a '"syntax ," composed of the rhythm of associations allll disjunctiolls. As Cocteau has written, "My primary concern in a film is to prevent the images from ftowing, to oppose them to each other, to anchor lhelll and join thelll without destroying their relief. " (But does sueh a concep lion offlllll syntax entail, as Cocteau thinks, our disavowal of movies as " mere entertalnmen t instead 01' a vehide for thought",!) In drawing a line o f' JClll a n.: a liOIl hctween theatre and Illms, the issuc of II \\: collLinuily 01' spal.:c ~CC I1l ~ h 1 n I\) lIIore fundamen ta l lhan the differenee Ilta l m igh l he P\)ill lcd o ul b¡:lwW II lil cHtlC i1 S
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allll limt: art:, sim ply, Illue \¡ crllJ~ r a nu I1I1HI: Iahlwt:d Ihan f¡ 1111 's. Tht:aln: cal1nol cqua l the cinema 's facilities for lhe slridly-con lrolled n:petilion of images, for the duplication 01' matching ofword and image, and for thcjux ta position and over-Iapping ofimages . (Through advanced Iigh ling tech niques, one can now "dissolve" on the stage. But as yet there is no eq ui valenl , not even through the most adept use of scrim, of the "Iap disso lve.") Theatre has been described as a medialeJ art , presum ably beca use it uSlIall y consists of a pre-existent play mediated by a particular performance which oflers one of many possible interpretations 01' the pla y. f"i lm , in contrast, is regarded as unmediated- because of its larger- Ihan-life scale and more un refusable impact 011 the eye, and beca use (in Panofsk y's word s) " the medium of Ihe movies is physical reality as such " and the characters in a movie " have no aesthetic existence outside the actors." But there is a n equally valid sel1se which shows movies to be the mediated arl and theatre the unmcdiated ol1e. We see what happens on the stage with our own eyes. We see on the screen what the camera sees. In the cinema, narration procccds by ellipsis (the "cut" or change of shot): the camera eye is a unified point of view that continually displaces itself. But the change of shot can provokc q uestions, the simpl.est 01' which is: from w/¡ose point of view is the shot seen? And the ambiguity 01' point of view latent in all cinematic narration has no equivalent in the theatre. Indeed , one should not neglect to emphasize the aesthetically positive role 01' disorientatiol1 in the cinema. Examples: Busby Berkeley dollying back from an ordinary-Iookiug stage already established as some thirty feet deep to disclose a stage area three hundred feet square. Resnais panning from character X's point of view a full 360°, to come to rest upon X 's face.
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Much may be made of the fact that , in its concrete existence, cinema is an objeel (a producl , even) whilc theátre is a peljór/na/'lee. Is this so important? In a way , no . Whether objects (likefilms or paintings) or performanees (like music or theatre) , all art is first a mental aet , a fact of consciousness. The object aspect of film , the performance aspect of theatre are mere\y means- means to the experience, whieh is not only "of" but " through" the film and the theatre-event. Each subject of an aesthetic experience shapes it to his own measure. With respect to any sil1/ile experience, it hardly matters that a film is usually idcntieal from one projeetion of it to another while theatl"e perform ances are highly mutable. Thc differenee between object-art and performanee-art lies behi nd Panofsky 's observation that "the screenplay, in wntrast lO the theatre play , has no aesthclic existencc indepe nden l 01' its perfor mance," and eharacters in mo vics are Ihe sl an; wh o en act Ihem. It is bcc
"nly Ihe wrillcn play is " fi .'H.~J . " atl objccl anJ lhcrcforc cxisting apart any slaging DI' il. Yd lhis J ichotomy is nol beyond dispute . Just as lIIovjcs nt:cJn ' 1 necessarily be dcsigned to be shown in theatres at all (they can he inlcnucd ror more I.:ontinuoul> and casuallooking), él movie muy be altered from onc projection to Ihe next. Harry Smith, when he runs ofThis own films , Illakes cach projeclion an unrepeatable performanl.:e. And. again , it is not lruc that all theatre is only about written plays whieh may be given a good or abad production. In Happcnings and other recent thea tre-events, we are precisely being offered "plays" identieal with their productions in lhe Same scnse as the screenplay is identical with the film . Yet. a dilTerence rcmains . Beca use the film is an objeet, it is totally manipul able. totally calculable. A film is Iike a book. another portablc art-objeet; making a fi lm. Iike writing a book , mcans constructing an inanimate thing, cvery element 01' which is determinate. Indeed . in films , this determinancy has 01" can have a qua si-mathematical form , like Illusic. (A shot lasts a certain number of seconds, a ehange of angle of so many degrees is required to "match " t\Vo shots.) Given the total determinacy of the result on eelluloid (whatever the extent of the direetor 's conscious intervention), it \Vas inevit able that sorne film directors would want to devise sehemas to make their intentions more exaet. Thus, it was neither perverse nor primitive of Busby Berke\ey to ha ve uscd only one camera to shoot lhe who\e 01' cach of his mammoth dance numbers. Every "set-up" was designed to be shot from only one exaetly calculated angle. Bresson, working on a far more self-eonscio us level of artistry , has dedared that , for him , the director's task is to find th e single correct way of doing eaeh shot. An image cannot be justified in itselr, according to Bresson; it has an exactly speeifiable relation to the temporally adjacent im ages, which relation constitutes its " meaning. " But the theatre allows only the loosest approximation to this sort offormal concern . (And responsibility . Justly, French critics speak 01' the director of a f11m as its "author ." ) Beea use they are performances. somelhing always " Iive," Iheatre-events are nol subject to a comparable degree of control , do no1 admit a comparably exact integration 01' effects. It would be foolish to conc\ude that the best films are those which arise from the greatest amount 01' eonscious planning: lhe plan may be faulty ; and with sorne directors , instinct works bettcr than ány plan. Bcsides, there is
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practica l instrw,.:l io n, alTll nli llg cnh'll ;tIl IlIlCIII. d ll' lIl fvll1[!. cc k h ratillllS, SIIh ver! ing e~lablislr cJ élulhorily is now \ ln Ihe u di..'nsl v~ 1x:1'o1 e IllLlvics, lhis hrash art wilh its huge, arnorphous, passivc audicnce. Mcanwhilc. nwvies cllnlin uc to maintain their astonishing pace of forma l arliculalion, (Takc lhe COOll1ler cial cinema of Europe. Japan , a nd the United States si mply since 1960, ami consider whal audiences ha ve become habil uateJ to in (he wa y 01' increas ingly elliptical story-telling anu vis ua lization,)
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M eyc rll\l ld . I. II.'III ~' the challcnge hcad ~1I1, tho ught lhe only hope rol' theatre Ia v ill a wlH)h.:sa lc enllllalion 01' tire cinema . .. Let liS 'cincmalify ' the theatrc:' he urgcu. The slaging 01' plays m ust be "industrialized," theatres must accom IIllldalc :J.udiences in the tens of thousands rather than in the hundreds, etc. MeYe'rhold also seemed to find so me relief in lhe idea that the coming of ',Ilund signalled the down fall 01' movies. Believing that their international ;rppcal depended en tirely on the faet that screen actors uiJn ' t speak any parlicular language, he eouldn ' t imagine in 1930 that, even if that were so , tl'clrnology (dubbing. sub-titling) could solve the prob1em .
But note: this youngest ofthe arts is also the one most heavily burdened with memory, C inema is a time machine, Movies preserve the past, whi le lheatres no matter how devoted to the c1assics, to old plays--can only " modernize," Movies resurrcct the beautiful dead; present intact vanished or ruined envir onments; employ, without irony, styles and fashions that seem funny toda y; solemnly ponder irrelevant or na'ive problcms. The historical flavor of any thing registered on celluloid is so vivid that practically allfilms older than two years or so are saturated with a kinu of pathos. (The pathos 1 am describing, which overtakes animated cartoons and drawn , abstract films as wcll as ordinary movies. is not simply that ol' old photographs.) f ilms age (being objects) as no theatre-event does (being always new). T here is no pathos of mortality in thealre's " reality" as such , nothing in our response to a good performance of a Mayakovsky play comparable to lhe aesthetic role the emotion of nostal gia has when we see a film by Pudovkin . Also worth noting: compareJ with the theatre, innovations in cinema seem to be assimilated more efficiently, seem altogether to be more shareable--and not only beca use new films are quickly and widely circul a ted . Also , part1 y beca use virtually the entire body 01' accomplishment in film can be consulted in the present. most filmmakers are more knowledgeable about the history of their art than most theatre directors are about the recent past of theirs. The key word in many discussions of cinema is " possibility." A merely cl assifying use of the \Vord occurs, as in Panofsk y's engaging judgment that, "within their sc1f-imposed limitations the ear1ier Disney films ... represen t. as it were, a chemically pure distillation of cinema tic possibilities." But behind this relatively neutral sense lurks a more polemical sense of cinema 's " possibility." What is regularly intimated is the obsolescence of theatre, i1s supercession by films . Thus , Panofsk.y describes the mediation of the camera eye as opening -' up a wor1d of possibility of which the stage can never dream ." A rtaud , ear1i er. thought that motion pictures may have made the theatre obsolete. Movies " possess a sort 01' virtual power which probes into the mind and uncovers undreamt 01' possibilities ... . When t his art 's exhilaration has been blended in the right pro portions wi th the psychi c in¡''Tcdienl ii cmn ma nds. it willlcave the theatre far behind and we will relega te the' Ia th:1 to Ilre a u ic 01' our memo ries. "
t\rl forms halle bcen abandoned. (Whether because they beca me obsolete is ;rl1olhcr question.) One can ' t be sure that theatre is not in a sta te ofirremedi ;rhle decline, spurts of local vitality notwithstanding. But why should it be lelldered obso1ete by movies? It' s worth remembering that predictions 01' I,bsolescence amollnt to declaring that a somcthin g has one peculiar task (which another something may do as welJ 01' better). Has thea tre one peculiar lask 01' aptitude'l Those who predict the demise of the theatre , ass uming that cinema has 1'l1gulfed its function , tend to impute a relation belween films and theatre rl'llliniscent of what was once said about photography and painting. Ir lhe painter's job had been no more than fabricating likenesses, the invention 01' Ilre camera might indeed have made painting obsolete. But painting is hardl y jllst "pictures," any more than cinema isjust theatre for the masses. available ill portable standard units. In the nai've tale 01' photography and paintin g, painting was reprieved \Viren it claimed a new task, abstraction. As lhe superior rea1ism 01' photography \Vas supposed to have liberated painting, allowing it to go abstract, cinema's ~lIpcrior power to represent (not merely to stimulate) the imagination may ;rppear to have emboldened the theatre in a similar fashion , inviting the )~ rauual obliteration of the conventional " plot. " .t\ctually, painting and photography evidence parallel dcvelopments rathe r Ihan eL rivalry 01' a supe!'cession. And , at least in principIe, so have theatre and lilll" The possibililies for theatre that lie in goin g beyond psychological realism , 111 secking greater abstractness, are not less germane to the future ofnarrative 1r!r1\s. Conversel y. the notion 01' movics as witness to real life, testimony Iather lhan invention . lhe trealmenl of collective situations rathe!' than the dcpiction 01' perso nal " dram a~ , " is cqually relevant lo the stage. Not su rpris ill!, ly , what 1'0110 wo.; so rne yca rs:r rtn Ihe ris~ of cil/ema verité. the sophisticatcd hci l ul' docurncn l.lry (i II Il S, is .. dm:lll11clllary lhcatre. lhe " theatre o f faet. '· l( T I IllClr 1111 t Ir. Wciss's '/'1/1' 1/11'(' \1 1'-:11 11 1111 , l\'l'l' UI pltljects o rtlle Roya l Sha ke "pea n: C OOl pall y ill I.ol ld nll ,
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the revivifrer of the theatre?
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The illlllll'lI(;(; 0 1' tite Ihelltl c IIpUII ti lll!'. "1 lit. l", " I ~ Y¡,;;IIS is wdl k.IU )WII . t\eeord ing lo K raealll:r, lhe dislÍlH:ti vc li g lt l ll1~' 111' I)¡ ('aligari (al1d 01' rllany subsequenl German silenlS) can be lraeeu 11') U II cxpcril11clIl wilh Iig hting Max Reinhard t made shortly before, in his prodllclion 01' SOl'ge's play, 1'11(' Beggar. Even in this period , howeve r, the impaet was reciproca!. T he aecom plishments of the " Expressionist film" wcre immediatcly abso rbed by the Expressionist theatre. Stimlllated by the cinematÍc techniq ue ()I' lhe " iris-in ," stage lighting took to singling out a lone player, 01' some segOlent ofthe sce ne, masking out the rest of the stage. R otating sets tried to approx imate the in stantaneous displacement ofthe camera eye. ( More recently, reports have come of ingeniolls IightÍllg techniques used by the Gorki Theatre in Leningrau, directed since 1956 by Georgi Tovstonogov, whjch allow for inc redibly rapid scene changes taking place behind a horizontal c urtain of light.) Today traffic seemS, with fe\\' exceptions, entirely one way: film to theatre. Particularly in France and in Central anu Eastern Europe, the staging 01' many plays is inspired by the movies . The aim of adapting neo-cinema tic d evices for the stage (l exdude the outright use of films within the theatre produc tion) seems mainly to tighten up the theatrical experience, to approximate the cinema's absolute control of the flow amllocation of the audience's attentioD. But the conception can be even more directly cinema tic. Example: Josef Svoboda's production of Th e Insecl Play by the Capek brothers at the Czech National Theatre in Prague (recently seen in London) which frankly attempted to install a mediated vision upon the stage, equivalent to the discontinuo us intensifications of the camera eye. According to a London critic's account, "the set consisted of two h uge, faceted mirrors slung at an angle to the stage. so that they reflect whatever happens there defracted as if through a decanter stopper or the colossally magnified eye of a fty. Any figure placed at the base ol'their angle becomes multiplied from floor to proscenium; farther out, a nd you find yourself viewing it not only face to face but frolTl overhead, the vanlage point of a camera slung to a bird 01' a helicopter. "
Pc rhaps lhe flrst to propose the use of film itself as une element in a theatl'e cx [)cricnce was Marinetti . Writing between 1910 and 1914, he envisaged lhe lhcalre as a final synthesis of all the arts ; and as such it had to use the newesl an l'orm, movies. No doubt the cinema also recommended itself for inc1usi on bt'cause of the priority Marinetti gave to the use of existing for ms of po pula r cntertainment, such as the variety theatre and the ca{é-chanlC/nt. (He ca llcd his projected art form "the F uturist Varicty Thcatre.") Ami cinema , at thal lime, was not considered as anything other than a vulgar art. Soon a fler, lhe idea begins to occur freq ucntl y. In the total-theatre projects nI' Ihe l3a uhalls g rou p in lhe 1920's (G ropi us, Piíicalor, ct.c.), film had a n:gul;rr pla ce. Meyerho ld il1sisled on its use in Ilw (lr ca lre. (11e descri bed his progw m as 1'1I11il lillg Wagnc r's ~mcc "whnll y 1/IIIpi:lll " plo)loS
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II ll'¡ " IS a va il a hh: Il llllI the llt.hcr al ts ¡:jll l\ '..; aclual clIlploymenl has by now Iil ldy IOllg Iristmy, whidl indlldcs "Ihe living m!wspaper," "cpic theatre ," ,11 111 " IIaplll'lI ings." T hi s year markcd the introduction ora film sequencc into IIllladway-lype theatrc. 1n lwo highly successful musicals, London 's Come '\"1' \I'it/¡ Me and Ncw York's Superman , both parodic in tone, the action is 1I1tnrll)lICd to lowcr a scrcen and run otTa moyie showing the pop-art hero' s r \ ploits. Thus l'a r, lhe use of fllm within Iive theatre-events has tended to be stereo ryped . I ilm is employed as document, supportive of or red undant to the live ~;Ia gc evenls (as in Brecht's productions in E a st Berlín). O r else it is employed ,I~ /¡a!!ucillant: recent examples are Bob W hitman 's Happenings, a nd a new "illd 01' nightclub situalion , the mixed-med ia discotheque (A ndy Warho l's Jlrc Plastic Inevitable, Murray the K 's World). The interpolation offilm into IlIt' theatre-experience ma)' be enlarging froll1 the poinl of view of theatre. Bul in terms 01' what film is capable 01', it seems a reductive, monoto nous use 'JI' lilm. o "
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I' very interestin g aesthetic tendency now is a species of radicalism. T he lJuestion each artist must ask is: What is my radit:alism , the one dictated b y 1/11' gil"ts and temperament? This doesn ' t mean all contemporary artisls belicve Ihal art progresses. A radical position isn't Ilecessarily a forward-Iooking )Il1sition. ( 'ollsider the two principal radical positions in the arts today. D ne recom Illcnds the breaking down 01' distinctions between genres; the arts wOllld l'vcntuate in one art. consisting of many different kinds of behavior going on al Ihe sall1e time, él vast behavioral magma or synaesthesis. The other posi lioll rccommends the maintaining and c1arifying ofbarriers between the arts, hv Ihe intcnsification of what each art distinctively is; painting must use only 1IlIlse means which pertain to painting, music only those which are musical , III1Vcls those which pertain to the novel and to no other literary form, etc. Tlle two positions are, in a sen se, irreconcilable. Exeept that both are IIIvllked lo SUppOrl a perennialmodern quest--the quest for the definitive art fllrm. t\n art may be proposed as definitive beca use it is considered the most Iigmolls, or mosl fundamental. For these reasons , Schopenhauer suggested ,IIId Paler asserted that aJl art aspires to the condition 01' mllsic. Mo re recen tl y. Ihe thesis t.ltat all the arts are leading toward one art has been advanced by "IIII11lsiasls ol" thc cincma. Thc candidacy of film is fOllnded on its being so :X ddi ni tivc 11l'cau se il is lhe mosl inclusive. Jhis is 111l' hasis lit' Ihe JC'llllly f,JI Ihl'¡¡l l\' hcld l) ul by Wag nc r. Marinctt i, 1\.1 :IIId J ollll ( ' ¡t ~\! all ,' l"whoI11 \'lI\i~ a l'.l' Ihl'ull'ca!o\ II l)th ing k ss Ihan a lOla l :11 1
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cornposcrs. theatre remains the favored cand ida\c the role of s UllJmati vc art. So canceived, af COllrse. theatrc's claims do contradid those 01' cinema. Partisans of theatre would argue that while mllsic, painting, dance, ci nem a , t he speaking 01' words, etc. can a ll conve rge on a " stage," the fi lm-objed ca n only become bigger (mllltiple screens, 360 0 projection, etc.) or longer in dllra tion or more internally articulated and com plex. Thcatre can be an yt hing, everything; in the end , films can only be more ofwhat lhey speci fically (that is to say, cinematically) are.
Underlying the eompeting apocalyptic expectatians for both arts, o ne detccts a common animus . In 1923 Béla Bál azs, anticipating in great detall the thesis 01' M arshall McLuhéln , described movies a s the henLlo 01' a new " visual culture" that will give us back our bodies , ano particularly our faces , which have been renoered illegible, soulless, unexpressive by the centuries-olo ascendancy 01' " print. " An animus against literature, against " the printing press" and its "culture of concepls ," also informs mo st of the interesting thinking about the th eatre in our time. What's important is that no definition or cbaracterization of theatre and cinema, even the most self-evident, be taken for granted. For inslance: both cinema and theatre are temporal arts. Lik e music (and unlike painting), everything is /lol present all at once. Coulo this be mooified? The allure 01' mixeo-media forms in theatre s ug gests not only a more elongated and more complex " drama " (like Wagnerian opera) but also a more campael theatre-experience which a pproaches the condition of painting. This prospect 01' increased compactness is broach eo by Marinetti; he call s it simultaneity, a leading idea of Futurist aesthetics. In becoming a final synthesis 01' all the arts, says Marinetti , theatre " would use the ncw twentieth-century oevices 01' electricity and the cinema; this would enable plays to be extremely short, since all these technical means wou ld enable the theatrical synthesis to be achieved in the shortest possjble space 01' time, as all the elements could be pTesented simultaneousl y."
lí¡'hlillg I cc llllll p ll.'~ II:-.cd ill cxpcrirrwlllallhealrcs; lhe sOllud 01' late Cagc and I a Monte Yo ulIg.) rhc rclation 01' (lrt lo an audicnce understood lo be passive, Ill Cr!, sllrlCiled, call only be assalllt. Art becomcs id entical with aggression . f'his theory of art as assault on lhe audience--like the complementary lIotion 01' art as ritual· - is lInderstandable, ano preeious. Still , one must not III.:gkcl to question it, particularly in the theatre. For it can become as much a cOllvention as anylhing else; ano eno , like all theatrical conventions.. b y 1('lI1rorcing the oeadness 01' l he audience. (As Wagner's ideology of a tOlal tlll~atrc played its role in confirming the stupidity a nd bestiality 01' German I'llit ure.) Moreover, the depth ofthe assault must be asses:;ed honestly. Ln the theatre , this entails not "oiluting" Artaud. Artauo's writings rep resent the oemano a totally open (therefore, flayed, self-cruel) consciousness ofwhich theatre would be O/le éldjunct 01' in strument. No work in the theatre has yet amounted to this. Thus, Peter Brook has astutcly and forthrightly disclaimed that his \'lllllpa ny's work in London in the "Thea tre ofCruelty," whidl culminateo in his cdebrated proouction 01' Weiss' Maral/Sade. is genuinely Arta ud ian. lt ís Artauoian , he says, in a trivial sense only. (Trivial from Artaud 's point of vicw, not from ours.)
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hlf sorne time, all useful ideas in mt have been extremcly sophisticated. Like idea that everything is what it is, an á no t another thing. A painting is a painting. Sculpture is sculpture. A pocm is a poem, not prose. E tce tera . And the complementary idea: a painting can be "literary" or sculptmal , a poelll can be prose , theatre can emulate ano incorporate cinema . cinema can be Iheatrical . We need a new ioea. It wilI probabl y be a very simple one. Will we be able lo reeognize it? I he
A pervasive notion in both aovanced cinema ano theatre is the idea 01' art as an ael of violence. Its source is 10 be found in the aesthetics 01' F llturism an o of Surrealism : its principa l "tcxls" are, for theatre, the writings 01' Artauo
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r1I1 S l1\ay """lId HI.lo: yet aIHllh ~' 1 ~~· I n I dnssil· cllnrron\.aliuns belween '\11 11111111 Á lt aud ano Bc rlolt Orechl. !\nd indced , one could easily approaeh Ih ~' jll .\ tapI1sitioll in thal way . Cc rtainly l O years ago. one 11'00¡/d have read it 11..11 way. I'cm/(!is(' N(m \V()uld have hecn viewed as an attempt to reunify the • II lIlIlIlInily in a neo- (1)1" pseudo-) ritual , erasing any sense 01' theatrical rift. « 1111 word "thcalre," arter all. derives etymological1y from the Greek " lheatron" " 1 '·scci ng place. " implying a necessary separation betwee n the audience (1 h\lsc w l1\) watch) and the aclors (those who do). Whi l[ Did H e See. by con 11 "t-;t, intl'n si fies that separation with a series of I'elji·emdungseffekts designed 1., Jlfl~sc rve the spectator's perceptual freedom. Bllt 1\1 like to pro pose that today there may be a di l'ferent and more 1IIIIIIIilwling way of contrasting the ambitions of these two productions: !lo l as Artalld vs Brecht, but rather Artaud vs Jacques Derrida or Jean 1Illl1drilbrd. Artaud. the apostle of pure, unmediated presence vs those posIslruc turalist " thinkers who complicate the distinction between presence .111.1 ahscnce.
Tben and DOW Two productions, preciscly 20 years apart, emblematic of their respect ive decades as well as of the immense chasm that scparates the 1960s from the 1980s: the Living Theatre 's Paradi.l'e No\\' (1968) and Richard Foreman ':; Whaf Did He See (1988). The former is orten regarded as a q uintessen tial arnrmation 01' live, unmediated presence. lls 1110st noto rious sequence, "The Rite 01' Universal Intercourse," was also its most representative . Julian Beck and Judith Malina described it as follows: "The actors gather ncar the center 01' the playing area. They lie down together on the stage 1100r, embraeing. Their bodics form apile , caressing, moving, undulating, loving. They a re hreaking the touch barrier. [ ... ]1 r a member of the public joins this gro up . he is we1comed into the Rite" (1971: 74). Twenty years later Foreman's production was intent upon collslrUCl il/K harriers. not eradicating them (or, perhaps more precisely, objecti fyi ng otherwise invisihle harriers). Here the performerlspectator relationshi p was "mcdiateu" both aurally and visually. A transparent, Plexiglas wal l separate-cl the audience from the performers. The actors' voices were heard " indirectl y:' liltered through mic ro phones and speaker systems - but not for the conven tional purpose of amplification . The performance took place in a n exceed ingly intimatc space (the Susan Stein Shiva Th eater in J oe Papp 's r ub lic Thcatcr complex). That thin sheet of Plexiglas notwithstanding, there was no convcntional reasoll to amplify the actors' voices . I ndeed , the space was so in1il11ate. o ne co uld virtua lly read the actors' li ps. No . this moue of tcch no 1ogit.:a 1 med ialion was there to mediate , not te) élmplil'y o r lO all ow rOr somc su rl of hypcr na luralislll or wh isperctl inlimacy. (Thc t'Hldy m ikcs, by Ihe way, Viere una halila:dly a nd ralhcr g r ue~ o md y visib ll! lo pcd 1" Ihe
Dcrrida's Christmas rile absenee 01' presence. " Thi s phrase has become slIch a c1iche of post .lIlIcturalist criticism that it even serves as the punch line of a pretty good ItI).,\': "Whafs a Derridean Christmas'?" You gllessed it: "The absence of (11cscnls. " The t~lct that this joke works better 1ive (when heard), tha n it does UII pa per (when read), may mean that the joke is on Derrida- for his critiq ue .. 1 prcsence hinges on the assumption that sOllleone with whom \Ve have a 1.H"I'-to-race conversation is no more " present" to us than someone from ",holll \ve receive a letter. To use the fashionable form ulation: Derrida refuses 1.. " privilegc" speech over \Vriting. Thus--according to this argument- ·even Ihe 1Il0st spontaneous utterance has already been infiltrated by the spirit of \\11 iting. Living specch, in other \Vords, i5 no less meJiated than print. !\ nd for 1hl )Sl! who fl nd Derrida's cri tiq ue of presence too fa rfetched or too abstract to Iw I." onvincing, there 's Baudrillard 's conception of the " hyperreal,"' a reality .• ) IlIedialed by media that wc 're no longer capable of distinguishing " the real 111I1Ig " fmm its simulation (or maybe it'sjust that \Ve so often seem to prefer 1111" !;illlulalion to the real thing). Note for examp1e, that on Broadway these ¡)dVS l'vcn nonmusical plays are rolltinely miked , in part because the results ,p lInd Illore " natural " to an audience whose ears have been conditioned by '.II· ICI) Il'lcvision. high Ildelity LP's, and compact disks. Mllch has heell written in recenl ycars about the effeet of Derrida's ideas 1111 SI)lIle o f" our most chcrishl:d lIoliollS about theatre. But the prob1em with 11\. )~I 01" I hes\! :tna Iyscs is 1ha t 1hl'y rllCIIS loo narrowly on his cri tiq ue of plt , )lIucell l ri sOl, I he ilka l ita 1 lit\: 1iv ill ~f vo jee olTcrs some sort 01' privileged ti (I.!S~ lo Iltl.' spca).,cr', i1t1I IIl!lllil. ~d r wl h Jl';I S Ihe very same pcrson's written Wlu d s ille elllll P¡¡ra livcly lik ll:s·. II IIP"lslIlId l 1I11\:lI al cd ... in any event, less \11
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jlJ\'SI:II I 1:lirlOr FlIChs, in an essay Cll lltkd "\' ICl-ol'IIl:l' alld lhe Rl.:vc nge uf W lilin ~." argues that: "Since the Renaissa nl:<':. DI'UIIHI hus tradit ion¡lI ly becJ1 Ih\J ronll 01' writing that strives to create tlIl~ ill usio l1 that it is eOlllpo sed 0 1' spon talleolls speech, a foml 01' writing that pa radoxically s eem s (o asse rt '1 he claim 01' speech to be a direct conduit to Being" (1985 : 163). W ha l sh c says is certainly l rue 01' naturalism and realism (perhaps even of some genre!; 01' poctie realism), but is it true of a1l - or even most-d rama since the R en a is san ce? 0 1' Elizabetha n , J acobean , and R esto ration drama? 01' Pira ndello, Genet, and Beckett--not to men tion Brecht'? Do any 01' these writers lry l O conceal their literariness? Do they reall y a ttempt to crea te the iJlusion that ¡he wo rds spoken by their cha racters are bein g uttered spon taneously (wh a! Stanisla vski calleel " the ill usion of the first time")? Speaking of Ilelene Weigel in The M other, Brecht wrote that she spoke "the sentences ,as if they were in the third person " (in Willet 1967: 174). And even Ihe most conversational readings of Sh a kespeare don 't in any way den y Ihe "Iiterariness" of iambie
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lndeed , if Derrida and/or Baudrillard are correc!. then most of the tradi tional arguments about the theatre's essence and raison d 'etre cry out for reexamination. Let's run one 01' the most familiar versions 01' tbis argllment up the flagpo1c and see ifit still fiies : What is llnique about the theatre'?Wll
vislas loo vasl lo be con tai ncd on Ihe d eepc~ 1 opera house slagc. But lhey la 11 '1 riv;J 1 I he raec-lo-f~lce cnco unln of' actor amI audience thal conslitutes Ihl~ Ibealre's unique glory. That at least is lhe traditional (ir middlcbrow) argument. This was also Ihe pq inl at which th e midd1ebrow and the modernist meL (M odernism here hcing dcflned as an effort to strip each medium to its "essence," jett isoning :\Ilylhing in lhe art work deemed extraneous to that essenee.) lf the essence 01' Ihc llledium is defined as " presence" then the thea trieaJ modernist will Icaflinn thi s ancient wisdom \Vith a vengcanee. The late '60s work ofthe Liv ing T heatrc may have flaunted the possibilities oflive. "unmediated" presence :1 hit more aggressively than a play by Thornton Wilder, but neither would llave taken issue \Vith this time-honored conception ofwhat makes the theatrc ul1\q uc. !\. recent advertisement for the Denver Center Theatre Company reads in pan, "Not available on videocassette, eompact disc, album , sixteen millimeter, ,'igIJt millimeter, video disc or eight track . . . The Magie ofLive Thcatre." (A Illinor scandal ensued sorne years ago when it was revealed that Liza Minelli W
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pentameter. So when Fuehs goes on to confer poststructuralist signifkance on " th e emcrgence of writing - as subject, activity, and artifact-at the center 01' theatrical performance in numerous reüent plays and performanee pieces" (1985: 163). one can only marvel at her eapacity for historical amnesia. Which is not to say that theatre hasn 't changed in ways that reflect the insights 01' Derrida (and , I would hasten to add, Baudrillard). But it 's essential that o ur conception of theatrical presence not be confined to " phonocentrism ." Po r presenee in the theatre has less to do with thc distinction between speaking and writing than with the way in which the architectural and technological eomponents of the performance space either promote or inhibit a sense 01' "reciprocity" between actors ami spectators. (A1though 1 would concede thal the speeeh/writing dichotomy can provide an effective metaphor for discuss ing other, more pertinent modes ol'theatrical mediation insofar as language whether spo ken or written- always remains at a distan('c from the objects it signifies .)
'fhe "essence" of theatre
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theatre event - pal lltularl y t h~ fi lm all u slllk ! H "il:l ll:d illla glts w ell' lISlI ally thcre not lo I11cdiale or complicaLc livillg prCSCIl Cl' h u! lo imensil'y il: lo massage and stimulatc the senses, to pro viJe, in othe r words, the cxpcri ~mX' of sensory overload (ortcn a simulation 01' psychedcJia). Thc res ult-·a~ with psychotropie drugs· was oftcn a hcightened sense 01' prcscntness, 01' thc herc and now (another corollary of prcscncc). And many exercises in totaJ thealrc (Luca Ronconci's Orlando Furioso [1968], A riane M nouchk ine's 1789 [ 1970]) also tended to surround the audience "environmentally," intcn ~ifying thc sense that performcrs and spectators share the same space and time, c halleng ing the illusion typically created by the fourth wall (which impl ics that lhe speetators arc peering into a spatial ano tem poral dimension different from the one they actual1y inhabit at that moment).
Varieties of theatricaJ presence So, it seems clear that something ealled "living presenee" has always becn sacrcd to thc theatre-and nevcr more so than during the 1960s. But it's equall y clear (even from the handful of examples cited above) that the word "presence" means different things to different people-and lhat some of these meanings are mutually exclusive. So before \Ve try and determine whether or not pre sence has become an endangered species in the age ofDerrida and Baudrillard , let's examine more closely what people mean when they speak of presencc. Do lhey mean "stage presenee," the sort of charisma that enables some performers to grab us by lhc lapels and command "Iook at me, look at me'!" And if so, how does this sort 01' living presencc differ from the no less mesmerizing aura generaled by the mechanically reproduccd image of the movie star? André Bazin once wrote, " ltis false to say that the scrcen is incapablc of putting us 'in the presencc' 01' the actor. It does so in the samc way as a mirror·- one must agree that the mirror relays the presence of Lhe person rcflected in it---but it is a mirror with a delayed reflection [ ... ]" (1967:97). (Bazin here seems to be recalling Oliver Wendell Hohncs' descrip tion 01' photography as "a mirror with a merllory.") In Lec BreLler's proouc tion 01' Beckctt's Come (lnd Go (1974), the lhree actors who comprise the cast were concealed from the audience: only their mirrorcd retlcction was visible. And what is it precisely aboLlt an actor's presence- -whether Iive or on screen - that commands our attention? Is presence the ability to project él fictional "character" into the second balcony or is it just thc opposite: the performer's ability to strip herself of protean, fictional fabrication and reveal her "authentic" self (as Joe Chaikin seems lO advocate in his book The Presence ollhe AClOr [1972]). In his Open Theater production. 1'l¡e Milla /ion S11011' (1971), the actors compared their onstagc faces to photographs 01' their younger, offstage faces. Ca.d D reycr, commen ti ng on Falconnetti 's CXl raor d inaTy perfonmlnce in hi s I92X 1,lm Tlle Passiol/ 0/ '/(/1111 ol Are (in wh ich lhe aclréSs worc 11 0 mak c up) said shc was Ihe I)nly P"I fp llIll"l Il e kllew whu wen l
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lo w~1rl... hy 1:11-. 1111:' "I./he r llIake uJ). P I'CSC IH':C ill this scnsc bccol1\es a baoge 0 1' IIIKhalkl1gca hlc aulhentióty (ano , 01' coursc, a ke y concepl ror the oecade 01' Ihe I%Os ). 1': lhcl Merman singing "Rosc's Turn " in Gy¡J.\y (1959) and Chris Burden nonchalantly having himselfshot in the arm (Shoot, 1971) embody two very dirlácnt --but equ ally dist incti ve modes of living presence. Perhaps this is Ihe sort 01' difference LiQn el T rill ing ( 1972) had in m ind when he traced the transition from the social ideal ofsince rity to that ofautheoticity: lhe former aSSlII1leS a correspondence--·one that can never really be validated- belween what thc audience sees and what the perfo rmer is presumed to experieoce inwardly. "To thine own [or the character's] self be true. " The latter con I'mnts the perceiver with a certifiably nonfictional situation. Other conceptions of theatrical presence have tittle or nothing to do with the performer's charisma, capacity for self-exposure, or masochistic risk taking. O nc can, in other words, be " in the presence 01''' a thoroughly un charismatic pcrformer. Similarly, presence need not be synonymous \Vith authcnticity. Indecd, \Ve spend most 01' our lives " in the presenee" of the illouthenlic (01' the authentieally inauthentic, as in: " lt's not fake anything, it's real Dynel"). This latter conccption 01' presence req L1ires nothing more than [hat perfonner and spcctator share a certain amoLlnt of time together in the same space. Thcrc may be a litmus test for this sort of presence: Perhaps being «in the prcsence 01''' él performer mcans that we could , ifwe so desired , reach out anu tOLlch (that) someonc .and tOLlch in a more direct, less mediated manner than Ma Bell has in mind. Ifso, this \Vollld help explain the late '60s compul siol1 (c.g., Paradise Now) to affirm presence by creating opportunities ror lhe physical interaction of performers and spectators. Megan Terry described Ihe cnd of Viel Roc/( (1966) as a "cclcbration of presence": "One by one they Ilhe actors] enter thc audiencc. Each c!looses an audience member and to uches Iris hand, hcad, facc, hair. Look and touch. Look and tOLlch" (1967: I (4). In I he Pcrformance GroLlP's Dionysus in 69 (1968), Wilham Finley as Dionyslls (ano himsclf) invited the audience to join an orgiastic celebration 01' his "nativity." JJere t wo ditTerent sorts 01' presence were affirmed: the prcscncc of tire actor (Finley's identity is revealed rather than concealed beneath that of 1IIl' character) and the sense in which both actor and audience are " prcsent lo " one another. orcourse, one can be " present to" someone without actually tOllching her Ilr him, providing that there\ some sen se of reciprocity, a sense that what Iranspires onstagc in co nl rasl lo the Illovies-is affected almost as much by whal harpcn!' in the LluJic nec ;J i' Ihc other way around. To cite only the most fa miliar cxa mplc 01' thi -: lWI1· wa " s lrcet; W hen a group 01' live actors delivers :t l;lsl-pae!!d c\llll ic J iul(l)- 1\) a 1"",·pll\'l: alldic nce, we expect them lO wa it IIl1l il Ilre Iallg lr h.:r has dicd d\\W II "('lp lI ' Iw¡,i lllling fhe ncxL round 01' ve rbal III1 C- IIPlll íll l:ihip, By cm,11 ;I st ,,,hU I yl 11 1 Il' ! ',111 •,1 ;1la Ilte ilJ1d n:spons ive movic
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audienee watchi llg ( ';11 Y( mt ll llradc wisccracks wlt h Rosali llo Russcll in Jli,l' Cid Frie/ay (1 940), yo u ' re a lmost certain to miss so me hilariolls col1lc backs, And if perform crs ano audicncc members are prescnt to on e uTw thcr in space, are they also, by definitioll, present to one anothc r in time" Does being present also imply a sen se of presenlness? Robert Edm und Jones, in The D I'wlla¡ic Imagina/ion, wrote , ''This is drama ; this is theatre-to be aware ofthe Now" (1941 : 40), But whose " now"'? The actor's (here a nd now) or the character's (which may be way back when)? M a rsha N o ml an 's 'Nigh r Mother (1982) takes place in a fiction aI world , b ut it also attem pts to crea te an exacl congruence between onstage time a nd " real time," (The numc rous and highl y visible d ocks on the furniture and wall s of th e set correspond exactly to the time we ca n read on our own watches,) Si milarly , in Peter H a nd ke's O//end ing ¡he Auc/ience (1966) , the fo ur speakers (who never portray "charaeters") inform the audience that " Here you are not expericncing a time that pretends lo be another time. The time on stage is no ditTerent from the time off stage. We have the same local time here " (1969: 1O). Handke's play is the ultimate afTirmation of bere a nd now, tonight, in this particular theatre.
Presence and rcpresentatioD But H a ndkc's conception 01' presenee is infinitely more radical : It attempts to ban representation entirely. With unrelenting obsessiveness, Handke's speakers hammer a way at the ve ry impulse to signify, the desire to see some thing as anything other than itself. Jt's as if his loquacious speakers could exorcisc representation by outla/king it: You see no pieture ofsomething. Nor do you see the suggestion ofa picture. Nor do you see an empty picture. The emptiness ofthi s stage is no picture ofanother emptiness. The emptiness ofthis stage signifies nothing . This stage is empty because objects would be in our way. Jt is empty beca use \Ve don 't need objects. This stage represents nothing. It represents no other emptiness. This stage is empty . You don't see any objects that pretend to be other objects. You d on't see a darkness lhat pretends to be another darkness. You don ' t see a brightness th a t pretends to be a nother brightness. You don 't see any light that pretends to be another light. You d on't hear any noise that pretends to be another noise . YOll don 't see a room that prctends to bc another room.
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il is " (1 1) 11 W) , h 1I cvcr poss ib k lo suspl'Jld litis proccss 01' lhcalrical si gn i fi c¡.I\ iu tl attJ lI,:pl .:senlalion? T he li11le has tome to examine what Derrida and Baudrillard themselves havc to say about presence. Lct's begin with Derrida's characterization of Artaud 's proposal for a theatre 01' cruelty : The theatre 01' cruelty is n ot a representation [ ... J. Certainly, the ~t age will no longer represenl, sinee it wil1 not be added as a sensitive il1ustrat ion to a n already-written text, thought a nd lived outside 01' it and which it could only repeat I[ .. . ]. It wo uld no longer repeat a presenl , represent a present which would be elsewhere and before it, whose fullness would be older than its own [ . . . l. (1978: 10) 1n other words, Artaud sought a variety 01' presen ee, imman ence, or sheer "lhereness" which preexists and precludes the mediaey and vicari o usness of representation. A representation cannol be ful1y " present" precisely because it signifies or alludes to something thal isn 't fully there , whose " real " exis t ence lies elsewhere, beyond the confines of the stage. That explains why Derrid a c1aims that Arta ud's "Theatre 01' Cruelty" aspired toward a "c1osure 01' representation. " The principIe eonfusion 01' our time, wrote Artaud in The Thea/re am/ lis J)ouble , springs from "the rupture between things and words, between things and the ideas tha l a re their representation. " A rtaud thu s yearns to " relurn " to "a secret psychic impulse which is speeeh before words " (1958: 7)- a set 01' Ur-sounds or primal screams in which signifier and signified are indivisible. Such "natural " utterances are thought lo be authen tically amI ful1y present, unmediated by a preexisting, impersonal language or the acquired ha bits 01' culture. Hut as Breeht so wel1 understood: "The union 01' the organs is the only un ion and it can never bridge the gap 01' speech " (in Brustein 1964: 247). (Note that for Brecht·-as for Derrida speech is no less "doubled, " no less divisive, than writing.) Artaud 's q uest for the natural , hi s sentimental prim itivism (e.g. , his pan cgyrics about Balinese dance or the peyote dance of the Tarahumara) is a prime example ofthe impulse Derrida attacks in hi s twin critique of ROLlsseau and Levi-Strauss:
I1 erbert Blau (perhaps with Ha ndkc's utopian projcct in mind) ha s wri tte n: " Con sid cr simp ly a n object in fro nt o r your eycs; 011 s tage iL is no lo ngcr si m ple. A rea l chair used for a real cha.i r in a ' rcalisl il..:' seui ng remain s lhough ¡¡ r.:¡t! c ha ir. a .Iigfll or a ch a ir. It is wlw t il is no!. IIHII lglJ 1I appea rs to he whaL
Non- European peoplcs were not only studied as th e index to a hidden good Nature. as a native soil recovered , of a "zero degree" with reference lo which one could outline the struct ure, the growth, a nJ aboye all I he degrad a l iOIJ oC OUT society an d our culture. As al wa ys, lhis ,tn: h¡tcull't'Y is a l ~ (l a t(:)eol ogy a nd an cschatology: the uream 0 1" ti lú ll :l m.l ill tl ltn Jia k I'I CSC tlCC dosin g hislo ry [ . . . l lhe suppression 01' cOu l1 ;1111.:1 1\11 1.11111 " ill l'.,'nce. ( 1971,: 114 15)
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But this of coursc is precisel y l ile sun uf d USlI 1e o r fulL livin g prcsclH.:c (h" ( Derrida (and less explicitly Baud rill aru) J is l11i s~cs as unatlaillablc. Wc ~an 'l "return" to such a state beca use il never existed. Prescncc for Oerrida is always shot through and tarnished \Vith traces of absence, 01' that which is somewhere else. And here his prose- as so often happens \Vith him- gets lOO convoluted for its own good . So bear with me (01" him): Through the sequence of su p plements there emerges a law: t hat 01' an endless linked series, inel uctably multiplying the supplementary mediations that produce the sensc of the very thing that they defer: the impression ofthe thing itselr, ofimmediate presence, or originary perception. Immediacy is derived . Everything bcgins with the inter mediary [ ... l. (1976: 226) Derrida is saying in etTect that there's no such thing as a preverbal or non verbal sta te of perception, that consciousness is always characterized b .. the mediacy of linguistic structure. Hence the distinctive bril,liance of Handke 's assault on representation in O/lending (he Audience: He doesn't aspire to a nonverbal state 01' " pure" per ception..··..as in, say, Robert Wilson's DeqfmGn G/once (1970). (In the original version of Handke 's Kuspar (1968), the title character declares. " 1 have been sentenced to rcality.") Thus in O/lending lhe Audience, Handke uses sentences against themsdves, in the hope of holding representation temporarily at bay. But if authentic presence implios an absence 01' representation, then Baudril1ard's doctrine of simulationism caJTies this critique of presence a step further: " The very definition ol' the real has become: that ol' which it is possible to give an equivalent reproduction [ ... l. The real is not only what can be reproduced. but that which is always already reproduced" (1983:4). If Derrida's linguistie denial ol' presence remains abstract and untestable , BaudriJ1ard 's vision of the hyperreal is all too concrete and easy lo observe: " Watch the Farrah Lookalike Make a Real Drug Bust" is the title 01' a 1989 artic1e in TV Guide. The subject is a "nonfiction " television series ca lled "Cops" in which real-life police officers are purportedly filmed in the CO UTse of their duties. But the "real drug bust" is conducted by a cop who Was singled out by the producers of the series beca use she resemb1es a te1evision personality who first came to national attention while portraying a fictional detective. Baudrillard would probably say that the "real" policewoman on "Co ps" will strike us as " authcnlic" lo the extent tha t she resembles·· or reminds us of- Farrah Fawcett. Of course it hardly comes as ncws to learn thal we live in a socie ty which often prefers images to firsth a nd cxpericnce. We all know what happen s when one's kids visil (he G rand C'anyon a rte r $cei ng T~t..~hllicolor images of it in glossy nature d oculll cnlarics: il d i sap poinl ~ O ut..: Ileed ~ )(l l y rccuJ1lhc okl j okc \ 11
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p rlluJ nlllpk wlH,), IIpOU hcing tnld IJOw beaut irul theí r baby ¡s. n.:ply . "Oh (ltal's Il uthing, you should <;cc her photograph. " D aniel Boorstcin cites that jo kc in his Illarvelous book The !muge (1961) which complains about the ever-increasi ng n umber of"pseudo-events" tha t ha ve infiltrated the presumably nonfictional media: presidential "photo opportunities." polit ical demonstrations that don'l gel underway until the news media arri ves, etc. 1n recent years. pse udo-events have played an increasingly prominent role in television news. D uring the summer of '89 for example, ABC's " Wor1d News Tonight" broadcasl footage (only belatedly identified as a simulation) which purported to show Felix Bloch, a former State Department employee, hand delivering top secret documents to a Soviet agent. Cross-hairs were superimposed on the screen to make it appear as ir !he grainy footage was shot by a government surveillance team . But Boorstem is determined to separate the newsworthy wheat from the prefabricated . camera-ready chaff; he wants to resc ue the real from a flood of hyperbolic simulacra. Baudrillard is inlinitely more pessimistic. In his scenario, we' re 11 0 longer capable of ferreting out a reality which precedes the (hyper-real) image of reality . The basic relation between the map and the territory has changed: "The territory no longer precedes the map, nor survives it. Ilenccforth, it is the map that precedes the territory [ ... l it is the map that engenders the territory" (1983: 2). To simulate, he argues,
is not simply to feign : someone who feigns an illDess can simply go to bed and Ill ake bel ieve he is il!. Someone who simulates an ill nes!> produces in himself some of the symptoms. Thus, feigning or dis simulating 1eaves the reality principie intact: the difference is always clear, it is only masked ; whereas simulation threatens the difference between " true " and "false," between "real" and " imaginary." Since the simulator produces " true" symploms, is he il1 or not? (1983: 5) And that's why Balldril1ard c1aims that contcmporary reality is never un mediatcd , that it is "alwa ys already rcproduced .'· Baudril1ard, one SLlspects, would ha ve been amllsed by the earnest chorus 01' disapproval which greeted ABC's Felix Bloch simulation. For Baudril1ard, most 01' what the nightly news routinc1y broadcasts is already , in some sen se, simulated. A great many playwrights have dealt with the way in which dramatic characters have bccn mediatcd (or infiltrated) by mass media: Sam Shepard's Miss Scoons (in Ange/ Ciry . 1976) cxclaims: "llook at the screen and 1 am the screcn. f'm not mc. 1 don't know who I amo Ilook at the movie and r am the l11ovi c. [ . .. l Fo r J ays 1 ¡IIII tlU! s(ar ¡llI d I'm nol me" (21). (lean Claude van Itall ie"s TV [19661 dra lll:II I/Cs 111\: bluning 01' bo undaries betwecn the t wo sil,h.:s 01' the (ekvisioll S~ I\:\' II IIII' ~I ' W lli) wal ..:h ~\rC literall y absorbed into wh,,( they walch ) rile qll l llll: ~.l· , ¡l j .. 1 "\01 1111'''' Ilr 1 1t~ wuy in which med iated I1
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images are a bsorhed as ¡(, by osnwsis Cn lllC,> In lli..:a th\.:otc Wllliallls' A( '/ (1970). A ecrtifiably schlzo phrcnic charadcr na mcd Matlricl~ decla res. ") was picking up tv programmes in my heau like a Jew 's )Ja rp. [ ... ] cvery time) kisseu Perowne ) \Vas forced to desalivate beca use of coursc PcrOWlI (! didn't want David Niven's slyle ofkissing" (1970: 61 ). Baudrillard, in his essay "The Ecstasy of Commu nicati on," sees sch izo phrenia as the inevitable result 01' our current situation in wh ich the booy becomes an extension ofthe teJevision screen. Telecommunications, ironil;all y, are loo present. Baudrilla rd speaks of
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this state of terror pro per to the sch i7.ophrenic: too great a p roxi mity of everything, lhe unc1 ean promiscuity 01' everything which toucbes, invests and penetra tes without resistance, with no halo of private protection , not even his own body to protect him anymore [ ... ]. lt is the end ofinteriority and intimacy, the overexposure and transpar ence of the world which traverses him without obstade [ ... ]. He is nowa pure screen , a switching center for all the networks 01' intluence. (1985: 132- 33)
Presencc and the visual arts So the critique of presence \Ve find in the work of Derrida and Baudrillard would seem to hinge on the eoncept of representation. Pure presence thus implies nothing les s than the defeat 01' representation. Significantly, one of the most influentiallate-'60s manifestos on behalf of pure presence also ealled ror the defeat of theatrieality. I refer to Michael Fried 's highly polemical defense of modernist painting, " Art and Objecthood": "1 want to claim th at it is by virtue of their presentness and instantaneousness that modernjst painting and sculpture dereat theatre," dedared Fried (1968: 146). (Theatre ro r Fried is synonymolls with- among other evils- temporality or duration ; modernist painling is presumably experieneed in a moment of pure presentness: " It is as though one's experience of [modernist painting] has no durati on not because one in ract experiences a Noland or Olitski [ ... ] in no time at al1 , b ut bccause at every moment the \York itsclfis whol1y manifest" [1968: 145]). Stanlcy Cavel1 in 7/¡c World ViClVCd o ffe red a valuable gloss on Fried 's essay. Generalizing about the formalist painting that sclr-eonsciollsly aekno",ledgcs its two J imensionality, Cavel1 maintained that " its ftatness , together with its being of a limited extcnt, mean s that it is totally there, whol1y open to yo u, absolutely in front of your senses. of your eyes as no other form of art is." Flatness is essential to this sort of presenee because " total thereness can be taken as a denial of (physieal) spatiality, of what three-dimensiona l crca tures \Vho normal1y walk or sit or turn mea n by splltiality. What is in tlJrcc dimensional space is not al1 there to the eyes, in the :.enst! n:vcalcd" (1971: 1(9).
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This Íl1\ plil:'t tb .ll1\o hlllllal1 hoillg ccrtainly mI pcrformcr wil1 ever h(~ as as a ro rmalist painting by F rank Stel1a or Morris Louis. By l'ontrast , \1Iinimalisl scul pture according to rried is tainted by thcatric ality becausc its "quality of havi ng an inside" makes it " a lmost blatantly al1thropomorphic" (1968: 129). Clcmcnt Greenberg, who sired this obsession wilh lwo dimensionality , aJso uses an a ntitheatrical an al ogy to sum IIp the dilfcrences belween c1assica1 and modernist painting:
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From Giotto to Courbet, the painter's first task had been to hollow out an il1usion of three dimensional space 011 a ftat surrace. One looked through this surfaee as through a prosccnium into a stage. Modernism has rendered this stage shall owcr and shal10wer until now its backdrop has beeome the same as its curtain which has now become al1 that the painter has left to work on . (196 \: 136) The curtain functions as a metaphor ror the process of alternately revealing and concealing- " now you see it and now you don 't" whereas modernism is envisioned as in aet of " uneoncealment. " Of course, the theatre has traditionally considered it a strength rather than a weakness to coneeal as much as it reveals. Hamlet artieulates a tr uth about al1 great drama tic characters when he declares, " 1 have that within which passeth show. " It's a funetion orhis psychological complexity tha t he's no! all there, spread out on the surface, Iike a modernist painting. ("You wo uld play tlpon me; you would seem to kno\\' my stops; you would pluck out the hea rt of my mystery," eomplains Hamlet to Rosenerantz and Guildenstern.) By contrast, Frank Stel1a affirmed his own commitment to Grecnbergian (and h'iedian) presenee when he said ofhis paintings that " only what can be seen is there" (in Glaser 1968: 158). Fried's coneeption of presence is antitheatrieal in another sense as wel1: it deplores the reciprocity bet\Vecn performer and audience whieh figures so prominently in theatrical definitions ofpresencc. "Theater has an audience it exists for one- in a way the other arts do not. In raet, this more than anything else is what modernist sensibility finds intolerable in theater gener ally, " notes Fried (1968 : 140). Again , accusing ccrtain modes or minimalist sculpture of " theatricalily," Fried writes: [Such] \York depends on the beholder, is incomplete without him ; it has been waiting ror him. !\nd once he is in the room the work refuscs, obstinatd y. ~o lel him alone---whieh is to say, it refuses to stop (;on rrv nt ing hil1l. Ji st;¡ ll\;illt' him , isolating him . (Such isolation is not solit udc ;my IIH II(' 111;1 11 '; lld l cnn rrontati on is communion). (1968: 140)
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h'it:u cuuld 01" COUISC he lu lkiJ lg a ll(1111 lhe I 1\ 1111' I"IIC:ll rc in I'({ milis/ ' NIIII ' where the perforJners olkn re l"u~oo lO lakl! no lol a IIl1l1 swcr, where lhey rel "used to stop eonfron ting (an d no dOll bt , in Illally cast:s. 1I1linlentionally J ista nciflg and isolating members 01' the audience). And ror f ri ed , this is the ver y anti thesis 01' presence.
Tbeatre oC mediation So it's far from dear that theatre ever was the so1c or essential reposito ry al' presence. And as we've seen in recent years , the very oo tion 01' p resence. whether in Artaud's "speech before wOl"ds," or Stella's attempt to banis h "content "- and thus representation- fro m painting, has come under attack. Indeed , in the age of Derrida and Baudrillard , Greenberg and Fried have become men the art world loves to bate. Presenee, purity, instantaneousness. anti-illusionism have all beaten a hasty retreat. Now there's a high premi um placed on mixing the visual and the verbal. the spatial and the temporal. (One need only think of Jenny Holzer's verbal aphorisms snaking their way across e1cctronic billboards.) But has a body of work appeared that embodies what Thomas K uh n (1962) would call a paradigm shift in regard to the centrality of presence in the arts? Certainly in the visual arts, the doctrine 01' "simulationism" is reflected in a wide variety of wOl"ks ranging from Sherrie Levine's appropria tions of Walker Evans or Edward Weston to Mike Bidlo's meticulous copies of Picasso. Peter Halley's "neo-GEO" recycles geometric motifs from the formalist paintings of the 1960s and redeploys them i,n a "representational" manner. These are art works that, in Baudrillard's terms, have been "already reproduced." But in the theatre, the assault on presence is best illustrated by one 01' my origin al examples, Foreman's Whal Did He See, where the use 01" mi Gro phones and Plexiglas reflected a fundamental and over increasing facl of contemporary life: its mediation by media. Similarly, Mabou Mines' Wrong Cuys (1981), a theatrical dissection 01' male bonding in hard-boi1cd detective fiction, also utilized body mikes for purposes ofmediation rather than amplification. Laurie Anderson's "vocoder" is an e1cctronic filter than transforms her light, flat voice into a variely vocal personae that indude a deep, throaty raspo The resulting Is-it-live-or-is it-Memorex uncertainty creates an ambiguous form of presence that secm s both spontaneous and prereeorded at the same time. In the Wooster Group's ROl/le J & 9 (1981) two white actresses dialed telephone calls to what sounded like actual restaurants, and--in broad, Amos n' Andy accents-cl aimed they \Vanted to order fried chicken ror a birthday part)'. The a udi enc..:e had no way of knowing whether these conversations werc live or prcrecorded (lo/" that matter, whether th ose 0 11 the other ellu 01" lhe lilll.! wcrc unrehcan¡ct! cmplo yees of an ac tual resta ura nt o r a<.:tors im pCr:-tOlla li,¡g I hern ). Bul in any event , the q uuJi ty o l"lhe SOlln d wa" unm lsl; lbhly ",~·d¡; l kd . as il' wc\1 píékl!d
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"1' ,llIlll hcl plltllll' C\le llSioll or la r pcd illlu lhe line . In olller words, tll e vll iCC:ol lhal W C h\;~1I no lun ger p re Lc nd lo be directly or il1llllediately "present" 111 liS.
A 1I111llber 01' performanccs are explicitly about technological mediation. I ce Breucr/Mabou Mines' A Prelude (() Dea(h in Ven ice (1979) depicted a dlaracter wlilOse rclationship with the outside world is doubly mediated: Bi ll Raylll oll d spoke thro ugh a ventriloquist's d ummy whose only contact \Vi th ll\ hcr characters was over lhe telephone. Laurie A nderson 's talk-song par ¡¡hit: "N ew Yo rk Social Life" is about life lived entirely on the telephone. And III1ICh ofher work explores the unintended imny in Ma Bel\"s ins istent urging Ihal we use the telephone to "reach out and touch someone." (Anderson is particularly fascinated by the ways in which communications technology, which purports to bring us closer together-as mem bers of a "global village" aClllally increases our sense of social isolation.) On one level these artists are simply acknowledging the fact that, like it or lIol, technological mediation has become an inescapable part of our lives. Mllst of what we claim to know about the world is acquired vicariously or "econdhand. We rely on television and other mass eommunicatio ns media to IIIf"orm us of the public even lS that shape our colleetive consciousness. But we ha ve no way 01' eonfirming the reality of these events with our O\vn senses. lite "instant replay" must be identified as such if we're to distinguish it from I he televised "original." (Consider how frequently the word "simulation" ;Ippears on the screen when television covers a m ajor space shot. ) Sorne years ;I gll a film called Caprico/"/1 f proposed the foIlowing scenario: An ambitious 1 I .S. space mission goes haywire; fearful of losing its con gressional fundi ng, NASA simulates the rest 01' the mission in a television studio. A nd it seems "lIlircly appropriate, in the age of simulationism , to have Icarned that a 'illinlessential instance of 1960s "authenticity"- the 1cap that's photographed 111 Yves Klein's Lea]) il1lo the Void- turns out to have been faked. 1ronieally, there's no reason to believe that "being there" is always preferable 1.. lhe omniscient detachment provided by advanced technology. Ccrtainl y wl.." ve al1 had the experience ofwatching on television as a governmental official . 11 rives in some distant land. Given the sophistication 01' video technology, ¡I 's l1otllncommon 1'01" the news anchor in New York or \Vashington to have . 1 hclter view of who's getting off the plane than the poor "eyewitness" 'l'\Hlrler there on the ground. Ami \ve shouldn't be too quick to assume that Baudrillard puts the final n;lil in the col1ln of"Artaudian ambition. Holographically projected, computer J)l' lIl'I"alcd il1lages in three dilllensions Illay well provide the only means of l'Ilcctivc1 y rea.liz ing Arlaud ' s ./1'1 o( B/ood (1925), Strindberg's A Drca/11 Play III)O;!) , 01' rol' tha ! m;lllcr, Ilei ner M üll cr's l1uJ1/ lclmuchinc (1977). Perhaps 11 1\: I;ra 01 lite lOla ll )' pcr:-.ua'i l v~ Il'chnplog i¡,;a l sim ulat ioll (in whieh the I wl\;c iva h ll! dirfcrcl1cl! di ss\l lVl' ... lw l \'ATII " 111 \.1 Ih illg itse!r" éll1c.1 its rcpresen ta 11 11 11 in IIIl' f'm m uf ilmll'.c:; ) i1', Wllíll "lllml W ;t~ rea lly scckl ng ..111 lhe whil e.
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Artcr aU, this is p r~t;i scl y th u wa y SCl!u la l'. "sá: lltili l!a lly" m ind cll pco r k have aJ ways viewed lhe ritualistic statc 0 1 úo nsciuusness: SO I11C sorl 01' lIlin d altering experience (psychotropic drugs, hypnotically rc petitivc sou nds and movemcnt patterns) manages to blur thc dis tinction betwecn images and lhe " realities" they allude too Isn ' t this what Jane Ell en Harrison meant when shc distinguished hetvveen ritualistic re-presentatioll and theatrica l representa tion? In o ther words, the participants of rituals presuma bly " re-live" rathe r than merely represent, act out, or "impersonate" events of rny thological 0 1' rcligious significancc. Listen to what Karl Y oung has to say (in his boo k Drama o("the Medieval Swge) about tbe absence of theatrical representation in the Catholic M ass: The impossibility of there being irn personation in the Iiturgy of the Eucharist arises from the fact that since the early Chnstian centuries this rite has been regarded as a true sacrifice. The central act is designed not to represent or portray or mereJy comrnemorate the crucifixion , but actually to repeat it. (1933: 81) To the secular skeptic, indeed to anyone other than the true belicver, this amounts to a well-executed con job, a successful aet of "simulation," which in this context is not generically ditTerent from Baudrillard's technological sllbstitlltion (translIbstantiation?) of signifier for signified. Perhaps ritualistic re-presentation (or the illusion ofsuch) is the only real alternative to repres entation. And yet ... there 's a big difference between belief and a suspension (willing or lInwilling) of disbelief. Actually believing that one has returned lo the " origin" is q lIite different from knowing, 01' e\'en suspecting, that one can no longer distinguish bet\\'een the original and a reproduction. But one thing is certain: The balance between \vhat we glean about th world directly through our sens_cs and what we absorb vicariously through the media has been irreversibly tipped in the direction of the latter. And to assume that a few hours of "Iive" theatre wiII somehow restore a health y sensc of "being there" is naive and selr-deceptive. The ongoing critique 01' theatrical presence is also valuable insofar as it reminds us that no experi ence (no matter how "Iive") is entirely unmediated. The "copy theory 01' knowledge" \vas invalidatcd long ago. The innocent eye never existed. F ll r thermore, the idea that the theatre's " liveness" is - in and 01' itself -a virtue, a source of automatic, unearned moral superiority to film and television , is sheer bourgeois sentimentality. In Film ls Evit, Radio is Good (1987) Richa rd Foreman chose to champion radio rather than "live theatre" as an a lternativc to the treache ro usly deceptive "realism " of the cinematic image. (One sh o llkl also note that the only event in recent years to engender the sort of p hysicalized "audience participation " we assoeia te with Ihe Living Th cat re o flh e lat~ '60s was a cult film, The R oek)' /Jorror Piclure Slu)li'.)
320
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Prcscllcc and "hc plague It 's unc 01" tite suprclIlc ironics of i\rtaud that his major conceits cxi st essen tially as literary metaphors. And his most potent metaphor ror the state or purc imlllanence or presentness is the plague. He credits it with reinventing "ncccssity" and with obsessively focusing the attention of its victims on the Ill'rc and no\\': "The plague is a superior disease beca use it is a total crisis arter which nothing remains excepl death or in ex treme purification " (1958:31). Thcse words are not easy lo slomach in the age of AiDS. Real plagues, we now J..now , are the enemy of presence. i\nd even ir Derrida 's and Baudrillard's critiques ofpresencc didn 't exist, i\cquired lmmune Dellciency Syndrome might well have invented it. One the rarthest reaching consequences of AIDS is that \Ve will never again be i"ully prcsent lo one another. Fear of AIDS has robbed us oC the ultimate and 1II0st desired form of presence: the orgasm ic fuckrush, wh ich o bliterates our awareness of anything other than the present. But now sex is satllrated with an intensilled conscio usness of both pasl and futurc (" How many other pcople has s/he slept \Vith?" "Have I become infected? And if so , how long will the virus remain latent?"). Perhaps we should paraphrase Brecht's adage lo read. "The union of the organs is the only union and it can never bridge lhe !',ap of fear."
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References I\rtaud, Antonin 1958. TI/(' T/¡earre ((nd Irs Douhfe. translatcd by M. C. Richards. New York: Grove Press. Ilaudrillard . .lean 1983. SimularioflS, translated by Paul Foss, Paul Patton , and Philip Beltchman. New York: Semiotext(e). 1985. "The Ecstasy of Communication ." In PO.í'rmodem ClIlrwe, edited by lb 1 Foster, 126 34. Lond on: PiulO Press. Ilazin , André 1967. W/wlls Cinema!, translated by Hugh Gray. Berk eley: Universit y of Californi a Prcss. Illau, Iferbert 1977. " I.etting Be Be Finale of Seern: The Future 01' an lilusion. " In Pe/jórmmu.:e in P osrll1o(/ern CullUre, cdited by Michel Benam oLl and Charles Caramello, 59- 77. Madison . WI: Coda Press. Iloorstein, Da niel 1961. Tile lmage: A C/uide ro Pseudo Evenls in Amaica . New York: Alheneum. Ilrustcin. Robert 1964, Tile T{¡('(/rre 01 Revolr. Boston: Littk, Brown , and Company. ( 'ilvell . Stanley 1971 , 'File World Viewed. New York : Viking Prcss. ('haikin, Joseph 1972. '/"e 1',.('.\"('/1('(' oi /h(' A I'/or. New York: Atheneum . 1>l:rrida , .Iacques 19'7C,. Oj (¡'·¡II/II/w(ologl'. translated by Gayatri Chakro\'orty Spi v
MI ' II I I\ I\NII 'l' I'-C ' II NI II ," n I 'lIchs, I ':lillOr 1()~ 5, "1'rcsclIl:e alllllhc R cvcn~c ,,1 W IIIII I~, Rc-Ihinkill¡: I'he;.!t n; Alkr Derrida," j>llIjórmillg Arl.l ./oul'//ul () (110:;, 2 HII.! \) : I h' 72. GlascL Bruce 196~. "QucStiOllS to Stella ami Judd." 111 Mi/fill/III Arl. cJilcd by (in...'
gory Batteock, 148- 64. Ncw York : E.P. Dutton. Greenbcrg, Clernent 1%1. Arl (lml Culture. Boston: Beacon Press. Grotowski, Jerzy 1968. TOlvards a POOl' Th ellrre. New York: Sim o n amI Sehuster. HaJldke, Peter 1969. Ka.l'par ol1d Olher Play.\', tnlllslated by Michael Ro lolf. Ncw York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. Harrison . Jane Ellen 1913. An('Í1'11I Art ({nd Ritual. London: Williams and Norgate. Jones, Robert Edmulld 1941. TI/e Dramalú: frnaginalion. New York: 'llleatre Arb Books. Kuhn . Thomas 1962 . Tile Slrucwre oi Sci1'l1li!ic Revoluliol1.1. Chicago: University 01' Chieago Press. Malilld , Judith , and Julian Beck 1971. Paradise No\\'. Ncw York: Random House. Shepdrd, Sam 1976. Ang1'l Cily al/d Olher Play.\'. Ncw York: Urizen Books. 'erry. Megan 1967 . Viet Rack am! Olher Plllys. New York: Simon and Schuster. Trilling, Lionel 1972. Sincerily (fnd Auth1'nlicil)'. Cambridge, tvlA: Harvard Univer sity Press. Willctt , John 1967. Tlle T/¡eatre (1' Berlo/I Bree/ll. London: University Paperback s (third edition). Williams, Ileathcote 1970. AUDe Gamhil: fllternaliolla/ Tile(llre R1'\'iC'lI' 5 (nos. 18 and 19). Young, Karl 1933. Th1' Drama oi the Medi1'val Churdl. vol. l. Oxford: Clarendon Press .
84
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Chanlal Ponthriand Sourcc: Translatcd by C. R. Parsons, A!od('f// 1)rallla 25(1) (1982): 154 1(,2.
At this point 1 wa nt to ma ke a claim th al 1cannot hope to prove 01' substantiatc but that I bclieve nevertheless to be true : viz. , thal theatre and theatricality are at W
Tlle s¿¡ccess, 1'1'1'/1 Ihe surl'iw¡/. o( Ihe uns has comC' in crea.\' ingl)' lo dep1'nd 0/1 Iheir a!Jilily lo c!c:.!¿'a ! Ih1'otre.
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I Ilavc quolcd al Icngth this statcment by the A merican critic Michael Fried l'xplicilly in order to undcrlinc its ambiguity . On the one hand , he sta tes "that Ihcatre and theatri cali ty are at war . .. with art as such"; on lhe other, that "H/I/{{I ¡¡cs belween Ihe elrls i.\ I/¡mfl'e ." In lhe f1rsl case, he says that thealre as ;t11 arl-rorln is un illlp()ssibilit y; il! lIle secolld , he opposes to lhe unacceptable 11l)ti()1l 01' lhcalricalily tllal (I !' ... pn :ilil'il\' . J)cs r ih.: wlla t F ricd thi l1 b wlr nj 11.1 ~ I\l Vi: 11 impet us lo whal has eve n ~;Jl akcn tire arl s ~C\! IW dlllll ll' Iln' "ol\ t ll"; .11Id st..:V\.' lllics is ind eed a k illd 01'
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I hea I l i~a III y, hnHlg h I a hOIl I hy a rc-cx.¡ 111111 1.1 I11111 lo l I he c,; ~)lks ca t cg,~H i/ing Ihe arts: paillting, sculpl lln:, an.:hil cclll n:: . p0¡;[ IY , IlI Uli l\':. dallc,;c. cl~. : by a sh ift illg oi' fields between these cades; and also by emrhasis givcn to a devícc whicll is akin to the theatre, that of spectator/stagc/spectade, seen as process. This whole phenomenon is called performance. For F ried. the fa ilure ofthea tre is synonymous with the s urvival o rthc arts and evcn with their success. Qua li ty or value exists only wilhin él discipline. not between disciplines. A work such as an audio-visual set- up. let liS sayo or a performance which brings together film. tex t, and sound elements, cou ld not possibly meet the criteria of quality and val ue advanced by G reenbergian critics li ke Fried, who consider that performance, like theatre, is a failure. It should be pointed out first of all that for these erities there is n o distinction between theatre and performance. In their eyes, perform ance corresponds to a regressive manifestation of no interest, since it does not seek exclusively the specificity of form conveyed by modernism o Pe rformance. they sayo represents the ultimate decadence of theatre, which modernism , in its discomfort, has tried to conjure away by making it a theatre of absenee. emptiness, void. What would draw performance doser to theatre and theatricality is indeed the idea 01' presence, which modern philosophy. to a degree, aims to critieize. To speak of presence again today, in a theoretical framework, can indeed seem retrograde. But exaetly what presence is in volved? Is it the presence evinced by con temporary art when there is a meeting between the performe r and his public. when there is a performance situation (let us leave it at that lor now) -- is that presence similar to the one which concerns cJassical philo sophy? Is the relationship continuous or discontinuous? If it is continu ous (space-time a priori), one must of COlme concede decadence. But would it not be more interesting and plausible to think that this neo-presence has b roke n ties with the old one. or that it is simply different, even without having broke n i ts ties? If we seek in performance something to heJp us understand the meani ng 01' a real-tualized presence, what I1rst comes to mind is the he re and now 01' performance already mentioned , its incidental 01' siluational character. Pres ence is temporality, and essentially what interesls us in contempora ry art is this criterion o f temporality, this eoming into being: the characteristic pres cnce 01' performance could be called presentness - that is to say, perform a nce IInrolds essentially in the present time. But this definition is not enough. sinLl: our aim is to draw a distim:tion bet\veen cJassical presence and post-m odern prescncc. One must add that pcrformance unfolds in a real time ami a rea l place without any imaginary 01' transcendental space-time a priori, that per rOrllm nce actualize::; ti me and place. In other words. perforrnance pre::;en LS; il t..!(ICS not re-presen t. T his di:nincli on throws son1\;' lighl O ll the Jisla n¡;c whidl ;<111 ex isl bc twcen ¡;Iassical prcsence. which is lIl:IX' lldc nt un th e probkm l)r rcpn;scn tali o n. and Ihi s new ro rm 01' 111l' prcSCI1n'/~ I III . lli oll.
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111 hi :, r:1I1\\lU\ \!:,su y 'Tlle Wl~ rk 01' ¡\ rt in th\! Age 01' Mechan ical Reprod uc lillll ." Waller Ben jalllin has dcalt at length \Vith prescnee in reIation to the wnrk ur art, lhe aura which he describes as " the unique phenomenon of a dislance. however cJose it may be. "1 Mechanical reproducibility, in Benjamin's view deriving from " the desire of the contemporary masses to bring things 'doscr' spatially and humanly .. .'>4. has heralded the disappearanee 01' this aura. Reproducibility has made art more aceessible through actuality: "A nd 111 permitting the reprod udion to meet the beholder or lislener in bis own particular situation, it reactivates the object reprodueed. "5 Benjamin sees ill actuality a tempora l value, something of the greatest importance for con IClllporary art. (1t is instructive to recall at this point that formalist Green hcrgian criticism has rebelled against the consideration of time and has 1;lvoured work on space which is peculiar to painting and seulpture - hencc, 1:ried's hostile judgement on everything which might come dose to theatre.) With performance, it is actuality which is all-important , therefore situation, presentation. Elsewhere in his essay , Benjamin comes around indirectly to this idea of presentation: he explains that exhibition value has rcplaced eult value. That is lo say, cult value, dependent on the uniqueness of the work. finds itself l'llnsiderably lessened by the advent 01' reproducibility which makes it poss ible to multiply the work, to make it accessible. to bring it close. Reproduction Icchniques invest art with a proximity or immediaey, a presentness, and a ll1ateriality, previously unthinkable . To pursue Benjamin's reasoning and apply it to performance, onc would almost have to condude that the more performance is expressed by teehnical means, the more ehance it has of being removed from the thealre or lh eatr icality; the more il withdraws from representation into simple presentation; Ihe more it draws away from aura into simple actuality: the more it dra ws away from dassical presence to assert a new and different presence. a radical presence. Jt seems therefore that technical mediation is a neeessary condition lúr a "good" performance, a performance in whieh presence differs from what it is in the theatre. But is there not another \Vay of arriving at this materi ali ty 01' the work which Benjamin seeks? To go on with his reasoning, if exhibition value )'ives the work of art its actuality. that exhibition value may be com:eived as correspondent to two q ualities: 1) the work 's accessibility and therefore ils proximity. its immediacy; and 2) its multiplicity. There are two ways of IIlIdcrslanding mulLiplieity: either in the sense 01' multiplication, a direct wnsequcnce 01" reprod ueibili ly , or in lhe sense of the division of the parts of a whole, the d isa rt icula l ion \J I' dislllclllhermenl of a work. Very often perform :1I1l'C r rcscn ls itselr nol. :1 pr im j :I ~ ;I lolalit y. huI ralher as lhe slIm of aB its parts , whélher o r I1lll lltc'i~' ;11\.' Jlcl n:iwd 111 rdalion lo the whole. Perfo rm alln; appC:IIS much I1l l"~' a ~ d l'i.1 1 IWII I:llill ll 01' Ihc who le Iha n as signifyillg IIIt;lIi ly , 111 litis respeet. p~' I IlJIIIIII II U' 11 \ ' \· . d •• 11 1 a ve l sion rOl' Illclaphys ics: SCC, \',
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for cxamp1e , all the wo rk that has becll do ne illl \.'t\. 1l1 'rea ls ,Ht vo i-:-: (J ~)a ll I a Barbara , Mcredith Monk , Demitrios Stratos), l) f\ hnd y (Trisha Brnwll , Si nwll \.: forti , Yvonne Rainer) , and on sound (Philip G luss) as wor king ITIatc ri als . This work on materials without concession to idea has its source in min ima lisn1. Minimalism has carried to its extreme limit the specifi c ilY 0 1' the o bj ~t a s advanced by formalist criticismo M oreover, F ried insisls on il ca tego rically as a requirement in a work ofvalue and quality . lt seems increasingly clea r that the theatricality which Roland Barthes saw as a " density o f sig ns"¡' d oes n ol correspond to performance when the question is not opacity but the trans parent sign.Furtherm ore. the material is used not to signify but to presenl: it signals more than it signifies. In this sen se, performance carries mi nima list specificity even farther by confronting the public with él process , an inch oat ive breaking-up, whereas the minimalist work still sought to embody, so lO speak , to codify a meaning (this intent corrcsponding to an iconie ar sym bolic function; performance introduces the function of index) .' Performance aims to show the real without mystification . (My detinition of performa nce excl Lides any mystifying action , any shamanizing performance - for exam ple. those of Herman Nitsch - as being regressive for these reasons.) The desire to show the real in performance. hypothe tically at least, wOll ld require technical mediation : that would be its direct consequence. Thus, ir technical mediation serves to amplify a wark - think of the postcard for a painting, or sOllnd amplification for a concert - it also serves to alter a work ami to actualize it in a different \Vay from that advocated by Benjam in . Benjamin thought 01' actuality as distribution or dissemination , but nothin g prevents us from thinking of it as a consequence of reproduction , a mea ns 01' actualizing art and changing it. That transformation is, in faet , wha l happened: as a result 01' the spread of reproduction techniques, traditio nal art-forms have sought their specificity as genres. having abandoned the uniq ue ness 01' the work in favour of the proletarianization 01' art. But the adve nt of rcproduction techniques has given rise to new art-forms such a s cin em a, lhc main point of rcference in " The Work 01' Art in the Age 01' Mechanical Rcproduction." A conseq uence 01' mechanical reproducibility is performance: this desi re lO discover, not recover, since nothing has been lost in the present case - what is involved is indeed an obvious presence, not a presence sought after 01' repres cntcd: this desire to discover, then , a here/no\\' which has no other referen t \.~xcept itself. The question ofmediation is thorny, since on the one hand it is involvcd in lhe phenomen o n ofperformance, and on the other hand perfo rm ance is él rcaction to mediaiion , inasmuch as it is distancing in rcspect to orig in , somcthing lost amI lackin g. T he d angcr consists once again in thin kjng M med ia I iO Il lIl> rcprcscnla tion . In \Hder Ilmt I1lctlia tion op.:ratc wilhin Ihe fn ln lcwol'k 1)l' pérl'ol m ancc, it mlls t he II ndcrsll)otl ill Ihe Mduh a n sense liS anl:,\tc.:I1SI11Jl .. 1 !lll' hmly an d 01' Ihe 11 1~ " liS 1)1 pcrccplll lll I'vkd ia I ion is esse n I iu lIy I 1¡1I1 ,,1"' 11I1I1 1il) 1I 01 d ispl acclllClI l
q l' e ncrgy alld slIccessio ll 01' inh:nsitics. It is an inscriplion in prcscnt time: pc rl'onnancc actuali zcs materi al within prcsent time. The repetition which l:haractcrizes rcproduclion actua lizes, restores Üs presence , its present time. In a pe rfor mance \>vhere various modes of presentation and reproduction are used, there is an interplay of clements between and among themselves which crea tes an interference. The collision o f elements produces a source 01' energy which in itself casts doubt on Fried 's peremptory judgement on mllltidisciplinarity. Ir there is a factor which can act in favour of a source 01' energy in contemporar)' art, it is indeed t his half-way position , this in-hetween position , vehelllently rejected by Fried. W hat interests m e in modernity is the mobi1ity of instances 01' discourse, that at any moment the addresser becomes the addressee and vice versa; the fact that there is continuallinking, a continual displacement between these instances, and that the receiver/addressee is in continual movell1ent, displacement , or repositioning. This condition ill1plies that if the position of the receiver is multiple, the object is also divided and multiple (e .g ., the attempts 01' the futurists and cubists in this direction). Performance is circumstanti a l, taking into account the performer. the situation (the here and now) , a nd t he pu blic. This la:>t point, the q\lestio n 01' the spectator, is the most radical issue in p erfo rma nce . Benjamin stipllla tes in the essay cited that a consequence 01' cinema has been a dccpening 01' a ppcr ception: cinema shows LIS the real as never be fo re. In comparin g Ihe cinema to psycho-analysis, he maintains that cinema (thererore olso
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I't on t nI' a pailllillg. IlIIages tlHm;1! pas!. In llow rt lll' dllOlher Wll h l1 u l'Olll\!S síon to prt!sen t o r P ¡1Sl. T he sflt!l:lu ln r is pl al:l'd 111 ;¡ IH)si tion 0 1 an ticipall OIl. and this is what causes a shock. l'ac.:J wi th th.: distllel11 bcrmcn t and (he decentral ization 01' the work of arL the spectator is a lwHYs wa iting ro l' so rne thi ng. It could be said ol' this spectator, since the nature al' perrortna nl;c ¡ti above all event, that he is like the involuntary wi tness o f a situatio n, Benjami n describes this new kind 01' spectator as an "examiner, but an absenl-m inlléd ()J'le,"ll someone "whose eye finds no fi xed point on wh ich to resL" A na log ously, it can be said that performance is a work in w hich "the ey e fin us no fixed point on which to rest." Tne "ontological-hysteric" theatre of Richard Foreman exempl ilies lh i¡¡ eye which finds no fixed point on which to rest. Mo re t ha n ayear ago, a ft c r creating close to a dozen plays and directing an opera, Foreman closed Lbc theatre which he had had on Broadway since 1968 and returned to cinema to make a film entitled Stfong Medicine , which will soon be released . But when he arrived in New York in the sixtics, he was immediately ,in touch with lhe experimental theatre, and he confesses that his theatre was definitely in flu enced by cinema. Anyone who has witnessed a Foreman production has indeed experienced a particular frustration . because in his productions neither the eye - nor the ear . is able to find a fixed point on which to rest. The spectator al Forem an 's plays is bombarded by a multiplicity of visual and auditory events . A t [he visual leve!, there are continual changes 01' the geometrical stage set, even wilhin an act. The displacement of pieces of furniture and parts of the sel alter the context, either by giving it greater depth or by creating various levels stacked in depth or in height. The lighting also ehanges continually; iLs transformations may occur slowly or rapidly and may affect stage and h Ollse alike: the spectators may suddenly find themselves bathed in light when lh spotlights are turned on them without warning. As for the sound. everythi ng is recorded: cal' horns, sirens, whistles, bits of jazz, as \Vell as Ihe dial og Ué itself. The script is fragmented, made up of short, aphoristic, unconnectetl sentences. ¡\ t times, the text is taken up by one or several actors who sejze a few wo rds and repeat them in a neutral, emotionless tone. The text is almost shouted . The robot-actors execute very precise movemcnts: interrupted in full tli gh t, they may remain frozen with one lcg in the air, or they may repeat a m ovc ment - a procedure which might be better described as a displacemcnt within the stage architecture. Some of these movements serve to modify clemen ls of the set, all this being, in Foreman practice, the result of integrated stagc direction. Foreman himself is intcgrated into the actions 01' thc actors. USlI ally seated in front 01' the stage in full vicw. wit h his back to the audicllce, he: givcs d irections, regulates sound an d li ghl. the creation of his pla ys. Foreman docs nol limil his in tcrvcn tioll lo dircction al one. I k controls cvcry lh ing Jt\ a Vt:ly ~ ', Íl" way. T hcrc ¡ ~ O(llh ing
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The desire to write a certain kind 01' sentence (gesture) is a kin to the desire to live ·· be - have the world be in a certain kind 01' way . (Art as a solution to what is - Musi!. Through style, through smallest possible units. Bricks determine one style of architecture, stone another, etc.) '4 Thus he fragments and disconnccts textual e!ements. Everything tak es place nn the stage as it does in the head. Foreman adds that he also wishes to: Reach the pre-conscious: remove the personality. Make the acts ofthe play not be "aimed" acts but isomorphic with the pre-conscious and its richness. In other words . acts that on each occasion evoke the .\'ource - rather than acts (as in daily life) which pick an object of desire and, in isolating that object from the whole constituting field, are the very means by which we cut ourselves off from the source. IS What Foreman demonstrates, in fac!. what his text illuslratcs, is the very 11Iateriality of the text. and in this respect he subscribes to the logie of performa nce, accepts the very materiality of the script: a script in its rough slate, an actualized script, a text in process with itself, within itsel!'. Paradoxic ally. Foreman uses a stagcd script to disarticulate theatre, to reject its code.ln Ihis case, theatrc turns inwards. ami the discourse is sLrambled a ndjumbled, To he a proper SI'!iC I'¡\ rolt is to he in two places at once.
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bd wccn a nú al11 0ll g t1llngs, anu I tl li slclIlII unk' l 111 Ir ~a l' what is bl!! w\!C 1I t h ~ works: hence lhe ullimale rraglllcnla lion l,f d~ I1I C llts and l he ir sphtti ng IIp Th is purpose justifies his mania ror manipu laling elfccts. At this point, I should likc to return lo lhe "Seeing where ;1 is , , , Sccing where you are" to underline, in the case of Foreman, this idea 01' lhe equivo cality and scrambling of instances of the theatrica l code, From hi s d ual, Duchamp position of vie\ver-viewed to voyeurism there is bUI a shorl úis tance. This constitutes part of Foreman's irony. What does Foreman do wi th eroticism in the theatre? Ridiculous literal ness, the de-eroticizing of sexua l a11usion which puoctuates tbe nud ily of bouies, and a multiplicity of explicit gestures constit ute a distancing from any aes thetics ofseduction, from any pleasure for the spectator. But a11 lbis contri b utes to Foreman 's cha11en gi ng 01' the theatre and underli nes the latent sex ual basis of a11 gesture in the theatre, which is situatcd between exhibitíon (lhe actor's pla.yi ng) and manipulatíon (the director's). Equivocality is maintained beyond the viewer-viewed in the way Foreman places the theatre on trial through the demonstration of its processes. The last observation I should like to makc concerning Foreman - I a m prompted to this by his constant use 01' "seen language" · has to do with bis obsession with framing. E\leryth ing \vith him is a q uestion of focus, of captur ing or recovering the space offered to view: hence, the constant modíficati on of the sets, the actors' performance to form tablcaux , the farceful pul1ing or multifunctional strings linking objects, moving sets, and reducing planes. Space with Foreman is cinematographic, capable of revealing the whol e as wel1 as detail through a succession 01' planes. Time is also cinematographic: sequential time which parades befare the eye ofthe spectator and carries him along in the expectation of the unknown and the immemorial. To return lo the hypothesis taken from Benjamin, ) suggest that Foreman's theatre il1 u~ trates how theatre today, in order to overcomc the impossibility of theatre. has chosen the path of cinema.
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1'>77), cspcc c:lll y his chapler 011 Benjamin, p. 1 37. 10 Ibid .. pp. 238-239. 11 Ibid., p. 239. 12 1bid .. p. 240. 13 Ibid , p. 243. 14 Richa rd Foreman, " O ntological- H y ~teric Manifcsto 11 (Jul y, 1974)," in P/ays ami Mal1if'e.l'IO.I', cd. Katc D avy (New Y ork , 1976), p. 135. 15 Ibid., pp. 135-136 16 Ibid., pp. 143,145. 1)
Notes \Valter Benjamin, "The Work 01' Art in the Age 01' Mechanical Repro ducti o l1 ." in 1//umil1l1!iol1s, ed. Hannah Arendt. transo Harry Zohn (Ne\\' York , 196R), p.224. 2 Miehacl Fried , "Art and ObjectfiJOod ," in Arljórum (June 1967), rpt. ¡\Ilinima / / 11'1. A Crilica/ Anlll%gy, ed. Grego ry lJatteoek (New York , 1961;). pp . 139- 142 . 3 Benjamin , p. 243. 4 (bid. , p . 225. 5Ibid. , p.223. 6 Roland Barthes, " Baudelaire ' ~ Theatcr:' in Crili('({/ E.\·.WlVS, transo R ichard I lo wu rd (Eva nstoll, 1972) p. 26. 7 F or él discussioll ofthe cOllcept of k ofl , iIlCk:x , alld sylllht)1 ill Ihe Iheatre, se!! Kc ir F.lam , Tite Scmioli(',I' o!, T ltcalrc alf(l !)rll/I/( / (1 \1 11t111I1 , II)XO), pp. 21 :!()
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85 LI ST ENIN G TO M U SI C Perfo rmances and recordings Theodore Gracyk Sourcc: TI/e .!ou/"Ila! o(AeSlhel ics I1nd I1 rt Criticism 55(2) (1997): D9 15 1.
I Kathlcen M . JI iggin s is one 01' the few philosophers to calI attention to th e fa that in contemporary society " it is only in the
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The first objection to recordings as our primary means 01' hearing music is rooted in certain positions on the ontology ofmusical wmb. Musical work s.. on one point of view, are integrally linked to their performances. The most extreme version hoJds that musical works simply are performances. In Linda Dusman's words, " the alldience's heari.ng of a work is the final step in its creation. In other words, music does not exist until it is heard in perfonn ance. "1 1 When musical notation exists that has not yet been interpreted in a performance, rhe musical work docs not yet exist. (A corollary 01' this posi tion denics that anyone can become acquainted with a musical work simply through analysis 01' the score, evidence notwithstanding that Mozart and Haydn wcre abJe to do so .) Such analyses of musical works invite the inference Ihat because works necessarily demand musical performances, a world in which audiences only listen ro recorded music would be a world without genuine music. It is difficult for anyone interested in music to regard such a world as anything bul infinitely poorer than onc with music. DlIsmal1. fOT instance, holds that only live performances present the experience of the music's "creation" in the "perrormative moment." lIowever, this general position on musical works is implausible in holding that we cannot take an interest in a musical work dis· tinct from an interest in a specific performance of it. Fmtbermore, one co uld grant Dusman that a musical work "does not exist until it is heard" with o ul requiring that it be heard in performance (that is, dming its real-time exec u tion). In short, it will not serve as a foundation for objections to listeni ng to recorded m usic . 12 SlIch positions are put forth as an aIternative to musical Platonism , whic h takes a musical \York to be an abstract sound-structure or a sel of pllre pitc h relatiollships. So lon g as the appro priate relat ionshi ps are accuratcly inslan li· ateJ , musical Platoni sls are gcncrally indiffercnt i.lbo ut thc means lIscd Lo gen erate the sounus heard by rhe uudic ncc. l' BCG III SIl il is illdilTcrcnt lo Ihe mea ns of instanliat iol1 , Pla ton ism sholll d 1l(ll lÚVIlI IIltel llbllCc al pcrl'onnum:es
over Iis h':lI ill)' '" 1 1.~ \ l rdillgs . Yel recent dehates abollt lhe atlthentic perrorlll anl:c Ill 11VCll lc nl have cOlltribllteJ to a new varianl of Plat onism. onc that explicitly links musical works to their performance means. Without equating works with their performances, JerrolJ Lcvinson and KendaJl Waltoll pro posc that specific mean s of performance are cssential elements of musical works. 14 (For exampl e, one does not have a performance of Beethovcn 's violin eoncerto if one executes the soloist's part on an electric guitar.) Because it is more generous about what belongs to a work, \et us ca)] this position "liberal " Platonism. Neither Levinson nor Walton inlerprets liberal Platonism as implying that only live performances can instantiate Beethoven 's music. But the situation is not as clear cut as it may initiaJly appear. While Walton thinks that musical appreciation hinges on "what activities sound to the listeners as though they are going on ," Levinson insists that it hinges on what reaJl y is going on. 15 Godlovitch and Thom similarly contend that authenticity is a featme of perjórl11ances, not merely of ,1'ounds. I (' It is not even enough to use the right instruments; one must play thcm in the normal fashion. These arguments often shift their focus to what thc audience observes during a performance, a dimension taken up in the next section. The sticking point is how strictly to take the notion of an authentie per formance " mean s." For surely performance (in the strict sense outlined aboye) was the intended means for knowing virtually every musical work , and not mercJy the means par excellence. few studio recordings doc ument actual performances: there is no audience, unless one counts the engineering staff, and innovations of the last half-century permit assemblage of sounds in any order on the vertical and horizontal axes of sound. A collage is assembled from the best "takes" of a work 's vario LIS movements or even segments of movements. 17 Record listeners can count on hearing a better execlItion of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, recorded or live , than was heard at its disastr ously sloppy premiere in 1808. (The standards 01' studio production have led to corresponding high expectations for live performance.) In light of these facts, Linda Ferguson employs liberal Platonism to spurn these edited and manipulated recordings of the familiar canon of Western music. Because tape compositions are played to audiences without being performed, Ferguson says that tape compositions are simply not music: "the sonorous aspect ofmusic has been traditionally understood to be the product orthe proeess ofperforming, not the product ofthe process ofcomposing."l o Tape compositions are "objects of sonic art," temporal but not dynamic. I llave been avoiding the topic 01" tape compositions, whieh can ol1ly be heard through rccordings. But throllgh an analogy with the process of tape com position. Fcrguson suggests that audiences listening to studio recordings 01" I3ct'lho ven sy l1l phonic~ are no l cxperie ncin g m lisie; these. loo, are pieces 01' s(mic arl, "produceJ" bll \ II~'I pC I fO rlnc~I. I 'J Whik Wa llon , Levinson, a mI !llher Ii bel',d Pla lonbts mi/.\hl a d~lI "wlnl !,,1." ' hu I Icco rdi ngs are 1he historically
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J\ cenlral Ira i! 01' record ~d 1I111 sil: b ,llll l t1 11 1',l s IlI ilkc scqllcndng dL'cisil)nS at one timc for alldicnces lo reCOVl: r al a htl cl time. J\nolhcr is Illal. Ihe audienee has opportllnity lor indcfi ni Lcl y muny CXpOSU1"CS to those ueeisi 0ns (but one and only one exposure wi th él live performance). I'ina ll y. with recorded music, the a udience is often unabl e to determine t he precise nalllrc of the achievement that led to the sounds recovered upon pla yback. Is o ne listening to a virtuoso guitar performance dming Les Paul's recording o l' "Lady of Spain ," or mercly a marvel of engineering, since Paul actuall y constructed it through a series of overdubs? As D enis D utton em pha sizes. every reeording introduces the possibility " that the natme of the achievement invo lved. , . may be misunderstood 01' misrepresented."lo
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aut hcnlil.: mClln s fUI' k Ot>w i ll~ Lilpl: ¡';l1l1 l p\l'>I I II'II'>. I h ey CUllt1nt r~gu rJ sllld i(') recordings as aulhe nlic insla nlial ions 1ll" ully 1hm!:l h v Ikc tllU vctl or Wug ncr.'u To stretch a f;uniliar concept, slIch arg ulllcnls against "protllll:CU " rcco rd ings rest on technol ogical p hilistinis m. By techno lo gical phili:>tinisl11 , I mean the tendency to approve of on ly those tech nologica l conlribulions lhat a re contingently familiar or conve ntionaL FllrthemlOIe, any argument based on an o ntological position sidesteps the qllestion 01' whe lher él world fllled wilh recorded m Llsic is aestheticall y poorer. To take a brief detoLlr. consider E dmund Gurney ' s reason :. for accepti ng musical Platonism. The essence 01' a musical work . he contcnds , is its melod i and harmonic combinations. Any timbre or "colour-qllal ity" experien ced in performance is "enlirely distinct from musica l form " or the wo rk proper. 21 G urney offers two reasons lo believe this amI not. say, liberal Platonism. F irst, musical works are " reproducible in memory wit h the very minim um 01" realisation ofany actual sound-quality." Thc timbres \Ve have heard during a performance "can be dispensed with " or even changed (substituting a better sound) Y Secondly, it is only " by foregoing special rights as lo colour that al! sorts 01' bcautiful music ... can be brought horne to people's own firesid es. and made a fea t ure o f ordinary domestic lif'C. " Given the infrequency with which audiences get to attend performance o f any g iven work , it is largely through " the clear monochrome of the pianoforte" or even a "cheap har monium " that most people get any chance to arrive at a "t rue appreciation " of oratorios and symphonies. 23 In other words, Gurney starts with lhe means of music retrieval available in Victorian England , in light 01' which musical works cannot be stored " Iike pictures, contained in a national gallery which can be walked round once a week. " 24 Since neither human memory nor the available technology of nota tion amI parlor piano orfer access to a composer's intended perfolmance means amI attendant timbres, Gurney concludes that only features that re occur in ordinary circumstances can be counted as features of musical works. In short, he is a technologieal philistine, building prevailing practices and technologies into his ontology. It did not occur to him that this situation was an historical contingency soon to be challenged by composers such as Debussy. In saying that recordings do not give us music, Ferguson similarly down pla y:. the contingency of the technologies available for delivering musical works to audienccs. Atnrst blush , one might respond that liberal Platonism does quite the opposite. acknowledging the contingency 01' technology by lin ki ng instantiations of a musical work to the technologies in place al the time the work was eomposed . But I am not persuaded; in telling us that specific tech nologies are necessary elements of certain works , to be mani pulated in cir cumscribed ways, it tells us that anything clse violales lhe rules o rthe gatne as traditionaJl y undcrstood. But is this nOI wh a l is al issll L!? G ive n lhe rreque ncy wilh which people listen lo recü rd ings, w hy n:scrvc (llIr accolad es ror okler lcc hn o hwjcs')
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III A second c\ass of objections to recorded music's displacement of perform ance allows that recorded music affords acq uaintance with musical work:;, but reeordings offer a debased acquaintance. (After all, looking at a photo graph 01' someone holding a book on which there is an art r eproduetion is not the best way to beeome acquainted with the artwork .) T hese objection s cmphasize the degree to which musical performance is something more than the presentation 01' sequenced sound. Recordings invüriably disru pt the audienee's capacity ror full engagement with the actions producing the sounds. Until recently, it \Vas plausible to contend that recordings could not cap ture the full sound of a musical performance. As an empirical c\aim about the limitations of recording techllology, this objection had some force in the tlrst half-century of rccording, when technologicallimitations neeessitated radical rearrangements ror most of the standard repertoire. But this version of tbe objcetion is pretty much prec\uded by improvements in both recording and playback technology . A more compelling variant emphasizes that recordings violate "the faet that in the coneert hall even the most introspective performer is playing.for listcners who are listeni'llg lo him. In recording, the bond is broken."2~
How are we to flesh out this objection? Again , I \ViII ignore performances that are entirely improvised, stage works with a visual and drama tic elemen t, such as opera, and works that cannot be performed in real-time, such as tape compositions. Let us concentrate on orthodox works of "c1assieal" music, sueh as a Haydn symphony: in this case there is an identifiablc musical work, whieh allows 01' multiple instantiations that can be perrormed in real-ti me. For such musie. I do not dispute the value 01' attending perrormances, bul the issue here is whether \Ve are aesthetically poorer ror their loss. On Thom's detailed account of what is to be gained by attending a per formance , each performance situation invites six typcs of active, playful attention. Audience attention can play bet\veen the performer's earlier and later aetions, between one perrormer and another when more than one is present, between tlle content and its vehicle, between this and other perrorm ances of the same work, bctween aspects of the performance a nd 01' t he audienee members' lives, and between events within the perform ance spact' and those outside it. A " good audiencc" altends to all SiX. 29 Vet each 01' lhe:;c types o frla y is ava ilable to someonc Iis tening In rccnnlcd IllllSic. For the f1rsl threc. a recordi ng's repeatabi lity suggcsl s SOIllC sll)1Cf"lnri ly. a nd rel~ord ln g.s provide un parallelcu opporluni ty I"or compllrillt' tJ il'lcn:n l ill lcrprCUlli(\ns 0 1 Ih\.' gamc work. \\H
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T hi.! a ll q~l!d supllriorily 01' pcrl"omlancc \Vould set m to be something Illore spccifk a boul Dile 01' more 01' these six rclationships. !\nd it must derive from lhc audiencc's presence in the pcrforming space. Wi th respect to the tirst three 01' Thom'::; aspects, it is tempting to infcr that since live perrormances of Illusical works requi re interpretativc activity on lhe part of the performers, appreciation ofthe interpretative activity is enhanced by experiencing it wh ile it is being executed . No matter how accurately a sound recording conveys lhe sounds of a musical performan ce, Thom and G odlovitch are concerned that it eliminates the audience's experience 01' inlerpretalion in real-time (and not simply, as before, 01' the musical \Vork). Recordings deny the opport unity to witness and evaluate the perfonner' s skills in executing s1Jch interpretations. In short, this objection is grounded in the idea that the art of composing musical works is distinct from the art of performing music. Access to the former through a recording deprives one 01' the latter, which is a contingcnt yet highly valuable part of our musical heritage. One migllt even contend that tlle audience is chealed (or cheats itsell) by Iistening to records instead of attending performances. Godlovitch is one of tlle fe w writers to address repeatedly the potentialloss of performance from our musicallife. His argument takes off from a distinc tion introduced in the last section's discussion 01' authentic perrOnll anCe, between the sounds produced in a performance and the activities taking place that generate those sounds. Godlovitch makes the corresponding point that what \Ve respect in music and what we respect in musicianship are t\Vo very different things. As listeners, \ve can evaluate both an output ofsound as such (a "phenomenal performance"), and a player 's skill or virtuosity (in Iight of the diffic1Jlty 01' carrying out a specific sequence 01' actions). Recording technology, not to mention various synthesjzers and computers, generally leaves liS in the dark about the integrity orthe performance made, which is to say, about the performance ski lis and creditworthiness ofthe performer. For perhaps the first time in human history, musicianship is wrenched from the eraft tradition. As Iisteners, \ve can only evaluate the phenomenal perform ance, the seulpted sound. 'o \Ve are deprived of the first thrce of Thom's six categories 01' playful attention. Although he stops short of condemning the devaluation and impending loss 01' real-time musical execution , Godlovitch is less than enthused with this prospect.'1 He wavers between nostalgia for the tradition of old-fashioned musicianship (a "millennium 01' hard manual labor") and an quasi-mora l coneern for the integrity ofart as a speeies ofhuman ageney. In response, we lllight note that the cngineering and producing 01' musical recordings is also a spccies of human agency. While standards of integrity may be rcvised or superseded, they will not vanish. D rawi ng on Pete r Drucker's observati ons o n technology and culture, tech lI ologics are alwuys aspec Ls 01" a l arg~l, co mplex systcrn. One aspect is social. OI1l: cannn l ill ll'lld lu.:.e ;1 ncw lech ll ll!llUY ¡n ro an .:~i~ lin .l!. silllat ion wilholll
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l llu'He,, 1 pt.:l/lfIIJI.lI ll l', II1t1s l \11 U ~ II\ld Vll lllu~ ll y 1-11111.: 1 IÍleslllllc ir Iltl' 111llsic 1" dilfll. ull hU I IIl h\.' IWisc lI u t worlh pla ying. l1 is ¡r Iso wor th no tin g lhat onl y :1 IJl lliled po rlillll uf' Ihc WCSICl ll ca llon is cOlJlposcd 01' works 01' virtuo " iI )', and lhe pOlen lia l devaluation 01' manual virtuosity does no! touch on 1hl.: res t. hlrlherl11ore, a 11lusical work may be difficult to understand when it de IIlands (01' a know ing audiencc) conscientious attention to the composer's hig h-lcvel arlistic intenlions. 3~ Prominent among these are music's emotive ,llld alfective d imensions. In composing The Sellen L([Sl IVords %u/' SaFio/' li'Oll/ Ihe eros.\', I laydn 's high-Ievel intentions evidently included capturing Ihe gravity , grandeur, and solemnity appropriate to a religious observation of Ihe Crucifixion . These intentions (as well as the basic melodies and harmon il'S) are preserved in his piano reduction and string quartet arrangement, also published in 1787. Here, Haydn sacrificed his original intentions about illstrumentation and resultant timbres, no doubt to make his high-Ievel inten 1iuns more widely accessible.39 Since skillful execution (real or faked) is a sine qua non of most recordings, 1I': l:ordings tend to emphasize interpretative virtuosity , high-lighting the ques tion 01' whether the music and its interpretation is compelling (or at least wurthwhile). As such , recorded music poses a risk 01' its own, and not JU Sl in Ih.: lrivial sense that the compact disc I purchase may lurn out to be defecti ve. IlIlcrpretative failures oflive performance tend to be a temporary embarrass III.:nt, known to a few and forgotten over time. But Glenn G Ollld's disastrous 1cl:orded readin gs of several of Mozart's piano sonatas are always therc lo Icrnind us how a superb musician can misundersland great music. 40 G ould, o f L'\ lUrSe, is famous for taking advantage of studio technology to construct ·p.:rformances" that explore high-Ievel intention s; his 1965 read ing of lhe !\-Minor Fugue from Book I of Bach's The We/l- Tempe/'e(,/ C/avier is actually a composite oftwo different takes employing radically different phrase deline aliolls, resulting in a " montage" interpretation that Gould could not have ITcaled in a concert performance. 4 1 Moreover, recording technology has given birth lo a new sort ofvirluosity , 1hat of production. This is not the ideal 01' fidelity to the sound of live per IllnnallCe, but the sculpting of sound for musical effect , without regard to its Il'óllization before an audience. While its central techniques were developed 1ft conjllnction with " seriolls" tape music, it has come into its own , as a '1 1t'lIilicant rival to live performance, in popular mllsic. I have in mind Brian Wilson's work on The Beach Boys' Pel SoU!u!.y (1966), George Martin 's work \Vil h The Beatles on R('I'o/l'er (1966), Frank Zappa 's first four albums with Ilrc Mothcrs 01' Invcntion, ami Pink Floyd 's work with Alan Parsons on /I(/rl\ Side o/'Ih(' Moon (197l),1' hna lly , s upposc we granl (¡ odlovitch's roint that recordings and electronic l"q llip mcn l ~uc h as syn lhcsi/C fS dll ud :.¡ lislcllcr's cvalua lion, llnderm in in g lh e 1IlI l.'g rity rca l-t ime villlJ O'il ly IIIH 1~' ~' ClI J lIl g~ also rai sc the issue o f whethcr
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Besides reducing the audience's dired cviucllcc of Ihe intcgrity 01" pe rl"orrn ance skill , somo.! wri lers slIggcsl lhal un CVCIl mNe impl)rla nt di 1l1cn ~ i on 01'
Illllsie is losl UII those wllo prcfer the Illedialion 01' recordings. Hecausc we are unable lo watch the m usic being made. recordings deprive us of the opportunity to coordinate the sounds with lhe human gcstures in which they originate. Audi enees may lose the opportunity for playful attention to the relation between eontent and vehic\e. Thom 's fourth mode of beholding a perform a nce. Since this result stnikes directly at the audience's access to the composer' s high-Ievel intentions, which 1 claimed are highlighted with recordings, it deserves elaboration and responSe. Prominent among high-Ievel intentions is a work 's expressivity. While not all music is emotionaUy expressivc, a good deal of it is. Levinson observes that " since the expressive value of a passage is parlly determ ioed by the musical gestures that are properly heard withjn it . .. ex pressivc con tent in music is not detachable from the means of performanee. "45 The insoueiance of a keyboard glissa odo , for example, " derives from our imaginative grasp 01' the flicking or sweeping gesture behind (or perhaps better, embodied in) the tonal movement itself, and our subsequent placing 01' that gesture with in the field of expressive behavior as a whole ." Based on a series 01' similar ex amples, Levinson concludes that experiencc 01' musical expressi vi ty must be grounded in authentic performance. which " requires" authentic performance on the in tended instruments. 46 ¡\ Ithough Lev inson does Ilot emphasize tbe point, it would appear that simply listening to recordings of such perform. ances will not provide the audience with sufficient understanding of how tbe sounds are "bound up witb" specific gestures. According to this line 01' analysis, if one does not play piano, recovery 01' the expressivity 01' Horowitz's renderings 01' Chopin's music depends on oh.l'ening Horowitz's gestures. 47 11' one is li stening to a recording and cannot observe Horowitz 's gestures, one would need to have observed enough piano playing to associate appropriate gestures with the sounds emana ting from the speakers. As noted in the last section, mo st people cannot play most musical instruments, which suggests that the loss of live musical performances wo uld leave most of us in very bad shape, unablc to recapture many high-lcvcl musical intentions. However, this argument offers as much support for watching filmed per formanees as it does for attending live performances. One 01' Levinson's central examples is " Chico Marx's one-finger antics in various Marx Brothers movies ." Movics are arguably superior to live performance. since the use 01' judicious close-ups shows the audiencc small gestures that might be unelear from the upper ba1cony. In Martin Scorsese's concert documentary The LaSI Waltz (1978), there is a point during Bob Dylan 's performance when a brief Illoment of eye contact between Dylan and Robbie Robertson signals the reprise 01" "13aby Let Me F oll ow You Down ." 1t is unlikely that anyone in the concert audienee o bservcd thi s exclmn ge (Th om 's second species 01' playful altenlion ), yel o n 1¡lm such mOIl1~l1lS ~nnvey lhe interpla y between performers
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illtcrCti l ill t IJis spcl.:ies 01' vi rllllJsity 1.:; 111 bL' cenlra l lo Ihe a ppl'ccialion 1)1" 111 LIsie. I\s Th oJ1las M a rk o bserves, lhe virluusity v I" a r cr/'ormcr Iikc 1 1~)r()wi ll invólves él certain selr-elracemcnt; él virluOSt) does not cal! altcntion to thc elTort dem andcd by a diHicult piece. 4 \ I low, then, does the a verage listener know that it dcmands virtuosi ty? In order to determine the level of difficulty posed b y él particular piece, one might try to perform it, or study the score. B ut if one does not kn ow the demands 01' the partiL:ular instrument, one cannot j udge the virtuosity dis played. 44 And this may be the sitllation more often than no1. 1, for one, know very little about the mechanics 01' oboe p laying. Yet r very much li ke the sOllnd of that instrument. When I listen to A ndrew Mackay's oboe solos on Roxy Music recordings or listen to one of V ivaldi ' s oboe concerto s, I have no cllle whether 1 am hearing a virtuoso performance or not. Does Godlovitch \Vant me to refrain from listening to this music? Most people must be in roughly this position for most music. Only an ex ccptional few ever learn to play more than a limited number 01' instruments. We arrive at something of a trade-off. Recording technology has introduced me to Vivaldi's oboe concertos, Javanese gamelan playing. and other music 1 have never had the slightest opportunity to hear in live performance. Most peop1e still face the situation described by Gurney, having only infrequent opportunities to attend performances of even the linchpins of the Western canon. So any technology that provides an opportunity to hear a broader range of music (in the process ehallenging the contingencies that led to a "Western canon") simultaneously makes it Icss likely that the average listener will know the extent to which a particular piece 01' music demands extreme skil1 to execute. The compensation is that recordings enable most people to hear a wider range 01' music, performed with greater skill, than they could through li ve performance alone. Enrico Caruso and Arturo Toscan.ini died before J was born , and Glenn Gould and The Beatlcs both retired from the stage when 1 \Vas a child. 1 never got the chance to see Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, 01' Thclonious Monk in live performance, and a1l three dicd about the time 1 becamc interested in jau. Yet I listen to their recordings, as can generatioDS of Iistcners to come. Not only can we compare many interpretations oY lhe same \Vorks made over the course of many years , but 1'01' the first ti me audiences can cvaluate the complete seo pe of the career of major performers. It seems that recordings can both enhance and diminish our access to virtuos ity in its several species.
IV
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in an ense m ble, n:veal ing geslores lha! a rl' 110 Iess relevant lhan whal lhe perfonners are doing with th eir ha nds and afms. With concert films and promotional vid eos, pop ular music successfully coordinates human gesture and musical sound for its audience . C ontrary t the common prejudice that mu sic videos are simply a com mercia l an cillary or a sop to audience members with limited attention spa ns, and t ha t M I'V ano other video olltlets cheapen the musical experience, it is m o re charitabl e to read them as a technological alternativo to wC/lchin¡; real-time performances. In one 01' the most common vi deo formats , a story li ne mimed by actors is intereut wit h footage of the musicians " perfo rming" the mllsic. The audience is thus offered two visual mode ~ 01' aecess lo musical e xpressi on: there are th e physical movements bound up with ma king the sounds, and there are high ly stylized tableaus d es igned to capture the music's overall emotional 11avor. (We might recall that the era of silent film was finished off by a musical , The Jau Sin¡;er.) Many videos feature dance, another means 01' offering gestural interpretations ofmusical activity. The recent popularity ofshows like M TV Unplugged, with its re\atively straight filming of acoLlstic performances, sug gcsts that the popular audience is interested in its own species of authentic (albeit mediated) performance, o rjust the sort that Le vinson de man ds. At the same time, a perfOlmer's idiosyncratic gestures may just as easily delrael from the music. While it is questionable whether the performer's movements are consist ently useful in grasping the music's expressivity, this visual data is conveyed efficiently and effectively through the mediation of film and television. Yet to watch a filmed performance is not to participate in an audience for a performance. Furthermore, for those who demand a visual component, it is unclear why lip-synching (as in so many Hollywood musicals and rock videos) will not pro vide a more complementary matching of "gesture" and musical expression than will reproduction 01' a genuine performance. Once again. the audience for recordings does not seem to be aesthetically worse off. Jt is not cIear that live performance is a superior means 1'01' recovering high level artistic intentions.
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alldicncc il! 1111 \' pl lll':I.' u l ulle li me." A li vc n;\,;o rding can captu rc SOI1IC m ar ks (JI' " lhe aura uf' physical prcscncl'" nf' a Pllblic lhat is not present in lhe sludio. 1'¡ Bul one does not need a livc performance to create s uch a space 01' its attendant sense 01' being part 01' a community engaged with the music: discos, Jamaican "sound system" trucks, bars and pubs and pool halls with jllkeboxes, and the British raye scene have c reated diverse public sites for recorded music. And the aud ience can experience itself as a community even without such spaces; witness Langdon W inner's e xperience of driving across the United Sta tes the week The Beatles released Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearls Club Band in 1967: In each dty where I stopped ... the melodies wafted in from some far-off transistor radio 01' portable hi-fi . . .. For a brief while the irreparably fragmented consciousness 01' the West was reunited, at least in the minds of the young.... While it is no doubt tIlle that 1 have little in common with the gas station attenda nt in C heyenne, Wyoming, \Ve were able to come together to talk about the mea ning ofA Doy Inlhe Li/e during those few moments in which the oil in my VW was being changed .50
The final cIass of objections to recordings involves music's social dimen sion o Thom emphasizes tha t performance normally takes place in a specially designed performance space where "some of the possibilities 01' e veryday life are annulled" to provide for new opportunities, and where audience members "experience themselves as a community, not as separated individuals."4K Reco rdings reduce LIS to mere voyeurs. Pianist Alfred Orendel a rgues that if one is going 10 listen 10 reco rded music, o ne sh o uld a l leasl li sten 10 li ve recordi ngs . fo r il is wil ness 10 a ' \ li recl exchll l1 g.~ " in w hich "lbe li stcner en co untcrs lhe co mposer togcl be r wilh [h e pcr j'on llL'l' ,In d l he res l nf' lhe
In recent years, the boom in personal computers and Internet access has resulted in an explosion in the experience described by Winner. The talk is now in virtual space, whe re hundreds of Internet sites are devoted to the discussion 01' music; most concentrate on popular music, but there are active exchanges on classieal music, bluegrass, and "new music. " Interaction between audience members is no longer concentrated around the time and place of performances, but then why should our critical discourse be limited to our initial thoughts? In short , the social formation typical of li, e performance gives way to a different social formation when audiences favor recorded music over live performance. Recordings do not, as M ilton Babbitt once suppo sed, a llo\V composcrs and other musicians to escape from audiences with a " possi bility of complete elimination 01' lhe public and social aspeets of music composi tion. "SI The audience does not disappear simply beca use it does not gather together in one place at regular interval s. The question is why , apart I'rom tradition and habit, live performance is a superior means 01' structuring Illusic's presentation. C oncerts may provide a more entertaining evening out lhan a trip to the mall to buy a compact disc, but recommendillg live per formance on sllch gr~) UIH.JS rllllS the risk 01' making the music ancillary to the social evenL To!'elfll Llsik lo lili.:':-; I ieh pagea llt. B rcndd'~ case t'or live Il ILJS I\,' dm''o li tll a rpea r lo he grou ou eJ in the value o f a disl inc l pcr t'onll a 11 ce s p :¡ c.:~' ,1111 1 plnyl¡ il ;llI c nl io n ll) t he rest o r the audi ellce. lle lllti ll1 t1telv cmJors\,;s l'1i11 11 ' 1' " , ' 11 " ni ;ll ldic lIC\: an u pc rforlllillg arlist
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(Ii SIl'nCr, pnr\lI'lUCr, an u othl'l' a uu it.:!ll'C IIIC lll lwt <, ' l tlO!ll~ place at OIlC tillle") 1'01 c lll'ouragi ng the "' hc ightcn cu inlc.: n:>ity 0 1' a IwJ'\o rnwm:e , in tbe inerense in the playc r's vision, cour<J gc und absorpti on ." ) ' Al bcst. this is a hit or rniss resull. Resides, this is to arguc that the mediation 01' rceordi ng makes thc world nI' the perfonner , not the world 01' lhe listener. aesth etica lly poo re r. Whilc some musieians nwy have trouble performing at thei r best undel' stlldio con ditions, 1 have been contrasting recordi_ugs and Ii ve performanccs generall y, no t with respect lo specil1c performers. What fllrther vallle 01' compn:sence remains to enrich the listener'? B renu el Illa y have it backwards; t he aura of a Iive performance m ay b e less importan l as a Sti111111us to the perfonn er th an to the audience. There is, 1 grant, an undeni able pleasllre in being in the presence of so meone displaying great talent. ami lhen there is the further tb rill that comes from being in the presence of a cc1ebrity with charism a. As :illch, there m ay be as much to be gained fro m meeting a singer and coll ect ing an autograph as froll1 attending a perform am:e. But what more does the artist's aura ofphysical presence contribll te lo the musical experience'? I Fcompresence contributes nothing on that count, o r, as 1 have been urging, onl y contributes in ways that can be replicated or supplanted by technologica l substitutes, the attraction of performance m ay have little to do with li steni ngto t he music.5' My final point then, is that our musical lives are embcdded in a host o f other social practices. TlIrning to popular music, I suspect that Elvis Presley fans derive a stronger sense ol' his aura from a visit to his home, Gracelan d. than from a similar period 01' time spent with his live recordings_ But T do not believe that the aura found in a pilgrimage to the kitchen where El vi~ ate bacon sandwiches and tomato slices with brown gravy is useful in appre ciating " Jailhouse Rock " or "Suspicious MinJs. " On the evidence 01' live recordings like A loha from JJawaii (1973), attendance at one of his live pe r formances during his last five or six years might not be useful in that regard . either. Like the popular appeal 01' Graceland, the attractions 01' live performance may have far more to do with " fandom" and social bondin g than with lhe quality of our aesthetic experiences. 54 While it is therefore unlikel y thal recorJed music will obliterate live music, it is not clear that life is aesthetica ll y poorer for those choosing technol ogieal substitutes_ In isolating the m u:;i~ from these aspects 01' performance, recordings can enhance the expe rience 01' music. On this score 1 ha ve Iittle to add to points made years ago by A aro n 55 Copland, Glenn Gould, and Milton Babbitt. 1 have not claimed that recordings are , 011 balance, a superior mode of access to m usie. But I have asked why others rega.ro live perfo rma nce as superior. and h ave iJentified sorne coun ter-bal andn g merits and para lld expe riences fu rnished by kchnological mcdia tioll. Pcrhaps we are best ol T tak ing aJvantagc 01' ho[h. b ut it is 1css lhall ~ Icar Ihat the p ro lirera li~m nI' n:¡;o n.lcu m us il,; ¡¡;¡¡VCS tll L' Wt,r1J ¡lcslhct iL'al lv PO(lH.'t. ' "
Kallll':':lI Marie Iliggins, TI/(' MU.l ie lIt ()I/r Uv('\' (Temple Univnsily Press, 1(91), p_ 150. A sirnilar point is llladc hy Stephen Davies in 'Transeription, A uthentieity, and Pcrforlllan.:c," Tite Brilish JIIUl'I1ul o(AesllzelÍc.l' 28 (1988): 220. 2 Palll Thom , For (l11 Audience Cf empk LJ niversity Press, 19(3), p_ 172_ It seems not to have occurred to 1'h o m tha t the wo rld we Iive in is fast beeoming sueh a world. 1 Th omas C. M:J rk. " P hilosophy 01' Piano Playing: Re flecti ons on the Concept 01' Perfo rmance." Philosophy (I/ld PhellO/I7l'llo logical Res('arch 41 (198 1): 302_ On Ma rk's acco llnt of performance, playback of a reeord ing of a Chopin polonaise is not a performance 01' the wo rk , 4 Stan G od lo vi t.:h , " Music- Wh nt to Do Abollt It," The ./OIl/'/wl 01 AeSlhelie EduCUlioll 26 (1992): 13_ 5 Francis Sparshott, "Aesthetics of M usi.:: Limits and Grounds, " in Philip Alperson , ed_ , W/wl Is Music' An Il1lrodllc/ion / 0 Ihe Philosophy of' A1/1sie (N ew York : Haven, 1987: 2nd ed., Penn sy lvania State LJn ive rsity Press, 1(94). p_ 89. See also Thom. For UI1 Audief1(:e, pp. 57- 59_ 6 In agreement with Arnold Berleant and against Paul Thom , Ido not regard it as a perfonnance ir the only persons hearing the music are those performing and otherwise in vo lved in staging it : ir four friends ga th er to playa string quart.:t together, music is playcd but there is no performance. See Arnold Berlean!, The Aes/helie Fie/d (Springficld , 1L: Charles C. Th omas, 1(70) - Thom pro poses that cases like John Cage's 4~13". in whieh no specífic sounds must be exeeuted by performers. are not performances, The y are more like the festi vals advocated by J ean-Jaequcs Rou sseau_ See Thom . Fol' An A/ldience, pp_ 69-72_ 7 Stan Godlovitch , "The Integrity of Musical Performa nce," The ./ou/'I1(J1 o/ Ae.\' Ihelics IIml AI'I Crilicism 51 (1993): 576_ 8 Philip Alperson, "On Musicallmprovisation ," TIte JOlll'l1l11 o(Aeslheti(:s a/1d Arl Cr;lidsl1I 43 (1984): 20, 9 As Nicholas WolterstorfT observes, one performs a musical composition only ,i f one's handling 01' an instru ment is guided by a "relatively large amount ofjeedc hack" from the acoustic properties ofthe sounds produc.cd, leadin g to subseqllcnt "adjustm ents" in handling the in st rumenL WolterstorfT. Works IIlld Worlds o/Ar! (Oxford: C larendon Press, 1980). pp. 8() -~ 81, So, adjusting the treble on the stereo while listening to a Beethoven symphony does not make o ne a .:o-performcr, but a DJ who '\cratches" a complex rhythm hreak on twin turntablcs behind a rap vocalist is performing , 1() Deni s Dutton, "Artistic C rimes: The Prohlem of Forgery in the Arts," The Brilish Joul'I1ul o/ AeSlhelics 19 (1979): 308_ 11 Linda Dusman , "U nh.:ard-Of: l'vIusic as Pcrforrnan.:e and the Rccepti oll of the Ncw," Pa,lpcclil'es oINcH' Mus;c 32 (1994): I3L A variation ,is defended in J o 12l1en Jacohs, " Ident ifying l'vlusical Works of Art. " The .10/11'1101o/Aesthetic Edu ('({!iO/l 24 ( 1990): 75 - 85_ 12 For eX3111ple, see the reply to Jacobs in Stephen Davies: "' 1 have finished toda y another new concer10 .. _'," The Joumal oIAesl/¡elic Educa/ion 25 (1991): 139 14L 1.\ For cxample . Nelson Goodl1lan . I ,a/lguages o/A/'l (1 ndianapolis: H ackett Publi sh ing, I (n(,) ; W illialll W(: hsler, "A Thl:ory 01' the Compositio nal Work 01' Music," 71/1' JOllrl/a/ of A l'slh, '1/r 'S(I/ld . / r! ( '/' ili6\'1I1 .B (1 (74): 59- 66; N icho las W olterstorff, Works (/lId Wflrld\ o/ ·1,,/ .l lId K i ll ~" i l( 'Y Pli t;c, " W hal Is a Pie.:e of Mu sic?" 'fhe /Jril;sh .Im lll /r¡/ "( t /n l/lI'l i( \ ' \ ll lIti \) 1 11 '\ \5. 1,1 JCITll ld Lcvin son , " WI ,:lI ,1 M il ,j ll,1I \\10)11, h ," 'fI1" ./01/1'1111/ 01 /'/¡;Io sophv 77 (IC)XO): r, 2lL K": lld :ill 1 W di"" ~; I \d l ' ,,,,,1 ti,.. 1'1 ,,,I,,t:[s "lid P;-p.,;csscs ()f Á rt,"
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ill 1'/11' ( '0 1/('1'(11 ,,¡- Sll'le '. ed . Ik 1"1.; 1 I ;tll j! ( l ' llll,dl l l ll\l'-'I ~ ll y PI 'l'SS. 11)1'{7 ) PI'. 12 10.1: ¡¡ IIU W allol1 . " rhe I' I"I.:sel1l¡¡liol1 ¡¡mi rJ(ll lr¡¡y;lI 01 S"Ulld PH tlerl' ~ ." i llllll/ll'I/I Agellcy: LOllg//ogc. I)//Iyal/(I Vall/e , etls. J. I)¡~II¡;Y J . Mor¡¡wsik. aud C. C. W . T ay lor (Stanford LJniver$ity Pre~s . 1988). 15 W alton , "Style and the Produds and Processes in A rl. " p. 84; and l.évillsoll . "Authentic Performanee and Performanee M cans," in M us;c, Arl. & M('lap{¡Y.I' i('.I' (CorneIl University Press. 1990), pp. 393 - 408. Levinsoll is rc~pondillg to Sle phell Davies. "Authenticity in Musical Performance," The Brit ish ]ollrl7(/1 o/Ae.l'IIIt'I;C.\· 27 (1987): )9·-50. 16 Stan Godlovilch, " Musie- W hat to Do About It" ; see a lso "The Integrity 01' M usical Performance," Tite Jou/'IUJI o/Aesl{¡eli('s (1/1(1 /lrt Crilic;s/'/1 51 (1993): Sr:. 587; PaLiI Thom , "Young's C ritique 01' Authenticity in M usi cal Pe rfo rmance, " Tite BrilisJ¡ .fol//'I1al 01' Ae~'llleI ics 30 (1990): 273-276. Godlovitch is responding lo William W ebster: Thom to J ames O. Young. 17 See Arno ld Berleant, An (ll/rI Engagemel1l (Temple University Press, 1991), p. 3l1. and Evan Eisenberg, T{¡e RC'co rding Angel: MU.I'ic in OLlr Time (New York: MeGraw HilL 1987), chapo 8. In the era of shellac 78s, the time limit inherent in the lech nology demanded that longer 1V0rks be recorded in scgmenls of a bout three and él half to four élnd a hall' minutes, so the practice of rccording segme nts (rather th a n whole works) is not a new development . 18 Linda Ferguson, ';Tapc Composition: An Art Form in Search of Its M eta physics," The Jou/'Il(/I o/Ae.l'lhelic.\· (fnd A/'I C/'ilicisl11 42 (1983): 19. Sec also Peggy Phe!an. UIlII1(/rknl: The Polilics oI Petjó/'l1!(f/u:e (N ew Y ork: Ro utledge, 1993), p. 146. 19 Ferguson, "'rape Composition ," pp. 2]. 25. 20 Wolterstorff seems to have bcen the first to note that heing (1 pelfo/'mall((, may he normative for snund-sequence occurrences to count as instantialions of certain musical works (e.g. , Becthoven 's op . 111), whereas il is not normative for tape compositions. Sce Wolterstorff, Wo/'ks a/1(1 Wo/'Ids olAr/, p. 84n. 21 Edmund Gurney, T{¡e Power o/ SOl/lid (1880; reprint, with an introductory essay by Edward T. Cone, New York : Rasic Books , 1966), p. 290. 22 Ibid ., p. 296. 23 Ibid .. pp. 298 ami 302. 24 Ibid. , p. 302. One eould make much of the fact that Gurney ignores common instruments th a t contradict this claim, likc the barre! organ. 25 Slan Godlovitch. "A uthentic Performance," T{¡e MOllisl 7 1 (1988): 258 - 277. 26 Following Thomas C. Mark ' s analysis 01' musical performance, a rccording that aUlhoritatively articulates " how things musically are" could itself wunt as a performance, albeit by unconvel1tional means. See Mark. " Philosophy of Pia.no Playing." pp. 305-313. 27 As in the casc of mally of Glenn Gould's recordings. " lhcre can be good pcrform ances that. though somewhat incorrect, achieve certain worthwhile ends or results from somc defensiblc listener pcrspective, without complctcly undennining the ch
3D G oldlo vitch, " T he Integrit y or M usical Pa rO rm
31 G odlnvitch , " Music W hat to Do about 11 ." p. 1:1
\2 l'dl'1 1 "1 lid. 1'1 11'I·/III/1logl'. Ml/IllIg I '1/1t'11I (/1/(1 S OI 'Í<'lI ' ( Ncw York: !Ia rpe r & R~,w. In o) dl.ll' . ' . (ilel1l1 (iollld was kccn ly awarc orlhc moral conscqucncc~ (ll' hringill g III!\\ to.:c hllologics into arl. See Geoffrcy Payza nt. (;lelll1 GOl/Id: Music a/l(i Mil/ti (T oro nto: Van No ~ trand Reinhold , 1978), pp. 120- 121. 33 Godlovitch, " Music-What lO Do A bout 11," p . 11 . A doser and potentially morc disturbiog case is Luciano Pavarotti's having resorted to lip-synching voc
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50 L allgdo ll W inn \!I', "I II\! SI I :¡ II /.t~ I)cil lh ,,1 Rlld II lld !<" II .. in N(I<"I, IlIld Nol! Jl'iff S tand. ed. Grcil M arcus ( B(lst,lI ¡: H e a ";( 1I 1 I'rc\ l>, 1% 1.). p..~2 51 Milton Babbitt, "WIl.o Cares Ir Yo u Lis te n'¡" I/Ig/J Ficfefi/y (I:cbruary. 1 1)5 ~):.lH 40,126- 127. Bab bitt uses the title "The COlllpC'l ~e r as Specialist" in all reprilll mg~ . 52 Brendel, p. 204. 53 For an extended case study examining this idea, see Joseph Horow itz. U l1ders/(//uf ing Toscanini (University of M innesota Press, 1987). 54 By "aesthetie cxperience" 1 mean some thi ng quite traditional: the rewil rd ~ 01' grasping a musical work under a particular in terpretation as it Llnfol d s in a series 01' sounds to which one listens attentivel y. 55 For example. Aaron Copland, "The World ofthe Phollograph," in Our N elV M usic: Leading CO/llf!osers in Lurope olld Arnerica (N ew Yo rk : M cG raw- H ill, 1941). p p. 243-259. 56 My thanks to the anonymous reader for this journal , whose com ments led to ma ny revisiollS, and to Stan Godlovitch, Lee Brown, and Peter Kiv y for conve rsatiom that encou raged me to think aboLlt performance issues.
86 N EG OTIATING PRES E NCE Performance and new technologies Andrew M urphie Sourcc: I'hilip Hayward (ed. ). eu//uri'. Techl1%gy &. Crea /ivily . I.ondon : John I.ibbey. c.1990.
pp. 209 226.
The historical origins of performance, conceived of as a form and activity distinct from (narrative) theatre, are imprecise. But while its progenitors inc1ude various popular cultural, 'hi gh' cultural and avant ga rde practices , it eame to particular prominence in its o wn right during the Sixties and Seven tieso ltflourished during this period on the strength ofits presence. It wa s live , separate from the re-productions of film and the static arts on one hand and from the imaginary narratives oftheatre on the other. But suddenly, as artists and performers embraced advances in video production. computer sampling and the mechanics and e1ectronics of high technology in general, the nature 01' performance itself was question ed. There was now confusion between c1aims that performance was both 'dead" and active as never before. 2 Whether you agree with one side or another seems to depend on how you view tech nology in relation to the live qualities of performance. For example, in an interview published in 1984, performance artist Terry Fox said: Ilhil7k lhallhe original impulsejór perjórmonce was vital, and il'.I' stifl it'.\' really importanl . .. But il is so haslardized . .. lhal nOlI' per .fimnance has hecome a cliché eFery performance exael!y lhe same: you knoll' whal lo expecl. you k/1oH' il 's going lo he s!ides, and pre rcw rded lape and so 0/1 ... You can ol1!y do lhings \Vilhin lhe limils o/ Ihe led1l1ology (//1(1 . .. lo lI1e Ilw(.I· a lerrih!e reslrictiol7.'
For Fox , Icchnology ¡ r\tclli:n: ~ wil ll lile t'reedoms ofreal time, space and bodies in perromw l1 cc. On Ihe ~)J h \..· 1 halld . 1 all !'ic Andcrson completely em braces tedlll o lo¡,.'Y as a ~0 111 r)(l1ll'J1L 0 1' 1 ~!, ¡J lil'\", ~~VC I1 ir a lly sense o r real time. space am I b()d ic~ is d c~lmyed 111 t lt L 111111.1::", 1\, t,h c cmp hasises: Vio
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In the same interview she also says ' 1love machines' , The wo rld oftechnology may be alienating but for Andcrson, it is the world, Other perfo rmance anists have taken this further. Stelarc for instance, suspended by steel hooks through hís skin or work ing \Vith his hi gh-tech ' third hand ', welüomes techn ology as a messi an ic force - the final sllpplement to humank ind 's ailing evolution 5 New commllnications and information technologies have radically atTected various aspects of our perception of self, society and the universe. Technol ogy has, for exam ple, broughl about signirlcanl changes in th e way we percei ve our own bodics, mapping these out \Vith its own peculiar distance and detail. Through various processes of video-photography, scanning and imaging, we are increasingly coming to kn ow our bodies as ' foreign objects' viewed from oUl.\'ide. Performance work has recognised and responded to this in variou s ways. In performances such as Elizabeth Chitty's D el110 Model (1978) for example, where the performer scrutinizes her body in detail using video , this has been expressed in terms of anxiety. At the other extreme, works such as Ste1arc's film of the interior of hi s body or his ' acousticallandscapes' of the sa me, have be en marked by their ecstacy. In another response, the body in many performances has become not so mueh anxious, 01' ecstatic, as ahsen/ - particularly as the 'site of truth ' it became in much Sixties and Scventies performance. Over the last five years this has given performance work a particular focus. as it attempts to forget a body of knowledge based on the body-as-truth syndrome. A t the same time , living as we do in the hi gh speed information dispersal world of Jean Baudrillard's more general 'ecstasy of communication', it has also tried resllscitating a body which can resist the demon of information technology, a demon which some would say \Vollld turn the body into nothing more than another station in the mesh of communicative networks . 1n the early Eighties, Josctte Féral perceived and advocated technology as a set of extra alienatioo effects which could relllrn to the body the kind of presence that theatre had 's tolen ' from it: P erf;mnonce rejals all illusion , in par/icular /!Jea/rical illusion ori ginating in l!Je repres.I'ion o( /he hoC!y's 'has('/" ' e1emen/s. , . To /!Ji.\' end ;llurl1.\' lo /he \'arious l11!!clia
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These comments are premised on the supposedly innate ability oftechnology lo 'alienate' when lIsed in perform ance work. This l110y have been the case in the late Seventies and early Eighties, but severa] factors have made technical alienation effects strangely fami lia r now. In some ways, what began al the start of the Eighties as an attempt 10 use technology to re-gain the bod v in performance has ended with lhe body 's el ision.
Total theatre and beyood Whalever their effect on performance work, both computer and information technoJogies have otTered theatre the realisation of one particular trajectory. They have created the best conditions yet for a Wagnerian ' total theatre ' . Even the computerisation of lighting has, for instance, greatly increased the parameters of what can be done to enhance the fullness 01' the theatrical illusion. Nothing need now be left to chanceo Most theatre companies have experimented \Vith the latest video and computer technology in order to enhancc the total effect 01' the theatrical illusion and ils subseq uent transform ative power. Now, in opera, computer guided slide projections even allow opera-goers to read translations of the libretto , projected aboye the stage (1.1' il i.\' .I'ung.
SlIch uses of contemporary advanced technologies are of course, com pletely opposite to lhe use of technology as an ali enation effect in early performances. 1t is as if there is an essential dichotomy in its use in theatre you either use the extra clements and speed gained in a ' Wagnerian ' wa y, such as in the recent work 01' Robert Wilson; 01' otherwise in a Brechtian way, such as in the work 01' Richard Foreman. However, with the exception ofits use in concealed contexts such as computerised li ghting changes, the use of high tcchnology invariably tends to disrupt the narrative accumulation 01' fixed symbols and make 'theatre', as such. increa singly impossible. Many theatrical perfonnances which strive for total theatre by using video , laser a nd com puters to enhance a fixed theatrical narra ti ve in symbolic structuring, cannot he1p but start to look a little awkward. Wilson in particular has undcrstood this and largely abandons narrativity in his more recent work. There is howevcr another approach outside the dichotomy between Brcchtian alicnation or Wagnerian total theatre, both ofwhich foreground the separa lion 01' elements as a theatrical mcans of reaching 'truth '. This approach is that which regards the performan ce 01' thc new tech nologies Ihem.l'elves as events simply existing amo ng (lther cvenls. In John Cage's terms, they pro duce 'jusI a no lhc r Iloise in Ihc :- iklll.;c·. rh i~ i'i good rOl' perrormance in tha1, whik il docs lIul val (l r i~c 01' d ~'Il1\II,isc II'dl llOl ol!Y, il hroauen:; the scopc 01' \ '1 ' (
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wha t can be ('(JIIsitl('n'tI p e r fllllllallCl:, In ' 1lI11l' ~I' II :;l·S . 11Il: r/e //¡ro/1 illJ: lit" tllt' boJ y anJ J irect human aLt ivily in pcrlút lll a lll:c hy Ihe IIse o r tedl nology (,;;10 lcad to performan ce conducted oulsidc 01' cithcr individuulislic (JI' h UllIa nisl altitudes - performancc which is not just an altempt to sllppkl1ll:nl lhe human wi11 and harness technology to humanity's further ' progress'. John Cage himsclf has continued to use new technologies without neL'C$ sarily foregrounding or valo rising them more than any other elemcnt in lhe ' silence' . In this sense technology ceases having to ' mean ' él\lytru ng, or cven be the sainted deliverer of meaning, and is instead simply one component in the presentation of lhe present. 1n his recent Europeras I & 2 ror exam ple, Cage has used technology so that
... .\pec/(f/or.l' hehold . .. on app(/rel1/ly ral1do/11 processiol1 o/ s/agl! elemenls orc!ered h)' a computer program ( ("olled '/e hecau.I'l! i/ simu la/es /he l Ching's divina/o/)' me/hod). Ac/or,I', /eehnióol1s, and musí cians ore 'conduelec!' hy i/1is program, whieh ( l/es pl!ople via video moni/ors se/ inFonl (~//he stage . .. The only lrl/e alea/or)'Iea/ure ís lC".\" impera/ive, wllieh e/lsures /h e order oI even/s IVill he d¡fferen/ ereryerening. Europera 's progral11 playjúl/y poin/s /hís up by pro vid ing lwelre possihle syl70psesjár lhe opera. 7 Thi s may seem littl e different to Cage's own direct manipulation 01' the 1 C hing but can be seen to be even less anthropocentrie. A computer program becomes an element 01' organsation in the performance without becoming t he dominant element ... the structural centre of the performance (IC 'S) is literally situated on the margino Such a use of technology in performance work has di stinctly different qualities and associations from Jameson's notion of pastiche, in which a sen se of history , place or unity is 10s1. In Cage 's \York , technology is not so much constructing a substitutive culture (or in Jameson 's famous example, a hotel foyer) but playfu11y re-ordering culture to make its determinations more obvioLlS. In fact , Mead Hunter c\aims that Cage's Europeras / & JJ is ' fina11 y subversive in that it returns culture to peop\c, as their property to slice up a t will. Far from ending opera, C age has given us a heightened awareness of its historicity'.s When performance treats tcchnology as another component , anoth er no ise in the silence, much of the debate about technology 's significance becomes insignificant. 1ndeed what Cage 's \York shows is that it may only be in lhe context of play/performance that techno'logies divorced from lheif usual cultural efficiencies can be secn more c1early for what they are. for the \Vay in which they structure experience. T his is even more true of information amI media technology than it c vcr was litera tu re or evcl1 buJ y-baseu perform ance; since lhe former ha ve a high speeJ n I" d ispersal an u a co nscq ucn l cphcmerali ty as übjcCl s \)r 1110llUlllcn ls. C agc';-, ~; I;l l cIIIC ll ls a hf) ut h is wurk
or
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have: abo ~k l l l< .l lI s llaled an ;'1\Va rCI1CSS nI" pnssible I"nrms nI' posllllodern con sciulIsncss wh ic h illvolvc 'a spacializing orlhe cognitive facultics ' .') As David Illlgheli has cmphasiscd, Cage's approach pcrceives the individual as making 'scllse out 01' the multiplicity of messages, creating a private logic and n ar rative: being the perceplual and active centre 01' his/her world ; selecting and combining by choice and instinct; and being open to a11 possible inputs ... 10 The beauty ofthis Cagea n approach is that it aba nd ons both the need to con trol the machine and/or feel overwhelm ed by it. T he dilemma his approach lea ves bchind is essentia11y one of 'protocols versus vanq uishment'. It is the Illasculine nature of this scenario, with both positions repres0nting displace ments of ego uncertainty into social control , which has informed much 01' the use of new technologies in performance. II
Technoscapes and the global sample Over the last decade there has been an inereasing tendency fo r performance artisls to appear at fashionable metropolilan dance parties. During the same period , the Barcelona lroupe La Fura DeIs Baus have toured the globe with their mixture of savage theatrical nihilism and macho meat-cater regression . Both forms are environmental theatres on a large scale. Performance at such events is immediately assimilated beca use the environment itself is une of the perfonners. Yet in the context 01' the dance parties (and increasingly there are similar audiences for both), La Fura seems increasingl y archaic and carica tured in its physical and macho intimidation. At dance parties, the presence 01' techn ology controlling the performance guarantees its presentability as fashion . E veryone can participate in ils re peatable culture beca use the technol ogy ultimately stands outside a ny one person or group of people. Jt is a mathematical cathexis with a guarantee of safe patterning. Nothing is rea11y 'happening', there is onl y the repetitio n of that which is the latest in fashion and the least localised. 12 The samples for this come from somewhere else. At the dance party a11 is postponement, a continual deferral 01' everything that has not been samp1cd ¡n to that space and time. Even the conflicting performances of lhe perform a nce artists who respond to the newspaper advertisements and promotional handbi11s are just another piece of the décor - unlike La Fura's demand to be dealt with as /he performers. Performance itself, its re1ation to bodies and their motion , has become a commodity. r have d\Velt on dance parties beca use they are emblematic ofperformance at prescnt. They represent one ofthe prime sites at which desire is filtered and a11 other fonns 01' performancc seem increasingly aligned to the global grid which lhey rc p rcsllnL In alt cll lpl ing to l'haracterise them , Andrzej Wirlh 's rcmarks 0 11 Victor 1'III I1 CI ;I n: <: ingu l:ll ly ap[wsitc, 'a new transcul tural com IIHlIl ica Iive !>y nlhcsis . , i l1d n~d 1\ HIt.. pl ui:l" hlll 'wit hou t él visi ble con lribu lio n I\} 1!I \lbal cull ura l llluh- l'of ¡IIIIIII I¡' 1 I 1\
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p roli fe ralillll uf various disi\)fI :-' l)1' \,; 1111111 al hUllnda rics in divcrsc url fo rms partly rcsul1s from infonnation ledlllol ogics lhem::¡cl vI!S. anu ¡... par 11 y Ihe result, in the arts at least, 01' the way in which the advances in slIch informa tion technologics have been discussed. When various European theo risls dCC!;H\,; lhal lhe new lcchnologies have led to McLuhan 's global villagc. Balldrillard's va rious ccstasies or Vi rilio's econom ies of speed; it seems lhat postmoderni ly is biggcr than all of us. Performance is not only free to, but forccd to, pa r ticipatc in global ccstasies and cultural bonowings with very low ra tes of rct um to the source cultures. As Johannes Birringer has emphasiseu : This colonizing j!OIV incorporales al! arl 01' cultural formol" as long as Ihey can he m aJe lo reÍl!/órce lhe consumpliol1 o/Ihe 'audio-visual .\j){/ce· ... Ihe lopography o( houndaries bellreen natil'e and ./óreign. dominanl and !11arginal, is made> LO disappear illlO Ihe audio-rimal .\pa('e o/a 'glohal culture ' !11odelled on a c1osed-circuit l!Jeory. 14
Such tendencies are indeed visible in the work of groups such as Japan'$ 'Dumb T ype', who consciously elide their cultural difference in the belieftha t the differences between Tokyo and other major cities of the world are rapidly disappearing. Other performers such as Sha Sha Higby arrive at this point from another anglc. Her dance performances rescmble nothing so mllch as an inter-cultural costume change which comes pcrilously dose to a fashi on display - borrowing appcarances as if the differences betwccn whole cultures and ethnicities were no longer significant, as if the differences no longer existed in any significant way. Indeed , much of the debate in performance at the moment seems to centre around the political am biguities of such borrowings, trying desperately after the ract - to determine whether it might be possible to rewrite ethical considerations faster than artists can protlt from colonising third world cul tures and crossing sex and class divisions. The more we can observe advanced technologies and a metropolitan consciousness ruling our perception , Úle more technologically framed and determined ideas about cities \ViII come to dominate whole cultures. As Birringer emphasises, such ideas would be mistaken , it 'is él scenography that also speaks 01' the failed replacement of History; the audio-visual space of mass media , however dominant, cann ol quite sublimatc the exclusionary boundaries of class and race ... ' For Birringer. the theatre. as opposed to the mass media, 'is more revealing in its limitatio ns since i t does not operate in a virtual space. It has always becn closely COD nected to a historical space' .IS
RecJamation and re-inscription Recent wo rk with older lechnologies ha:; bcen la rgely dcrived rrom the Fu lu r ists. who idolised machi n~ for lhcir visi ble src:cd and ror lheir ability ll) 1';(
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l"alal ysc ¡: IIIIIII ~ II t(O a pcrtllanenl slale (lr Illarkd expansion. I" Whilc lhe visual aud ;llIdial I!j/i'C'ls lIf lh~ l1ew lechllologics are orlen spectacular, thc techllologi.:s Ih':lIlsdves are largcly invisible. Thcy ofTer no visual manifesta lion such as that which inspired lhe original ltalian and Russian Futurists, yet they have still sho\Vn an ability to catalyse culture with a speed which would blind even Marinetti . This difference in visibility also effects perform ance. In many ways the purpose 01' performance no longer seems to be Úle valorisalion of new technologies but rather their interrogation. Performance seems increasingly moved to educate its audiences back to a point where the new technologies become visible and accessible. In ¡[his way education about technology is inevitably going to destroy postmodern illusions about tbe lack of technology's limits. much as the sudden experience 01' World War One shattered a number of Fulurist iUusions . In this educative and interrogative project Lauri e Anderson has been a brilliant pioncer. The work of Jill Seott and Derek Kreckler has also moved in similar ways, building bridges between blind faith or abjection in the technoscape and reinstating the remnants of a memory 01' a human culture in contact with the body and landscape. Crucial to the work 01' these three artists and indeed the project in general, has been the relationship between video and the body. When video becomes the basis for the structllre of the wholc performance (or when the performance is recorded and played back as a 'performance video'), it is hard to see this project as ' performance' any longer. This is so, even though it may rely, as sorne recen t French dance does, on the (cleverly edited) physicality of the performers. Jt may be 'Video A rt' but the basis for its approach to bodies, objects and their interaction is not what we might call 'gravitationallanguages' but rather e1ectronic languages, the signal and post production techniques. Yet sorne of the best perfonncrs hure moved ioto video production during the last decade - Jill Scott for example. When Scott was asked in an interview whether her shift to video work represented a renuneiation of the physicality 01' performance. she replied Nol al a/l. /'111 slill doing il, hui il's fór Ihe camera. !t's enúrely Iral1.\/erred. Whal! re>ally l/sed lo hale Iva.\" nol having conlrol. For a lime! rea!!y Iiked Ihe lV170le risk componenl. Thel1 e/jier a while, ! pro vee! al! IIUlI, Ihal ! could take lhose risks. Now /'1/1 much more inleresled in conlrol perjórf11at/ce jór lhe camera . .. The elemen/ oj" con/rol can be played Wilh in lhe pre-produclion leve/. nol (lnly in Ihe posl-prodllc/ioll. 11
Video Art asitlc. I h~rc ,Irc 1lI:1t1y illSlanCl!S where video is neither lhe basis of lhe re rforlll
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thl: produl:ti vC" illkgrali\lll llf vatÍolls t1\:W Il'lltllll l" ¡JIl'¡iI dl'lIl11nlS with , he I¡ve presence a nd I"orce 01" pcrl"ormal1l:c and Ihe pl:rI o nlllT. As usual with Kreckler's work, InlerruptiO/l.I' is deceptivcl y si mple in stnu,; turc and ingredients, I ~ The performa nce begins with a la rge screcn in fúm l ..,1' whil;h a woman aITives to deliver a leeture. ostensibly on James Joyee's UIY,I'sl',\' , Her mouth is hall' open to begin when she is interrupted by a 'wo rker' who makes a lot 01' noise wilh bits 01' tangled wire ami bolts in a tin buckel (already the framework oflanguage is being defeated by noise), A fte r several . inereasingly furious attempts to stop the interferenee, the lecturer sudde nly bccomes distracted, a tittle as if in a dream but more as if doped up to the eyeballs, The Iights dim , she stares into space and simultaneously, a samplecl soundtraek begins and video images are projeeted onto a huge screen, U nd er neath the screen sit fifteen perfonners lit by a blank slide from a slidc projector. The video images at this stage consist 01' personal pronouns run so q uickJy after each other that attention is ehiefly drawn to the font in which they appear. At the same time, the performers repeat an initially audible word in el seemingly arbitrary , but actually carefully constructed, erescendo, The word is 'everyone'. This continues for about five minutes until the crescendo sud denly cuts. The performers freeze and the video projects chopped viguettes from American TV shows. These are both dcliberately hallal and also abso lutely appropria te to the performance situation - two TV hostesses talk abollt the ' nice audience' and a humdrum looking male talks about beauty and mediocrity. The performers then suddenly turn to look at the 'dreamer' and begin theír ehant again, a chant which would almost be machine-Iike iri l were not so arbitrary. Sampled music sounding a little like a carousel going three times its normal speed then comes in , with a sampled opera singer singing 'dream ' over and over again. Amidst this organised cacophony, lbe last images on the screen are of a spinning globe and then statie. The performers then go baek to their seats, the '\Yorker' cleans up and fina1ly the 'lect un:r' \caves, embarrassed, often long after the audience has already applauded . The beauty ofthis piece was that a1l ofthe separate clements were aekn ow ledged within their o\Yn structural parameters, and yet, far from domin ating each other, they contributed to a kind of mutual deconstruction. One did no! merely experience the skill 01' the performances, which included elements 01" naturalism and blatant u-realislI1 , video manipulation, audio sampling a nu composition and so forth. The audience was forced into realising that eac h element not only performed its duty we1l but had that duty reduced in lhe process to its most basie e1cments, T he screen used in the performances for video projection was so hllge thal the spectator was forced to acknowledge the tex lUre 01' the video image, its physica l co nstructi o n. The very process of ack nov,r1edging and posilion ing subjectivity (exemplified by the pen;o nal pro noul1s ) hocamc ¡lbo a q uestiulI ing or Lhe relalion 01' cmnplller sty lcd IOl1ls lO lhul su bjedi vi ty. LanguHl.'.1!
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Thc finaJity oCnarrativcs When Lyotard proclaimed the end 01' the 'grand narratives' in Tlle Pos/ l110dern COl/dilion '! he did not, 01' course, mean the end 01' all narratives. r he narratives have not disappeared but rather changed. Their o perative force has just found more efficient spaces through which to flow . They increasingly opera te through the invisible efficiencies 01' technological interfaces and their careful regulation 01' subjeetivities. Performance using technology has often dwelt on the absence of narra ti ve, but the opposite, ie how narrativc )lJorks /hmugh technoIogy is as important. SimilarIy, it is important to demonst rate how that technology requires its own set 01' supportive mystifications all d processes in order to channel human energies through narrative flows. Such concerns are strongly evident in Laurie Anderson 's work. As Rose-Lee Goldberg has pointed out, Anderson has sought to demystify sorne of these new narrative flows through the use 01' the vcry same technology which they now through: l
... Unitcd States was aflallened lal1dscape i/UlI (he media Cl'olutiol1 had lefi he/¡ind , . . 011 Superman, u .\'ol1g al ¡he hear/ oltlle show, ltias ([n appealfi)/' hel" agllins/ ti/(' manipula/ion (Jllhe cOl1lrollil1g media ('ullltre: il \\'(/.1' tI/(' ('/01' ot(/ g('I/('/"(/tirill exhau.\'led hy Inedia arúfice2 0 h 1r Baudril la rd and 1ll ; II1 V 111 hl' l 'i hll\VL'vc r. Iha I cry is nul one 01' anguish , but ccslasy, An cest a.,y (11' a Il'L' II Il , j l' lpll': d wo rld so pre-connectcd that il is wi lhoul (i ncJiviJua l) IliIlTIIII \I \ ', Wll hlll ,,"I'l l ;¡ world view. it is 01' eou rsc
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//1 1/". .....·/tl/d, lll, /,/ I /¡(, ....·"ml M(f/orit lt'.I', '1, Nldll)lIs a l ~w cs Ihal Bau J rilbnl's l'\lll h: llli n ll 111;11 il I ~ olll y possihk lo abolísh eo nlelllporary syslc ms by push I n~' Ihcm ill lo ' 1I ypc r-l llgic' 'sccms. fillally, Iess a ground 01' possible negati oll li kc I"u lurism a ucl iriolls slIITender lo forces which must always Ihall he hé)'ond control and undcrstandingY For Nicholls the salienl point to be I('arnl froll1 Ihe comparison 01' these two spcctacular theorisalions of tech 1I01llgical modcrnity is that their grand systems ultimately reveal themselves lo he 'fantasíes and not unspeakabIe necessities' .",1 This is the Poslmodern (klusion.
iI\l pllssill ll.' lo c ha 1'1 Hlly S0 11 (11 CO III S\' Ih it II IP II 1 ht' 11111 ni Iives pI' I c~h l1()l n/.(lt'a I culturc. T hc I'calisl view lhal evclylllil1 g 111 lb\.' WI l! ILi IS kll Dwahlc (II S11l1l1y within set Ma rxi!:¡1 nar rat iv~s) ralls loul \)r its rdian<,;c on tlmsc Ilurra livcs UIIU taxonomies which no longer apply in thc wo rld tedll1o'ica pe. Blll h 13a uu rill arLi and the realists indulge in d a ngero us projections. In the fo rmer \Ve arc lotal1 y overwhelmed by 'connectivity' (we might call this the 'fea r 01' the moth er' , with its attendant ecstasy); in the latter, the project íon that we are 110t drow n ing but still waving the red flag in the technological ocean (the clinging to Ihe phallus, or in the case of writcrs such as Howard Ba rker, plwllic ahjection T ve lost my flag '). Such approachcs are of course at odds with m uch feminist politics and theory a nd as Jill Nolan has emphasised, 'femi nis l performa nce theorists have ... ehastised the eommodified brands of posl modernist performance that devolve into an endlcss plurality 01' meaning: a chic, politically apathetic ennui; or a retrograde nostalgia for master narratives ' .21 80th the postmodern anxiety about being overwhelmed by technology and the realist anxiety about not having the picture soon enough, are profoundly il1/efleclua¡ anxieties, often more relevant to the acq uisition of academ íc knowledge than to the operation 01' knowledge in Iived social relations. Th is is especially so when it comes to actual relations between kn owledge and technology. Performance is perhaps the only significant mediation between the two , beca use it crea tes a redundancy oftechnology in a situation margina l to social functions. This is especially the case when technologis use in per formance is compared to its enonnous produL:tive potential and seamless operations in other positions within the market. It is this very r eclUfldal1 cy, as in the performances of Laurie I\nderson or Japan 's Dumb Type group wh ich can make our social rc\ations to technology apparent, and which , as in ¡l1Ier rupliol1s , can help us define the way in which technology participates in the construction 01' our subjectivities. These performances also have the crucia l function 01' showing us how things actually IlIork. The la ter stages 01' capitalism depend not just on technological efticiency, but also upon the narrative mystique of that efficiency . This has made lhc politics 01' performance the more complex, as it must avoid buying into the new narratives of technical mystique whilst pointin g to the actual fractal function of narratives and technological ftows . Without such precautions, performance will effectively function to support the market mentality 01" capitalism in much the same way as the Italian Futurists did Y Peter Nich olls has taken this parallel further, comparing the Postmodern perception 01" Western culture to the Futurist's 'destruction of syntax ' in favour of a n ' abstract grammar of functional mathematical signs'. 21 Taking Baudrillanfs America14 as his specific rcferent, he argues that the book 's ' rather lame conclusion' that Iife, in America ' is cinema', signals
I'resent theories about technology have lefl us with a reflection and n o ori ginal. Baudrillard 's simulacra, Jacques Lacan 's language of broken eggs (which come from making an /¡On1mClelle) or Heinrich von Kleist 's bodies, which , in his story 011 The lv/ariol1clle Tltealer, are drawn into their own rcllection (consciousness) and become bodies without their original ' gracc' N all embody this quality. Theatre, packed to the brim with all the deferrals Ihat mimetic consciousness can offer, has, since ils depéuture from ritual inlo reflection , never really recovered that original grace. Yet, is this so 01' performance? J ust as it is easily forgotten that many 01' the theories about sim ulacra (and so on) were devel oped in re.\ponse lo aspects of c\assical philosophy a mi its wnstant acting o ut o f mimetic deferral , it is similarly forgotten lhat thc 'absence of presence' currentIy perceived in dassical thea tre is not the sume 'prcsence' as that which manifests itself in performance. 1t increasingly ap pears that presence in performance lies outside the dichotomies wh ich sti ll cxist in c\assical and postmodern thought. It is therefore performance which, avoiding the pitfalls of c\assical mimeticism, reactionary postmodernism and I"ailed realism , and more importantly, avoiding reflection ; may find some ,'iense of grace within Ihe bodies and actions involved. Chantal Pontbriand has characterised presence in performance \Vork as 'an obvious presence. not a presence sought after or represented ', a 'desire lo discover ... a here/n ow which has no other referent except for itself '?J Accepting this characterisa lion , \Ve can see that performance offers a way in which, even if only for a momen!, the participants and event can come c10se lo recovering the grace of illnocents, puppets and gods in Kleist 's story. Such a perception can even lead us lO a more radical perception. Perhaps, with its a-("ol1scious puppet-like grace and its distinctive relation to reflective lIIimetic narratives , tcc hnology may also function in sOllle wave as pure pnformancc. PCrfOrlmlllCeS IIsin ); lechnology do not have lo conform to the pn:dolllinanlly lIihilislil' anli-t1assica l schcme of current E urocentric theory . Thcy ca l1. ínsh:ad. opcrtll c o lll sidl' ()r 1he lú rgo l ien equ ation 01' mimesis, as an ulllil hesis lo pus iti vist I"u il h. Ihl' p ll ppl'l I lIlIsh: r lu ncl iOI1 techno logy , its
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u d.:ri ng anu di l ,,;-.;li ull \)t' hU lllall bOUK'lo , L'an he I1 ~I.'d lo l'lIac l a lihcr;¡ l ion uf bol h lhose bodics and lit e rni ml.!lÍl: Il'Jlra llV!.: splil hl~l wccll bod y anu Cll n sciousncss. As long as it is not lrying 10 rc pr~se lll nlimclicall y, or Qnlhc ('lher ha nd , splash arouml in the sea 01' simulacra; performance wilh lechnol ogy could, in short, return LIS to grace. T hi s would be a grace where 'c1umsincss' is just another way lo perfo rm , not in itselfthe failurc of mimetic rep resenlali on or 01' human cultural evolution . Kreckler's 1111errup'iol1s, by constantly uraw ing us in lo a present wh ich has less and less meaning, in which the sh adows 01' mimesis dissolve as the perrormativc aspects 01' the pieee become more and more productive; enacts a graceful puppetfy which ind ulges ilse1f in neither mimesis Ilor a simple parody 01' simulacra . Such performanees are however, perhaps rarer lhao o ne \Vould wish. The body in perform a nce is now challenged to an un precedented extcn l by technology. lt seems too often destined to have either the codings ofinforma tion technology (01' the beat of House m usic) forced upon it. As Philip Mon k has emphasised, this tendency has profound effects and leads to the 'realisa tion ofa coded body'. In work which uses video 'as part ofthe live perform ance space' this results in an effect where 'just as the artist's body and actions make that space, so the two, artist and video ... reconfigure a body between them. A 'space' is 'composed' in performance through recording technologies and distributive networks'. ' l In the case 01' works such as Elizabeth Chitty's reknown Demo Model, this space has been used to speak 01' a body reduced and cut-up by technology and to mourn the body as unified truth - sincc as Rose-Lee Goldberg has written , \Ve 'can only d aim our bodies if we stop claiming that they givc LIS truth '.'2 In the end, while tcchnology has real effects on real bodies, it is hard lO avoid the notion that, in performance at 1east, technology sometimes enacts a dispersal 01' more abstract subjectivities divorced from those bodies. This may account for the 'live again and again ' phenomenon in sampling and dance parties, wherc, according to Tony Mitchell 'the best dance music gives a rccurring sense that however clumsy, we can, we have (but we can 't. we haven' t) achieved a state 01' grace. 33 A similar illusory perccption may wen be that which informs the current altitude to cnvironmental theatre in the United States, where audiences seem 'interested in a novel experiencc, but without the participatory demands or political agendas that charactenzed much of the late '60s avant garde'.34 In both contemporary work and the style cstablished in the Sixties, techno logy often pro vides !Joth a bodily fantasy 01' grace and a kind 01' reaetion ary alienalion effect that substitutes fetishism for 'real' grace. The body itse) f is repressed and regulated through a co mbination of 'reproducible aliveness' and the montage with whi ch lhi s is orchcstrated. Thus, performance rnay be secn to embod y an effect 01' m.aking lhe body uocile ro r Íls tasks in thc technological age llllless. lha! jl), lhe Il ows and endes Lh ro ugh which Ihe livcu nlOlI lHgc is made are bn)ught inl,' some kllld o l di:-;on.h:r.
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Notes Sl!c '/'(,//.I'iol/ 11 11) .la 1I11ary 1990 p 14, wherc in its l'Ound up 01' the decadc' s art trend s, it claillls Ihal Jill ()rr i,l' (/II iOng l"e/eH' lo (,lIrry perfámwl1c(, illlo I"e 80s. 2 It is worth noting that jou rnals such as Pe/jiml1(///ci' have flouri shed rol' most of the Eighties by happily incorporating work with new teehnologies alongside more 'traditional' work. :1 Quoted in Richard White 'An Interview with Terry Fox' in Gregory Battcock anJ
Robert Nickas (eds) The Arl o( Pe/jimnal1ce New York, E P Dutton 1984 p213.
4 Cited by Rob La Frenais in 'An In lerview with Laurie Anderson ' in Battcock ar¡d
Nickas oJ! dI p264. 5 For another perspeetive on this see Paul Brown ' Metamedia and Cyberspaee' in this volume. 6 Josette H ml ' Performan ce and Theatricality: The Subject Demystified' J'¡,todern Drama v25 ni 1982 pp 171 - 2. 7 Mea d !-Iunter 'Interculturalisrn and American Music' Per(orllling ArlS Journal 33/34 1989 p201.
8 ihid.
9 David Hughes 'Moving forwards and Backwards in Time' Performance 50151 1987 p25. 10 ibid. 1I Note fm instance Luee Irigara y's rernarks that 'The eyes or the seer are not open to lhe world or the other in a contemplation that seeks and respects thoir ditTerent horizons. Does he tllrn over the world as he turns his hand , his rlaything, his creation') Co uld he rossibly plurnb the str ueture ofthe world, or encol11 pass it? Hut what gesture, or qllality 01' gesture cOllld make him believe that he ha s encolll passed the world?' Cited by Brigitte Carcenac de Torne 'On The Male Sex in Luce lrigaray's Theorising' Ar! Cll1d Texln20 1988 p105. In this sense, by thinking and rnoving faster than the human body, new technologies have, for the lirst time, ereated a world withill which man is obviously 'other' to himself and his \York, There is of course nothing new to this position for those who have always takcll the positioll of 'other' and much less angst about the whole thing ror them too . 12 Points rai sed by Ed Scheer in conversation with the author (1989). 13 Andrzej Wirth ',lllterculturalism alld Jcon ophilia in the New Theatre' Peljilfl1/ing ArlS JouI'I/aI33134 1989 p185. 14 Johannes Birringer ' Invisible Citiesrrransculturallmagcs' Pelforming ArlS Jourtlol 33/341989 p129. 15 ihid rp130- 13L 16 See Peter Nich olls 'Futurism , gender and theories of postmodernity' in Te x tual Praclice v3 n2 1989 r21O. 17 Jill Scott, quoted in Rob La Frenais 'Jill Scott' Pe/:!ilflllance n42, 1986 p26. 18 Inferrupl;ol1s lVa s tirst pefo rrned in Sydney in 1989. 19 Jean-Francois Lyotard The Poslll1odertl COl1diliol1: A Repor! (In Kl10wledge Man chester LJniversüy Press (UK) 1984. 20 Rose-Lee Goldberg Perfórnwllce Ar! London, Thames and Hud so l1 1988 p190. 21 Jill 'Oolan ' In Ddcnse of the Discourse: Materialist Feminism, Postrnodernism, Poststrllcl uralisrn ... and Theory' Tlle Drama Reviclt' v33 n3 p60. 22 As Peter Nicholls has pointed out. 'Fllturism proposed a view ofcapitalisrn whose ext reme implicati ons were to a large extcnt obseured by the Jisrnissive (and non po litical) interp rewt iol1 s of the Anglo-Ame rican avant-gardc. For modern izRb on, <1;; it was hailed by Marinetti and hi s colleaglles, amOllntcd to more than a series 01' sl ll nning tel.:hnnlogical innovatiollti: il clltuilcd 1he cx.tension or the ll1arket'. Nicholls "f'
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1983 . 27 Peter Nicholls op cil p217. 28 ibid 29 See the passage for example where Kleist's protagonist relates thal 'l \Venl hathing \vith a young nHln whose constitution lhen displayed rema rkabk grélce _ .. Il happened lhatjll st él short time before. in Pari s, \vc had seen the ' yollth dra wlng a splinter from his foot '; thc statue is well known . . . A gla nce that he cast in a lélrge mirrar the momenl he placed his foot on a stool to dry it otTremindcd him ofil: he smiled and told me whal a discovery he had made . .. Ilaughcd and replied thal he was probabl y seeing ghosts! He blushed, aud raist:d his root a second time to show me . .. the expe riment failed. Confused , he raised his root a lhird and rour th . Ill ay be even ten times'. In vain! - (h was all downhill from here for the poor yo ung. no\V graeeless, Illa n) Heinrich von Klei st 0/1 The ¡\;/llrio/1elle Thealer in Michcl Feher (ed) Fragmelll.l'jór a H islory o/Ihe Human B(J(~J': Par! One New York, Zo nc 1989 pp4 18- 9. 30 Chantal Pontbriand The eye finds no fixed point on which to rest ... ' Mode/'ll Dram({ v25 nI pi 57. JI Philip Monk 01' di pp I 64 5. 32 Rose-Lee Goldberg cited in Jill Dolan op di p68. 33 Tony Mitchell ' Perfo rmance ami the Postm odern in Pop Music' Thealre ./ollrl7ilf v41 nJ p280. 34 Steve Nelson 'Redecorat ing the F ourlh Wall: Environrncntal Theatre Toda)" T/¡e Drama Re viell' v33 nJ p73. 2.3 24 25 26
16.1
87 T H E A RT OF PUPPETRY I N T H E
AGE OF MED I A P RODUCTION
Steve TilIis Sourcc: Tile J)reall/ Revieu': 77¡e .!oumaf of' Peljiml1l1l1(;C SlUdie' 43(3) ( 1999): 182 195.
The figure I havejust created has the bealltiful sheen ofpolished wood. As it walks along, its face catching the lightjust so , I feel a little proud- and more than a little amazed. For l have neither touched no r carved into the figure , and 1 control it with neither strings nor rods. This figure --wh ich, if I were to continue my labo rs, 1 could place amidst similar flgures in a production of, say, Hamlet- has never had any tangible existence. It is nothing more, and has never been anything more, than a series ofcomputer commands that have reslllted in a movin g image on a screcn. 1 The figure- m y IlamJet, let us continue to say, who makes bo ld enough to teH the traveling Playcrs "to hold [ .. . ] the mirror IIp lo nature"-is not itself of nature: il is 01' a new breed of figures that perform primaril y in the media ol' film. video, and cybernetics (i .e. , computers). More specifically, it is like certain of the dinosaurs in Stephen Spielberg's The Los{ World (1997) and aH 01' the characters in John Lassiter's Toy Story (1995) , being a figure of computer graphics (Duncan 1997:8 1 and passim; Pixar/Walt Disney Pictures 1995). Computer graphics figures (also kn own as CGI, "computer graphics im ages") are not the only members of this new breed. Somewhat older in their lechno logical origination are the kind of figures in Tim Burton's The N(f!;hl /l/are Bejóre Chrisll1U1.1' (1993) a mI in the central portion 01' Henry Selick's James {/l1d Ihe Gial1{ Peach (1996): stop-action (a Iso known as stop-motion) figures. For the moment , let me speak of the characters created through computer graphics and stop-action as " media figures ": figures whose per formance is madc possihk Ihrough techn ological mediation. Indeed , there is ycl anot her kind lll' lig un: I hal in Jll Wl y respects may be said to bel ong to this llCW b rced , amI lIw ugh il i~ Il \l ! sLrit.:tl y a med ia tlg urc, it is most often to be t~H1 nd 0 11 tiJm ()f vide\) Olíe \.::1 11 ~.l· L· I l1l'se fi p llrc~ in a great many contempo r a ry fil mli . includ ill j,! Ilally ",I iI 1Il! 1i1 , Id .. M m ill ml/d, (1 997). bul also alllong \¡ . 1
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lil e)' :m: 111> 1 1I1l:t1 I.1 Icproductillns, lh a l i!'l, hui origi na l produclions made p()ssi bk IhlO ug h Illedia. "Tll al which wilhers away in the agc of mechanical reproducl ion. " wrilcs Benjamin , " is lhc aura 01' the work o f arl" (221 ); bul in lhc agc 01' mcdia prod uction, il is thc aura of the work 01' art- a work withoul any " unique existencc" in time and place- that is created. Mcdia figures a re something new , not only chronologically but also conceptuall y. and just as Bcnjamin' s analysis is incapable 01' accounting for them , neilher are they accountable by concepts of puppetry that have their basis in the puppets we have herclofo re known. For better or for worse , the agc of media production is a new agc that musí be accounted for on its own tcrms, There have been at least t\VO serious altempts to provide something 01' an accounting !'rom the perspective ofpuppetry. In 1991. the Board oflhe North American Center for the Union Internationale de la Mari onnette ( U NIMA USA) voted to Greate , along with its Citations of Excellcnce for " Iive " puppet performance. a citations category for " puppelry in video. " later expanded to encompass all "recorded mcdia " (Levenson 1992: 1). Pursuant to that end , Mark Levenson , then Chair of the UNI MA -USA Citations Committee, dcvised criteria for en tries in the nc\\' category, and confronted, along \\'ilh other matters of eligibility, the vital question of what. in the context 01' " recorded media ," constitutes a puppet (2). The " test" lhat Levenson proposes runs as follo\\'s: Technology must not be used to create thc puppetry, only to record it. That means that the performance must be at aJl times under the control 01' a live, h uman puppeteer, performing in what computer rolks call " real time. " Tbis performance is recorded and the recording may be manipulated (i.e. , edited) prior to presentation to Ihe audience. (2) Levenson goes on to note tbat his proposed test would "exclude traditional and stop-motion animation," but would " indude animatronic figures if their animalion were creatcd by an operator in real time" (2); he does not address computer graphics figures , which had already come into being at lhe time of his writing, bul it is obvious that he would exclude them also from the real m nI' puppetry. 1 should add that Levenson's critcrion of "real time" (hereafter lO be wriltcn as " real-timc ") apparently refers to a synchronicity bctween lhe puppcteer's control and the puppet's resultant movem ent. (Curiously, Lcvcnson is not cOllccrncd wilh real-time vocal performance. probably beca use il is so rare in film amI vidco.) J\n allcrnate meaning of real-time would refer lo a synchronicit y Ilol lllll y ot' co nlrol and 1110vement, but 01' audi ence recep 1ion as well , W hCII l'on 1( Hit el'jll:l pll ¡es lig ures are elllployed for sueh " real-time ()pcralion anu n.'L'epl ion " pl'l lu lllI:ll1i.'L' as I will Ji sc Llss bcJow. the generally acce ptcd lcrm ror Ihel\ l I ~ " pt' l j¡" I III. III ~" allilllal il)ll" (se\! , rol' cxamplc. Lu:;k in IIJ ( 7),
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O fll' uf tlll; IllOst slt ih.i ng aspcc l ~ 111 LC\'I' II \ IIII '" " IC:-.t"' is bol\' il ¡;I:h()c~ Bcnjami n's argul11cnl. T he dietu m thal " lcdllll ll vgy nlllst nl,t pe uscd tI) create the pll ppctry, ol1ly to record it" seetlls bllt another way 01' say ing that eligibility for the Citati on should be limited spel:ifically to p up pctry Ih a! is " mechanically reproduced " on video or film. No doubt Ci tations honoring excellenee in recorded puppetry are a valuablc t'unetion OfU NIMA-USA . ami no d o ubt Levenson has proposed a useful test of inc\usiveness. But the inabilil y o f Benjamin's argument to aecount for media images is renected in Levenson's near-categorical exdusion 01' them from consideration . Levenson recogni zes lhat media figures are in some way fundamentally different from puppets as we have known them ; his prererence (which arises at Icast in pan from (he insti tutional con tex t for which he proposes his test) is simply to put them aside. as a rule , rather lhan lo consider them a lS- ul Icast potentially-the puppetry o f tomorrow. The second serious attempt lo grapple with media figures and puppct was undertaken in .1994 by Stephen Kaplin, in an essay entitlcd "Puppetry into the Next Millennium. " Kaplin 's approach to media figures is diametric ally opposed to Levenson 's, as evidenced by his focus on "computer-based, cybernetic technologi' (1994:37), While Levenson draws a strict distineti on between puppetry and media figures (not even bothering explieitly to men tion computer graphics), Kaplin eoncerns himselfexdusively with sueh figures as puppets. Kaplin writes offour " aspeets 01' the new technology that can be applied lo puppet performance in the near future " (37); alternately , he ealls these aspects "emerging sub-genres" (39). The first is "docu-puppetry," which makes USe 01' "sampling, eropping, and re-editing" of media images and involves the "depictation in puppet performance of factual and authoritative material, illustrating historieal, social or cultural phenomena" (37). The second emer ging subgenre is "virtual puppetry ," whieh involves " performing objects that cxist only within the computer, gencrated out 01' digitized bitmaps, given tightly controlled behavior parameters and linked by manual eontrols to the outside, human world " (38); this is. in essence, a description of eomp uter graphicsllgures. The third of Kaplin's subgenres is "hyper-puppctry," which is " a eollective extension , a corporate entity [01' a computer-generated puppet], created out ofthe merged energies of[a theorctieally " unlimited" number or1 users/participants" (38). Finally, Kaplin writes 01' "eyber-puppetry," by wh ich he means networked-eomputer puppetry with an onlinc, "interactive" dimen sion that "allows for the artist to conceive of performanees as collaborativc creation[s] with the audience" (38). It is exeiting to read Kaplin's vision of emerging fomls of artistic creatio n. bul worth noting that a ll four of his subgenres are fundament aJly rcla ted , Docu- p uppetry, hyper-pllppetry,
' Idp hl~: ~ Irlf ll les 111:, 1I1 ~1l W(lllh 11( )11 1I 1' 1!tI; l'USC \V III I whil'h K" plil! wrilcs ol' Ill l'S!: fi gu res a:; pupp\!IS, Thcrc sccrns In h l':l 1I 1t11 pli l!d dcfinition uf puppe lry 11\' 1,,', whidl rUlls: ir Lhe sjgllilil:alio l! (Ir !ir\! eal1 be cn:aled by people, then Ilu.: :-.ill' 01' lhat sigllificalion is lo bl! (;ol1siúered a puppet. This definition whidl. 1 shl)JJld cmphasize, 1 have rcad into Kaplin's essay- is revolutionary. \'x pandillg lhc rcalm 01' puppetry bcyond all definitions that center upon tlll' materia lit y 01' the puppet (01', to employ Benjamin's terms, the "unique n istl:ncc" orthe puppet as an object in a "speeific time amI place"). rt would ',CC tll 10 encompass not only computer graphies images (and stop-aetion ;Ind a1l animatronies as well) , but also forms of art thal have been almost IItlivcrsall y held distinct from puppetry, sueh as the eel (also known as ce1l) ;l1limalion popularized by Walt Disney. Our efTorts to make sense 01' the relationship between media figures and pllppets as we kn ow them , stimulated as these efforts might be by categorical sl;tlcments (and implications) of one kind or another, must derive ultimately l'mm an understanding 01' what media figures actually are. To that end, we will do well to attend to the details ol' such 11gures, looking especially at how IItcy are created and controlled. Computer graphics figures, such as the Hamlet 1 mentioned at the start (Ir lhis essay, involve. in effeet. three processes 01' crcation. F irst. a three dimensional abstract model of the figure is created in the form of mllltiple polygons or a digital wire-frame;4 the model can be constructed from the l'omputer keyboard (by which term l also inc\ude the computer mOl1se) o ut nI' gcometrie shapes and/or lines, or can be imported into lhe computer lhrough t Itree-dimensional shape-capture (the " capturing" 01' the look 01' a real-wo rkl (lbject). I created the model for my Il a mlet from the keyboard , lIsing geo tlletrie shapes that l stretched and "deformed" into an approximati on 01' lhe sltape of human limbs and then Iinked togcther; the model 1'01' the hcad 01' roy Slory's Woody, on the other hand, was based on a clay seulpture whose shape was captured by being scanned into a computer (Pixar/Walt Disney Pictures 1995:8). There are, I need scareely say , extremely sophisticated com puter programs, commercially available, that indude " resident" polygon and/or wire-frame bodies (some eonstructed, some eaptured from life) and I herefore greatly simplify the task 01' construeting a model. Designed into the model of the figure are the means for controlling its ",e stural movement;5 these are known as " articulation variables" (or, more caslIally, as "avars "). One writer likens the avars to " the strings 01' a mari onette" (Pixar/Walt Disney Pietures 1995:6), but they are actually more like 1he articulation points 01' pllppets as we have known them ; indeed , computer graphics programs ofTer a soleclion ofjoint-types quite Iike those available to lhe pu ppel-bu Jlder. ind ud ing. hingc j oints. spherical (ball-and-soeket) joints, anu so o n, a ll 01' wh idl ca n Ill' ddincd 1'01' lheir st itTness and range of Il\()vc tllcn t. The tlum b!.!!, nI' :t v:r r~ 11 111 1 Illip hl hc in volvcd in a complcx model is ashmi!ihill g: Iln: t1l ()~lc l 111 1 /''' \' -"ttl!'!"', WllIld y hall 2 12 tlvars in his fa ce
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alllnl.:, Sg ofw hidl WI.: IC Jeuic.1. Il:d 1\1 iIi ~ 11 1011 111 .t lll IW IIl ¡!. hilll al! ':XCé p li o ll lll ra ngc nI' éxpn:ssion ami a capadl y ror sl mpi ng Id:. 1Illllllh for cad! pUf'li..:u lal phoneme he would speak (8). The second process in the crcalion of a computer graphics figu re is Ihe definition of surface features for Ihe geometric model or wi re-fra mc. Thc surface features might be selected out 01' individual characterislies 01' col o r. texture, pattern. ami re Aectivity that a re resident in the computer graphil:,<; program (and are kno wn a s "shaders"), or might be imported inlo the com puter through image-scanning (e .g., the "capturing" of rea l-wo rld images s uch as photographs) . I created my Hamlet's surface features OUI o f resid en l characteristics; the computer graphics figure of i'.1.en in B/ack's Jack Jeebs, on the other hand, has the surface features 01' the " real " actor (in makeup) who a Iso plays lhe charaeter (Pourroy 1997:20). The third process in creating lbe figure is known as " rendering," and is the frame-by-frame compositing o r the model ami its surfaec fe atures, along with the dennition 01' on e or more ¡igh! sources and whatever worldly effects, such as shadows and fog, and camera effects, such as lens fiare ruld depth 01' focus, are desired. Now ifthe avars ofa computer grapbics figure are like a puppet 's articul a tion points (i.e .. joints), \Ve must ask what control mechanics are used to crea te movement at those points and how those mechanics are themselves o per ated . Or, lo put the matter in terms 01' a marionette, what a re the " strings" and ho\\' are they " pul1ed " to give the computer graphics fi gure its frame-by-rrrunc movement (general1y referred to in the computer world as " animation ")'! Two kinds 01' movement are relevant here: gestural movement , which , as I have already explained , is movement pertaining to the "body" 01' the fig ure; and proxemic movement, which is movement 01' the figure as a whole from one virtuallocation to another. Thcre are, in effect, two basic control mechanisl11s, each deriving from a dirferent source of control, a1though in practiee these mechanisms and sources are often used in combination. The first mechanism is known as "kinematics," and its source is the computer keyboard. Until a few years ago, "forw,trd" kinematics were a ccomplishcd by defining a figure's movement at each ava l'. generally working from the larger to the smaller limbs . For examp1e, to ha ve a figure touch its n ose, one \Vould enter commands first to rotate the upper arm, then the forea rm , then the finger that \Vould touch the nose (with eac h rotation occurring at an avar). Recently, however, the development 01' " in versl' kinematics" has allowed one simply to attach a " handle" to a certain part 01' the figure, "grab" it with the computer mouse, and "drag" it to its desircu 10cation , wirh the necessary movement at related articulation points fo llow ing naturally along. the various joints operating according to thei r defl lll:d stiffness and range of m o vement. To ha ve a figu re louch its nose, for e.\am pk, o ne need on ly grab a ha nd 1c at the fi gure's nngcrti p and d rag it to lhe nl>!lC; lhe wrist, dbow, and shou lder (and , ir d esircd, Ihe u J'lpcr lorso as wcll) wi ll ro ta tc accord ingly. I nvcrsc kinema lics, Ih us. has mad\.' lite ).!~s tll ra l- m ovemunl
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g r:lph i¡;s 1i) 'I H \.'S 1I II Iy !11I :dogI Hl s lo lile sl n nl!S (1 1' I'l Hls Ihc lll. Once a geslllre has bcen " delillcd ," il can bc savcd rol' la ter use ill lhe COIll I'lIlcl''s memory: once one has delined nose-tollching, say, or the movel11ent (Ir Ihe lips ror lhe phon emc "em," one can casily rcca ll it ror usage as often as (lile wal1ls. More complex gestural movements such as walking require the illlegration of l11ulti ple movement definitions, such as for the arms and the I.:gs. The task is slight1y less complicated than it might seem, however, since Ihe movement derincd for one limb can be recalled (and " (l ipped ," if neces sary) for its opposite; a lso . inverse kinematics will allow certain aspeets 01' the Illovement to fo ll ow naturally. On the other hand , the walking gestllre 01' a well-made complltcr graphics figure involves far more than the motion of arms and legs: there are myriéld details to consider as weH, inc1uding patterns 6 01' breathing, the Ocxing of individual musc1es, and so on. Proxemic movement is generated from the keyboard prim a rily through the definition 01' " animation paths," in which one describes the route that the figure will take from one 10cation to lhe next. The speed at which lhe figure will move is a function ofthe number offrames that it will takc to trélverse lhe distance, a lld must also be defined. Since computer graphics figures exist in a three-dimensional virtual space, their animation paths can take them in rront of objects, thus "blocking" the objects from view, or behind them ; also, as they move " toward" or "away from" the virtual " camcra ," they will appear lo grow larger or smaller , respectively. Another approach to proxemic movc Illent involves denning certain "physical" qualitics for the figu re, such as ccnter 01' gravity, weight, and rebound characteristics (e.g., like rubber, ~teel , cte.). The figure can then be dropped , as it were, or tossed or spun , and it will act in accordance with its defined qualities. To create from the keyboard the walk of a figure across a roo m- as I created the walk of my Hamlet- involves the bringing together 01' separately defined gestural and proxemic movemenls: first one uses handles to define lhe gestures that constitute walking, and then one dcflncs the animation path and speed 01' lhe walk. This bringing together 01' movements is analogous to lhc way that puppets are moved. A marionette, for example, al so has specific gcstures 01' wa lking, created primarily with its leg strings: these walking ges lures are brought togcther with a proxemic path along which the marionette is transported b y its main support strings. If, al the end of the computer graphics figure ':; walk, one wanted to have it collapse on the floor, one could simply lel it drop freely, with its fa ]] governed by its defined physica l qualities; likewise, a marionetle wOllld collapse lo the ground, according to its reaI physica l qllali li c~ in lh c nalllral wnrld. with a sudden slackening 01' the Icnsion 011 il:; s u p r orl sil ¡II I ' S, 'lIl e main difTcrence between Ihe keyboard 'rcakd walking uf;l l'pn lp lfl,'! ~lllI p I IK' ~ li,~ lI rc a nJ a p up pet is th a t the wa lk (Ir Ihe r~mlH:r i~ p u in ~lltJ.. ill f l y \ 'I II IIII\I~cd " ve r a H ex tcnded period uf ti me, whi k: the walk orth.; la t!l:l 1', I I\' dl ~'1 1 ,, 11 ¡11 "I ICe. in r,:a l-limc,
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'['he sccond control nH.:dlanis l11 ,'\" tillo' 1t1 11 \c r l1l: 1I 1 (11' compuler 1;!m phics '"igurcs IS known as " mell ion -capture, " ano lhe ~\ l llrCC 01' control i~ Ihe hu ma n body. M o tion-capture refcrs to the digital '\;apturing" orrea l-workl m Olio n gestural and/or proxemic- for its application to the computer graphics fi gu re. The " capture" itself is made possible by a series of tiny transm itters or re fleetors that are placed on a de vice m anipulated by the perfo rmer: alternately. the transmitters or reftectors can be placed directly on tile performer's b ody. and the body itself " manipulated ," as it ",ere. In eilher case, the transmi tters or reflectors are mech a n ically, magnetically , or optically tracked fOl' th eir exact motion ; analogous points are defined ror the figure that wi ll be moved. T he most well-known motion-capture device is lhe "Waldo" (a name trade ma rked by The C haracter Sh op), although the principies behind the Waldo are in wide usage . The Waldo ís advertised , perhaps wíth tongue partly in cheek , as an "ergonomíc-gon ío-kineti-telemetrie device." "Ergonornic" means that the device is engineered to fit ("comfortably") the performer's bod y; "gonio-" and " kineti-metric " mean that it "measures the angle and movement ofthe wearer'sjoints and limbs," or, for that matter, the lips. eyes, or whatever; and "telemetric" means that "the movemcnt data is [sic] measured and sent via remote control " to the computer. The digitized data are then applied lO the computer graphics figure . with thc result that the figure's "movement " echoes, in " real-time ," that 01' the performer. Waldoes , according to Character Shop Iiterature, seem to be eoneerned primarily with gestural movement and, indeed, offer two ways 01' eontrolling sueh movcment, The first might be termed a "physiognomie analogue," and involves a one-to-one relationship between the body 01' the performer and that of the figure: the opening and c10sing of the performer's mouth results in an analogous movement by the figure's mouth. The second way of generating gestural movement might he called " movement analogue, " and involves a onc-to-another relationship between the movement of a particular part 01' the performer' s body and that of a different part of the figure: the opening and closing of the performer's hand , within a device rather Iike a standard M uppet (or a hand -in-sock puppet), results in the opening and c10sing 01' the figure's mouth. Proxemic movement can also bc gcnerated through motian-capture. Polhemus, Inc., for example, advertises a motion-capture system that allo ws two performers to " interact together [ ... ] and to move freely within a 25 foot by 50 foot space" (Polhemus 1997) . lndeed, given that this system can involve up to 32 receivers (placed on the performers' bodies), it can be said to track much of the gestural movement that naturally occurs along wilh proxem ic Illovement. There is a paradox here that migh t be worth noting. M ovement generated from the keyboard is, as we h a ve seen, unlike puppet m ovement in that it must be pa instakingly compo scd over él lo ng period of t ime. It is. ho wever, quite like puppet movcment in th a l ils !!cslllral and pro xem ic aspects are genera lly trCCl ted as indi viU UiIl fl rohlcllls. MtlVCment gcncnl lctl l7,)
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tlt lU uglt 111 (1 111.11 I.'apllllc. ~1I1 lite llllt,~r Iland. can IX' quile lik'e puppet 1110ve in Iltal il is gCllcrated, in rca l-time, through the ba dily exerlions of a living bcing. It ¡s. howcvcr. unlike puppet movell1ent in that its gestural and I'loxcmic 1ll0vell1cn(s need na t be treated individually, but can be dealt with all at once.7 Motion-capture not only allows for real-time control of lhe computer graphies ligure. bUl, wlth recent developments, now aJlows even for Lhe kind lll'virtual "Iive" perfOlmance (i.e .. a synchronicity ofcontJol , perfomlance, and n;ception) referred lO earlier as " performance animation. " Silicoo Graphics, lile .. for example, has been among the pioneeTs in perform a nce animation , wltieh they can characterize as the use of motion-capture applied to a com puter graphics figure that allows the figure (on a video screen) to interact with a ¡¡ve audience. ~ Should computer graphics figures be considered puppets? We recall that Levenson would exclude them if only on the basis of the use of technology in their creation , while Kaplin predicates his entire discussion of ne\V subgenres 1m their inclusion . The question might best be approached by breaking it down into two distinet issues: the nature of these figures and the relationship between them and their operators. In dealing with the first issue, it will be helpful to ma ke use 01' the eo ncept 01' tangibility, with the root-sense of "tangible" be ing "capable of being louched ," Computer graphics figures are not tangible- there is no touchab1c "there" to them. As we have seen, there are striking similarities in the creatio n of computer graphies figures and puppets: the creation 01' both invo lves the eonstruction of a figure imbued with articulation points that is then given surface design features . Both , in short, are artificial human constructs designed for manipulation (of one sort or another) by people. And, as 1 suggested earlier, both share the crucial trait of being sites 01' signifieation other than "real " living beings (01' 01' images that are directly referent to such beings); lhat is, in both cases the signs oflife have been abstracted from sites 01' actual lite to be deployed by sites that have no actual life. On the other hand , however, even if a figure 's model were to be derived from 3D scanning (e.g., a c1ay sculpture), and even if its surface features were to be imported from a tangible source (e.g., an actor's face), the figure itself would remain without tangibility- a " virtual object" that would be, at most. an indirect referent to material 01' corporeal objects. Now it might be argued that the conventional 111m or video i01age 01' a traditional puppet or an actor is also without tangibility, but in such a case , the image is a direct referent to a material 01' corpOl'eal object , nolwithstanding lhe ways in which directors amI editors lI1ight makc use orlhal rckre nl. Ilere then is a poi lll Iha l SClllIlS lo he 01' fundamental ill1 portance: p u p pets as we ha vc k ll\Wl1 1 t !lC't ll l ilhll~' .I I ~·d oul 01' wunt!. c1olh. lh e l11ucb lamented eclaslic. or wh a ll!V\:f' ¡ti !' WIII'Jllk [lhll'I' IS. whik com p uter g ra ph ics fig ures a rc no\. Th isdifTcrcm:c 11I\' \llh' , ,lIfllllt'lI l Ih ~'o l ~'lil'al basis , Jes pi tc lile ma ny
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silllilaritícs sh arcd hy tlH:sC l W\l kim l!\ \\1 l i !!. l ll ~·~. I\JI dislill gu ish ill g hel WCCIl lhcm. But I think lhe dislincli o ll necus lo be 111 M\.: slIbtl y pul Iha ll sim fl ly lo dcclare p up pets and compulcr graphics figurcs lo be in l rínsically JiffcrcnL bccausc tangibility seems to be the on ly si gnifican! and invariable diflCrcncc bctween these two kinds of figures. Th llS , I propose that puppets as we havc known them be thought 01' as "t311gible" puppets, wb ile computer gra phics figures be thought of as " virtual " puppets (to borrow Ka pli n's term). T hese usages will, I think, assuage traditionalists such as Levenson. since the seman lic overtones ofthe modifiers "tangible" and "virt ual" are, respectively. "rea\" anJ " not-quite-real ," and reflect the funda mental difference between the two ikinds offigures. But l trust these usages will also satisfy vi,sionaries such as Kaplin since the shared cmployment 01' the word "PIlPpeC' recognizes crucial simil arities between the lwo kinds 01' figures. Computer graphics figures--- virtual puppets- are, as I have suggested, conceptually new aud owe their concep tion to the newness of the medium in whicb tbey exist; but as \\Iith everything new, they are not at all unassociated with what has gone before thcm.~ If I am willing to accept computer graphics figures as virtual puppet s before 1 even address the issue of the figures and their operators, it is because this issue- generally cast in terms 01' " real-time" control by the operator scems to me to be a red hcrring. As a rule, tangible puppets are operated in real-time: as we have seen, however, virtual puppets might a!so be operated in rcal-time- indeed, even "li ve."lll One respondent to Levenson's proposal suggests that the criterion of real-time operation is significant in discussing compute\' graphics figures beca use the control 01' th em " Iaeks the possibility of mistakes --mistakes being the arbiter ofgood and bad performance" (Levenson 1992:3). Even for live performance, this secms a strange criterion: eertainly the making of mistakes will mar a pcrformanee, but just as certainly a great performance can contain more mistakes (a flubbed line, a misplaeed prop, etc.) than a mediocre performance that is errorless but without passion or intelligence. More to the point, the very idea of mistakes seems obsolete for all non-live performance, whether mechanically reproduced or produced through mcdia: mistakes can be edited out or relegated to unused "takes" just as easily as they can be "erased" in media production. And , as a matter of faet, mistakes remain in all kinds of non-Iive pcrfolmance when the replace ment 01' those mistakes does not seem worth the cost and/or effort. Thc issue of real-time control seems less an issue of "What is a puppet?" than one of "What is a puppctcer?" A person operating a puppet (tangible or virtual) in real-time is palpably doing what puppeteers have always done: bu! a person working at él keyboard with a virtual puppet--despite the fact that one is controlling the movement of lhe puppet- does not seem to be cngaged in the same activ ity, despite the faet thal the res ult (i.c., movement 01' the figure) is the samc. This Icads us to a parad ox: lhe prospcct 01' pll ppct ry (or 01' virtual puppel ry. al any ra le) wilhout rec<)gnizab k p ll r pctecrs . Computen, have, one might sayo rrccd lhc pll ppet f'rom jl:-; dcpelHh: ncc on I,;onvcntional
nll ppcl~C I :-' BIII ¡;c)llIplllcrs havL~ no!. ul' coursc, I'reed lhc puppel I'rum thc nct:cssíty 01' hlllllan control 01' Orle sor! or another- o nly from the real-time control oC the puppeteer. Pursuant lo the li ne of reason ing I have been developing, it might now be worthwhi\c to considcr the other kinds 01' media productio n mentioned near the beginning 01' this essay: stop-action animation and anima tronics. Indeed .. it will be best to begin with at least a brief consideration oí' a form of media produetion I have noted onl 1' in passing: cel anim ation. As we have seen , Kaplin 's implied definition 01' puppetry provides no apparent grounds for excluding ccl animation from the realm oí' puppetry. Does it have a place within my framework 01' tangible amI virtual puppet ry? I suggest not, and make this suggestion without taking recourse to the criterion 01' real-time control. The principie behind the movement of cel-animatio n figures is fundamentally ditTcrent from those of tangible and virtual puppets. Cel-animation figures, owing to their nature as works of pain terly art. have neither articulation points nor control mechanics of one sort or another. as do both tangible and virtual puppets. In fact. their movemenl is not really "controlled" at all. but is strictly an optical iIIusion: they do not "act" like puppets, but Iike the drawings they are. Whi\e I would not hesitate to recog nize an affinity between cel animation and puppetry- especially since each sites the signification 01' life in a place that is not Iife itse1f- 1 think that their differences require them to be considered as different forms of art. The figures of cel animation are obviously what I have te¡med media fi gures, since without technological mediation they cannot "act" in the least; not all media figures, however, need be thought of as puppets. Turning now to stop-action figures, a brief glance at their history will establish them as the chronologically earliest of media figures . J. SllIart B1ack ton made use 01' them in a 1907 short, The l-Iaul1ted Hotel, and they had an extended vogue in Russia , in the lllms of Ladislas Starevich as early as 1912 through Ptushko 's 1935 T/¡e New Gullil'er. They appeared in the 1933 c\assie King Kong and the Czech fi lm maker Jiri Trnka employed them to great ctlect in a scries of films in the post- World War " era. They are also long familiar. of course, in American te\evision , having been used for such sta pIes as Gllmby and the Pillsbury Doughboy (Touchstone Pietures 1994:4). Given their early history , it is interesting that Benjamin made no mention of them-but if he had, hc would have had to reconsider his thesis that film can only reproduce (and so, dislocate) works of art , for stop-action provides a c1assic case of technology being used to crea te original productions. The basic principIe 01' stop-action animation will be familiar to most readers: A material object without any visible means of control is set in a particular pose and shot wit h a single frame 01' film . The figure is then given a minulely di fferent pose, t he fi lm is auvanced , an d anot her single (rame is shot. And on amI 011 , until lhe l-in ishcJ sequence o f frames, when viewed at . 'lJ'ojcc.:!l:d spccd. gives Ihc ill usio!1 Iha l the fig ure is mov ing ofits own accord,
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while in ['ad , the lihu uoes no t aClually IccOI d .t ll~ I1hlVClllcnL per se, ~ )r the figure . but o nly a scquellce 01' still posit io ns, Slop-uc tion figures hd o llg, I suggest, to the new brccd 01' medi~ images beca use, uespitc the relalivcly old tcchnology used in thcir creation , they are quite literally the ereation oftllat technology. They a re not. that is, "mechanieal reproductions," for their visible movement is not being rcproduced at all, hut proJuccd for tlle firs t time through the medi um 01' fi lm. Stop-action figures are material ohjects in preeisely the same sen se as tangible puppets: the principies of their construction are identical to those 01' s uch puppets, involving the fabrication 01' a body tllat is imbued with a rl i c ulation points and given surface features, What differences exist in construc lion are of degree ratller than of kind . Most important ly. the stop-action figure wiU usually he given more articula tion points than is common in puppets: the centipede in James and lhe Gianl Peach (1996), the most complex 01' the figures used in the film , has 72 such points (Disney Studios 1996:8) , Two additional differences are also worth Iloting. First, a figure will freq uently be given a set of interchangeable heads: the title character in James and lhe Gialll Peach has 45 different heads, each of which has a particular hase expression and set ofarticulation points (5). Second, a figure might be created in multiple versions, to be used variously depending on the demands of the sllot: 15 different figures were fabricated for eaeh of the se ven Icading char acters in .James amllhe Gial1l Peach (5). These characteristics 01' stop-action figures-extra articulation , interchangeable parts , and multiple figures for the same character--are not , however, required for the creation 01' stop action, and are really only c1aborations 01' practices that are available \Vith tangible puppets. 11 Are stop-action figures puppets? The actual manipulation of such figures is quite similar to that 01' tangible puppets, being nothing more or less than the physical mo ving 01' various parts from one position to anothcr. The differ enee between stop-action figures and puppets, which is significant and invari able, is that by the very process oftheir animation, stop-aetion figures can not be operated in real-time, or in anything close to it. In The N ighlmare Be{cJl'e Chrisfmas, "a typical shot would take three days [to create] a nd end up lasting about five seconds on the screen" (Touchstone Picturcs 1993:3). The man ipulation 01' a stop-action figure does not take place in front of the audience (or of the film camera that is the stand-in ror th e audience), but is, quite Iiterally, hidden away, taking place as it does between the individual framcs 01' film. What the audience sees , as it views a stop-aeti o n film, is not the recordeu image of movem ent , but the ill usi o n of movement created t hrough tlle recording. Stop-action figures , l suggest, are p uppets lo the same degree as I.:o rn puter graphics figures; that is , the y are c10scl y re la teu lo puppcl s as we have known them exeept in o ne crucia l rega rd that
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lJlI,II,ll 'I,'IN lu b t' ItHllld ut Dlsm;yland, 111 IIn di .III'IÚ\l h ly rall\.:lll l ~ L'IC;lIUI I.!~ 1\ ,", I,l hli slllne lll s ~ \II.:h as I he C hud l. . { 'hce!',l' l'I I/L' fl lIS. Thc disling llishing , 11I1I,1~'l n i ~ li c ~1 rlhl~ alllolllaton is that its rn OVClllell1 jlossibilities a re " dused ." \Vilh pIl PJ'l(;tS 01' all kinds - - even those with a li rni tcd rangc 01' possiblc 11 111 VI.; 11 Icnt :-;
thc naturc ami duration oreac.h movement is open to the con trol lite npcrator, whcther the operator sits at a eomputer, wears a Wald o, 01' :;l!lIats behind a playboard . With an automaton , ho wever, lhe program 01' l1\oVClllcnts, once laid down either e1cctronically or meehanically. is invari ahle: tirst it wi ll nod its head, let us say, then wave a hand, then rise in g l'l,.:cting, and so on. The automaton's program might indeed be alte red , but it Ihen would have oruy a new invariable programo The difference between puppets and automata is not the function of él ne w medium of preseutation , as are the differences presented by virtual and stop-action puppets; thus, a distinction should be maintained between the automaton and all categories 01' puppet, with an automaton (whether eontrolled thro ugh animatronics or mechanics) being eonsidered a kind of kinetic sCllI'pture. Tangible puppets, virtual puppets, stop-action p uppets (and the use o f animatronic controls for any or all of them as weH): What, finaily, is one to think 01' thc art 01' puppetry in thc agc 01' media production'! Back in the age ofmcchanical reproduction , Walter Benjamin's thoughts seem to have verged on the apocalyptic: he condueles his essay with the strong imp'l ication that mechanical rcproduction is associated with fascism, and thus with \Var ([193 3J 1969:241 - 42). Whilc I am ccrtain that media production is él function of, ancl an influencc upon, contemporary society, I hesitate to draw any profoumJ conclusions from its devclopment. Ratller, I think it has deveLoped simply beca use its development was possible: artists saw some possibilities in the new media and rushed to take advantage of them , just as they have alwa ys done when presented with new possibilities. Traditionalists such as Mark Levenson (at least in his formal role \Vith UNIMi\-USi\) seem to fear for tangible puppetry in the faee of the various kinds of media puppets, and so seek to maintain a sphere of exclusivity for it. Visionaries sueh as Stephen Kaplin are more sanguine. The new form s 01' puppctry, writes Ka plin , \Viii not mean " death of traditional [forms o f) puppetry," but will probably lead thcm to be "preserved for their historie, spiritual or folklorie value, like endangered species on a game preserve" (1994:39). Such preservation does not seem to me like a terribly happy fa te: but neither does it seemlikcly. One is hard pressed to name three trad itions of puppetry that have successfully been "preserved" after their audience ha); deserted them. 12 In fact, however, I do not think that media puppetry spells the end 01' pllppetry as we have known il. There is a pleasure stilllo be fOlln d in lhe live performance ora tangible puppet- the direct con frOntaLi o n betwecl1
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Notes I crcated this figure using a computer graphics program callcd Caligari truSpace: see . wh ere a demonstration version of the program is available as of this writing. A series of powerful computer graphics prograllls arc ,liso sold b y A lias I Wavefront. 1\1y discussion of computer graphics below has been grcatly informed by the literature, available on the Web, put out by these t\Vo companies, as \Vell as by Web litcratu re from Silicon Graphics, Ine. 2 See l11y "The Actor Occluded: Puppet Thcatrc and t\cling Thcory" (Tillis 1996) for a discussion of signifieation siting. 3 Sce, for example, Weissberg (1996). 4 Although I speak of the model as being "three-dimensional," il should be under stood that I refer to three dilllensiolls within virtual , nol real , spa\.:e: tbe computer screen image of the model has, litcrally, only two dim ensions. 5 By "gesturalmovement" I mean all movements that pertain to the "body" of the figure , frolll gross rillovelllcnts such as walking and jUlllping up and down to exceedingly fine movelllents such as the twitching 01' a muscle. 6 It mighl be noted that
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lO The lu igi ll ,, ("a real -tilllccri tl:ri(llllm pl lPlw tl y """ hl l. l" ha vc llrigill: lh:d ill ;¡ d (,,'~ ir,· lo distinguish bC IWt'Cn puppel!; Ulld aullllllalil. ScC' "do\\! rol' a di s(;u ~s i"lI (Ir Ihi s issue. 11 The o verall effed 01' these distilletive a, peets uf I~lbrieali()n U. 10 all o w Ihe ~I() p . aetio n figure a far more detailed level 01' mov emc ll l Ih a n is typical 1'0 1' even tite,; mosl arlieulated marionette. One Illight note, howeve r, that 1'01' '111 o rlhe po¡;sihil nuanee 01' ils movelllent, Ihe stop-aetion figure will slill laek lhe a rt ieulat io n 01'" well-designcd computer graphies figure: Woody, in To)' SIOI'y, has a rClllarkablc 7 12 avars (Pixar/Disney Pieturcs 1995:8). 12 Co nsider the fate o fth e karagot. shadow Ih ea trc , t'o r exalllplc.. des pilc lhe cultural preservat io n efforts 01' the Tllrki sh governmenl.
Rc(erences Al ias I WaveJront, lne. 1997. < hltp://w\\!w. aw.sgi.eolll>.
Ande rson , Pa ul 1997. "Audio-A nilllatronies 1O1," < http://www.sgi.coml>.
Benjamin , W alter 1969 [1933] . "The Work 01' Art in the Age of M echanieal Rcproduc lion." In f!Iulllinotiol'/.\", translaled by 11. Z ohn, 217 - 51. New Y ork: Schoeken Boo ks. Burton, T im 1993. Tlle Ni~hlmare Before Chrisl/llas. Touehstone Pietures. Caligari, Ine. 1997. "On- Line Help ror Caligari truSpaee." < http://www.caJigari.col11 1>. Charaeler Shop, Ine. , The 1997. . Cray, Richard 1997. Pe rsona l eorresponde nee wilh author. 8 September. Disney Studios 1996. " James a/1(1 Ihe GiW!l Peach. " The Pl/ppelry .louma/47, 4: 4 -6. Duncan, Jo d y 1997. " On lhe Shoulders o fGianls." Ci/lelex 70: 72-109. Kaplin, Slephen 1994. " Puppetry into Ihe Next MiI1e nni um. " Puppell'y II1/('rnol;onal 1: 37-39. Lassiter, John 1995. Toy Slory. Walt Disney Pietures. Levenson , Mark 1992. " Memorandum re: Puppetry in Other M ed ia. " U npublished paper presenled to Ih e Futurism Conferenee, San Luis Obispo, CA , 15 May. Luskin , J onat han 1997. " Protozoa and the FlIlure 01' Performanc'C Animation" Innova/ion, SUlllmer: 48,-51. Pixar/Walt Disney Pietures 1995. "'[he Toy Story." Th e Puppelry Jounza/47, 2: 6 - 8. Po lhemus, Ine. 1997. < http://,,,,ww.polhe mus.eom/>. Pourroy, Janine 1997. "Basie Blaek. " Cinelex 70: 15 - 44, 155, 166. Seliek , Henry 1996. .Ial11C's 0/1(1 lite Gianl Pe(/c/¡. Walt Disney Piel Uf cs. Siheo n Gra p hies, lne. 1997 . . Sonnenfeld , Barry 1997. Atel/ il1 Block. Alllblin En tertainment. Ine. Spielberg, Slephen 1997. Tll e Losl ~Yo rld: .lurrasic Park . Amblin Entertainment. Ine. Tillis, Steve 1996. "The A cto r O cc1l1ded: PlIppet Theatre and ACling Theory." Th ealr(' Topics 6, 2: 109- 19. Touehstone Pietures 1994. "Stop-Molion Animation-Then and Now ." The PUjJ pelr)' .Io/lfIllI/45 , 3: 4 -- 6. - - 1993 . " The Ni~hlmare Belore C!trisllIlas." The PUjJjJelry .!oumal 45, 2: 2- 4. Weissberg, Jed 1996. " The Art 01' PlIppelry in lhe Age 01' Digital Manipulation.· · Puppelry Il1l erl/aliolla/2: 39- 40.
1RO
88
T HE SC R EEN TEST
OF T H E DOUBLE
The uncanny perforrner in the space of technology
Ma tthew Causey Sllurcc: T/¡e(llre .louma/ 51(4) (1999): 383 394.
Your rcality is atready half video hallueination . Soon it will becolllc tOlal hallueination. You ' re going to ha ve lo 1ca rn to I,ive in á ver)' strange, new world. Dr. Brian Oblivion, Videodrol/1e l And ir 1 am anything in the picture, il is al\\'ays in the form 01' lh e se reen , wh ich 1 ear1ier ealled the stain . the spo!.'
Question regarding thc virtual and the real There is nothing in cyberspal:e and the screened technologies of the virtual that has not been already performed on the stage. The theatre has always been virtual , a space ofillusory immediacy.' Yet the contemporary discourse surrounding Iive performance and technological reproducti on cstablishes an essentialized difference between the phenomena. The difference is furth er com:retized in the critical writings 01' theatre and performance studies that ignore such pcrformative mediatcd forms as film, television, radio, and mul timedia. Slavoj Zizek, in the introduction to Mapping Ideo{ogy, writes that it is a commonplace assumption that "virtual or cyber-sex presents a radical break with the past since in it actual sexual contact ,vith a real other is losing ground against masturbatory enjoyment, whose sole support is the virtual other." He dismisses that assumption by suggesting that "Lacan's thesis that there is no sexual relationship mean s precisely that tha structure of the real sexual act (of the act with a ftesh and blood partncr) is already inherently phantasmic- the real body 01' the other serves only as a support ror our phantasmic projeclions. "4 Laca n's argument thus challenges the as su mptio ns inhcrent in the construded bini:lry of the Iive and thc virtual, and 5 1hcrcby Jisp ll f ill g f h e daims of imml!diacy lI nd p re:;ence in Iive perrormancc. \/·;1
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Bul il wOllld he a 111istake lu im agin!.: fll!rI wll.1I W\: ¡';XJ'lC I il' tll,;I,: ill 1 1t ~ IIIca tl!' ami recorded media is the sa me cXp¡;ric llc,;c. 1I is Iln: sa IlH.!. ulll y di I'kTCII l. The debate regarding the ontol ogy oC pérf'olm rm cc íl nd the nal urc ¡)r liveness has been well rehearsed. 6 Peggy Phd an argues that pe rfo rm a nce 1" defined through its non-reproduci bi lity. Thc IUlture of perfo rmance dctt: ri nr ates as it is enfolded in teeh nological reproducti on , Phil ip Ausla nder co unte n; tha l the live is an artifaet of reeording media, Liveness exists 110t as a priO I eondition , but as a result o fm ediatization, Ye t both a rg uments are problem atic . Phelan disregards any effect of tech no logy on pe rfo rm a nce and d raws a non-nego tiable, essentialist border between the tw o media. A uslander draws out a sop hi sticated legal argument whose d ynamic materialism o verl ooks the most material manner o f ma rking the live, namely death. Disputing lhe argument of Phelan and a mending Auslander 's 1suggest tha t the ontology 01' performance (li veness), wh ich exists before and after mediatiza tion, ha s been altered within the space 01' technology. Hu t, how?
Question regarding performance and mediatized cultur e Three basic argllments comprise the contemporary theory 01' subjccl con struction in mediaÜzed culture' and help shape the aesthetic gestures of contemporary performance: l. The material body and its subjectivity is extended , chal1enged , and recOfl figllred through technology. 2. The te1evisual is the primary modality of contemporary technological representation dominating manners 01' thought and communica tion. cultural and subject constrllction . 3. There exists an unavoidable convergence of the human and maehi n\:: wherein the "slave" machine dominates the " master" human subjcct. The performance work of the c1assical post.modernist Woo ster Grour (us), The Desperate Optimists, an expatriate Irish compan)' working in Ihe UK (Irc1and/uK), the altered medical body of O rlan (France) , the obsoletc body 01' Stelarc (Australia), and the post-colonial cyber-performance aTtists Guillermo Gómez-Peña and Roberto Sifuentes (Chica no-American) are al1 in the process 01' embodying mediated subjectivity and articulating, rep reso enting that experience in performance. The developing art forms o f wcb based performance, interactive installations, aud virtual enviro ll ments .Irl' extending the boundaries 01' the theatre and our notions of wha t consti tu tcs a performance. How do we understand the processes of pe rfo rmance which converge \Vith mediated technologies 01' representation and represen l am.l enact m ediated su bjectivity? I wa nt he re to answe r my two questioll s by iJ:i()la ting iI cri tical l11 0rncnt in new m ed ia pe rformance wOrks spccifk ally "nd ~I i ril ; " c ltlllIrc in genera l.
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whCll lltc Pll·... l·lIl\· 111 Ihe f),'lIhlc: i ~ pl \:"~' llh:d 1" llIlIi,. l l l l1l;dill l~d d ll fll llCu l ll ll l. Illl.:di¡¡h:d ollI i.: 1 th nll lg h tire tcchllologics 1I1' rq)I'oducti(.)Tl. I will ~u ~¡.!l.!s t Ihal lhe I.!XpCriCIlL'l· (JI' (he se ll as otller in the spacc 01' 'l cch no logy can hl.: rl.!ud as un um:unny cx pc ricllcc. a making material of split subjectivity . W hal l wil1 arg uc is that Lhc inclllsi oll uf lile tclevisual screcn in performa nce, a nd the practil.:e 01' perfo rmance in (h l: screened world o l' virtual environments, con sli tlltes the staging 01' the p riv ilcged object of the split subject, that which assisls in lhe subject's divisio n, ca pturing lhe gaze, enacting the subject 's annihilation , its noth ingness, wh ile presenting the unpresentable approac'h of the real through lhe televisual screens. Part psychoanalytic reading (Fmud and Laean), part textual anal ysis (Beckett and Genet) , part film sludies (Lynch and Weir), this paper focuses on the material object wherein and upon which these performa nce phenom ena take place, both in the nowhere of the psyche and the li ved space of the s body: the screens. The goal of this tripartite strategy is to demonstrate how questions of virtuality and the real are being played out in both live and mediated perfo rma tive work and across a variety of historical contexts. The critical issues of li ve performance are converging with the critical issues of mediatized culture and each is informing the other. II! \: c;impk 1IIIllllCIII when a livl.! ild ~)f ~P II11 \l111 ~ hCI
At the tone, please leave a message Avital Ronel1 , in The Telephone Boo!e writes of IF reud's notion 01' unheimlich , or the uncanny, and how this phenomenon recurs through the subject's experience of displacement within technology. She remarks that "the more dreadflllly disquieting tlling is not the other or alil alien: it is, rathcr, yourself in oldest familiarity with the other, for example, it could be the Double in which you recognize yourself outside of yourself."9 The confrontation with the DOllble, the recognition 01' yourself outside of yourself through the echo ing voiee on Ihe telephone, the anamorphic projection on the telcvision in freeze-frame, slow-motion , fast forward , and reversc, through " a kind 01' '' being in cyberspaee \Vith morphing identities that exist within the fragility of the digital hypertext, prescnt the teehnologically triggered uncanniness of contemporary subjectivity. The experience 01' the uncanny within the space of technology seems easily constructed. The first time your computer screen displays a message, a q uestion " how a re you?" from an a nonym o us chatroom participant, the experience is palpable. Who is it behind the text, on the other side of the screen? It is whol1lever 1 want. The pulsating cursor, like a heart beat, anticipates the streaming text that foll o ws, unencumbered by the ap pearance of the body , offering a flat screen ideally suited to project our own desires, our desiring phantasms. The audio samp1ing 01' our voices (" al the tone, please ¡ca ve a message" ), the black a nd white su rwil1a nce vid eo capt ures of our irnages ("is that h o w 1 lo ok in line at the ba nk?") are now common p]¡lI..'e. bu t some how unscUling. WhV" In llttt!mpr illg lo l1ul li nc an aesl hctic 0 1"
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the um;an ny "rc lld notcl! scvcrallikrill y C\lIlll l'k~ I hal Wllllld t.:Iidt . 111 C\I1Cri ence of the Llnca nny. Freud wri tes. " t hi s 1I 11C..1I111 Y is ill rea lily lIoth ing ncw or alien, but something which is familiar ami okl-eslablished in the mi nd alld which has become alienated from it only through lh e process ofrepressio n." ltI The ego does not believe in the possibilüy of its death. The uncon scious th inks it is immortal. The uncanny experience ofthe double is Death made m aterial . Unavoidable. Present. Screcned. Thc screens ofmediated tcchnologies, now ubiquitous in live performance, like the dolls. mirrors and automatons which F reud suggests bring fort h experience, construet the space wherein we double ourselves and perform él witnessing of oursclves as other. The uncanniness 01' mediatized culture is a technological uncannincss. David Lynch's TlI'in Peaks: Fire Walk ¡vil/¡ Me. the feature prequcl to the television series, works through these issues of technological uneanniness. It is February the sixtcenth at 10:10 A . M . when Speeial Agent Dale Cooper enters the office of I'IlI Regional Director G ordon Coleo The establishing shot of the FJl1 Building begins with an upside-down shadow ofthe Liberty Bell panning up to the actual Bell, which is then echoed in a print 01' the Bell in Gordon's office. " 1 was worried about today because ofthe dream I told you about," Cooper confides, kneeling at Gordon's desk. Gordon nods. Cut to: an empty office hallway with a single surveillance camera hung from the ceiling pointing away from the viewer. Special Age nt Cooper enters the frame, stands in front ofthe surveillance camera and waits. Cut to: Close-up of the surveillance monitor with Cooper looking. Cut to: Medium shot of the hallway as Cooper walks out. Cut to: Medium shot of surveillance control room where a security guard watches three video mon itors. The middle monitor displays Cooper just exiting the ha\lway as he enters the frame ofthe film and into the control room. He studies the monitor. Nothing. He repe.ats the sequence. Still , nothing on the monitor. The editing works to unsettle the eye between monitored video space and the real filmic space. An elevator door opens. Pause. Philip Jeffries, a long ,Iost federal agen l walks up the hallway toward Cooper, who is again looking into the survei l lance camera . Cooper walks back in the control room and is astonished to see himself on the live monitor and that Jeffries is walking past his image. I-Ie calls out anxiously , " Gordon! Gordon! " Seeing himself see himself creates él startling chain of events. Jeffries, now in Gordon 's office, speaks in a haltin g voice about an L1nknown Judy. The video noise orthe dead TV ehannel , which later proves to be the sighting of the father as killer, fades in and out, su per imposed upon the scenes. It is through the technological that \Ve enteT lhe dream space of T win Peaks with its patented reverse speak. When Jeffrics vanishes it is as ir he does so along the electrical wires ami through videa ted spaee as quick inserts of cabling and telephone poles are flashed. Th e fro nl desk of FIJI headq uarters sa ys Lhat Jeffries wa:; ne....er therc. Cole a nd Coopcr confirm Jeffries presen ce and Coo per's vis ual JCHlbling by revi ewin g lile video. The video is ¡he only evide nce 01' prc:;cll\:e. 1101 1I r1l ikc lhe dlanl lhal
\wnl ¡lul JIII Íli!' lllally protl'st marc hes cOllcerni ng lile l{oJ ncy K illg vCl'dict. "Ihe vid¡:tl d llCsn ' t lie. lhe video doesn ' t lie!" The uncanny and vidcatcd douhling nI' ( 'ooper is lhe signal. the crisis point, wherein the dream space of fraglllentation via technology invades the real space. The issues of televisual a nd simulated culture are now commonplace Hollywood script fodder, depicting either the anxiety or desire that my life is, or should be, ¡v. The Truman Show and Edlv ll are recent examples. Both fill1ls offer a Ba udrillard for Dummies. a PirandelJo for those who missed 11l0dern ism, th ro ugh a dramatization of the theory of simulations. Plea.\"(/I1I"ille I 2 is a film whose twisted ideology narrates an attempted reconstruction of the televisual as f1esh through a slow process of colorization. 1f \Ve are tra pped in the television , if our world has beco me televisual, then why not make the television our reality? Tho designing of simulated wars for political gain is played out in Wag ¡he Dog,I J eerily reflecting what many thought was the cynicism that lay behind Cl inton's militarism in 1998-99. Why this ubiquity of challenges and confrontation 01' the real and the te\evisual , the organic and technological in popular culture'! The use of the technology of the screcn in these films is telling. There is always a person behind the curtain , behind the sereen or two-way mirror who can be isolated as the cause of the mediated invasion. The Director in The human ShOlV, the TV repairman in Pleason(ville, the media specialist in Wag [he f)vg, are the "men " behind the curtain. This recurring narrative device 01' a motivating cal1se that can be revealed rrol1l behind the screen is a distinctly modern notion. Zi zek, in an analysis 01' l1lediated technologies , writes that "modernist technology is 'transparent' in the sense of reta ,i ning the illusion of an insight into 'how the mach ine works· ; that is to say, the screen ofthe interface was supposed to allow the user direct access to the machinc behind the screen." He goes on to suggest that post modern technologies deliver quite the oppositc with an " interface screen [that] is supposed to conceal the workings orthe machine. " The problem is that "the user becomes ' accustomed to opaque technology' -the digital machinery 'behind the screen' retreats into total impenetrability, even invisibility. " 14 The growing opacity 01' the mediated screens require 01' the user a certain trust. The ideology 01' capitalism operates in this manner looking to obscure under standing as to " how things work" while encouraging acquiescence to "things as they are." The television reqLlests that we please stand by, and some do.
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Ir theatre , performance, film and ne\\' media studies seem to share similar concerns and aesthetic gesturcs rcgarding the collapse ofthe real into the virtual and the constrllction 01' identity in the space 01' technology, are there common t.liscoun;es to undcrstand these p ro blems? Lacan 's wri tings o n the scopic drive a nd modero drama's work in g throllgh 01' the reality versus illusi on qlll~ s li on :t I C Iwo l110dcb I will pll l lúrlh .
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The lTla lería lisl el il i4 ue nI' Laca lIialt alld I I\; IIl h .1I1 I ~'iyc hua Ila l}! ic pa rildigl ll~ in fil m ::;l uJie~ asserls tbal many nI' 1he I1lOtkls (11 il'i di'iUlll rse are lola Ii/.i ll g. idealistie and ahistorieal, relying 011 sexual d ilferencc lo artieulalc its IheOl)' é11 the expense 01' raee and dass differcnliations. 15 Nonetheless, performance the orists continue to mine Laean 's oeuvre to help cx plicate lhe fic ld and several notions eoneerning the sereen and the seopie drive from Lacan's Semimlr XI will help focus my argument. 1ó 1try here to employ these works not asaulhor itarian truth but as metaphors , or even "as if" they are dramatic texts, not lO extend the psyehoanalytie discourse, but to tease out structures 0 1' subject con struction in mediatized culture that reflect upon contemporary thea lre practice. The imaginary play ("The Scopic Ori ve ") which 1 construct from Lacan's texts regarding the drama ofthe self and subjectivity plots a division between the gaze 1í and the subject 01' representation, the gaze and th e eye, the subjtct a nd the other. The mediators between the two sets are the image and the screen. T he action of the plot follows two paths. The Arst concerns how the subject doub1es itself as a result of the nature of being, being split l8 and the fasci na· tion that grows for the determining factor in that divi sion. Lacan \.. .Tites, "the interest the subject takes in his own split is bound up with that which deter mines it- namely, a privileged object, which has emerged from some primal separation, from some self-mutilation induced by the very approach of the real. "l~ The deterlllining factor of split subjectivity in mediatized culture is rightly sensed as technology . The televisual screen is that privileged object that emerges from th e separation of the se1f, but is also the technology of tbe self-mutilation revealing the appearance of the double as the approach of lhe real. The question ofthe drama is not one ofrepresentation, ofthe thing and its reflection , but of the splitting 01' subjectivity. The second story of the plot concerns the nature of the screen and its manipulations at the hands of the subject: "Only the subject- the hum an subject , the subject 01' the desire that is the essence 01' man---is not, unlike tb e animal. entirely caught up in this imaginary capture. He maps himse1f in it. How? In so far as he isolates the function of the screen and plays with it. Man , in effeet, knows how to play with the mask as that beyond which there is the gaze. The screen is here the locus 01' Illediation. " 20 The screens are isolated , played with , a nd materialize as pictures to map visions of ourselves. T he screens are the technologies used to reconfigure ourselves and to see ourselves as what we are: pictures, screens. Orlan's recent works in digital photography and facial reconstruction resonate here. 21 The manipulations of the screens are manipulations of our subjectivity, whether \ve are in control or no1. T be mediated screens in live performance are both the opaque border of th e representable object trapping the gaze 01' the perceivin g subject befo re it apprehends the object and the sitc wherein and upon which the s ubject places its phan l.asm ic projections whiJe seeing itself see itself. The lclcvisual screcn determines the split 01' lhe subject an d becomes lile lrap for the gaze 01' Lhc subjecl app rehendi ng its d oubli ng.
II IIW d(llll lll l' III I'0LIIY Ihealn: II ll tl pcrrurllwnce arlisls :.tuge lhis drallla ? Pt.: rl OrlllcrS J p pCUI II vc JIHI vid eatcd silllultall\::o usly. O nc image in lhe pro· \.'I.!SS ol'living, bcing-ulIlo-dealh, onc ¡muge hc1d in uhcyance. virtually prcscnt. I'hl~ dDubling occurs when Ron Va wter crea tes a lip sym; to his own visage on Ihe video Illon itors and takes on the voices for all the "g uests" on a recrcation 111'" nude talk show in a type oftechnological-ventriloq uist act in the Wooster ( irnup 's" Frank Dell's Last Temptation ofSt. Anthony.'>12 The videated inter vicwces from the Oesperate Optimist's deconstruction of Synge's Playboy 1If' Ihe Weslern World in which ind ivid uals Are gU11s 011 video which have "rcal" stage effects of exploding blood bags on the actors creates a uni fied lic1d 01' the televisual and the stage. W hen O rlan's pe rrormative surgeries a re video-conferenced to galleries across the globe, or Stelarc's body is offered up ror manipul
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At this point in the text I gladly forgo the social science discollrse I have borrowed and move to the more problema tic, jumpy texts of the theatre. 1 turn to Samuel Beckett's Film and Jea n Cenet's The Screens to build my argu ment regarding postmodern digital culture and the doubling technology of the screen . Is there an irony in llsing modernism to articulate postmodernism, or a testament to the fact that the theoretical borders between modern an d postmodern are riddled with gaps'? My assertions on performance in digital culture through a discussion of film. theatrical modernism. and psyeho analysis is. in the end , an attempt to widen those ga ps. Beckott cites Berkeley in his opening to Film: "Esse esl pereipi," to be is to be perceivcd. Thus , by way 01' Berkeley, Beckett marks the terrain ofthe text ami through a splitting of the vision 01' the protagonist between the eye a nd the object, the self ami the other, the eye and the gaze, he creates a narrative 01' the struggle for and against self-perception. The dramatis personae of Film indude E and O. E is never seen until the end ofthe film, yet the film is filmed via the perception 01' E through the use 01' pov camera shots, as he pursues the object O. There are restrictions to the perception of E as he must always remain in a 45 degree angle behind O . At 46 degrees O enters the "angujsb 01' perceivedness." Beckett's scene direction reads, " A\1 extra neo us perception suppressed, animal , human, divine, self-pereeption maintains in being. Search for non-being in flight from extrancous perception breaking down in inescapability of se1f-perception. No truth value a ttaches to aboye, regardcd as of merely structura I and dramatic con venience. "27 Traditional dramatic structu re remains inta.cl in BedeU 's theatre no m att~ r how im possibly red uced an d condc nsed lhe work hecoll1cs: protagonist. a ntagonist. conOict , rcsllluli o n. Film is IlU eXl'I.:l' ti nn Film is slruc\ lIrcd in
Il ucc rurt~ . ~ tl\.'l: I , stlllrs llnd roolll. TIJ i! rOO" l M.:d Hl Il is il sclt' lliv idcd ill tl ll éC. 1) prcpura tiolllll'lhe room wherrin " a ll CX l ra ll C~lLIS pcrcc plion is supprcs:;cd "; 2) dcslrucl iOIl o flhe photographs; and 3) lhe "final invcstmclIl or Q hy E a nd lhe denouement. " 1 8 In the first section on the street, O is relcnllessly lrackcJ by E through a "dead straight" street peopled with eouples onl y. a\1 lraveli ng in the same direetion , " a\1 contentedl y in pe rcipere and percipi ."29 O colli des with an e1derly couplc, bu t m oves on. E pauses to view the couple. The woman ealTies a monkcy under her armo " She feels the gaze 01' E upon lhem and turns, raising her 10rl:,'llOn, to look at bim. She n udges her companion \Vho turns baek towards her, resuming his pinee-nez, looks at E. As they both stare at E the expression gradually comes over their faces which \. . iII be that 01' the fl ower-woman in the stairs scene and thal of O at lh e end 01' Fifm, an expression only to be described as corresponding to an agony of perceived ness. " :10 The agony 01' pereeivedness is the experience ofbeing the object 01' the gaze. The gaze has detaehed from the protagonist's eye and the couple see, or hear, only the gaze. What do they see in the gaze? The second scetion on the stairs repeats the detached gaze's desiring 01' the frail tlower-woman and her collapse in the "agony of perceivedness. " In the room we wateh O 's deliberate c10sing down of all extraneous percep tion . He cannot tolerate his position as picture. He se es from one point but is "seeoe" from all points. The eyes of dog, cats, tlsh , birds, windows, paintings, photogTaphs, furniture , are all c10sed ami hidden. Unseen , or so he might wish to believe, O drifts off to sleep. At this point E is released from the 45 degree eonfinement. The eye confronts the object. The other eonfronts the self as E is the double 01' O. O in perceivedness holds rus hands to his f~lce covering his eyes. To see one's self is to demolish one's self, to know one 's nothingness . Film reminds us that the technologies 01' vision , and their will lo repres entation have at their essenee " no truth value attached ," to be "regarded as of merely struetural and dramatie convenience. " The protagonist O sundered into objeethood, races through the streets under the survcillance 01' the eye, E in a " Search for non-being in f1ight from extraneous pereeption breaking down in inescapability 01' sclf-pereeption . " 31 Film artieulates a revulsion lO seeing oneself see oneself, what Deleuze called a quest to know "how can we rid ourselves of ourselves and demolish ourselves .,m The sereen in Film is not only the material site upon whieh the actual work (the film) is projected but the optical and virtual space which hides the object from the eye and which challenges a metaphysics 01' discovery. Whatever is behind the screen or cmbedded within the screen is unknowab\c. Genet's play The Sereens, whieh narrates elements of the Algerian struggle independenee frolll France. pietures the etern a! recurrence of the screens as a ma terial site of subjuga ted peoples upo n which are projecled the virtual spaces presenlcd for the use 01' the colonia l power. T he pla y fl)1I0 WS Said , a roOl' Ih ief. hi s M other, wllo is a lon g time :-. ull crcr a mi su rv ivor, a mi his wife,
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Th e Son (to Leila): Make a little breeze fo r Mad ame ....
With her 1110Ulh, L eila simula les {he sound oI lVind in Ihe branches and wilh her skir/, /he rush o/airo Thank you: I told you so: there are sorne The Vamp (blandly): lovely ones among the 10L Not everything 's rotten. Those , for example, (poinling lo Said und Leila) they're no doubt SLlpporters 0('" ours.'J
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The French colonialists in the characters of The Vamp and The Son demand that a world be painted for them on tbe eternal screens. Said and Leila readily submit th eir skills for the comforts 01' the ruling class. Why haven 't they used those skills to better their o\Vn lot? The stage is composed of screens upon which are drawn the material objects that a re struggled over and negotiated between ruler and colonial other. Genet's material screens, like the projection screen in Film, are the primary element 01' the mise-en SCfl1e ; they are used to stage the stage. ln the narrative the s.c reens are con trolled by the AIgerians through the demands of the French. The screens are a place, a location , wherein one can exit or enter, hide behind 01' be revealed. They are in essence each a tiny theatre with curtains and prosceniums where a world is created through the pictures drawn on their surface. The screens are each a sign of constructed subjectivities and personalities. They are sometimes opaque, translucent , breakable. Genet's play stages the world tha! is created through representations, which is the only world we' ve gol. The colonial soldiers understand the power of doubling, 01" mirroring, to crea te the illusions of v01ume. One soldier should equal one million: " Let every man be a mirror to every other man o A pair of legs must look at themselves and see themselves in the pair of legs opposite, a torso in the torso opposile, the mouth in another mouth, the eyes in the eyes .... ",4 The co lonia l power is looking to control difference , to kili the other, through the replicat ion of the screens as mirrors retlecting their o\Vn subjectivity. The colonialist wi ll no t see who sta nds behind the Sl: reen, who m OVCli th em, 01' who paint!) them . T o acknowledge their contribution is 10 shu re powe r and gran! subjecth ood . 190
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T lle SI,; I l!"'\I~ 111 \., c lld's pl ay also dcman;alc lhe spacc hetwecn llw livin g alld lhe <..lI.:ad. Breaking lhrough lhe papa screens into lhe world o rlhe dcalh Kadidja (as do lhe other eharacters upon entering the ncw space) exclaims, ..!\nd they make sueh a fuss aboul it!,,35 Kadidja is crashing through the material , failing through the abjection , toward being on the other side 01' tbe screens. The other side is lhe place outside the d iscou rse 01' representation s. The screen is the boundary a t the closure 01' representation and in that space laughtcr consumes the agony of subjugation, now finished . The Mother. ha ving recently arrived on the other side 01' the screens, sees the worl d with new eyes: "Those are the truths ... ha! ... ha! ... ha' ha! .. . that can't be demonstrated ... ha' ha! (Hcr laughter seems uncontrollable.) Those are t he truths that are fabe! ... ha! ha! ha! ho! hol hO! "3(. The screens tu rned inside out through the subject's vanish ing create a space wherein the fabrications of the other si de are shown to be ridiculous, hideous, tragic. Genet's play situates the discussion of the screens in a political and mater ial site, by asking who manages the sereens, controls what is projected upon them, and imagines what they hilie. The issues of hyper-mediacy and the ubiquity 01' the screens are not simply an aesthetic, a dense theory, a psycho analytical model , but a material, politica] pro blem . The screens co ver a large portion 01' the earth, feeding our phantasms to the world. The screens are creating postcolonial subjects from the comfort of a Burbank so und stage, projecting the images 01' \Var distaneed from the reality 01' the conllict, ereat ing history's largest trap for the gazc of the world spectator.
Tbe rebirth of tragedy The marking of the uncanny and the performance of split subjectivity in technologically enhanced performance suggests much more than just a nc", aesthetic but a symptom or a way of thinking through the transitional phase Western subjcctivity is undergoing as a resu'lt 01' mediatization. The transi tion can be constructed as a re-birth oftragedy. Likc Nietzsche's model ofthe birth of tragedy rooted in the movement from the di vine body to the body inscribed and reduccd under the rule 01' societal law which flnds representa tion in the sacriflcial rituals 01' dismembcnnent (sparagmos), the ontological shift from organic to technologieal, televisual, and digital beingness is tragic . The tragic, in this case, finds representation and ,is projeeted in the fanta sies ofthe fragmentcd and digital , medical and postcolonial body as articulated in the art of Stelarc, Orlan, and GÓmez-Peña. Lacan \vrites, [The] fragmented body ... usually manifests itself in dreams when the movement ofthe analysis encoun lers a certain level ofaggressive d isin tegrali on in th e individual. lt then a ppears in the form of dis joinh.:J 1imbs, 01' of those organs rep rescnted in exoscopy, growi ng win¿!s a nd lakin !.! IIp arl11s ro r inlcs li nal pcrst!cll tiol1s, the very su me \1 '
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The fragmented body appears at the vanishi ng poin t 01' subjecti vity. wh en its nothingness is apprehended, when the doubte is dancing, when Pent heus' head is raised by his mother and prodaimed to be a lion , when in fact it has become the mask, the screen. When O meets E in the room sh ut o ut from all pcrception save one, when the screens of postcolonialism are pierced, when the oth er sidc 01' the screen is suggested and approaches, then tragic frag mentation is possible. Herberl Bla u p ut it this way: " Or is that we've had along with tal k ofthe death oftragedy a twisted version of an active forgetting: the invention 01' aesthetic strategies that \Vould, indeed, eit'her anesthetize us against emotions \Ve found intolerable, or, as eventually in body art, confron t us in such a way that they could be absorbed 01' expcricnced again')"]~ This is not a tragedy of Oedipal identity, agency or fate. but a tragedy 01' unremern bered fragmentation 01' the real toward the virtual. Perhaps a rethinking of tragcdy is possible now. Or necessary.
Answers I began with two questions: How has the ontology 01' the performancc (liveness) which exists before and arter mediatization becn altered within thc space 01' technology? and how do we understand the processes of perform ance which converge with mediated technologies ofrepresentation? In answer to the first query it is important to realize that performance, like the body and its subjectivity which embodies and enacts the performative, has been extended, challenged and reconfigured by way of its position in the space 01' technology. Performance has taken on the ontology 01' the technological. Nonethe1css. one \Vay to start to answer both q uestions is by conceiving of theatre as a medium that overlaps and subsumes 01' is sLlbsumed by other media including the television , film, radio, print, and the computer-ajded hyper-media. Such a process will change, considerably, our definitions or the boundaries 01' the theatre and the ontology of performance.
Notes 1 David Cronenberg, dir., Videodrome (Universal Picturcs, 1983).
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P~ycl1O-all(/ly.\'is , transo Alan Sherid a n (New York W. W . Norton and Company, 1981), 97, 3 Herbe rt Hlau writes il1 T/¡e Eye /JI Prey, "There is nothing more illuSMY il1 performa nce than th e il lllsio n o fthc unmed iated. It can be él vc ry powerrul illusioll in th e thea te r. hu t it is the3H:r, and it is ¡hnller, t he Iru th nrillllSiol1. which haunl s all performance whethcr or 1101 il ocnirS in Ih\; Ihc;iln wllc rc il is more Ihall
2 Jacques Lacan , 7Ju: FOl.lr Fundamenlal COI1CeplS
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Jt llll>l,'" " V\. I , ' S.:c' rile FI'I' l'n'I ': S"III'I'f'.I'iml,\' ,,1' lile' /'0.1'111111"1'1'11 ( Oloo m ing fo Jl IJld i1l 1l1l ll l1i vcrsil y I'rcss, 19~7). 164- (15, .+ S la voj Zi 2~k . M appillg IdI'O/ogy (London: Verso. 1994).5. 5 See Phi lip Auslande r, Lirl'nes.\': Perjimllal1ce ;'1 a Medíalized Cl/lll/re (London: Routledge, 1999). 6 See Philip Auslander. Lil'cnc.l's and Peggy Phelan , UnllU/rked: Th.e' Polilics o/ Peljorman ce (London: R outledge, 1993) for a complete discussion regarding th e issues of liveness and perfonmll1 ce in mediatized cultures. 7 Sec Sue- E llen C ase, T/¡e Domail1-Malrix: Pe¡:!árlllil1g l _e.l'hian al Ihe El1d o/Pril1l Culture (Bloomington: Indiana Unj versity Prcss, 1996) for a fuller explication 01' the natllre ofsubjectivity at " the e nd ofprint culture, " 8 I am making reference to I"'lerleau-Ponty's distim:tion betwecn "physiological facts which are in space and psychic facts which are now here" in Maurice Merleau Pont y, P/¡enomel1olog.y oI Percepliol1. transo Colin Smith (London: Routledge and Kegan Palll , 1962). 77. 9 Avital Ronell , The Telephol1e Book: lechl1ology, schizofJhrel1ia. eleC/ríe ,\ peedt (Lincoln: University of Nebraska P ress, 1989). 69, 10 Sigmund Freud , "The U nca nny" in The S/al1dard ediLiol1oj'/he Complele psycholo gicalll'orks o(Sigmul1d Freud, Vo/. 77, trallS, and ed. James Straehey in collaboration with Anna Freud (London: Hogarth Press alld the Institute of Psycho-analysis. 1955).241. 11 Peter Weir, dir., File 1'/'11111(/11 Sho\\' (Paramollnt Pictmcs, 1998) and Ron Howard . dir. , Edil! (Universa l Pictllres, 1999). 12 Gary R oss. dir., Pleasl/l1/I·i1le (N ew U ne Cinema, 1998). 13 Barry Levinson, dir., Wag Ihe Dog (T ri beca Prodllctions, 1997). 14 Slavoj Z izek. The Plague o/Fanlasies (L ondon & New Y ork: Ye r~o . 1997).131. 15 See M ichael Walsh. ".I arneson and 'Global Aesthetics'" in P osl- Theorl': r(,('()I1 s lruclingjill11 ,I'/udies, ed . David Bordwell and Noel Carroll (M a dison : lÍll iversity of W iseonsin Press, 1996). 481- 500, for furthcr reading on the topic 01' post Lacanian, post-theoretical film studies. 16 See Herbert Blau, The Audience (Baltimore: Johns 1I 0pkins University Press. 1990) and Phelan , Ul1l11arked, as examples 01' Lacanian theory applied to the fiel d of theatre and performance studies. For an analysis of the scopic drive in thcatrc practice and spectatorship, sce "The M ost Concealed Object " in Slau. 1'he Audi e/lee, 50- 94. 17 Thc gaze, or more specificall y the malc gaze, Illay be one ofthe IllOst misused terms in the critical theory of performam:e. Lacan writes this of the gaze, "1 n our rclation to things. in so far as this rclation is constituted by the way of vision, and ordered in the figures of representation , sornething slips, passes, is transmitted , from stage to stage, and is always to sOll1e dcgree eluded in it , that is what we call the gaze." Lacan, FOil/' Fundamental COI1 CepIS, 73_ 18 Lacan has this to say regarding the naturc of the split subject, "In my opinion , it is not in this dialectic hctween the surface and that which is beyond tha! things are suspended. For my part, I set out from the t~let that there is something that establishes a fracture, a bi-part ition, a splining of hcing to which the bcing accomTl1odates itself, even in t he natural wor ld." Ibid .. IOG. 19 Ibid., 83. 20 Ibid., 107. 21 See Ro bert Avcrs, "T he spec ial and the unusual: Iistening to Orlan" in Uv e Arl Lei las (No. 4, Ma rch 1999) . Website a dd ress: http://art.ntu.ac.lIk /li veart /ind ex.ll trn. 22 See M~ltth ew Causey, "Televisu flJ Pe rfonn ance: ' Qpenness to t he mystery,' '' in EI·sor.\' ill T/¡('(flrclF·:liIde.l Thealmles (Vol. 13, No. 1. November 1994) for él
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W{\O!>. I I.' I (itllllP 's " h ;¡lI k D(!ll's I asl Templalioll Or sl. Anl hqlly. " 23 Lacan , Four FUllda/1/ental Cmce{Jts. I()(J. 24 Ibid ., 83. 25 Ibid ., SS. 26 Ibid ., 107. 27 Samuel Bcckctt.. " Film" in Samuel Beckell: The Comp lete f)ramCltic Work,\ (l 011 · don: Faber and Faber, 1986),32). 28 Ibid. , 323, 29 Ibid " 324. 30 Ibid " 325. 31 Ibid. , 323 32 Gilles Deleuzc. Cinema 2: Th e Tíme-bnage, transo Hugh TomlinsOIl and Robcrl Ga kta (Minneapolis: Universit y of Minnesota Press, 19S9), 123, 33 Jcall Genet, The Screens, trans, Bcmard Frechtman (New York: Grave Press. 1962), 110. 34 IbiJ. , 119. 35 Ibid., 143. 36 Ibid., 155. 37 Jacques Lacan, EcrilS: a selectiol1, transo Alan Shcridan (New York: W. W. Norl on ancl Company , 1977),5 , 3S Herber; Bla u, Tu A" Appearances: ideology (/Ild perjiml1((l1c(, (London: Routled gc. 1992), 126.
89
T I-l E A RT OF I N TE R AC TIO N lnteractivity, performativity, and computers David Z. Saltz Sourcc: TI/(' .!oul'lla/ ,,(A esl!1P1icS ()l1d Arl Crilicism 55(2) (1997) : 117 127 .
1 " Interactive technology" i~ one of the hot concepts of the 1990s. Advertisers and entrepreneurs are effectively exploiting its allure to entice consumers to buy products and investors to imiest in speculative ventures. The media are hyping the concept to capture readers and viewers. A nd in the past fe w years, it has become a powerful magnet for a rapidly growing num ber 01' artists with backgrounds in a wide range 01' disciplines, induding the visual arts, music, dance, and theater. Suddenly, interactive computer art is everywhere: theaters, museums, galleries, and exhibitions and performance series associ ated w,i th large special-interest computer art conferences such as the Special Interest Group for Graphics 01' the Association for Computing Machinery (SIGGRAPll), tlle Ranff Cyberconf, ami the International Symposium on Elcctronic Arts (ISEA), There is a sense, at least among the computer artists themselves , that something new and important is happening: a new art form is in the making. 15 it'? Or is ",i nteractive computer art" nothing more than new technology tacked onto old art forms? Underlying this question is a more basic question about interactivity itself: is interactivity, or the type of interactivity \Ve see in computer art, a new phenomenon. and more specific ally, is it new to art'! Certainly, something importantly different seems to be going on here. Introducing interactive technology into an art form complicates the ,i dea of the " author" and the identity of the " \York." ror example, interactive com puter music blurs the distinction between composer, instrument designer, and perfo rmer, with the nominal "co mposer" often producing not a set musical scorc, bu! a cOlllplex computer a lgorith1ll that genera tes sequences of music in rcspl1 nSl.' to ;¡ pcr l"o rmer's gest u re::;, Icuv ing Ih e performer free lo improvise
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thl: gl:stll n:s. T hc '\;OlllpOSCI" in sllch ¡;¡I"I;S d llc~ 1101 co mposc I bl! 111l1sic pl:1 se, but crca tes a kinu o f su pcr-instrlllllcI1t, with hllilt-ill in lclligcnu:. illiliative. and aesthetic sensibility. The perfonncr picks IIp many 01' the Iradilional functions of the composer- and along the way becomes a kinu 01' dance!". as \Vel!. The pcculiar role of th e composer in slIch cases is paraoigmatic of the artist's function in interactive computer art generally. fnsofa r as a work is interactive, the artist cedes control over lhe seq uence 01' events that any gi vcn spectator will encounter, allowing the piece to vary with each interacti on. SlIch works often retain the capacity to surprise lheir own creators, produc ing sequences of evcnts that the artist never envisioned. The protean and transitory nature of interactive computer art has led critics such as Christinc Tamblyn and Ti mothy Bin kLey to pro pose that interactive computer art is a form of conceptual art, aud indeed that it represents the culmination of the movement in twentieth-eentury art history toward what Lucy Lippard famously described as the "demateriali zati on of art. " 1 TbJis proposal has its appcal. Interactive computer artists UO seem lo work largely in the realm of ideas, creating logical structures in the medium of software. Inleral:tive computer art , howcver, can never exist ol1lv as software. The work must reach out inlo the world in so me way to capture the human interactor's input: the interactor must either make physical contact with a physical object or make movements within an articulated region of real space. Anu the work must project some sort ofstimulus- sound, image, kinetic movement-·back into the \Vorlu for the audience to perceive. Very often interactive computer artworks incorporate sculpturaJ anu scenic elements. For example, Paul Garrin 's interactive installation " Yuppie Ghetto with Watchuog" (1989- 1993) consists of a video projection of an upsca1e eham pagne reception surroundeu by real barbed wire, in front of which is a video monitor. " As the viewer approaehes the installation, a German Shepherd appears on the monitor and barks violently at the viewer. The dog aggres sively follows the viewer's movements with its eyes and head. (The system tracks the viewer's position by mean s 01' a security camera mounted incon spieuously over the viewer.) Though the artist's programming determines the behavior 01' this piece, the piece itself exists not only as a "concept," but also as a sculptural installation \Vith both three-dimensional and t\Vo-dimensi o nal elements. It relies on the tangible qualities of its images and sounds to create its highly visceral impact. Interactive computer art strikes Binkley and Tamblyn as "immateria J" beca use they are taking the visual arts as their nOflnative paradigm: in ter active artists do not produce fixeu , immutable material objects, and so , the implicit reasoning goes, Ihey must be producing " immaterial " objects. T he on tology o f interacti ve co mputer artworks seems Iess exa lic if we look U) the performing arts instead of the visual a rts as our point o f reference. Perfo rm ing 3rts have always gi ven rise to tra nsitory (lnd variLlbk o b jects o f acslhet ic 1l)()
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alh:nl iol1. This is o hvi o usly Irue in lhe case 01" illlprovisatory forllls, slIch as jazz anu improvisalional lhealer, but it is equally true in the most conven tional Westcrn theater and music. Playwrights and composers are "concep tual artists " in much the same way as are computer artists: they do not directly produce the tangible stimuli that any given audienee will experience, but instead produce what mighl loosely be described as a blueprint for per formances. They produce performance lypes as opposed to performance tokens.' Each performa nce of a play or musical composition is unique in its tangible partieulars, and different dircctors ' productions of the same play exhibil even more extreme variations. Tndeed , the works that playwrights and composers produce-plays and musical compositions- in themselves are less material than the works 01' most interaclive computer artists. Typieally, per haps inevitably. computer artists conflate the roles af the pl aywright, the director, the designer, and even the performer. They rarel y delegate respons ibility for the mise en sccne lo someone el se, as a typical playwright does; Paul Garrin himse\fis responsible for all aspeC lg of his installations. Moreover, the programs they write do not rely on human performers to interpret them , as scores ano playscripts do, but control the eomputer's performance directly . The objective 01' this paper is to define the extent to wh ieh in teractive computer art is a species of performance. Recognizing that interactive com puter art is adose cOLlsin of the traditional performing arts c\ears up some ontological quandaries abaut the art form o M oreover, it will put us in a position to see that the fetishization of interactive technology among many contemporary artists and crities relates c10sely to the role live theater and music themselves still have to play in a technological age. However, as our brief consideration 01" the role 01' an interactive composer has already suggested, interactive computer art follows a uil"ferent logic from tha t of traditi onal performing arts. Recognizing the po.ints of continuity between interactive computer art and other performing arts will put LIS in a position to define more precisely \VhClt really is new aboul this art formo Before I can give substance to this argument, however, I will need to put some f1esh on the concept of interactivity itself.
11 What does it mean for a work of computer art lo be " interactive",? The mere use of a computer to produl:e the artwork , for example, lo create an image, edit a video , or dcsign a sculpture, is not sufficient. Very gcnerally, for a work to be interactive, the following cvents must occur in real-time: l . A. sensing or input device translates certClin aspects 01" a person 's behavior in to di gi tClI form that a com puter can understand. 2. T he computer olltpuls da ta thal are systematically rclated to the input (L e., Ihe illplll alYccts lhe Olll pu t). 19 7
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3. The olllpul Jalu are l runshlkd hild illlo Ica l-w\lrld r henllmc na ti ", 1 people can pen:eive.' For examp1c. the computer might instruct a synlhesi zer lo produce musical notes in response lo inpUI fro m a keyboard: it might start a motor whcll someone moves in front of Rn ultrasound sensor; it might changc a light 's intcnsity in proportion to the volume of sound pi cked up by a microphone. and the light's color in proportion to the so und's pitch . T he computer migh t use any kind of real-world input to produce any kind of real-world outpu t. since in any case a1llhat lhe computer is manipulating is d igital infonnat ion . One might argue that the aboye definition of computer interactivily in itself settles the q uestion of whether interactive com puter art is a perform ing art. By definition , all interactive computer artworks cngage at Ieast one human participant in the live performa nce of a series of actions. Live performance is precisely the element that characterizes the performing arts. Does it folJ ow then, that interactive computer art is by del/ni/ion a perforrning art? lJnfortunately, lhe problem is not that simple. To say that one can no! experience an interactive computer artwork in the absence 01' live human activity is not necessarily to say that this activity constitutes a perlórmullcc . Afler all , one cOllld say that an encounter with an artwork of al1y kind is a " performance" in that very generous scnse. Reading books, watching films. and attending art exhibits are complex activities that transpire in real-time ami involve living human beings. 5 Books do not leap off bookshelves, open their bindings, and read themselves, nor do videotapes pop themselves in to video cassette recorders and watch themselves. What, then, disting~¡ishes the kind of"live human activity" that performe rs engage in from the kind that audiences engage in? The simple answer is: performers perform for an audience, whiJe audiences "peliform" only for themselves. Whether or not a work of interactive computer art is a " per formance," then , depends on whether it is being performed for an audience . We must distinguish works of interactive computer art in which performers interact with the system while the audience looks on from those in which lhe audience interacts with the system directly. I will call works in the tirsl category "staged interactions," and those in the second " participatory inter actions ." If we accept "performing for an audience" as the distingu.ishing characteristic of performance, it follows that all staged interactions are per formances, ami all participalory interactions are not. This conclusion is valid as far as it goes, but that is not very fa r. It contributes nothing to our understanding of interactive computer art pe se, since the ditlerence betwcen staged and participatory intcraclions is n OI due to any feature inhercn t in lhe interaclions thc ll1sclves. A ny acti vily including the act 01' rcad ing a book o r walch ing ;¡ fillll ca n be pcrfM lllcd f"¡ an audicnce. and will thcrcby bcwmc ti "pcrlilll1la IICC, " Thc d ilTcl"cncc bClwccn staged ¡¡ nd participatory in lcracl íons is HUI,; I Ir pI " spcl.: tivc: in tite fir:;l casco lllX
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Ihe auJit:ncl.' is Itloking al the inleraclion from oulsid c lhe systCnl, ,¡ud in llll' second, rrom within the system. To be sure. this difference has far-rcaching aesthetic implications (some 01' which I will touch on toward the end 01' this paper). But the nature of interactivity itself- that is, the range of ways that input data might be transformed into output data- is the same in either case. To assess whether the phenomellon 01' " interaction " i_n com p uter art bears any inherent relation to that of " performance" in the perforrning arts, we need a richer understanding of perfomlance. The 1~l et that performances take place before aud iences does not give us eno ugh to go on. In the perform ing arts , as in all other art forms , each audience member's encounter with the work is a unique event, and the spectator plays a role in that event as a spectator. But in performing arts, not only is the audience's encounter with the artwork an event, but the work encountered is iLse({ an event. Perfolm ance is the medium . The live performance of actions is the stull out ofwhich the art is made . The audience regards the perfo rmance as an aesthetic object in its own right. For the sake of c1arity, I will use the term " performing arts" to designate thc c1ass 01' art forms in which one group of pcople, ¡.e., performers, perform live before a second group, i.e., an audience. As we have scen, this c1ass includes staged interactions and exc1udes participatory interactions. 1 \ViII use the term "performative" to designate the broader class 01' all art forms in which live human behavior constitutes the aesthetic object. T his c1ass, too, includes staged interactions, since it encompasses all the performing arts. Thc question that remains is whether participatory interaetive a rl is perfo rmative. In participatory interactions, do the interactors perceive their own actions to be aesthetically significant? Does the audience actually become part of the work of art?(' No answer to this question follows directl y from the definition 01' inter activity. To make further progress, we must stop considering computer inter action as a unified phenomenon and draw so me distinctions betwcen various kinds 01' interactive systems. Each work of interactive computer art estab Iishes a particular kind of rclationship between live interactor and eomputer controlled media. The extent to which a work is performative is a function of this relationship. The easicst way to see this point is by briefly considering a range of examples spanning from nonperformative to fully perfonnati ve.
III Many interaetive systcms consist 01' simple triggers that call up images, blocks of text, extended audio or video sequences, or some combination 01' these. The triggers themselves typicall y take the fonn of a "meou " of words, iconic buttons, or c1ickable pictures On a computer's mon ito r. though they can also be mechanical butto l1s, such as th ose 011 man y a utomatic teller machines. The va ~l m a jori l y nI' commen.:ial C!>- ROMS 1l0W O ll the market conform to this ¡(jI)
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lIlodcl 01' intcractivity. Though tbesi! pltldlll'h 4111': IIyped as the harbingers (olct onl y Illi nimalJy in lera¡;live. 'nll!y simply Gollect togethcr a group of wh a t are, in clreet, multiplc aulonomo us prcsentations. The on Iy choice the jntcractor has is lvhich 01' theso presenta tions to view whel1. This type of " interaction" is nod ilfercnt in kind from thal afforded by a printed anthology or encyclopedia, 01' , for that ma tter, a record player, a video cassette recorder, or an audi o compact di sc pla ycr. These systcms place the in teractor sq uarely in the roJe 01' the reade!" 01' él lex t, or the consumer ofmass-produced media; there is no element oflive performance in such interactions. A step up on the intcractive ladder is the mode dubbed by T heodor Nelson in the late I 960s as "hypertext," 7 which later expanded into ·'hypcrmedia." This mode 01' interaction is currently being developed on an enormous scale in the world-wide network retened to as the "World W ide W eb. " The differ l:nce between this mode and the previo us one is that in hypermedia there is 110 division between the "menu" of opti OT1S and the "eontent" to which tbose \) rtiolls reler. Thc system presents only eontent with links to more content. I' o r exalllple, a hypernovel, such as M ichacl Joyce's Ajiernoon, presents the rC'IIJer with one short passage oftext at a time. Each passage has a number 01' " hot"' words or phrases that link to a passage someho\V related to it. For eX~l mplc, ir a passage contains the sentence "They were waitiog for Harry," SOI1lC rC¡lders might select the name "Harry" and read a f1ashback about that cha racter's feckless yOllth , aod others might select the word " waiting" and read an extended allusion to Wailinglor Godo!. Whiehever passage they end up reading will contain a new set 01' lin ks. In this way, readers choose their o wn paths through the novel, paths that reflect their own preoccupations and dis posilions. Hypermedia, of course, are not restricted to text; for example, wh at Nelson ealls a "hypergram" is structurally identical to a hypernovel, but the content consists oflinkcd images instcad 01' textual passages. Hypermedia interactors are doing more than triggering autonomous media segments. Each chllnk of media relates to the previoLlS one in some way, and so the interaction is apt to have a sense of eoherence, at least from moment to mornent---though il is unlikely to have a linear structure with a clear begin ning, middle, and end. Certainly people \Vho intcraet with works 01' hypermedia play an active role in strueturing their own expcrience. Slíll , this mode of interaetion is no t inherently performalive. A hypermedia interface, to an evcu greater extcnt than a hierarehieal menu-stylc interface. gives viewers control over what they will see and hear at any given moment. It allows them to choose their own paths ¡hrough the work. Hut it does not cast viewcrs as participanls ¡("i¡hin the work itselfsimply by virtue ofemploying a hype rmedia interface. Neilhcr. (}Il~ should stress, do viewers truly bccome t:o-au thon; 01' lhe wo rk, as hyp\.: nncd ia cnt h usi asls sometimes li ke to suggesllhey do. K Sl llart Mo ulthrop Jlo ill lcdly observcs tha t
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Notice that spatial metaphors govem the rhetoric of hypermed ia: people move along palhs from link to link , !/"al'elil1g through ey her.\j}(tce. Rather thao funetioning either as performers or as authors, hypermedia audienees func tion as explorers. They are like tourists, rushing through the areas that do not interest them, lingering when they find somethi ng that stri kes their fancy, meandering down an intriguing alleyway, perhaps getting lost for a while before finding their way back to a familiar landmark. AII the whi le, the interactors keep their eyes on the road . Their objeet 01' attention is the work, not lhemselves in lhe work. 'o Frorn a teehnical standpoint, virtual reality syslems are far more inter active than hypermedia systellls. Hypermedia allow interactors to intervene periodicaJly by choosing from among the words and images presented to thelll, but virtual reality systems must respond to a constant stream of input from the interactor. A virtual reality system strives to create the illl1.'iion that the interactor is moving within a three-dimensional image, and it does so by constantly updating perspective renderings to correspond wi th the changes in direction and velocity that the interactor signifies. (The system, 01' course ~ must incorporate some sort 01' input device lO alJow the interactor to com municate these choices, such as a Illouse, joystick. video-capture device, data glove, 01' body suit, and the typc of input device used will affect the interactor's s u bjecti ve sense of immersion.) Tho ugh vi rtua l rea li ty diHeTS from hyperIned ia systems in the degree of responsiveness, the underlying mode of interaction is not inhercntly any more perfonnative. Computer artists can use virtua l real ity systems to create nonperformative interactions that position interactors as observers external to the aesthetie object. Imagine, for example, a virtual sculpture garden through which you can roam about at will to scrutinizc virtual sculptures from any vantage point." To be sure, there is an enorlllous difference between viewing a real and a virtual sculpture. Kcndall Walton's theory 01' representation is helpful in pinpointing the differenecs. 12 According to \Valton's theory, a sculpture of a lion is a prop that allows me to imagine that I am sceing a real lion. 1 do not, however, necessarily imagine that the lion is in {he room with me; I \ViII probably not imagine (though I might choose to do so) that in addition to my sceing the lion, lhe lion sees me. When I touch the sculpture's nose, I will not necessarily im agine that I am tOllching a lion 's nose, and so I will not need to invent for myse lf an explamltion for wh y the lion remains passive (though agai ll, 1 migh t ch oo sc to do [tll th ese thi ngs) .
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I lnw Jo\.:s Ih,~ si l'lalilll1 c hallgl! ir I I! lI l"lIl1lt~'1 . 1 11011 sc ulplurc ill a virtual SL'lIlpl un: gullc ry'l In Ihis i.'as,~, I irllaginc (hal l .1111 s¡';l:IlIg a .I'mlp lurc 01' al ioli . I will proha bly U/Sil imag ine Ihal I am scci ng a Icallion . (InJecJ . on Wa lton \ . view ir I n~cog:ni zc the virtual sculpturc as being o/a !ion, then at SOITlC level I 11//1.1'1 be imagining a reallion.) That is nol to sayo however. that I imagine IIIa1 I am secing 11l'() Ihings, an animal anJ a sculpture. R ather, I imagine th at I!/(' !lro!1 Ilwl I a/11 lI.I'ing lo imagine a /ion is a sell/plure. It is the status of th is lasl proposilion that Jistinguishes real sculpt ures from virtual o l1es. When I s,:c a real sculpturc, the proposition is tfue; when I see a virlual one, it is lid io nal. Wh ile this difference is extremcly important. both ontologically anJ phe 1I(llllc nologically, il uoes not makc visiting the vi rtual gallery any more or less !w//imnutil'e than visi ting an actual sculpture gallery. I might spenJ hours cxamining a virtual \ion sculpture, aJmiring both the fine artistry of the virlual-reality re ndering and the sculptural form that rendering reprcsents. wilhout imagining that Imyselfhave spent time in the same room with either a rcallion 01' a real sculpture. If I notice that I am not casting shaJows on the sculpture, though the sculpture casts shadows on itself, and if I notice that the sun never changes position in the sky, I will not neccssarily feel the neeJ to invent a story exp1.a ining these facts. I will not even necessarily invent él story cxplaining why I can walk right through the supposedly solid sculpture. The interactive systern might function as nothing more than a mechanisrn for vicwing virtual objects. Now imagine that you are peacefully contemplating a sculpture ofa lion in the virtual sculpture gallery when unexpecteJly the lion comes to life , lets out an agonized roar, anJ extenJs its virtual paw towarJ you. Just as you are about to run away, you notice a large thom sticking out of its paw. The lion glances briefty at the thom, then glares imploringly at you. You have no choice but to respondo Even your refusal to acknowleJge the lion 's behavior would surely provoke sorne kinJ of reaction in the lion . SuJdenly you are thrust out of the role 01' external observer anJ into the work of art. You r imaginative project changes. In KenJall Walton 's terms , yOll becorne a prop in your own gamc 01' make-believe." YOll becorne a live performer in the work, anJ the work becornes peTformativc. In the case of any art form, what a spectator perceives to be aestheticall y significant varies accorJing to the spectator's perspcctive. For example, insofar as my copy of Anna Karenina is an example of the art of bookma king, propertics such as the typefacc anJ the size and texture of the paper are acsthetically signiflcant; insofar as it is a work of literaturc, they are nol. Similarly, as l stroll around a real 01' a virt ua l sculpture garuen, sway to the bcat or a [(,¡ek band , 01' surf the WorlJ W iJe Web, 1 may 01' rnay oot pcrcei vc rn y ow n aCl ion::.- my ()\v n " perrormance" as ,In acs lbct it: objecl. '" Thcrc is nn impo rta nl di st indi on. howcvcr, h~ I WI:C ll Ihose cases in which spL'cl a Lms SCl' thcir own pcrrm munccs ll:-- ,lutlulI iled . CVC II Illa lltl atc<J by a
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pitch-tU-MII>I ~\l llvc rlcr), 1I will rcad l ~' \Vital it !le,,,,> by, rol' cxalllp lc. :tllcl ing its rh ythlll s a mI tem po, p icking Uf) on a m i moJiry ing mcllldic li nes, ele. W hih: tlll~ pmgram is vt::l'y rcspol1sive, its beha vior is impossible to predid, eVCIl h'l r Lcwis himself, both because of the complexity of the rules lhe progralll cmploys and the t::lcmcnt of randomness that pcrmeates its algorithm s.'7 Now it is ccrtainly possible that someo ne playing along wirb Voy ager could ad opt él mimetic attitude, ima gining, for example, th al Voyager was a huma n being. IlIdecd , the impulse to anthropomor phizc such a program is ha rd lo resist. Bul slIch an attitude is not necessary in order for the work to be perCormative. Pl~()ple \Vho impro vise with Voyager , focusing all tbe wh i1e 011 the real it y of Ihe sitllation , marveling al the ability of the algoritbm to produce interesti ng responses, marking the ways that the program reflected lhe musical lastes allu idiosyncrasies of its ma ke r, are still an intel:,'Tal part of the performance. active collaborators in the making 01' the music- in their own pereeption . as well as in the pereeptions of a ny spectators externa! lo the interaction.
IV The purposc 01' this brief examination 01' real and hypothetical cxamplcs of interactive computer artworks was to learn something about the relationship between performativity and computer interactivity, especially participatory interactions. We can now draw t\Vo conclusions: l. Some, but not all , kinds of participatory interactions are performative . 2. More significantly, a participatory interaetion is performative when the
interaction itself becomes an aesthetic objcct; in other words, partici patory interactions are performative to the extent that they are a/)oul their own interactions . ' ~ Up until now, my objective has been to highlight the continuity between interactive computer art and the traditional performin g a rts. Insofar as inter active computer art is performative, that continuity is deep ami important. There is, ho\Vever, a crucial differencc between the role that perfol1llance plays in works 01' interactive computer art ami in the performing arts. In nearly all Western performing art forms , and many non-Western ones, pe/' formers pcr/orm lForks. Actors perform plays; musicians perform music; dancers perform dances; Shamans perform rituals. The work (play, musical eomposition , dance, ritual) is a direct object. It is what the perfo rmer dacs. In " doing the \Vork ," the performer brings an instance of the work into the world. Thc work is él type, amI its pcrformance is a token of the type.19 This type/token logic breaks down in the case 01' interactive comp uter a rt. T o inte raet with él work of interaclive computer art does not produce él token ofthe work tbe way performing a dramatic or m usical work does. Even whe n a work of interactive ~Om p L1 ICr art is pcrformat ivc. tite work rllncl ions as un ·104
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illd ll\!cl r. II I1\,:1 Iklll a dirccl Ilbjccl 01' lh\! pcrlúnllcr's aclilllls. '1'0 intcract wit 11 (J an ill '.; )'lIl'l'i(' Wa/('/¡dog, Co urchesnc 's Fal1lily Por/rai/s, or Lewis 's VO.l'uger is not to pcrrorm Yuppie Watr:!ldoK. Family Portrai/s, or Voyager , but to perrorm lVil/¡ lhe works. T he artists here do not define performance types, but create interactive performance envirol1mell/s. Plays, musical compositions and dances define a series ofaclions to be perfonned; interaetive perfo rmance en vironl11ents provide contexts within which actions are pe rformed. An apparent exception might be the practice, hardly unknown among computer l11usicians, of creating a composition for a live musician ami a como putero In this case, the composer-programmer writes a score 10 be performed exclusively \Vith a specific interacti ve system , and designs the system to func tion exclusively wilh a musician playin g that scorc. An example 01' such a piece is " Hok Pwak ," a piece of l11usic for "solo voice a nd electronics" by Zaek Settel. In the case ofworks such as Settel's, the interactor docs produce a token ofthe type by interacting with the system. " H ok Pwak" functions as a d irect object of the performer's aetions: the singer pcrjórm.\· " Hok Pwak " though she cannot do so by herself, but only Ivilh /he computer. The situation here is analogous to that of a violinist who performs a violin concerto with an orchestra. "Hok Pwak ," however, is not a genuine counterexample to the principIe that interactors do not perform work s 01' interadive compu ter art. since "llok Pwak " is not , properly speaking, a wo rk ofinteractive com puter art. lt is a musical work that incorporales an interactive com pu ter en viron ment. That is to say, the musical work combines (1) a score for a mllsician , with (2) a specification that the score be played in lhe context 01' él spec ilic interactive environment. As Sette! himself s uggests, "Since the electronicl:i a re live, the computer is used here as an instrument"2°- albeit an extreme! complex instrument custom-designed for just this one composition- and an instrument is not to be confused with the mllsic performed on it. Playwrights ami choreographers might similarly create plays ami dances to be performed in conjunction with an inleractive system, and in these cases, too, what the performers are performing, the play or dance , remains logieally distinct from the interacti ve system itself, which might funetion as performer, prop, set, or any eombination of these .21 By contrast, works such as Yuppie Wa/chdog, F{¡mily Portrail, and Vo y ager, which exist separatcl y from plays or musical seores, are inextricable from the interactive systems that comprise thell1. The artist presents the interactive environment as a work of art in its o\Vn right.
v What aCCOllnts for the eurrent fascination with interactivity'? Why does interactivity matter? This question IS espeeially pu:aling in the case of staged interactions, that is, when the performer rather tha n Lhe audie nce is the inter actor. An enormous amount of effort goes into creatin g elaborate interactive syslc1l1s wil h which danct::rs can dallee amI mll si cian s can play. W hy'? W hile ·10 ~
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This attitude is con~ istcnt with a semiotic vie", of aesthetic perception: works 01' ar!. includ ing performances, are signs, and what matters is what those signs repreSel/l , !lot the reality underlying the signifiers. Sueh a view of acs thetic perception is incomplcte at bes1. !\esthetic properties are not limited to wha l we ean sce a nd hear; they are vitally influenced by what \Ve know and believc?' T hc reality 01' an interactive system such as Lewi s's Voyager does not cncompass only lhe internal workings of the program, but, erueially, the t~lcl that the syslem is reaeting to the human intcractor in real time. Aeeord ing lo Nelson's logie, this reality should be of absolutely no interes1. AII thal sllllUld matter to llS are the visual appearanee and the acoustic properties 01' Lcwis's performance. But th e reality does matter; indeed , the quality 01' lhe music plays (Jnly a minor role in the fa seination this \York holds . Lewis's pcrformance wilh Voyaga can be most captivating when Voyager's output is the least appealing, and we sense Lcwis's attempts to urge lhe system int mm \! satisfying Illusical territory. The interest here is in hearing the system alld Ihe live performcr adapt to each other's performanees, in observing the dc vcl opment 01' a un iq uc relationship between system and human. In oth er w~)rds, what is most interestin g is precisely the feat itself, the aetion, the eVell l. r he prú p()si tion that in leracti vc cOll1puter aft is a ki ncl of co nceptual art, wlllch I rcjectco iJl lhe first rart 01' this pupe r, ma y Iurn out to ha ve a n c lCIlICll t nI' Iru lh In it .. I'ter HI L Lho ug h ror di rfi.: re JI I rC'1SOIlS rro lll (IJUse T a rll hl yll ¡llId Binkky SLlP P()ScJ. In a p O S l mnOl!1 JI k d lnll logica l age, perhaps
c/!/ p el r\' f' 1I1íllln ' is a killd 01' CtlllCé ptllal ar!. Philip !\lIslander has slIggesl ed tha Ilhe lllltiol\ uf " Iive perrormance" is currently in a sta te 01' crisis, as evim;ed by lhe ~candal that ensued in 1990 wIJen the duo Milli Vanilli \Vas Jiscovered merely to be lip-sYl1ching Juri ng their eoncerts·- and not even to their own voices, since they had 110t supplicd the vocals for the recordings attributed to them. As A uslander observes, " most 01' the eomrnentary was adamantly opposed to the practiee, though virtually all of it also adrniued that the main alldiences for the performers in question , mostly yo ung teenagers, Jidn 't seem to care whether their idols actually sing or no1. " :4 The scandal, then, represented a reaetion by nostal gic baby boomers- \Vho according Auslander, were playing into the hand s of a media industry with a vcsted interest in maintaining the cult of the individual superstar- to a rapidly spreaJing epidemic of indifference toward live perfonnance in postmodern culture. Since Benjamin 's seminal essay on "The Work of Art in the Age of Me chanical Reproduction ," \Ve a re inelined to associate teehnological art \Vith reproduction and simu.lacra. Perhaps the current fascination with interactive technologies is, in fact. part of the reaction agail7sl postmodern alienation , a nostalgic revival of the modernist quest for presence and immediacy. In the 1960s, this desire for presence became an end unto it self. Actors in companics such as the Open Theater and Performance Group aeled , at lea st in large part, for themsclves, and often rcsisted public performance as long as poss ible. Such companies celebrated the process over the product. Part ieipatory theater and happenin gs represented an attem pt to invite audicnces inl~) lhe proccss, but rarely was that aetuallY possible. As R ichard SchecIJ ner, a k.ey pi ayer in this movement, himsel f noted in retrospcct, the gap betwecn l hl! performers - whose relationships and performances had dcvelopcd ovcr él long time- ami the "o utsiders " was often too great to overcom c. 25 Particir atory interactive computer art, rather than marking the bcginning 01' a new era, marks a renewed attempt to real ize the 1960s goa l of a participatory environmental theater. If that is , in faet , the goal, is it doomed to rail? Could partieipato ry computer interactions succeed where participatory theater fail ed? There are reasons to think that it migh!. Participato ry interactions have at least two potential advantages over participatory theater. While trained aetors often have difficulty truly opening up to strangers and letting them into their ra nks, a computer will welcome anyone into its circle and give each person its complete attcntion . I ronically, the computcr's very laek of sentience makcs it, in sorne respects, a better actor, that is to say, a better interactor, than a sentient human bein g. The computer will nol become "stale" (one mi ght say that its perfo rmance is "always a lready stale"); it will never anticipate o ut of habi1. W hen people perform a seq uence of actions repeated ly. those actions bcco lllc easier, increasingl y " automalic, " seeo ml nall1 rc. ~(' Thi~ process of habi tuatilln is hard-wircd into people. \t mUllt be prograllll lh:d illto a com pu ter. !\ nd wri ting a prouram that Icams rrom its
Illfl
111 /
1 CW I!'. hus ill viuxl othcl II I11 S IÓ ;III N 111 " llI y wil" ' ·!lr(/).:('/', I,c 1I111Sll y Ihe pwgralll hilllSclf, anu rn:qucn tly p Cl l III"JlIS JIl public wilh the programo 11 he 'iim ply likcs Ihl~ Illus ic that the progralll cOllles up with, why tlOl~s he 11 01 jusI rcwrd J. {)}'(/ga's output on a particularly good tlay and use lhc tape in conccrt'J Lcw is is \Videly recognized as one of the world's greatest living tJ'()Jnhone playcr~. Surcly he could effectively sim ulate él sense of spo ntancity ir Ihal were all that was rcq ttired. Does anyone ca re whether Lewis is playin g alon g with a record ing or is real/y interacting with a computer in rea l time? M uch 01' the rhetoric surrounding the new technologics suggests no!. As rar hack as 19RO, approx il1lately a decade before virtual reality becamc a ho uscholJ word , Theodo r Nelson wrote that U I.' U I ¡!C .J'>CS
Ihc central concern of interaetive system design is what I call a syslelll 's virll/alily . ... I use the term "virtual" in its traditional sense, all o pposite 01' "real. " The rea/¡Iy of a movie includes how the scenery was painted and where the actors were repositioned between shots, but who ca res? T he virlualily of the rnovie is w/Ufl semIs lo be ill il . Thc rC'(//i/.l' 01' an interactive system includes its data structure ami what. languagc it's programllleu in- but again. who cares? The importan! coneern is, IVIUlI does il seem lo be?22
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dillÍl.: UII 111.1 11 ,,, ' Itlll ~' OIW lita l ;1I'f'l1\';l!.. h~s ~a l.:h illlel ad ll'll arres l!. 'l'he bu~k Slu pidi ly 1,1' ,1 CI!l lI rlll \!1' is its grl,;all!lil a-;
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liD so. Onl' ll1ighl say that pl'ople 's al'tions na turally be¡;OIllC a ulomalk:. whik l'Olllputers' al'tions autolllatically rell1ain nat ura l. A computer wi ll aul omat inllly e xi~t in the hcrc-and-now and respond in lhe moment , wit ho ut evcn a day 01' Zcn or Meisner-stylc training. ¡\ second problem that mises with part icipatory theater is th at a ud ie n0c~ are apt to become sclf-l'onscious. Environlllental thcater was celebrated r~)r ils transformation of vicwers into parti¡;ipants, but \ess rema rke.d upon was ils equally radical transformation of actors into audicnce. Actor!:>. being senlicnl human bcings, do not merely aet a nd react, but also perceive. In a discussion rollowing one of Schecbner's environ m ental performances, a participant spectator confessed that " the expectancy of it alllllakes me feel n umb ." The spectator had good reason to feel pressured. In the same discussion , an actor cOlllplained about a previous performance: "1 was so disappointed in the motel after our performance in Baltimore. The show was so good- a nd then all these people showing thcir clroopy personalities!"27 Actors in participat ory theater can hardly help but judge the spectators' performances, sincc the SLlccess of their own perfOlmances depends on them. The computer, by contrast, has no real subjective presence. When yo u interact with Ü, it is nol really a\varc of you, and despite a programmer's best effort to create an illusion to the contrary, you know that it is not aware of you . I have proposed that participatory computer interactive art is pcrjormalil'e but not a pcrjo/'m ing arlo This lllay be its greatest strength . Freed from the need to " perforlll ," an interactor may weJl be freer to do and to experience. This freedom, how eveL is gained through a devil 's bargain. The modernist ideal of presence ami immediacy is achieved only by surrendering another ideal that the theatrica l avant-garde of the 1960s pursued with equal passion: the establishme nt of authentic human contact and el renewed sense of cornmunity.2~
Notes Christine Tamblyn, "Co mputer Art as Conceptual A rt," / 11" .101//'110/49 (19 90 ): 253 - 256; and Timothy Binkley, 'The Quickening of Galatea: Virtual Tools ()T Media," Art ]ourlw/49 (1990): 238. 2 This \Vork has been installed at a number 01' sites . M y description here is based o n an installation at the Kitchen Video A nnex at Thread Waxing Space in N ew Yo rk City , January 13-February I\. 1995. 3 1 discuss Ihe application of the type/token distinclioll lo th ealer in depth in "Whon is the Play the Thing?: Analytic Aesthetics and Dramatic Theory," Thealre R" search Illlenwliol1o/ 20 (1995): 266 276. 4 Thi~ dcfinitjon is relativcly informal. A rigorous definilion would nced . al the ve r)' lease to u n rad Ihe cxpressi(ln ~ " real-lime," " translales ," an d " sy~ lclllaliL'al l y related lo Ih.:: in pUl. "
IOX
~ 1<111110 1\ 111 11.11,,1.'11 ¡¡lglll'S (1Il1cl1l.lV incillgly ¡lIm y vicw) Ihat ill Ihe;: case ot'lileralurc, th e al!~ I(¡l'I I!J q hJccl is 1101 Ihe h:xt ilselr, bUI Ihe proccss 01' read ing lhal tex l. See
Ingard clI , 1lit' Ulcrory H'ork uf' Arl, Irans . George Grabowicz (Northwestern Universily Prcss. 1(73), p. 336. (¡ Insofar (lS interaclors beCOllle the focus 01' Iheir own aesthetic attention, they function sirnultaneously as audience and perforrncrs. That is, they become an é:ludience for their own performance. Intcraet o rs , then , perform for an audicncc arter ull , and our original ,iustification rOl' denying thal participatory interactivc art might be a perfonning art is gone. Nevertheless. I have deliberately defined the distinction between performing a nd pe rformative mts so thal it remains workable. slipping in th e condition that the performers and the audience consist of different groups ofpeople , under the convietion that we are better otThaving an excessively fine set of distinctions at our disposal than having one that is not fine enough. 7 Theodor Nelson , "The Crafting of Media." in S(~!il('({re,' [1I!órl11alÍol1 Tecltl1o/ugy: 11.1' Ne l1' Melll1ing./iJl' AYI , exhibition catalogue (N cw Y ork: Jewish Muscum , 1(70), p. 17. 8 George Landow arglles that hypermedia embody the principies articulated by poststrucluralist lheorists sllch as D e rrida and Barthes, giving rise lo texts th a l are radically " o pen " a nd " writerly. " Tho ugh his description of hypermedia ís some times naively uto pic, he is surely right to draw parallels belween lhe literary Iheory that ftourished in the 1970s and early 1980s aud the ideals of hypermedia, which after a long incubation period finall y carne of age in the late 19805. George P. Landow, Hypertex¡: [h e Convergencc (¿f' COl1lemporary Crilica/ T/¡cor,l' ol1d Tech l1%gy (Johns Hopkins U niversity Press, 1(92). 9 Stuart Moullhrop, " You Say You Want a Revo lution: H ypcrtexI and the Laws 01' Media ," in Es'\"ays in Posll11oderl1 CU/lure , eds. Eyal Amiran and John Unsworth (New York: Oxford Universit y Press, 1(93). p. 82. 10 Wi,t h intcractive role-playing games such as Mysl we do begin to see a n elelllent of true performativily . The mode of intcractioD in such cases is co rnplex an d ambiguous ·-the games often hover on lhe border betweell hypennedia am.I per formative interactivity- ·-and requires a much more earcful allalysis than I havc space to provide here. 11 David Slllalley, Bridget Baird, Noel Zahler, and Don Blevins are currenlly devcl oping such él virt ual sculpture gallery al Connceticut Co!lege. 12 See Kendall L. Watton, Mim esis (JS ¡\,fake-Be/ieve (Harvard University Press, 1(90). 13 Specifically, you beco me what Walton cal'ls a reftexive prop. See Walton. p. 117. 14 In the 1960s, artists such as Alan Kaprow and Yoko Ono specifically designed a number of conceptual works to enco ura ge speetators lo perceive Iheir aclions in this way. [\Viii consider the relalionship between performance art in Ihe 1960s and today's interactive compu'l er art toward the end of this papel'. 15 Insofar as we regard musie simpl y as being an aeoustic slruclure, we a re not regarding music as a performing a rt. When 1 listen to a musical recording, I hear music. In mal1y cases, 1 am o/so hearing a recording ora performance ofthe mLlsic, Ihat is, an event that too k place in another place and time. Musicians, however, often create Illus.ic in a reeording studio by laying down a large nUlllber ofseparate Iracks, in which case the final musical work never existed as the auralc(Jmponent of a sin gle performance event. A compOSer Illight evell program a computer to create m usic directly , eliminating Ihe need rOl' any live performance. Sorne phi losophers have defincd m us ic entircly i_n terms of acoustic structure; others ha ve malle the performance even ! integral lO thcir Ilotion 01' music. F or an extreme exal11pk (JI' Ihe former type (JI' lheory , see Nelson GoodmaH, L.on¡;UaKeS ni Arl
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"Ir' clII'/ HII.ljllg / '/l/c'/I1 ('lclIlplc 1II1iVl'r~il y I'I CS~ I 'N I)
1(, t 'oun.: lll'l'lIc's picte is dcscribcd in Alli sSi¡ Diallc SdlOcnreld. 'T owan l
I lu lll,U1 11I1\!rraCt.:: Intnacti ve Art in the Lí ghl 01' Postmodcrn Thco ry and ,, ~
Vchide rOl' Social Change" (masler's thesis, S U NY Stony Brook. 1994) pp 20 22.
1'1 1 <1m gralefullo Georgc Lewis for aJlowing me to examine sorne oUhe prQgrarn ' s copious code. 1X Note the difrerencc bct\Veen saying that a work is "about its o wn ill ler8etion"
saying tha t it is "about the ract that it is interaetive" 1 am not ma king lhe sorl 01'
dail11 a bout performati ve interactions that crities such as Clcmelll Greenberg
made about abstraet expressionist painting; that is to Sély, 1 <1m not proposing
lhal performative interaclions refer sclf-eonsciously to th eir own medium. SOIllC
works may, bul not as a direcl consequence 01' either their interactivity 01' thcir
pcrrormativit y.
19 This relationship between work and performa nce holds even in the case ormost im provisatory forms, Commcd ia dell'arte players performed a limited set or' scenario$, lhough they varied the dialogue. Jaa musicians typically perform pre-existing songs , improvising the arra ngement and addillg variations. And eveo il' they created an entirely ocw piece of music 0 0 the fty , and even ir that piece 01' musi c were never played again, it would still be true that they playcd Ihe l11u.I'ic. 20 This statcment is in the prograrn notes for a performance at Connecticut College on Saturday, Mareh 4, 1995. 21 The underlying disti nct ion here is belween what 1 call "lyric" and "dramatic" modes of interactiv ity, In the former, the computer becomes an extensiOll 01' the performers themselves, augmenting their expressi vity; in the second, it enters into the dramatic scene with the performers as an agent in its own right. A detailed ana Iysis or diflerenl kinds 01' perl'ormative interactions, however, must await anothcr occasion; the project ofthis paper is to distingLlish performative from nonperform ative interactions and to cxplore some general fcatLires 01' performativity, 22 Quoted in I-Ioward Rheingold, Vil'LUal Realily (Ne\\' York: Simon and SchusteL 1991), p. 177, original italics. 23 This insight, or course, is one 01' eornerstones 01' Arthur Danto's philosophy o r a rt , hcncc the central importance Danto places on works such as Warhol 's Brillo Box in Th e Transfigural iO/1 of' Lhe C:olnlllonplace (Harvard U niversity Press, 1981 l. 24 Philip Auslander, " Live Performance in a Mediatized C ul t ure, Part Deux," Thealre /I/1/'1l./a147 (1994): 3. 25 See Richard Schechner, I:nvironm en lal Thcaler (New York: I-Iawthorn Books, 1973), pp. 40 - 86. 26 Joseph Roach has cxplnred the way thcories 01' acting have accou ntcd for,
28 1 would like to Ihank Philip Auslander and Kendall Walton for their helpflll
cOlllmcnts on earlier d rafts 01' lhis papel'.
·l lll
INDE X
A Day;n Ihe Lijé IV 345
A Dicliollary o f' Mar.,i.l'1 Thoughl
111 337
A Lesson ;n Dead Lallguage II 114
A lv/a/1 's A Mall 11 272
A ilfrH'ie Sta/' Has ro SIal' in BIC/ck (I/l{f
While 11 114
A I'l'ell./de lo Dealh in Venice IV 319
A Vielvji'()//1 Ihe 1:."(lge IV 221
A Win,er's Tale I 197
I\alto, Alvar 11 396
Aaron 111 25, 30
ABC Art IV 166
ability and desirc, reconciling IV 25- 6
Abrahams, R. D. I 12; 111 38.43, 53, 61,
64
Abramovié, Marina 11 185; IV 241 - 5
Absencc
aesthetics of 11 111 ; IV 193
theatre 01' 11 111
absencc ol' presence IV 307
abstraet theatre 11 15
Aceonci , V. 11 185; 111 210; IV 191 ,
207- 9, 215
accountability 111 187
acculturation proeess 11 3 17
I\cker. Joan IV 53
Aekerman, Chantal 11 47
A('/ ami Ih e Aelo/' 11 114
act hcnneneutics 111 11
ACT-UP IV 145,273
ACT-LJ PILA IV 273
acting I 302
and non-aclin g I 309- 23; IV 22
and perfo rma nce I 139
defi niti ol1 I 309,312
cllcrgics uf I Z<J2
in nJII I lil t.: I ' 1:1
Orienta l practiees I 304
simple/complex scale I 3 15- 16
styles 11 93
theories 01' I 144
transitional areas in I 3 12
types and styJcs I 316
AClil1g ( R e) CO/1sidera' IV 22
Acling Wo/)/en I 234
acting yo urselr IV 36 - 40
actors I 85, 297 8
as central fealu re oi' thcalre 11 177
as personages JI 163 ·-6
dehu ma.nizat io n 01' 11 17fI,
dispersed energics oi" .102
extra-ord ina ry/virtullso techniq u~s
11 230 2
extras as I 31 I
Illodel 01' Ihe \Vorld I 212
obligations I 2 12
perspective of I 209
substituting I 326
actor's bodies see body
acls and utteranees I 95- 6
Ad{/lI1, Eve, {//'Id the S erpenl IV 337
Adorno, T. 11 254, 26 1; 111 222 -4, 393
Advaneed Resea reh Projects Ageney
(AR PA) I 175- 6
advertisernents I 331 - 2
Aegisthus 11 280
aeria 1 aets 11 20S
aerial bodyll 213 14
aerial performance 11 213
aerial routines 11 208
I\esehyllls I 304; 11 262
acst hctic assertions I 34ü
aeslhetic cOl1ll1lunicalion I 216 -- 18.254
aesthetics I 278
pol it ics of 11 ~4 1 4
111
TNTl
all c¡,;lalil)J\ I 251 Afri¡,;a I 'J o; IV 23,26 African-America n COllllllunities 111 195 African-American culture I 349 African-Alllcrican fol klo re 111 176 African-Alllcrican gay males 111 174 - 6. 179, 195- 6 African-American literat ure IV 75 African-Ame rican modernism IV 76- 7, 79- 80,90 ·1, 94 African-American theatrical cxpcriments IV 94 African-American women 111 195 snapping with 111 184- 6 African-Americans 11 339- 40 , 342, J77; 111 17J-·95 African art 11 404 African masks 11 404 African performance 11 J59 Afro-Amcrican society 111 45 Afier Bahe/l 190 Agal11emnof/ II 262 agency, notion of 11 382-94 aggressivity 11 276 Agnew, D. Hayes 1 24 1 agraria n cullures 111 130 agriculturc 111 21 AIDS 11 165; 111 24; IV 145,273 Ajanta style I 278 - 9 Albce, Edward 11 99 Albright, Anll Coopcr I 3; 11 188 alchcmy of the theatre 11 19 a1coholism and squibs I 801 vs . literary gift I 79- 80 Aldrich, Robert I 333 Aldridgc. Ira 11 166 a1catory oceurrences 11 242 Alcssi, Alito 11 203 Alexander, J. IV 274 Alger. Horatio IV 63 AIi, Tariq 111 270 alicn¡-¡tion 11 29- JO. 140 theatre of 11 15 "AII Revelation" IV 13 Allsop, Ric 11 119 Almquist, El izabeth IV 47 Alperson , Philip IV 333 Allh usser, L I 143, 165; 11 40, 254; IV 155 Altiere, Charles IV 192 AlI1ali , S. O. O. IV J4
AII I: III1 )' IlI lbo t. Pt.:n.:y IV 27.1_ alld)ltil,n IV 2(1 Americal/ !lrl S il/tl' /C)()(J IV 1gl) American Constitut ion I 75 ; 11 125 American Embassy, G rosvclIl' r Squ,l re. London 1968 111 270 2 American jeremiad 111 120 American la w 11 125 American Museum 01' Natural History I 120 America n theatre I 289 a Illncsia 11 184, 280 AIl American Drel1/17 IV 14 An Approach lo L ileralure 11 320 A n Ellemy o/ lhe Peopll' 111 294 - 5 An E vening o/Disgusling Songs amI Puky Images 11 67 Anamnesis J( 184 Analomy oI Crilicism 11 320 Andersen , M. IV 47- 8, 6 1 Anderson, A. IV 366 Anderson , Benedict 1\1 380 Anderson. Laurie IV 319,351 - 2, 357 AIle/y Warhol: PorlrailS I!f Ihe 70s IV 202 anecdotes from the past I 105 Angelou, Maya I 340; 11 377 Angels in Amerita 111 295 Angelus Novus I 305 anger 111 66 Anglim , Philip I 286 Anglo-Saxon I¡-¡nd eharters 11 129 animal park I 120--2 animals, play I 36 a nimatronic figures IV J77- 8 1'111110 Korr:nirw IV 402 Al1l1alr:s sehool 111 25 A nthony , Susa n B. I 238, 241 ¡-¡nthropology 14 7,161 ; 111 108 - 33 ant hropomorphism IV 167 A 11 Ligo/u' 11 226 Antin , David I 363; IV 197 a ntinomic character of perl'o nna nccs 111 18 antinomic character of scientific knowledge m 17 antipornography censorship 11 93 antipornography debate 11 58.. 64 Antonio , Madame Adcline 11 209 Antoull , Richard 111 11 8 an xiety 11 245 Anzalduú . G loria IV 44
·'11'"
.4,1/1," " ,1// 1 11 11 1I ~
ASI'IR I': (J'hl..: A~~o c i;¡litln fllr Spillal III.lury Rcscarch , Reha hi lit;.tt io ll. and Reintegration) 11 191 asseveratioll I 346 Association of COlllputing Machines' Special Interest Group o n eomputer graphics (S IGGR APH) I 168 assocíative matrix I 358 Athey, Ron 11 170 atom-bomb I 295 Attali. Jacques 111 355, 357- 8, 361, 365 AT&T 111386 - 7 a udiencc I 115. 127, 129, 149, 164, 205 - 7. 217,284,288: 11.13, 24968; 111 166 and commun ity 11 25 1 and performer I 348; 11 374 appreciation 11 370 as collective eomlllunity 11 255 as consumers 11 266 as dilemma 11 252 as first person plural 11 255 - 7 as first person singu lar 11 253 ·-5 as form 01' address 11 260 as modeI for intersllbjecti ve relations 11 252 as Illultiple sourccs 01' energy I .102 as performance I 365 as ratification of the socia l 11 275 as reprcscntative ideal of its own representations 11 27 1 as sanetioned voyeurs I 248 as seco nd person 11 259 as sign 11 249- 50 as singular slIbject 11 252- 4 as third person singular and plural II 258 capacity to hear 11 263 - 4 disintegration 11 250 drama 11 J05 giving a n 11 265 imaginary and unirnagi nary 11 368 -71 in dramatized society 11 269--8 1 in performance studies I 224--5 in the palm 01' the hand 11 273 TIlusie<J1 performance I 375 notion of 11 263 ob liga tion to listen II 263 - 4 pleasure of 11 237 poetry readings I 344 reaching out to 11 272
,,1 Id ~II 'lli cH ,ioll I 142 Appia h. KWi lllll' Alltlwny 11 365 6 Apthcker, B. IV 44, 50 Arafat , Yasscr 111 215 Aragon, Louis 111 263 a rb itrari ness concept 01' I 357 degrees of I 358 relative I J58 A rcades Projecl I 187 archaeo logy 01' kn ow led ge I 201 archctypal primitive theatre 11 19 Arendt, Hannah 111 299 Argentina IV 129 a ristocraticlscxist/sadistie theatre 11 32 Aristotelean aesthetics 11 5 Aristotle I 40, 77, '113, 159, 173. 282, 291 ; 11 36, 158, 245; 111 4. 10, 118, 258 , 273 . 279, 33~ 363; IV 147 Armies (JI lite Nighl IV 16 anns and armour IV 190 Arnie Zane D,lIlce Compan y n 196 Arn old, Thun nan I 82 art and objecthood IV 165- 87 and theatre IV 323 · 31 degeneration IV 179-80 imitative concept 01' 11 5 symbo lie act 01' I 79 within Illodernislll 11 175 Art Workers' Coalition IV 194,201 Artaud, A.17, 195, 291,295 ; 113- 15, 17- 20, 26- 8, 36,99, 110, 176, 183 - 4, 225 , 255 - 7.261,269, 276. 382; 111 202, 208 , 277 ·8; IV 93, 15J, 199, .107 , JI8-· 19, J21 Arthur M lIrray Studios 11 J36 articulated lang uage 11 27 articulation variables IV J69 70 artificial rea lity I 169 art istic, use of terlll I 128 artistic performance I 127- 8 arti stic practice and scientific inquiry 1113 arts fllnding IV 284 success a nd survival of IV 179 asexual momen tulll 11 280 Ashbery, John 11 269: IV 198 Asian Indian performance 11 J82 l)4 II pp a nttlJ ~
·111
11-¡ h ID\,
rel"usallo lisIen I .\4() rdatioIlship belwcen perfo nnl!l'l woman and I 252 ritual partieipation 11 256 roles I 224 transformation performances I 274 unity 01' 11 253 - 5 use of term 11 249 West A frican 1137 1 see also spectators audience atten tion IV 338 Audouard , X. 11 52 A uschwitz 1\1215- 16 , 220 - 1,229 Auslander, Philip I 11: 1\1 405 ; 22 L 382.407 Austerlitz. R. 111 39 Austin , J. L. 12.91.115, 155- 6, 178, 183, 201, 243 , 245; II 8R - 91, 93; 111 35-6, 3D, 333, 339-41; IV 113 - 14.130, 145, 152 autoethnography 11198- 100 automaton IV 378 avant-garde IV 284 exploita tion of feminism 11 44 fem inist drama 11 51 folklore 11 351 performancc IV 221 performativity 11 359- 80 theatre 11 50 Avedon , Richard 1117 Aviles, Art hur 11 351-2 Azadovskii , M. 111 53
rv
Babatunde 01atunji 111 367 Babbitt. M.ilton IV 345 - 6 Babcock. Barbara 11 207 Rabcock-Abraham s, B. 111 39.42 Bach, J. S. I 373; IV 337. 341 Backer, H. IV 269, 271 Bacon. Francis 111 224 --5 Bacon, W. I 248 - 50: \11 138. 143 Baer, N. V. N. 111 345 bag lady imagc I 232- 3 bag lady of performance I 246, 255 Bagehot , Walter 11 309 ; 111 256 Bagwell , Orlando 111 243 Bahamas 11140 Bahn , B. I 252 Baker, Housto n IV 87 Bakhtin, M . 11 95: 111 76 , 79 , 94 --5, 99 _ 100, 206 , 275.279 Bal , M . \11 237 - 8. 244
Bul:l /s. 1l~'I¡¡ IV 104 O.des , R~, berl .... IV 52 Balibar, Etienne \11341 Ralinese 11 28 ballet 11 349 ballroom dancing n 339 Banff Cyberconf IV 395 Baraka. Amiri IV 74- 6. 84 - 7. 91 Barba, Eugenio 1 288, 300- 1, 303; 11 224, 226-7, 230 - 3.. 382, 384. 387 Barber, Karin 11 375 Barbic an d iheji \1 361 - 5 Barenbo im. Daniel 340 Barish , Jonas IV 92 Bark er. F. 111 307 Harker. Howard IV 360 Barncs, Djuna 11 115 Barnum and Bailey U 210 Rartenieff, Irmgard 11 353 Barthcs by Bar/hes 11 270 Barthes, R. 1139, 141,143, 145.325: \1 35, 227, 388 , 397; \11 87- 8, 218 - 19, 222, 268, 322, 339-40; IV 231, 326 Bascom, W. 111 34, 38 Bataille , George 111 397 Bateson , B. \11 39 Bateson, Gregory I 178, 195 ; 111 35 Bauleship Potemkin 11 305 Baudrill a rd, J. 11 50, 275 , 280,367,397; \U 88,92-·3,207- 10,2 13,220,229, 268 , 380 ·- 1, 394 - 8,406; IV 155, 307-8.310,314-16,318, 320- 1. 356, 359- 61 Baudry , Jean-Louis \11 312 Bauman, R . I 12,217: \1132, 38,43 - 4, 53 , 64. 187 Bavarian Soviet III 260 Baxandall' Lec I lO: 111 253 , 276 Razin, André IV 310 Beaumarchais 111 262 Beek, J ulian 11 110-1 1 Bcckcr, A. I 199 -200 Becker , H. S. I 13; 111 149- 72 Beckerman, Bernard IV 32 Beekett, S. I 286, 303: n 88. 100, 110, 176, 261 , 275, 289 - 90; UJ 202, 205, 224 - 5; IV 310. 383, 388 Reekett. T homas I 196, 219 becomi.n g-other-wise 111 75 · 107 Becquer, M arcos 111 176, 195 - 6 Becthovcn, L. IV 340
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ami hll l ~', II I I l!l' 111 '1 Scllcl.: hIl CI'S view 01' I 120 behav iou ral ideol ogy 111 95 beha viourisrn III 3 Behn , A p hra III 315-17 Being ami NOlhingne.l's 11 290 Reit Hashoa h Museulll ofToleranee III 236, 240 Bekhterev, Vladimi r m 347 - 8 belief in spectator or performer I 316 Bell , E. I 219, 232 Bellmer, Hans 11 25 Belmondo. Jea n-Paul I 328 BelJllont, N icole 111 126 Ben-Amos, D. 111 43 , 54 Ben-Yehuda, N. IV 271 Benamou , Michel 11 25 Benedict, Ruth 111 124 Benjamin , Adam 11 197 8 Benjamin , W. I 117, 187,305 - 6; 11 361; III 293 ; IV 270, 325 - 7, 330, 366, 369, 375, 378 Benllett, John 111 129 Bennett. S. 11 95 Bcnsman , J. \JI 62 Bcnston, K. W. I 15; IV 74 Bentley , E. 11 315 , 319-22; 11\ 267, 307 Benveniste, E. 111 323 Bereovitch. Sacvan 111 120 Berenba urn, M. 111 238 - 9, 242 Berger, I\. JI. 11 87 Bergvall , Caroline 11' 119 Berkeley, Bishop 11 185 Berkcley , Busby IV 299 Berlant, Lauren 111 383 Ber1in Wall m 220, 2.81 - 2 Rcrlyne, Daniel IJ 229- 30, 232 Beny, R. 11 99 betrayal , relationsh,i p of 11 7 BCIH'een /he Act.\' 11 269, 271 - 2,280 BClIveen Thealer and Al1/hropology I 120; IV lOS Beuys, J. 111 224- 5: IV 238 4 1, 243, 245 Bhabha, Homi 11 353 Bharata 11 246 Bharata Natyam 11 195 Bha/'{/ I hanalya/l1 11 390 Bh.. rucha, R. 11 87 Bhavani, Ku m -Kum IV 45 Bible I'roja' / I 297 Bidlo, M ike IV 31 8
lI ig Un ll!:l (Ir rh: rl'" nll;J nce I 1Xj Big Scic nce 111 20 1, 13 vs. Little Sciencc 111 22 Bilbow , Marjoric I 32930 bilingualislll 11 344 Bill CO.l'hy S/¡Oll' 11 344 binary genders an d heterosexual contraet IV 102- 7 Binkley, Timothy IV 396 biocultural ecosystcm IJI 130 biological eriteria IV 50- J biological differences IV 51, 53 biomechanies 111 345, 348 Birrin ge r, Johannes IV 221, 356 !3inh o( Tragedy 11 275 Black Arts M ove mcnt IV 76-7, 79-80, 91,93 - 4 black consciousness IV 75 black eulture 11 343 black dances 11 341 black liberation IV 75 Black I1lcn IV 60. 68 Blaek I'v10untain College, Nonh Carolina \1 121 BJack Parliamellt IV 82 Black Po!!/ry in America IV 78 black rap music JI 342 Black womcn IV 46, 60, 67-8 Blackledge, Robin IV 223 Blaeklllur, R. P. 11 319. 324 5 blaekness Barakan vision 01' IV 83 performing IV 74 - 96 pol ymo rphic movem e nts of IV 76 privileged notion 01' IV 78 vision of IV 84 Blackton , J. Stllart IV 375 Blackwell , Emery 11 203--4 Blade RUllner I 169 Bla kc. W i 11 ia milI 00; '\11 127 Blau , H. 14.298; n 50, 249. 263, 269, 285,369; 111 202.. 7, 209-11, 307 , 421; IV 22 , 153,3 12 Blin , Roger 11 16 810c11, Fe1ix IV 315 !3odies T/wt Mal la 111 374; IV 114 bodily excess and inappropriatcncss 1252 body
11"
I
as COllllllcntator 11 1(Ji .1 as group represc ntati vc 11 16b 7 as middlc(wo)man/body as vesscl 1248 - 50 as organic congrucnec between performer and text I 249 as personage 11 163 -· 6 catego ri cs of 11 210 . 11 commlJl nieatio n of meaning 11 59 dancers' 11 161 ex terior 11 168 external au thority ti 160 in dance 11 334 in law's text 11 125 - 7 in Illodcrn performance 11 175- 87 in ora l interp retation I 248 in performance I 250, 254; IV 243 - 9 in terior 11 162 internal engageme nt 11 160 language I 345 manipulation of IV 207- 8 objectifica ti on of I 248 ofk nowledge 11 184 ontological complexity 11 159 presence of II 183 public/private distinctions I 252 relaxation 11 161 rcpresen tation of 11 58 role of II 180 sensation of 11 169- 7 1 socio-historical 11 166 --7 tension 11 161 t\Vo-fold problem 11 185- 6 see (/Iso f1csh bod)' art 11 178 body-as-objeet 11 182 bod y-as-sign JI 182 body-text I 300 Boehme, lak ob 111 127 Bogart, Anne JI 99 Bogosia n, Eric JI 159 · 60, 163 Bohm, David 111 5 Bohr IH 10 hoile al/X il!usiol1s 11 225 Boltan, lay David IV 159 Bolton , R, IV 276, 278 Bonapartism JII 392 Bonsoi,., Dr. S chol1' II 60 Book o/ Genesis 11 129 Rook o!Joh I 297 Rook o{ L cviticus 11 129 BOQth by, Fra nees lit 316
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13\l rd \1, Sll ~il lI IV 114 BO rll stC IIl , <.i. 11 '>7 Bos nia 111 213, 22 1 Boston Tea Pa rty 111 116 Bou illaguet , Pie rre JI 236 Bou issac, P. 11 20S boundary tnlnsgressions IV 269 - 88 Bourdicu , P. 1148, 157 . 165: 11 3 35 ~ 6, 368; 111 80- 2, 85 , 87 , 92, 97, 2 19, 222,375 , 382 Bourdon, David IV 202 BOllrne , Jenny 111 242 Bowlby, Rachel IV 259- 60 Bowles, Samuel 111 392 Bradbrook , Professor 11 303 Brahmanism I 58 brai.n research 111 9 Bra ithwaite, Wil1iam Stanley IV 12 S raun, E. 111 344 - 5 Bravma nn , R . IV 26, 28 - 9 Brazil Fado IJ 282- 4, 295 - 7 Bread and Puppet Theatre JII 277 Brecht, B. I 11 , 220, 264 - 5, 28 1, 284, 287 , 304,335; 11 26, 28 - 9, 31,91 , 161, 176- 9,1 81- 3, 236- 8, 241 - 3, 259- 61 , 269 , 27 1- 3, 280- 1, 368 - 9, 399: 111 267 - 8, 277- 8, 305 - 14; IV 93, 153 --4, 157 , 213 , 307- 8,313 Brechtian theory 111 305 - 19 Breer, R obert IV 294 Breitenb usb dance jam 11 202 Brendel, Alfred IV 344 - 6 Brenner Yule 11 163 Breton , Andre 111 202 Breuer, L. 11 11 7, 399- 400, 404; 111 298 Brewe r, Ma ria Minich 11 50 " bricolage" , pleasure of 11 240 Brighf TUI/es lvfusic Corp. 1'. H arris(J/lgs !lIusic, Lid 111 406, 4 15
Bristol , Michael 11 87 , 96 British Film Inst itllte I 139 Brilish Live Arl: Essay s a/1(/ Documenlalions IV 224 British Ordinary Langllage 111 35 British South Africa Company 111 11 3 Bromige, David I 347- 8 Bronfman, Edga r 111 2 16 Brook, P. I 220, 300, 302; 11 110, 232, 400, 404: 111 260; IV 212 Brookh aven Na tional La borato ry 1II t 5 Brooklyn Acade my of M usie 11 346 Bnloks, Clcanlh 11 31 9 20
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IN IlI t \:
I!I'I'ol.:;, I¡ n l ~ lw " 1 177 Uwu ks, K. I 252 Rrooks, P. 11 254 5: IV 153 Brower, Rcuben IV 12 Brown, James IV 75 Bmwll , Trisha IV 326 Brustein , R. 1131 3- 14,3 17·-19, 321 Buchanan, Na ncy IV 257 Buchmanism 1 8 1 Büchner, G. 111 260; IV \)3 Buddhislll 11 28 Bullins, Ed IV 76 " Bunday" 111 40- 1 Buñuel IV 208 Burden. Ch ris 11 178 Burger, Peter 11 397 BlIrke, E. 111 52 , 254- 5, 258 , 263 Burke, K. 1 72 , 195 , 197,216; 111 39- 40, 115 burlesque I 252 Bllrma I 69 Burnh alll , Linda IV 265 Burns, E. 1II 36 Burton, Richard 11 99 Burton , Scott IV 19 1 Burton, Tim IV 365 Butler,J.lll , l ), 109, 155 - 6,165; 11 88, LJ3 , 210- 11: UI 268 , 339, 34 1, 374 - 7, 397; IV 97 , 114,144 - 51 Cable News Netwo rk (CN N) 11 292 Caenorlwhdilis elegans 111 24 Cage, John 11 JO, 264; IV 228, 23 1, 329, 354 Cah ill , Spencer E. IV 57 Ca kewa lk 11 339 Ca lisher, Hortense I 246 Od ie, Sophie 111 320- 1, 334 calling out names 111 67 ca l1ing sOllleone out 111 177 Cambrid ge ant hropology 11 330 Cambridge University 11 326 drama 11 303 - 12 Camera Lucida 111 322 Call1pbell , K. 1 239 Call1pbell , Pa ul I 2 16. 252 Cam pbell , p, N. I 2 17 ca ncer 111 24 Candid Camera 1 109 Ca n(/oco 11 197- 9, 201 :anCtli , Elias 11 272- 3 Cól nn ()II , I yrw Wc h
('apck brothcrs IV 302 C A PITAL IV 240 ('apila/ III 377 8, 384 Ca pita ljsm 11 29 and cOlllmunity 111 384 and multid imensiona l socia l relations 111 384 - 92 Capo, K. E. I 222, 233 Ca rbol1, M , 1 7; 1179, 87 , 163; IV 33 Caro, Anthon y IV 167 , 177-8 Carr, C. 11 62; IV 274 Carter, K. I 222, 233 , 236 Cartesia n approach to ll1etaphysics III 5 Ca rtesia n coord in ates 111 6 Ca rtesian phi losophy 11 126- 7 Ca rtesian phys ics 111 7 Case, Sue-Ellcn I 14, 234; 11 390; m 334; IV 141 Cassirer, Ernst 1 197 , 216 Castelvetro, L. 11 8 1 Castiglio ne 111 257 casting 111 154, 1589 Cast le, Vernon and Irene 11 339 cast ration 11 34: 111 325 Fre udian tileory 11 45 catharsis 1 292 , 295 , 306- 7; 11 184 calhartic poe!ry 1 78 Catholic C hurch 11 138 Calholic Encyclopcdia 11 138 Catholic rituals IV 236 Causey, Ma tthew I 4; IV 38 1 O rvcll, StaDley IV 316 =D-ROMS IV 399- 400 Ced /¡ 'eSI pas LI//e pipe 1 117 Ce lebrity R ights Act 111 410 Central America III 131 Centra l ln st itute fo r the Scien tific Organization of Labor and thc Mechanization o f Man (TsIT) 111 345 6 Centre for Comempo rary Cultural Studies IV 155 ceremony( ies) 1 162; 111 46 , 126, 128 Certeau , Michel de 111 2 14, 2 19 20,222, 224 , 235, 245, 288 Ceylon I 69 C haikin , Joseph 11 110:. IV 310 charnber theatre 111 167 C hamula 111 4 1- 3, 63 C haney, Lo n I 286 C hanning, Catole 11 163 C hapl in , C'h a rlie 111 354, 366, 409, 412
111
('¡',,/Jlill 11. ,' /II/ (/(Iu /' 111 -lO') L:haraL:1L:r
anal ysis 01' I 149
and aL:tor's body 11 159 ·- 60
and perform ance 11 161
C ha racter Shop IV 372 characterisation I 142 C ha rles 11 I 235 C hütelet Theatre 11 239 C haucer, Geoffrey 111 140 C'haud huri , Una I 10- 12; 111 293 C heeve r, Jo hn 111 142 Cheklwl' 11 116 C hekh ov. Antol1 1 263,316; 11 116,3 11 , 327; 111 295 - 8 C hénier, Marie-Joseph 111 263 C hcrn of1', J, M . 11 366. 370; m 362 ·-4 Ch icago 111 160 L:hiId perfo rmcrs 11 213 child-play I 49 children's performances of games 111 83 chi ldren's storics I 345 C hiJds. Lucinda 111 9 C hin o Daryl I 8; 11 114 - 15, 395 Ch ina I 28, 30. 46: 11 348; 111 28 1 5 dance in 11 348 C hinese acrobatic traditions 11 349 Ch inese ballet 11 348 Chinese choreography 11 349 Ch in ese ideograms 11 13 Chincse Opera 11 348 Chinglep ut I 60 eh il Cha l Wilh. CII/'/Ilelilll 11 65 Chitty, Elizabeth IV 207- 9, 362 ch lo ri ne-36 in urine 111 16 C hodorow, N. 11 45 Chomsky 111 80-- 1 C hong, Ping 11 401 - 2 C hopin. Frederick I 130 choreography IV 11 5 and performance IV 120
cmbodying the socia l IV 119- 24
theorctical moves IV 11 5- 19
Choreological Laboratory of the R u$sian Acadcmy 01' A rtistic Sciences (RAKhN) 111 346 Christ ian lands I 28 Christian rituals IV 236 C hristi anity 11 19 ch u rch serviccs I 345 C hurchill. Ca ryl m 308, 310: IV 149 Cico urel 111 52
( 'Ii",LiI" l{ vlIlIHI I 2hX \ cÍ m'llI:I I 1 \\1 1-t 2; 11 44 5
,w d 1'c l1Ji ni ~ 1II 11 .'17
history 01' IV 29 1
see also film
circus IJ 207- 15 L:i rcus acts 11 208
ci rcus a rtists 11 2 J 1- 12
civic events I 16 1
L:ivil rights I 348 Civil Rights Movemcnt IV 193 CIVIL lI'arS 11 278 Civilization and lis DisconlenlS JI 276 civilization-as-castratio n 11 36 civilizations, studv of I 57 Cixous, Hélene 1 -141 - 3, 232 , 236.242, 253; 11 4\ 47. 50, 262 3, 266, 291; IV 258- 9 Clark . Danac IV 156 Clark , Ebun 11 375 Clark, S, H. 1 243 class, categoriza tion on basis of IV 61 5 clélSS di ffe rentia ti on IV 386 class dimensiono cu lluréll tranSlllission 11 342 class domination 111 259-·60 class roles IV 53 classic drama 11 38 c1assica l represental ion 11 9 c1assism IV 44 Clement, C. I 253 Clevcland Ballet 11 191 - 4 Clifford , Jam es 11 95, 97 Clinton. President I 340 c1 0aeal thco ry I 78 elosed perfo rrna nees 11 223 c10sure 01' representation 11 3--24 c10thing in stage functions I 3 10 c10ud chamber 111 26 Oo ud N ine m 308; IV 149 Iytemnestra 11 262, 266 C ND 111 270 Cocteau IV 297 Coffin , J udge 111 41 1 Co hen, S. IV 272 Co hn, Roy 11 87, 165 cokl WéI r technologies I 183 Co lcn , Shellee I V 61 - 2 C'oleridge, S. I 84 Colleano, Con II 210 Co lica no. Winnie 11 209 collecti ve life, dynamics of 1 201
4 1X
col kd lV\' 1\'vc l,lI lon I /-t '\l lli l\ ~ , 1', I I IV 4-1 'i , -17 ~,)() 1, (, 1, (,7 ('O l/ /(' ::'/J}' lI'illl Me IV J03 comcdy 11 36 and hUlllou r in seienee 111 28 comie and play I 40 Cornmedia dell ' Arte I 173; 11 10 commentary, by acto r's body 11 161 ·-3 cOllllTJc ntatin g bodiL:s 11 168 col11l11ess lll 63 4, 67- 72 commod ity multivalence of 111 377- 83 status-o identity-, and community conferring aspects IIJ 38 1 common sense 111 81 - 5 Commune I 288 commun icability I 142 wmmu nieat ion 11 16 aesthetics I 216 -- 18, 254 narrow and broad scnsc I 98 n
and capitalism 111 384
and legal gesturc 11 133- 4
cornmulati on definitio n I 325 ri go urist's reproach I 33 1 use 01' I 327 comm utation test I 144, 324- 37 defini ~ i o n I 324 use of I 325 ..6 comparative rcligion I 47 corn partmcntalization 11 175 wrnpe tence in performance 111 189 competition I 276; 111 2 I 2 in scientifie aCl ivity IIJ 17 computer graph ics figures IV 369- 7 L 374,377
CIJ III (1 l1 tCIS IV 195 ,110 as thcatrL: I IRO 1
'omp/l 1('/",\' (/.\' 7'l,eolre I 172
,omtc, Auguste 111 124
Condiliol1ed Rej!exe,\' 111 347 conference papers I 345 6 confessiona l efficiency I 78 Conjeeveram I 60 Connell, R, W . IV 52 Conquergood, Dw ight I 12,22 1, 223, 233,252; 11 94 6; In 134, 150, 167 conseienee II 28 co nsciousness cruelty as 11 14 versus unconscious LI 35 consurnerislll 111 374 consurnplion 111 372- 404 Contact Improvisation 11 192, 201 , 2035 Contcmporary A rts Ccntcr, New Orleans 111 295 eontemporar y psychoanalytic t heory 11 39 Con lell1po/'ory Theo lrc Rel'iell' IV 2 19 L:on text I 146 contrary motives 111 64 Con 1rihUl iOIl cril i!fue de I'écollolllic Jioliliqie 11 29 cont ro lled creat ive a ut ononw 11220 conventio na l wisdolll 111 g l ':; conversation
Cook, Albert 11 2.78
Cooper, Gary I 327
Copeau's im provisations 11 10
Copeland , Roger I 4; IV 306
Cop land, Aaron IV 346
copyright 111 405 - 28
Copyright Act 1976 111 405
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'·"Ii'\ )rt"¡¡ II \I\.'~"II ~·": JI 1(.1 ~l' vr ll 1IlI'IllS 11 1"1/ 74
nlltlll ld <' II I II 'S " .114 clIltur;1I 1't:1I1i nis! performaJlce 11 'iX (A eulturallcadcrs 1 70 cultural lllcdium I 66 ·8 language as 1 67 cultural memory JI 258 cultu ra l pattern of Indian civilization 1 68- 9 cultu ral performances I 154; 111 174 a nalysis 1 62- 6 Great T rad iti on 1 57 - 71 institutional settings I 63 place of 1 62- 3 units of observatioll 1 60 ·-2 use of term IV 230 cu ltural policy-ma kers I 64 cu ltural practices I 162 cultural production UI 381 cultural revolution 11 36, 348 cultural specialists 1 63- 5, 67 cu ltural studies I 111 , 157: 11 332, 314 58 and dram a 11 324-32 institutionalization 01' 11 13 1 politics of I 160 predicated 111 75 cultural theatre 11 16 cultura l traditi on III 112 (;Ultural transformative modes 111 131 cultura l transmission dass dimension 11 342 dialectics 01' lJ 140- 1 Culfure 11 325 - 6 culture and plays 1 39; 11 3 13- 33 prime role 11 40 suh specie IL/di 1 39 Cuna 111 46 - 7 Cun nin gham , IV!erce 1 185; IJ 30, 192 Cunnison, lan 111 114 Curry , S. S. 1 243 Curse or f/¡e Slarving Class 11 168 Curtis, Bruce 11 202- 3 Cushman , Charlotte I 236, 239 cyber-puppet ry IV 368 cyberspaee 1 169; IV 401 Cycleror Wafer Buckels IV 234
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coqmrt!a lily. rorlll~ ,)1''' 159 correcti ve practiccs 1 105 Corsianos. Marilyn IV 269 Cosen1.ino. Donald J. IV 35 - 6 cosmic nLy studies m 16 t:ostullle continuulll 1 310 Couh, Tony 111 266 counter-efficient:y 1 78 Court:hesne, Luc IV 403 Cour.l'e in Ceneral Lingui.l'fics I 354; 111 340 Courtes , .1. H. 11 221 Coward_ Noel 111 94 CO)!ofe: 1 Like Ameríc(f 1.11/(1 Americ(f Like.l' M e IV 238-41 nacking someone's f¡¡ce 111 177 Craig, Edward Gordon 11 81 Craig. Gordon " 176, 179 --80 Cranat:h, Lucas IV 337 Crease, R . P. 1 126-30; 111 11 creative thinking 1 128 Creep IV 124 C rémieux_ Benjamin 11 8 critical analogue 1 86 critical dissent " 310 critical onto logy m lOO niticism 1 76 and drama" 319- 24 in nelV theatre " 30 C roce, B. " 81 2 Cronenberg, David 11 63 cross-dressing " 87 racia 1 " 346 Crow, Jim 111 174 Crowds ond POll'er " 272 Crowley, D. J. 111 39- 41 cruel representation " 8 cruelty as consciousness 11 14 as net:essi t y " 10 festival 01' 11 16, 18 primitive thelltre and 11 20 theatre of 11 3-·24 Csikszentmiha lyi. M. 1 268 Cu hi sm 11 404 culinary theatre " 280 cultun Ll activity , slllal1-scale I'orrns I 140 cultural capital and d rama 11317- 19
Dada I V 157
Dak ar. Seneg¡¡ 1 11 344
Da ly, M 'l ry 111 29 5
420
dall~'t' lI \\.\ '1K ;11)( 1 d i ~;;l hil i t )'
11 1')0 dcscx uali/alion 11 .\I() dis;lbled body in 11 lXX 20(¡ rorlllS 01' 111 362 hybridiza lion 11 349 50 in China 11 348 in Tllovcment study 11 336 marginalized 11 334 recontextuali zation 11 349 -50 sym bolism 01' 11 346 see also chorcography Dance Critics Association H 192 dance manuals 11 337 dance performance I 359 dance research 11 334 dance scholarship 11 335 - 6 dance studies as feminism's other IV 125 9 dance styles a p propri a t ion/t ra n sm ission/m igra t ion 01' 11 338- 40 hip hop 11 342 transportation of 11 346 DanceAbility workshops 11 202 DanceBrazil 11 350 - 1 Dallce/1/aga:ine 1I 19 I dancers bodies of 11 168--9 physically disabled 11 191 dancing spirit 11 194 Dancing Wheels 11 191. 194 Dandeker, Celcste 11 197, 200 Danes. Claire 11 1(JO Danton III 262 - 3 Danloll's Deafh 111 260 Dork Ride 11 1 13 Darnell, R. 111 39. 51 Dars/¡all 11 387 Dartington 11 120 I Darwin , Charles 111 258: IV 93 Darwinism 111 3: IV 5 Dasenbrot:k, Reed Way 1 342 Dasgu pta, Ga uta m 111 3 Daug/¡fer (jIlhe Ni/e 11 403 Davenant , W illi am 111 316 Davidson , Donald 1 361 Davis, A. IV 44, 67 Davis, M, 1I , 111 406 , 411 Davis, R on 111 277 Davis, Salllllly Jr. 1 203 - 4 Dav is, 1 rae y 11 212
K . 11 (,7 IV 27.~ /\ . 11 X7 I )¡oa/illl/ll (i/UIIC!; 11 162 de Ballellle. Roberl n 135 de Beauvoir, S. 1 249: IV 46 , 51. 97- 100, 102 Debord, G . IJ 285 ; 111 207,211.. 273 - 5 de Certeau, M _111 79, 82 , 87, 89- 93 , 98 deconcealment 1 127 35, 53; IV 2 15 deco nstruction and feminism 11 48 ap plieation 11 93 poe!ry readings 1 351 women 's performance mt IV 253 - 4 deeonstructive philosoph y LI 44 deconstructive techniques " 35 De Costa 111411 - 13 Deer Park IV 13, 15 Deelz. S. I 217 defamiliarization I 127 defcnsive practices 1 105 de Gaultier. J ule, I 129 de G roat, /\ndy IIJ 9 de Heusch, Lue 111 114 dehuma nization 01" acto r 11 178 deh ul1l a nization of theatre 11 176 D cla rgy. J. H . 111 44 D elattre, Rolan u IH 126 de Lauretis. Teresa 11 37 , 42- 1. 2Xg; IV 11 1- 14, 128- 9, 143 --4, 254, 2(12 Deleuze, G . 1 184; 11 114; 111 21 :l, 2 1(). 221 Dell'Artc School 01' Blue Lakc, Ca li fornia 111 295 Del o ria. Vine Jr. 111 134 Delphy, Christine 111 379 Delsarto-eloeu!ionary display 1 242 Delfo 01' Vel1llS 1 235 de Marginy, Ch ri s 11 19R de Marinis. Marco 1 3; 11 82, 219- 22 , 226 Deming, Robert H. 1I 284 Deming, W. E. 111 347 , 349 Dell10 Mmle/ IV 362 de Montgomcry, Roger 11 135 DeI1lIJI1IJloKY: ,I'ome ¡//()/./KltfS [olvard {/ science oI c!wos ill /'ecel/I /m/im1l(/l1ce IV 223 DeMott. Benjamin IV 61- 5 Den by. F dwin IV 3 I1CIlClIVC , Calherine 11314 I ) , I VY
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Iklllll:r, ('harks I l.lO dl.:lIsity "f siglls IV ~ 2(' Dcn\lcr Centcr Theatre Compan)' IV 309 Der lJimll/e/ ¡¡ha Berlin I 304 Dcrrida, .1.17, 139,1 4 1, 143 , 146- 7, 155 - 6, 165, 183 - 4, 352, 355 ·- 6, 362; 11 3, 35, 39, 49 50, 83 - 4, 90, 98 . 111 - 12,114,117, 250 - 1.. 378: 111 268,3 10. 323, 339--41 , 419; IV 127-9, 134, 148, 158, 195, 199 201 , 209, 21 1, 30~ 8, 310. 313 - 14.316,318.321 desacral izing theatrc 11 14 de Sade, Marquis I 293 de Saint-Denys, Hervey 11 13 Desca r1 es 111 5 7 Design in g Technology (exh ibiti on) 1 171 dcsirc 11 61 , 276 - 8 and ability, reconciling IV 25 - 6 and pleasure 11 247 dynarnics of 11 57 -75 Desmond , JélTle C. I 16: 11 334 Desmoulins, Camille 111 262 Dcsperate Optimists IV 382 detachment and difference 111 142 dell.\" ex machina I 304 deviance I 194; IV 269 - 88 theorics of IV 271 4 Dewey, John 111 135 de Wit , Maria IV 222- 3 Dhairyam , Sagri IV 157 Dia/¡e/l¡ VarillliOI1S IV 340 dia lectical dancing partners 111 124 dia lectical dynamics of social formations 111 388 - 90 dia lectical partner of narcissism 111 99 dialectics 11 17, 19. 264 and drama I 74 of cu ltural trans mission 11 340-- 1 dialogica l consciousness 111 95 dialogical conversation 111 97 dialogical criticism 111 144 dialogical performance 111 143--6 dialogue 11 311 Diamond , E. I 1< 1 - 12. 157, 164; 11 86, 92: 111 234, 305 Dibbcll , J. 11 346 DiCa prio, Leona rdo JI 100 D ickens, Charles 11 80, 326 7; IV 14 Didl:nll , D\!nis I 159; 111 348
I N II EX
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:tllll lCllIiniSI Ihcory IV 45
cond ition of IV 199
embodying 11 334 58
in verted and difference maintaincd
" 46 new understanding IV 42·- 73 problem of IV 45. 65 - 9 venial of IV 45 digital animation 14 digital culture IV 382 dilettan tislll I 252 Dill, B. T. IV 44, 67- 8 Dilthey, \\'. 111 110, 121 ·- 2, 13 1 /)il1/1(-'r Tah/e AroUI1e/ I 117 DiOllyS LiS in 69 I 276 , 288 , 320 1: 11 99 directori al conventions 11 93 disability and dance 11 190 in professional dance 11 202 disabled body gender in 11 197 in dance 11 188 - 206 disappearance as history 11I2UI - 12 disciplinary society I 149 discourse 111 97 politics of 1 153 - 67 sociological sidc of 111 96 discovery process. event-character 01' 111 26 discursive practices 111 100 discursive production of oppositiona l mOVCT1lcnt 111 390- 2 disenchantment of the world " 175 disintegration lit 131 Dislocaliom 321 dismeT1lbering 111 131 Disneyland IV :\78 disorientation IV 298 disperscd energies of actors I 302 displacement as energy transfer 11 25 display, performance as I 234 - 6 disposition IJJ 83 lea rned 111 97 disruptive features of pcrforrnance 11 232- 3 dissing, use of term lit 178 dissonance 11 28 distanciation " 29 Distributed Interaeti vc Simulatio J1 I 175 Dixon-GOUschild , Brenda 11 342 Doanc, Mary 1\1111 I 244; IV 262
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IV 1M, I)olall J ill 1 7: " ~7 , .t!h , .NO : IV 260 l)ollilllorc, J, 111 107 do rnillant practiccs 111 92- 3 dOT1lination 11 30 e/omple regare/e" 43 Donne IV 9 Do ra y. Bernard 111 359· 6 1 Dostoevsky 111 95- 6 Double. screen-test IV 38 1- 94 double articulation 01' structure and practicc 111 97 Douhle Helix IJI 29 Douglas, Mary 111 139 DOl\'11 in I he Re(: Room IV 2 11 drama" 86 · lOS act ive im agcs JI 309 ambivalent status " :130 analogy for social life 1 195 and criticislll " 3\ 9- 24 and cultural capita l" 317-- 19 ami cultural studies 11 324 " 32 a nd dialectic 1 74 audience " 305 historical status 11 317 in dramatised socicty 11 303 12 literary discussion of 11 87 materials I 75 performance-oriented criticism of H 86 presentation " 307 prob1ems of " 3 11 representations '11 308 - 9 ritual theory 01' I 195 signification 11 J08 trad iti onal 11 306 typifications 11 309 Univers ity of Cambridge 11 303 ·-12 watching 11 304 see olso plays f)m/1w j i-o//{ fhsen lO fJrechl 11 326 Drama in a Dramatized Soci ety 11 27U f)rama il1 Petjám/(//1ce 11 325 drama studios, conceptual crisis in ti 86 f)ramas, Fields_ (///CI Melaphors 111 119 dramatic art , eonventions of " 271 dramatic criticism I 76 ca1cu lu s of 177 dramatic performance " 88. 96 7 as act 01' itcration 11 99 Ill iscollcept ion " 93 pcr f~lrHlitl i v it y in 11 93 d OCII pllpp..:ll )'
dr:llllalic pc rs pcctivc I Xl dralllatic specdl 11 311 dralllatic studies 11 88 drama tic theatre 11 36 drarnaturgic analyst. model 01' 1 212 dramaturgic approach to social reality 1 203 - 14 dramaturgy definition 11 219 of protest, rnethodological considerations 111 272- 4 of pro tests 111 266 - 92 01' radical activit y 111 253 - 65 spectators 1I 219- 35 drcallls iJ1egibility ami magnetic fascination or 11 13 representation in 11 12 theatre of 11 13 Drewal, M. T. IV 22, 29 Dreyer, Ca rl IV 3 10 f)/'{},\'o/iI¡ilo 111 24 Drucker. PeteJ' IV 339 Dufrenne, Mikel l 117- 18. 125 Dukes. Ashley 11 82 Dumb Ty pe 11 402 DUlIcan. Hugh 11 253 Duncan , !sauo ra 111 346 Dundes, 1\. 111 42 Dunnock, Mildred 111 253 D upee , Frederiek IV 20 Durang, Christopher 11 115 Duras , Marquerite " 47 D urbin , M. 111 :l4 Durkheim , Ernile I 197 Duse, Eleanora 11 176 Dusrnan , Linda IV 334 Dutton , Denis IV 334 Dwork in, Andrea " 58 Dwyer. Paul " 219 Dyer, R. I 144 Dylan , Bob 121t) dynamic visual irnage 11 135 Dylla/1/ic Voices IV 78 dynamics of collective Jife 1 20 I dyrwmics (lf desire " 57--75 Eacl, Ti/1/ (-' / Sl'e You, / Feelll Could Be T/¡e Losl Tim(-' I1 40 I Eaglcton. Tcny " 260, 319 -20; 111 :l07 ~(Jrt h I :l878 E,lI th M0lhcr I 2¡;;
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111 254 cducation, women in 1 240- 2 Edwards , Jonathan IV 165 Edwards, P. C. I 243 Edwards, Richard'" 358, 360- 1 Edwards, Thomas IV 8, 14 Efficient Causes 111 4 EfTort!Shape methodologies TI 353 ego identity 11 37 Eü/os 11 61 Eightfold Way 111 19 Einstein , A. 111 8. 10 Eisner, Kurt 111 260 Elam , Keir 11 38 e1ectrocncephalogram (E EG) 11 230 e1cctronie arch itecturcs I 180 electronic synthesizers IV 341 electronic technologies 1 182 Electronic VisuaJization Laboratory I 170 /;"/em elll.l' oI Semio!ogy I 325 Eliot, T. S. I 195: 11 100.321 - 3 El1is, John I 14 1, 144, 216; 11 293 Ellis. Trcy IV 76 Ellison , Ralph IV 74, 80- 8 clocution Illalpractices 01' I 243 - 4, 254 \\lomen in I 242··· 6 I~ I Tcatro Campcsino 11 371 Elwcs. Cathcrinc IV 257 cllIharrassmcnt I 105 - 6. 148. 252 , 299; IJI 66 7, 88 cllIcrgCl11 culture 111 54 1:lIlcrSil ll IV (,
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elllol iO Il 1 "5 bllpire o{ Sigl1,1' 111 322 empowcrlllcnt, legal gesture 11 138 Empsoll , William 11 319, 322, 324 el10rgeia (vividness or shining forth) 1291 Endgame 11 275 l'l1ergeia (vigor 01' force) I 291 encrgy transfer, displacell1ent as 11 25 energy(ies) Aristotlc on I 291 - 2 concept I 292 discrcte quantities 0 1' I 299 experienccd by spectators I 292 explosion of I 293 in performance 1 294 notion of 1 291 - 2, 294, 300 01' spectators I 306- 7 thcatrical I 29 1- 308 transgressive I 29 1- 308 Engels , Friedrich m 260 - 1, 263 , 337,
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enjoYlllent 01' theatrc 11 233 en lightenment I 77 entertainment 11 237- 8; 111 355- 8 as power 111 357- 8 el1¡//UsiIlS/I'/OS I 293 entrepreneurship I 194 environmental theater IV 408 epistemological relativists 111 18 pstein . Cynthia Fuchs IV 46 cquipmental quaJities I 122 Equity I 326 Erenberg. L. 11 339 Erickson , Jon I 3; 11 175 [ribon , K. 111 150; IV 269 Eros 11 28 E r os (/11(/ Cil'i!izIJliol1 I 178; 111 394 erotic entertainment for women 11 61 Esherick , Joscph 111 282- 4 Essays 011 Per!{¡rmul1ce I V 21D, 2 15 Essed, P. IV 53 , 59 essenlialism I 146 re-charging IV 143- 57 reconsideration 01' IV 111 Esslin, M. 111 307 estrangemcnt I 127 Etehells, Tim rv 225 ethical asscrtions I 346 eth ical dimensions of cthnograp hy 01' pel-r()rnI;llICl~ 111 134 48
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clhico-lIlcl il pi1 ysil';r 1 proi1ihitiolls 11 1." clhnic ;rhsolllllSlll 11 34 1 cthnoccnlricislll 11 383 cthnognlphic approachcs in pcrformance sludics 11 94 ethnographic ficl dwo rk 111 136- 7 cth llographic insighls I 223 cthnograph ic models of ritual 11 93 ethnograph ic stance in poetry reading 1 343 elhnography I 161 ; 11 g8, 37 1 idiography 01' 111 110 oC performance 111 40. 43 ethical dilllcnbions of 111 134 --48 performance-sensitive 11 94- 5 ethnolllethodological perspcctive I V 54 - 65 etiolated performance 11 90 etiolations 01' languagc I 155 ; 111 35 Elzk orn, K. Peter 11 360. 364 URAS 1A IV 240 uripidcs I 276; 11 99; 111 4 European oricntation 11 322 European Renaissance 11 27 Europeras 1& l/IV 354 Evans & Suthcrland glider I 177 vans , J. Claude I 356 vans. Mari IV 86 Evans, Walker I V 3 18 Evans-Pritchard , Sir Edward 111 135 event in performance stud ies I 22D- l event-character of discovery process 111 26 of human Jifc 111 25 .',verett, H ugh 111 111 5 El'erylhillg 111 11.1' fal/¡ 111 150 Evreinov, Nikolai I 158 exchange 01' looks between text and audjencel144 exchange value 111 3n , 381 exhibitionism 1 252 exogam)' rule 11 40 expectations. frustration!satisfactio ll of 11 233 experience. politics of lll 75 - 107 experiential knowledge 111 132 experimental evalualion 111 U Expe ri mental Intermedia f'oundation 111 326 cxperimcll tal pcrformances 111 13, 17.. 18 C;\ perillll'lI t:rI prodllcl ions 11115, 17
cxpressionislIl , Grolmvski stylc I .~ 1(, expressiollist film IV .102 expressions givclI I 99 given off I 99 expressiveness of an individ ua l I 98 ext ras I 31 1, 326 Eyadema, G enera l Gllassingbc 11 366 fable , origins 11 237 face-to-face inte raction I 104 fa iled pcrformance I 127 failure , possibil ity of I 156 falllily group 111 71 Fal11i!y Portrail.l' IV 403 Fanon. f'rantz 11 383 fantasy constructi on 11 213 ; IV 292 Faraday, Michael 111 7 Fardon , R. IV 28-9 Faris, J. 111 62: JV 25, 36, 38 Fascinations, Reactions, Virtual World s and OtherMattcr l1 81 Fassbinder, Werner 111 224 - 5 Fausl 11 226 Fawcett, Farrah IV 314 fear 111 66 fe(\st and play I 52 featurc films I 120 Felman , Shoshana 11 48; In 324, 334, 339 femalc languagc I 342 female nudity I 235; 11 60 fCllla le role IV 52 femininity intemalizal ionoflV 52 masquerade 01' 11 32 felllinislll 11 35, 39, 47 and cinema 11 37 and dcconstruction 11 4g and postmodernism IV 25 1- 68 and psychoanalysis 11 47, 52- 3 and scxuality IV 128 avant-garde exploitation of 11 44 definition 11 4g potcntia l of 11 34 feminism 's other, dancc studies as IV 125- 9 fCl1\inist aesthetics I 252 feminist critical writilH! 111 323 feminisl criticisrn 11 57~ 111 305- 19 fem ini:;t hisll1ri ography I 233 IClllinist lill gui~ ts 1 342
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first im pressions I 103- 4 Fil'st Münij'csLO 11 12- 14 Firth, R. 111 51 - 2, 62, 11 7 Fiseher- Lichte, E. I 9, 158 (JIl , 1(¡3, 299- 300: IV 228 Fish, S. E. m 3( Fisher, Alfen I 347- 8 f isher, S. I 171 - 2, 18 7 Fiske, John 111 196 Flacclls, Kimball IV 6 Flaslulal1ce IV 123 Flcck, John IV 278 Fleishman. Jocl 11 292 flesh, role oL in performance 11 168--9 flexible accumulalion 111 386 Flower-McCanncll, Juliet 11 42 FLlJXUS IV 234 Fogcrty, EIsie I 243 folk art I 182 folklore 111 33 , 53 - 4 African-American 111 176 Folklore 4 Capiralism I 82 Fónagy, J. 11134 Ford , Henry III 358, 3(¡O Ford Motor Com pany IU 346 Fordism 111 358 Foreman. Richard I 163, 263; 11 111 , 115 , 117, 157, 161 , 178,266; 1114 - 7, 298; IV 306, 318, 320, 328 - 30 Foremanesque solipsism 111 9 FOl'esls: The Sluuloll' oj' (.'iI'i!i:afio ll
111 299 Forkbeard Fantasy IV 220 FOI'/11S Tlllk I 140- 1 Fornes, Maria Irene 111 298 Forrester. Alice 11 67 Forte, Jeanie IV 251 orte, Simone IV 326 Foster, SlIsan I 14; I V 111 FOllcalllt, Michel I 149- 50 , 179 , 190, 197, 201,250; 1161 , 179, 210, 250, 315: llJ 79, 87, 92- 3, 99, 219 , 288 , 332 , 354 5. 358- 9.365. 397: IV 100, 102 3, 108, 15.5 - 6.
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Fo ul'icr, J . B. 111 2(,,1 Fllwlcr, Ph ilelllon I 237 Fox , Illlward 11 359 60 Fox, J. 11119 Fox, Terry IV 351 Fraire, Ma nuela IV 257 frame-up 11 32- 56 fral1ling, kinds of I 121 Frankenthaler, Helcn IV 276- 7 Fra nk lin , Rev. C. L. IV 76 Frazcr, James G. 111 258 F rederil:k the G rea t 11 I 16 free fall through space 11 210 Freedman , Barbara 1 7: 11 32, 285, 290- 1 freedom , fantasy of 11 207- 15 Freeman , Elizabcth 111 383 FrcidmCln , A. 111 50 rench , Jonathan II 200 French Revolution 1293; 111 262 Frcud, Sigl1lllnd I 78; 11 12- 13 , 25, 33 - 4,36, 41, 52, 178 - 9, 244 - 5, 255,262- 3,273,276 7,383,387, 389; 111 258,325 ; IV 93, 383 -- 4 Freudianisl1l 111 3 Fricd, M ichael I 6. 158; 11 254, 397; IV 165 , 192, 2 11 , 316- 18, 323 - 4, 326- 7 Friedan , Betty IV 67 friendship 111 65, 67, 70- 1 rrivolity I 51 Froben ius, Leo I 47- 8, 51,54 f"o/11 Memol'y IV 222 Fl'om Ritual fo Theall'e 11 279 Frost, Robert I 14: IV 3- 9, 11 - 12, 14 frustrationlsa tisfaction of ex pectations 11 233 Frye, M,lri lyn IV 54 Frye, No rthrop I ,197; 11 320 Fuchs, Elinor I 7; 11 109; IV 308 fun 01" playing I 37 FUlllly{¡ouse oj' a Negro 111 31 1 FlISS , Di a na IV 145 Gadamer, H-G. I 129 ; 11 259. 262 -3 G aines, J. 111 4(J7- 8, 411 G alla ghcr, Cathl.!rine 11 330 ·1 Gallo p, Jane IJ 34 5, 38 - 9 game analt)gy I 193 -4 ganle 01' lile I 85
llall lell kc CllllCC pli llllS nI' slIciallik I I (): I ~ o1 l1 l~·~. childrc n\ perrOI'IlI<JIICI.!S (lr 111 tD G angcs I (,9 G ap-ificalion of gay culture 111 383 Garchik. Lcah 11 378 Garden of the Gods I 123 Gardncr, Ava I 329 Gardner, Ho ward 11 127 Ga rfield, John I 311 G arfi nkel, Harold I 195 ; m 52; IV 54 - 5 Garga , Mary 11 272: 111 310 Garis , Ro bert IV 14 Garn er, T. I 221 Garoian, Cha rles IV 282- 3 Garrin, PaullV 396 Gass, William I 190 assner, J. 11 321 - 4, 327 Gastev, Alexei 111 346 Gates, H enry LOllis Jr. 11 330- 1: 111174 Gautam JI 386- 7 !"ray community , attiludc toward women 111 111 2 gay culture, Gap-if1cation uf 111 383 gay males , African-Ame rican 111 174 - 6, 179, 195--6 ga y men , white, snapping 111 190 Gay Pride 111 281 Gbomba, Lele IV 35 Geertz. Cl ifford I 9, 15 , 189, 289; JI 93 - 4; 111 In , 124, 127, 135, 145, 280; IV 130 gender II 36 analysis 01' IV 1I1 and sexuality 11 6\, 72- 3 categorization on basis of IV 54 - 7 choreographies 01' IV 111 - 40 conceptualiza lions of IV 65 eonstitution , and performative aets IV 97- 110 contcmporary constructiolls I 247 critical genealogy of IV 108 economy 111 325 fa nta sies of Ji beration 11 63 identity IV 98 in disabled body JI 197 in pornography and performance 11 57 75 projecl of conceptllalizing IV II 1 si lidies I 108 lraditio nal conceptualizations 01' IV 49 54 use 01' lerm 111 ~07 8
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99, 116, 274 HAMLETMACHIN E II 399 Ha udel, G. F. I 375 Hand kc, Peter I 321 - 3: 1I 249, 274; III 224 - 5: IV 312, 3 14 HANDSIGH T I 181 - 2, 187 Hanna, J udith Lynne III 127 Hanllerz, U. III 62 I-Iantis, D. M. I 233 Happenings I 321 influence I 319 non-matrixed performing ofl 32 ¡ use of term I 318 - 19 H arawa y, O onna I 233, 239, 241; III 380 Ha rdi ng, F rances I 8; IV 22 Hardy, Thomas II 115,326 Harper, G. IV 274 Ha rper, Michael IV 80 Harrís , R oy I 362- 3 Irarrison, Georgc 111 413, 421 Harrison, hne I 195: IV 320 Harrison , Robert Pogue III 299 300 Harrop, John IV 33, 35 Hart, Lynda rv 150-1, 153 Ilart, M. III 356-7, 365, 367 Harvcy, David III 380, 386 Ilashoah, Beit III 241, 243 Hassan, Ihab 111 131 Haveloek, Eric I 350 Havránek, B. 111 34 I-Iawcs, Lconard III 75, 365 lIawking, Stephen II lOO I-Iaydn, J. IV 341 Haywanl, Philip IV 351 Ileaffey Centre 11 197, 199 hearing, pleasure of II 239-40 Hear/ of/he Scorpioll 11 67 Ileath, Stephenl 139, 141-3; II 44 , 46-7: III 312 heathcnislll III 137 H cbrcw Biblc I 296 Il ebrcw thcat re I 297 I kgcdü s, A gncs 1 181 1 h.:~~ I . G. W . r . 11 18: III 337; IV 199
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1¡¡({dIl133 IIlich , Ivan 11 367 illusion IV 4, 35 creation 01' IV 292 imagery I 77 images of woman JI 47 irnagination I 145 Imaginalio/l (//1(1 Power IV 8 Imagil1ed (.'ommunilies 111 380 imitation 111 36 destruction of 11 5 pleasure of 11 239 ,imitative concept 01' an 11 5 immodality alld profundity I 95 and solernnit y I 95 impersonation I 124 impossible, pleasurc of 11 245- 6 impressions ercating I 210 m
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kahary 111 37. 50 - 1 Kachin 111 62 /wheka IJI 1 13 Kah n, Jean 111 216 Kakar. Sudhir 11 385 Kamuf, Peggy lJ 50 Ka nt , r. I 92 , 346; 11 32; 111 337 Kantian philosophy I 343 Kantor, T. J 2645 ; 111 214,224 - 7,229 K(/pÍla/ J I1 29 Kaplan , Ann IV 262 Kaplin , S, IV 368- 9, 373 - 5, 378 Kaprow, A, 1 263; IV 130 Kapsalis.T. 11 88 Kal/wka/i 11 388 Kawabata , Yasunari 11 115 KClye, Nick 1 5; IV 218 K/co ko(u)vito concert party 11 371 - 8 Keaton, Diane I 330 Keaveney, M, I 219 Kecnan , E, 111 37, 3':1, 50 - 1 Kelly, D. H, IV 271 Kelly, Grace 1 329 Kelly, 1011n "401 Kemble. F, A, I 236- 7, 239 Kennedy, Adrienn e " 114: 111 310- 11 ; IV 91 Kennedy, Robert IV 16 Kent , j , IV 271 Kerényi, Karl I 52 Kcrmode, Frank IIJ 115 Kern , Thomas 1" 217 Kerouac, lack 1 338 Kerr, W. A, 111 356 Kershaw , Baz I !O; 111 266 Kesslcr, SlIzanne.l. IV 55 keying, performance 111 40 - 1 keywonls I 108- ' Kiefer, Anselm 111224 5 kincmalics IV :no
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Lcach, Edmund 111 124 Lcach, E. R. 11162 lead performer IV 32 - 6 Lcar, Nonnan 11 272 I.cbel, Jean-Jaqucs 111 274 I.cClerc, Annie IV 263 I.e Corbusier 11 396 Icdures. serialization 1 379 kCluring 1 140 I .cc. C. 1 248 , 250 I.ce. Emma 11 208 I.ccch, G. 111 34 lellal agreement or relation 11 132 leila 1doculllents 11 125 legal geslure 11 124-53 alllllcgal transactions 11 140 as moda lit y 11 127 cOlllmunal functions 11 133- 4 dcfinition 11 126 dcmonstrativc functions 11 132·-3 clIlpowermenl 11 138 evidcntary funclions 11 131 - 2 reding 11 131 fUllctions 01' 11 128 38 highlillhting runction n 130 histnry 0 1' 11 126 ill lIIedieval Gc rrnan la w 11 134
I ' .11 11,.1/1 1111u: 1 iOIl 11 133 Ildll·,III V\.: IlI m.:l iollS 11 121) :W Iltc nlll 131 nlllcmonic l'undiol1 s 11 134 Ó ordinative runctions 11 130 I physical eontact 11 135 psychological fUllcl ions 1~7- 1\ public n 136 regulatory fundiol1s U 136- 7 re-membering law 11 139- 41 sanction sLlpporting a legal transadion or re1ation 11 133 shaping 01' rcaction 01' witncsses 11 1~8
Ilegal instrumentality 11 139. 141
legal literaturc 11 125
legal meaning, locus ofU 125
legé:ll performance JI 130
legal transé:lction 11 129--31
and legé:ll gesturc 11 140 sales resistanec lO 11 137- 8
legitimation I 346
Le hrer, Tom 111 162
Leibowitz, Amy 111 217
Leigh, Vivien 1 325
Leipúger Volkszeiful1g 111 215
Lelaml Richard 111 328
Le LiI'ing 1 319
Lenin , V. 1. 111 261 - 2
Lepschy, Giulio I 325
Lerner. G. 1236.241
lesbié:ll theory IV 155
lesbian. use of term IV 141. 150
lesbian performance IV 141 - 61
and se'X ué:llity 11 64 ·-9 lesbié:ln pornography 11 69-71 lesbia n sadomasochistic rituals 11 57 lesbia n theory IV 146 lesbianism IV 263 Les COl/sins 1 329 Leller LO ¡'vi . d'Alemhl'rI 11 1(¡ Levenson , M . IV 367- 8, 373- 4 , 378 Levcrtov. Denise 1 347- 9 , 358 , 361. 364 - 5; IV 195 Lévi-Strauss, e 1 2()6; 11 40; rv 103, 151 Lel'iafhal1 ni 256 Lcvin , David Michaell ~60 Lcvin , I lanoch 1 297 Lcvinas, E . 11 255 - 6, 260, 266 Levinso n, .Ierrold 111 88; rv 335 . 343 Lévy. Bc rn md -I k nri I V 200 I~w i s , Genr).!\! IV .lm, 406
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LiteFormsl 185 Lifschi tz, E. IV 3D Lighf Toudl I 122 liminal cvents 11 131 liminal process 111 128 liminal rites 1 29 liminoid space 111 100 Limón . J. 11 87 Linden , Robin Ruth 11 72 Lindsay, Arto 11 346 linguisties 1 362; IJII 323 Linton. Ralph IV 52 Lipman, S. IV 278 Lippard , Lucy 11 59--60; IV 194 Liszt, Franz 1 130 literalmeaning 1 352 literalist art IV 172, 175 literary gift vs. é:llcoholism 1 79 80 literary stud ies 11 35, 89, 93, 319, 332 literary theory 1341 , 343, 354, 356 literat ure concept 01' 11 316, 318 in pe rformance 1 215 Li!tle Tradition 1 (,8 broad hypothcses 1 57-8 Lillle Trips 1 317 Live Art IV 219 , 221-4, 226 and Performance Art IV 219 Lil'e Are Ess(/ys (/nd DOCl/melltafions IV 218 live performance IV 149 living presence IV 31 () li ving ritual 111 126 Living Thea t re I 154, 319; 11 22(, , 377; JII 277; IV 212. ~06, 311\
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M(/('het/¡ 1 197 McCaffery, Steve 1 358 - 9 McCal!. M. M. 1 13; 111 149 72 MacCannell. J. 111 325 McCarthy, Joseph 11 165 McCauley, Robbie 11 157, 167 McClure, Michaell 338 McDonald , Christie IV 127 McDonald , ~/L 11 87 McDowcll , J. 111 39 McGann , J. J. 11 97 Machiavel1i 111 257 Machinc Culture 1 181 Machine Culture (exhibition) 1171 machinic phylulll I 184 M adnlyre. Alasdair 1 346: 111 114 M cKenn a , Wend y IV 55 M cKenzie, .I o n I 2. 168 ; 349 50 M
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is Roul1d 1I 398 Na rad -¡n uni 1267 narcissism , dialectical partner 01' 11199 narratives 11 259 amollg historians 111 25 a mI philosophy of scienee UI 29 as knowlcdge 111 112 as performance 111 27, 30 authoritative 111 27 ctic and emic ways of rcgarding 111 112: fina lit y 01' IV 359- 61 generation 111 122 llolism of 111 27 01' taet 111 98 pJeasure 01' 11 237- 8 production 111 29- 10 role 01' LlI 112 types of 111 I11 narrativity , a bsence 01' IV 215 Natanson . M. 11 180 National Endowment ror the Arts (NEA) IV 275 - 6, 278 - 9 National Performance Review (report) I 179 NOliollal RevielV o/Uve ArllV 219 native language 111 94 naturalisrn 1 82- 3; 11 225 and science I 84 Nature as rnyth 11 83 NOly o.\'oslra 1 278 - 80, 28 2, 284, 28 7- 8; 11224, 387 Ndembu 111 108- 33 Neal, Larry IV 75- 6 Needharn , Rodney IU 366 negation principlc I 301 negative capability 1 270 NI!,f!.o/¡alil1,f!. Ihe Per/imnal/ce, 1 162 Negroes I 204: 11 140; 111 65. 68 Neher, A. 111 364 Nehring, N, IV 270 Nelson , Richard 11 112 Nclson , T heodore rv 400 l1eo- Ma rxislll 1 191 , 201 neo -posil ivism I 191
I 17,1 IICuW lll clrics 111 1) " Neve r A ga in Wo uld Birds' SOllg Be lhc SaI11C" IV 12 Ncvillc, R ichard 111 274, 278 New Critieism 11 322, 324 New Freneh Cri tieism IV 195 New H armon y Cornlllunity I 238 Ne w Kids 01.1 the Block 11 343 " new philology" 1 200 new technology IV 351 64 a nd puppetry IV 368 Ne w Theatre U 224 Ne w York Cit y 11 351 ; IV 66 Nieh o lls, Peter IV 360- 1 Nich o ls, Mike 111 260 N ielsen 11 272 Niepce 11\7 N iell.sehe, f-riedrich 11 5- 6, 15, 17- 18. 25 , 177 , 275: 1lI 363-4: IV 93 , 230 Nigeria IV 31 - 3 Nightsea Crossing JI 185 nihilism 11 28 - 9 Nin , Ana'is 1 235 Nitseh , H, IV 207 8, 235- S, 240 , 243 , 245, 326 Nixon , R icha rd 11 1 24 No MC1I/ 's LalllJ 111 31 () Noether. Ell1ll1y 111 27 Nolan , Jill IV 360 Ilominalism I 82 non-acting 11 185; IV 22, 32 non-matrixcd pcrforllling 1 3\2 1l0n-matrixed repre~e nta ti()11 1 31012 non-matrixed symbolization 1 310 110norganic life I 184 nonsense 111 66 activities 111 65 license for 111 65 nonsense-ma ker 111 71 Noonan , Jud ge 111410 normativity IV 269- 88 Norr,is , Christopher 11 111 Northall , Petcr 111 216 Northern curopcan I 161 Norl!Jel'/1 E::xposure 11 292, 296 Nol 111 289--90 Novak , Kim 1 325 I1son,f!.'u 111 113 Nuha people 36, 3R Nub" practice:; IV 39 nu d ea r fi ssion 111 24 NI' ''I'/I/lIf/JI' 'I ' /
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()Il\\l llt'ICllpIII II. M. IV 2(, opaq lIf! ::.iglls 11 242 ope n pe rformanccs 11 223 O pen Theatre I 154, 320 oppositional mo vement. discursivc produetion 01' 111 390- 2 oppression IV 47- 8, 50 apt ieal tclesco pes 111 23 opus operaLUm 111 83 - 4 oral epics 111 49 ora 1 interpreta tion and performancc studies 1 225- 7 oralliterature tri 33 oral poetry I 219, IV 197 oral texts I 219 oral trad itions I 162, 219 oruea l rituals 11 170 o rder and rh ythm ie sensibilities IJI 362 Oresleia I 304; 11 277; 111 201 O"gy Mystery Theatre IV 235- 8 Oriental religions 111 130 Orientalism 11 382 Orif!,in o{ Ihe Specie.l 111 297 Orriz. Ralph I 320 Ottenberg. S. IV 26 OUI ollhe Crisis l IT 349 outsidedness 111 99 outsider theorists I I 10 outsourcing III 387 Oxford Speech Festival I 245
IIIIIhl V
1~ "'I;ill' I !J \ 247; 11 /JO
ill 111.'I'I"oI'llIOlIl\:c 11 ~ l) (,O
NUIIII, Tn:vol' 11 101
O¡¡k R iuge National Laboratory 111 20 (l h\ldicncc amI silence 11 176 ()IJ(;rllll l \lllege 11 204 ()hcro n , Merle I 325 .,hjl!ct-art amI performance art IV 298 IIhjeclhood ami an IV 165 S7 u hjcctificalion 11 177 Ohlivion , Brian IV 381 On.:idental theatrc 11 10 (kcidcnlal theory 11 6 Odin Tealrc! 11 226 rli.\.I'i 11 384 - 5, 388, 390 (kdipu.l' I 276- 7, 310- 11 ; IJ 34, 36, 51. 53, 274; 111 325 Odschlaeger, Max 111 298 01 Gramlr/olo!ogy I 351; 11 83, 111: IV 195 Ojjending Ihe Audience 13 21 - 2: 11 249 , 274 (rGorman , K. 11 290, 293 Ogundc, H urbert 11 375 O-H Theatre 7 Ohno, Kazuo 11 169 01 L (Oregonians for 1ndependent Living) 11 203 Okcy, L. L. I 252 Old Rituals for New Space I 174 Old Testament I 296 Oldenburg, Clacs 1319 O!elll1l111 I 113 Olcszko, Paul IV 254 Olson , Charles 11 121 Orni , MichaellV 52, 57- 60 oll1ioko IV 34 011 Being B/l/e I 190 0 /1 Our Backs 11 70- 2 '/1 Ih e !Ir! vl lh e TheOlre 11 81 O' Neill 11 305 O ' Neill , Eugenc 11 84 Ong. Walter 1 341 onlillc cornmullities I 187 onomatopocia 11 11 olllological difference 11 182 Olllalogical- H ys lcric 'fheatre 111 4 - 5 olllological spheres I 294, 303 Olllt,lllgy 01' pe rforlllam:e 111 320- 35; IV 3112, 3'12
m
pagan magic I 80 Pagel , Elaine IV 337 Paik , Nam June IV 142 pain IV 247- 1\ Paine. R . 111 62 Paine, Torn 111 255 Pain (t) I 263 painting 1120; IV 168 - 70, 174, 301 , 328 Panigrahi . Sanjuktha 11 384 -5, 388 - 90 Panofsky IV 293 - 6, 300 Pant he ism I 76 - 7 Pap ua- New Guinea I 275 Paradise LosI I 268 Paradise NOlV 1 312- 13, 319; 11 377; IV 306, 318 PartllUalll1a 11 390 Paris is Bl/minf!, 11 100: IV 114. 149 Par;:; RerielV IV 5 Pa rk er. A . I 156: 11 89- 92, 94; JII 243. 336, 339, 393 5, 397
40
X c\c!rallgc pr Ilto" .~ bc!wccll l!re t\:x l illld iludicncc 1 141 as fralllc 111 35 as IlH::taphor I 108 - 37 as pedagogy I 150 as protective ritual I 148 as representation without production 111 396 as ritual I 147- 50 as role playing I 140 as surrogation 11 98 as \Vomen 's work I 253- 6 Big Bang of I 185 categories I 127 characteristics of I 138 code 1 138 concept(ion) of I 292: IJI 18 , 33 wnditiolls of r 130 deconstructing I 118 deflnitions 11 - 2,106,126- 7.141: 11 88 difficu!t y of describing 1 359 disruptive features of 11 232- 3 d omain 01' 1 11 9 emergent qualily of 111 48-53 energy in I 294 ethnog rap hy 01' 111 40, 43 forms of I 110- 1 1 generic applieations 1 157 historical origi ns IV 351 keying 111 40 1 mcanings of the word 1 I 2 Illetaphysical claim I 154 mora l implications of 111 134 411 nature of 111 34 8 nonreproducti ve 111 322 object 01' IV 188 - 205 01' represelltation I 142 oftime 1 139 on tology of 111 320 - 35: IV 382 , 392 original impulse ror IV 351 paradigllls of I 181 patlerning 01' 111 42- 8 perfonnativity as 1 157 phenomenological approaehcs 1 145 prelilllinary speciflcatioll I 139 presentness of I 116 principie of 1 108 ritu a 1 proccss as 1 119 role of I 139 scicncc as 111 22 st:llI<1ntic cvotutio n 1 110
Pi' Ik s ¡IS t ¡;'~l ill l-' g rlllllld 1 120 P"J'SOIlS , (' . R. IV \2.\ I'arson~ , Ta kull IV 52 part icipant l:njnymelll 1 2X 1 panicipatory IhealJ'e IV 40X particle detector constructioll 111 Passos. Dos I 83 Pater's dictum IV 188 palh-depelldent nonclassical phen omenon 111 25 Patraka, Viv ian 1 12; 11 87 ; 111 234 patterning of performance 111 42- 8 Paul , Randolph In 239 Pav is. Patriee I 299- 300; 11 122: 111312- 15, 414,419 Pavlov , Ivan 111 347 Paxton, Joseph 111 301 Paxtoll, Steve 11 202. 204 P.B .S. JI 351 Pechuel-Loesehe I 53 pedagogy, performance as I ISO Pelias , Ronald J . I 215 Peliea11 effeet 1 111 Pelletier, Poi 11 384 - 5 pelvie arlieulation 11 342 pelvic grinds 11 342 pC'lvic rno tion 11 344 pcnis vs. phallus JI 40 Penley, Conslanee 11 44 - 7; 111 249 - 50 Penn State Symposium for Culture, Perform ance Art and Pedagogy IV 280 Pepper. Steven 111 111 - 12 perform , coneepts I 292 performan ce 11 86 - 108 Performance: Crilica! COllcefils 1 2, 16- 17 performance acti vit ies as 1 205 analysis, psychoanal ytic and ethnographic approaches IV 131 analysis of tcrms 1 138 - 52 and acting 1 139 and production 111 11 - 31 and represcntation I 139 and theatricality I 160 and writing 11 119 approaches to 1 138 52 as allscnce 01' IIlcaning IV 209 as aJic nated fabou r I 17X as Jisp lay I 234 6 as c"ccss I 13')
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1I1HIlI,III1iliablc I IIX lISl~ oflerllll 114. US, 153- 7,215; 1\1 -'45 , 3%- 7; IV 111, 130. 214 IIses 01' pcrl"ormer\ body I 154 1'('ljiml/(/I/("(, (/I/e/ Culll/ro! Po!ilic.\' 11 86 perfllrlllanCl' art I 111, 116; JV 131,152. 269 - 88 and live arl IV 219 ami object-art IV 298 and traditional theatre 11 49 histcry 01' IV 218, 220 photographs as I } 16 role 01' IV 270·- } lJnited Sta tes IV 193 lI~eofterm IV 218 W¡lmcn IV 251 - 68 pcrformance behaviour I 264 pcrformance-centered perspective 111 72 performance energies I 300- 3 Performance Event-Time-Space chart I 120 performance grollp I 288; 11 99, 376 performance integrity I 382 performance paradigm 11 96 performance place and space In 245 - 7 pcrrllrmance-prod uction mode} 111 20 performance ritual I 14} performance science ni 149- 68 efllcacy of 11\ 169-·72 performance- spectator relationship 11 221, 224 - 6 performance studit:s I 111. }55, 16 1; \1 88 - 9. 93 accountabil ities and responsibilities 1 254 and oral interprt:tation I 225 - 7 Anglo-American rubric I 160 as women's work I 232- 60 audiencc in I 224 - 5 defining characteristics of model I 226 dclinition I 2 18 epistemology I 218 -27 dhical/moral implication of performer's role I 255 eve nt in I 220 1 hi~lorical accollnts 1234 I!lClhlldllln!!.y I 2 18 27
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pnforrning self IV 3 21 perma ne nt performance I 142 Perrcault, John I 310 persolHlgc actor as 1I 163- 6 cxteri o r 11 164
speclators 11 164 personal irresponsibility I 77 personality 11 231 in scie ntific aClivity 111 17
pcrversion 11 7- 8 Peterson, Eric I 233 Pelile anatol1lie de /'il/1age 11 25 Petan , Sandor 111 261 Petrovic. Gajo 111 337 Petruchio 1141 - 2
Pfohl, S. 27 1
P!lIIedrus 11 18; IV 195 phallocentric vocabula ry 01' contemporary psychoanalytic theory 11 )4 phalloccnlrisrn 11 35 - 7,40 - 2, 46 phallogocentrism 111 324 phallus vs, penis 11 40
phamwkol/ 1 184
Phelan. Peggy I 11, lID. 115- 17, 119, 122. 125- 6, 153- 4; 1187, 213 , 382, 386 - 8, 390; III 248, 288 . 120, 395 - 7, 405,413 - 15.417 19; IV 152- 3.271.382
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a ppearancc of 1/1 12
classica 1 11\ 12
path-dependent 111 12
presence of 111 14
phcnomenological difference 11 182 phcnomenology 111 5; IV 97- 110 Philippincs 111 17
Philipsen , G. I 221
Phillipps, Katherine 111 116
Phillipson . M. 111 52
philology I 199
philosophical action 1 352
philosophical backdrop to perforlllance theory I 157
Phi!o,wp/¡iCII! Itll'('sligalilJlIs 111 80 philosopbical usages of pcrforlllativity I 155
phili.lsophy \) 1' scicl1l:c 111 21)
p lHlllClll b 111 1/ 2
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phllllctic spcech 11 1(1 pholleti<.: tex 1 11 6 phonctic writing 11 12 phonetics 111 112 phonic signiflers I 355 pbonological fealures I 328 photo-effeet 1 144 5 photography IV 188- 9 , 301 as performance art I 116
as quintessentiaJ art of reproduction
I 117
performative qua lity of I 117 physical realm 177 physiognomie a nalogue IV )72 Piea , W illiam 111140 Pik e, Kenneth 111 112 Pi!grim 's Progre.I',I' IV
222
Pin , Lu<.:Íano In ga IV 209 Pinter, H. 11 159; 111 202,294, 30]
Pirandello, L. 11 82; 111 259; IV 93
PIXAR 11 70 place of desire IV 207 pl ague and prcsence IV 121 plastic represcntation 11 12 Plato 1 55 · 6, 74, 233 . 292· 4. 299; 11 7· 8, 17-· 18,262; 111 25, 15, 255 , 257.337 , 363 ; IV 195
Platonism 1/1 364; IV :1346
play
and comic I 40
and culture 1 19
and holiness I 50 and language 1 )9 and laughter 1 40 and myth 1 )9 and real life 11 374 and r,i tual I 39, 50- 1, 54 5 and seriousness 1 49
¡rnimals 1 )6
as function 01' culture I 38
as necessity I 42-)
as opposite of seriousness I :19
as volunt
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biological purpose 1 37
concept 1 41 disinlereslt:dness 01' I 42 esscntial qu a lities 01' 14) exccption ul and spc<.:ia l positio n 01' 1 4 'i fmlllal <.: ha ra<.:lerist ics I 45 6
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usc 01' terrn 1 342
venucs 1 343
poets, speaking tours 1 340 points ofview IV 2 14 Poirier, Richard 1 14; IV 3 Poland 111 215 ·16 po larivltion 11 35 Polhemus Inc. IV 372 Polish Theater Laboratory 1 154 po litical-economics of convcrsationa l turn-taking 111 85- 8
political ecomony 11 30
political economies of space 111 100
political thcatre 111 266 - 9; IV 221
po1itics 11 30
of aesthetics 11 341 - 4
ofcu ltura l studi.:s I 160
of discoursc 1 153 - 67
of experience tri 75 - 107
polyrhythms of West African rnusic 111 362- 4
po lyvocalit y 111 100
Pontalis. J-B. 11 253
Pontbriand. Chantal 1 5- 6: 11 117;
IV 323 , 36 1
Pop or Op Art 11 396; IV 166
Pope John Paul 11 1 275
Poppe, E. 11 227
popu lar culture 111 101
popular dancing " 344
pop ula r proles l, 1<1rTI1S 01' JlI 269 70
popu la ri/:J li PII 111 27
111 11 11 1.'1 " " 111, I ·~h
lilllilalioll as lo S p il l.:C 143
IlIa in eh a ractcrisl ies 1 42
1I11,;II1 a l c1 I,; IIIL'1I1 14(, na lun: :ind signifieancc nI' 1 36 - 56 urde.. 1 4.\ pl ace inlhc scheme oflifc 137 PlalO nie dcllnition 1 56 prilllary q uality 01' 1 37 prilllonJial quality nI' 137 rca lity 01' 1 38 ritual as 1 50 rules I 44 sccrccy 01' 1 45 significant funct ioll 01' 1 36 superfluous 1 4 1 tension in 1 44 vs. rcality 1 210 play-character 1 49 play-comlnunity 1 45 play-mooo 1 51 P/{/JI!70)' orIlle We.\"/('m Wor/d IV 387 pl
cognitive elernent of 1 353
conlclllporary 1 343, 347, 366
dream of triumpb 1 343 ·-4
oral lile 1 366
oral stage 1 338- 70
sound 1 353 4
poClry readings 1 338 70 alldiellcc 1 344 :I vanl -gard l.' 1 340 cOlll clllporary 1 35 1
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porll ll).(1lI ph )l ddillilioll 11 5R funclio n nI" 11 '57 la ng uagc or 11 62 pllwe r balance in 11 (¡3 scxuality ano gcnd.:r in " 57 75 post-Enlightenlllent " 140 post-esscl1 tialisrn IV 11 2 post-Foroism 111 386·-7 post-lirninal rites 1 29 post-modernism 1 164; 11 35 - 6, 39, 50. 285. 359- 60, 369, 395 -- 404
anO. lelllinislll IV 251 - 68
use of te rm " 395
post-struct uralis11l 1 139. 154: 11 86 Post-Virtual Reality: After the Hype Is Over 1 172 Po urroy, J. IV 366, 370 powe r 11 27 -8 cntertain11lent as 111 357- 8 images of 11 279 ·80 in sexual and gcndcr role play" 69 in social-political and sex ual situations 11 58 power balance in pornograph y IL 63 power relations 111 88 powcr structure 11 399 practical consciousness, c11lbod iment of 111 8891 practical jokes 1 105 practicality 111 81 - 5 practice and structure 111 92 Pratt, Mary Lou ise 111 374, 397 praxis and perforl1lativity 111 336-43 Preedy, novelistic incidcnt 1 99- 100 preliminal rites 1 29 Prescott Smok i cultura l preservation group 111 139 presence 11 109-- 18. 182- 3: IV 168, 172
absence of IV 307
aesthetics of IV 192
and plague IV 321
and representation IV 312- 16
and visual arts IV 316·- 18
distrust 01' 11 183
idealization 01' 11 110
inverse relationship to language
11 183
mctaphysics of 11 11 2
ncgotiating IV 351 64
1101 ion 11 109
,,1 III('d iul ioll IV JO(, 22
radical 11 111
(l/so body
prcsentatioll 01" sdf 1 97- 107 detlnition of si tuation beforc otbers 1 102 presentations 111 11 Presiden lÍa/ Papen ' rv 14 preventi ve practices 1 105 Price, Jonathan 111 268 Price, Richard U 340- 1 pricstcraft 1 267 primary integrity l~lCtors 1 372- 4 primary structures IV 166 primitive ritual 1 55 primitive ~ heatre and c ruelty 11 20 principie oC altered balance 11 23 1 principie of Icast comrnitment 1 11 3 principie of opposition 11 231 principie 01' primacy of performance 111 12
principie of simplificatio n U 231
principie ofsurplus energy 11 231
PrincipIes o! Scienlijic Managemenl 111 346
print , ascendancy of IV 304
print culture 1 344 - 5; IV 157- 60
production 111 372- 404
and performance 111 11 31 and pcrformativity 111 372 5 a nd social rela tions nI 375 - 6 co ncept of 111 18, 24 in experimental enquiry 111 14 - 19 increased size 111 23 personal style in IIJ 16 rhythln and the control of 111 358 62 science as 111 22 productivity IU 21
profundity and irnmodality 1 95
promiscs in bad failh 196
protest
dramaturgy of 111 266- 92 methodological considerat ions 111 272- 4 modernist traditions of In 270 Protestant Reformation 11 126 Provincetown Players 111 254 proxemic movement IV 371 2 Prynne, J. H. 1 356- 8, 360; IV 92 pscudo-presence IV 191 pscudo-staternen ls I 9 1 pSydlic dcvclopment. oral stage 1 353 .1'('('
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I'sychn;lllalysí;l (isl;llld) I X6 I 1S4; 11 13. 34 5. 39. 41 , 43 "nd fc rninislI1 JI 47, 52-.) ami scxuality 111 J09 (lsychoanal ytic raraJ igms IV J86 ps ychoanal yt ic theatre 11 14 psychoalla lytic theory 11 J5 p~y choJrama I 184 psychod ra rna I urgy 11 13 psychological crpproachcs to kíncsthesis I 250 (lsychologieal clichés 11 289 ¡'lcrodaNy/l 177 Pllblic uramatizatíon 11 310 I'uhlic Enerny 11 342 Pllhlic spcaking I 31 J PlIhlic Theatre U 114 PlIppel Theatre 11 179- 80; IV 31 (luppetecr, iuentification with U 243 puppctry IV 365 - 80 and technology IV 367- 8 deflnition of IV 375 purifications anu rites of separation 129 purificalory ritual I 86 Purscr 11 320 "Putting in the Seeu" IV 11 Pygll1a/ioll I 75 Pyrnne, William I 235 Pyrrh us 111 266 p ~yc ho;rn;rl ysis
111 38 Qua kers 111 J8 quality, concept of IV 180, 323 l(uality control circles 111 350 QlIalls. Larry 11 115 l(uantum Illechanics 111 8: IV 224 (!UARTETII399 Quasha, George IV 196 l(uasi-syntactical abSlraction I 148 "queen " culture, snapping in 111 180-·2 ()ucer Nation 111 383 <¡ueer perforrnativity IV 142. 144 - 9, 153 - 4 Qucsalid I 266 <} lIick. Andrew IV 225 Q uinn , Michae l I 158: 11 163 () lIiritary righl 11 129 qllol;rtion 111 :;(1 (f(/II/boqol/
rvt, 11 2/15 I!llkgoríZ;llíOll on hasis uf IV 57 61 race differencc II 341: IV 386 race roles IV 53 racial cross-dressing 11 346 racial·ethnic womcn IV 68 Ra cine, Jean I 159 : JI 237: 111 4 raeism IV 44 Raucliffe-Brown 111 109 R adha Krishna da nce 11 389 rauical activily , dramaturgy of m 253 ·65 radical humanizatíon ortheatre 11 176 rauicalism IV ~03 radio talks 1 140 " rauio trottoir" 11 374 Radway, Janice JI 367 Rafter, Nichole H. IV 62 R agland-Sullivan , Ellie n 40 rags I 45 Rainbow Coalition 11 272 Raincr , Yvortne 1147; IU 330; IV 126. 326 Ramlila of Ramnagar I 264,266 - 7, 280 Ranciere, Jacques 111218, 341 Ranu Corporation LU 254 Ransom, John Crowe I 77; 11 319, 324 rap music and associatcu uance styles 11 343 rape-awareness performances IV 253 Rappaport, Roy 111 128 Raslila I 280 rationalization 11 175 Rauschenhcrg 11 30 Rayner. Alice I 4: 11 249 Reau. A. 111 294, 299 Reau. Kenncth E. I 271 - 2 reauing, use of term 111 177 reading "Ioud I 345 Rearling Ll/slimeda I 145 Reading Ihe RO/'l/ance 11 367 Rcagan , Ronalu 11 272 real anu virtual IV 381 - 2 real -time control IV 374 rcalism I 82,85 approachcs to I 316 rea lities of the imagina ry IV 214 reality , vs. p lay 1 210 re a lity efreet 111 221 .. 2 Reas.\·clI/hlllR<' 11 39R 1{lIhl:l" l ~
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RCCi ver. J. R. 111 .N rl'cciwd acting,!a\.:tor 1311 ,- 12, 314 rcccption, different levels of 11 222 rcclalllation IV 356 ..9 rccognitions I 143 rccontextuaJization , dance 11 349- 50 rccordings I V 332 , 334, 337- 8, 340, 342 objections to IV 334, 339, 344 Red Delachmenl o( Women 11 349 Red Nighl Specia/lV 124 Red Room IV 225 Red Tapes IV 215 Redfield, R. I 57 , 64,69 Reugra ve, Vanessa 111 270 red ress ITI 117, 12 1, 123 redressive violence IH 117 Recd , John 111 254 RejleclüJ/ls O/l Ihe Rel'olUliol1 in Frailee 111 254 Rejlexes Ihe Brain 111 347 reAcxivitylll121 refllgees: stories of III 136- 7 rehearsals '1 119, 123, 130, 285, .174 rc-inscription IV 356- 9 Rcich , Steve IV 142 reincarnation I 267 Reinelt. Janelle I S, 153: IV 149 , 156 relationship 01' betrayal ' 11 7 relativism 11 398 religion 111 1:10- 1, 137 Religioll a/ld Socie/y Among Ihe Coorg.\' oj' South India I 58 religious belief-systems I 303 religiolls rites I 194: 11 138 Renaissance 11 50 , 109. 111 , 117 repetition 11 17, 20 - 1 rcpresentability 11 12 rcpresentation I 145. 147; 11 16, 21 , 35 , 39: 111 12, 396
and presence IV 312- 16
anu semiosis I 297- 300
c10sure of 11 3 ·"24
end of 11 9
in drcams 11 12
logic of work of I 148
most na'ive fonn ofll 5
movemcnt 01' 11 7
of differcnce II 34
01' gender anu sexlIality 11 57
of rc presentati o ns 1 116
ofsexlIalit y " 34
use 01' 1(:1'111 11 !I
or
represcntation/slIbjectivity J 146 rcpresentational theatre I 143, 146 representatioDalism I 142 representati ve structure 11 7 reprouuction 11 395; 111 380, 396; IV 327 République 11 27 resalw 111 37 resea rch, theatrc of 11 225 resettlement programs fII 137 residual culture 111 54 restoratioll of eve nts I 120 resto red behaviour I 119- 20, 123, 128, 264 R eusch, G. III 39 rev elation 01' knowled ge ll 184 reversibility in modern capitalism 11 26 R evolutionlor the Ilel! oI /1111 278 revolutiollary energy I 303 Rexroth, Ken neth I 338 Reynolds , Burt I 333 rfU/psode I 292 Rlwpsody in Blue I 373 Rheinhardt, Max I 160 rhetoric of theatre 11 270 rhizomes 111 78 R houes-Livingstone 1nstitute tu 110 rh yme 111 40 rhythm and consciousness 111 364 6 and the control of production 111 358 62 and the performance of organiza l ion 111 353 - 71 implications 111 366 - 8 Rich , Adrienne IV 44, 46 Richards, 1. A. 11 319 R icoeur, Paul I 198 Ridless , R . IV 270 Riefen stahl , Leni IV 38 Riggs, M. 111 [75 - 6, 195 rin g modulator in Illusical performance I 383, 386 - 8 Ringling Brothers I 265; 11.210 r-itcs I 162 and ceremonies I 70 Riles de Possage I 174 rites of entering a hOllse I 31 rites 01' ex it 1 31 rites 01' fro ntier crossing I 29 rites of passagc I '27,31, 174: m 123
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ami play I .19, SOl, 54 ·5 ami l"Ilulille I XS as arl ;llld praclicc 111 80 - 1 as cn uctment 111 125 as pcrror mance 111 125 as play I SO ddinition 111 124 clhnographic models of ll 9 3: !lat view 01' 111 127 in Illusical performam:e I 377-80 liminal phase 111 129 l1lany-layered 111127 01' transgrcssion 1 148 01' mechanisms and praclices I 150 part icipants in III 126 passage form l LI 127 performance as I 147 50 richly textured 111 126 ritual dance I 74 ritual drama I 72- 90 ritual functionaries I 63 ritual interdictions 111 129 ritual observances I 282 ritual portal I 30 ritual proeess I 268 as performance I 119 ritual purifieatioll I 80 ritual theory I 196 of drama 1 195 ritualistie practices I 140 ritualization 01" performance I V 235- 43 Rivera, Jose III 293 Roach , J. I JI: 11 87 , 96 - 8; III 344, 347, 349 Noad ro Dama.w,'II.1' 11 310 Roberts, Oral 11 272 Robinson, Am)' rn 382 rock formations I 123 Rodc fer, Stephen 1 350 Rodcnberg, Patsy I 360 Rogers, Richard A. I 11: III 353 I{okelll. Freddie I 291, Nol(/nel Bar/hes hy Roland Bar/hes II I 322 rllle playing I 146 Uol" - }'laving ({/1(1 fden/iry: T/¡e Limils 711<'11/1'1' (/.1' AIe/aflhor IV 105 Rn lo(T. L 1-[ I 244 RlllllC R OIII/'{!
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RooseveJt. Fraokl in D . 111 J39
Ro rt y, R ichard IU 298
RosakJo, Micbelle W 37
Rosaldo, M . l. IU 38- 9, 52
Rose. Barba ra IV 189
Rose, Jaequeline 11 33 - 4,40,42,47
Rose, T ricia IV 122
Rosenberg, Harold 11 114; IV 189
R osenberg T reaso n T rial n 165
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R()sentrCln/z Clnd Guildel1.1'lel'll Are Dead 11249 Rosenthal, Ra chel 11 60; IV 249, 260 , 265 Ross, Andrew III 249- 50 Roth. M oira JI 59 Rothenberg, Jerome 1 350; IV 196 Rothstein, P. F. m 405,418 R6tner, Florian I 181 Rouget, Gilbert 111 365 Rouse. John JI 88 Rousseau, J.-J. 11 16,83 - 4 routine and ritual I 85 Ro)' Co!7nlJack Smilh JI 164 Royal Shakespearc Company II 371 Rubin , Gayle II 61; III 309; IV 103 Rubin, G(J)erry JII 273 Rubin , Louis D. IV 78 rude acti vities III 71 rude performances 111 72 rudeness III 66 rudimentary acting I 313 Ruffini , F. 11 220, 223 Ruins Within 11 288 --9, 297 rules as art and practice 111 80 -- 1 tneordical status III 80 Runyon. Damon I 194 Rushdie, Salman JI 402 Ruskin , John III 344 Russian Constructivist theatre 11 178 Russo , Mary 11 191 Ryan , M ichael IV 20D Ryan. M. P. I 238
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sad isi il' pOl:lly 1 7'Ii Sad()1I1 ~1~0l; histic practice 11 1>1) Sa~~ d - Va ra . M~h I'Il¡tZ 11 2XX Said, I2dwilrd JI 382- 3 Sl. Leon , M ark 11 210, 212 St. Vincent 111 311 , 43, 62 4, 67 sales resistance to legal transaction JI 137- 8 Salique Law I 111 Saltz, David I 5; IV 395 Sampson , HarolJ '1 15, 203 San Bias C una III 45 San D iego I 120 San Francisco III 154. 160 San fi-al1 cisco Chrol1ide I.I 369 San Francisco Mime Trou pe 11 371: 1lI277 Sanchez, Sonia IV 76 Sandin , Dan I 170 Sanskritic Hinduism 11 58-9 Sapir. Edward 111 32,110 - 11 Sarris, Andrew I 325 Sartory, Barna von 111 301 Sartre, .Iean-Paul I 115; JI 180- 2, 286, 290 - 1, 293, 297: 111 340; IV 100 Saussure, F. de 1 354 - 6. 358, 362- 3; II 111; 111 81: IV 93,195 Saussurian linguistics IV 195 Sauter. Willmar I 161 Savigli
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ScllInit. ['omas IV 134
Sehncemann, Carolce 11 6(): IV 255 6,
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Schneider, R. 11 88: IV 274
Sch oe nmakcrs, I L U 230
Seh onberg IJI 220, 223
School of A merican Ballet II 336
School 01" New C riticislll I 298
Schram. P. I 219
Schrodinger's Cat III 5
Schumacher. G. III 356
Seh u1llacher, M ichael I 338
Schwarz kogler. R ud oJ!' IV 189
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and natural ism I 84 and pOl:try 11 13 and the
scientific experimelltation 111 18
scientific inquiry 111 18
and artistic practice 111 3
seientific knowledge. élntillomic
charaeter of III 17 scientifi c 1llanagement III 347 scicntific methods III 25 seientifle naturali sm I 82 scientific performances I 126; III 12 seientific research IH 19 seientific thinking III 28 - 9 scientific truth I 83 SCOtl, Anna Beatrice IV 112 Scott. Jill IV 357 Scott, P. B. IV 45, 50 SCOtl, Ridley I 169 S'aeell I 139: I I I 306 screen a cti ng I 324 - 37 screeIH(:~1 o fth e Do uble IV 3111 94 SClllplill~ 1120
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Sl:al'lc. John 1 109, 114: IV 97 S CC h CIH)V . Ivall 111 347 scclll,dary integrity factors 1 372, .\74 7 ,.. . ,,('(//(//' Ri/ua/III 12ú, 128 sccularization 111 ni Scd!-'Wick, Eve 1 15ú: 11 89- 92, 94. DO- I: 1113.19: IV 144 - 5, 148, 150 -- 1 sceing, pleasure (JI' 11 239 Segura , Dcnise t\. IV 48 S~ k(). Mobuto Sesc 11 366 sdl' prescnting and rc-presenting IV 22- 41 .I'ee a/so performing sel!' Sertas Sou/'ce, Par! [[ IV 222, 225 self-abuse 11 276 Se/rAccusaliol1 1 321-2 scll'-conception I 97 self-consiousness 11 270; 111 96 sclr-evaluation I 248 self-illlitation I 124 sclf-implication 111 98 - 100 sdf-interrogation I 149 self-Icgitimation 11 321 self-objectifieation 11 181 sdl'-observing thought 11 273 "Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror" IV 198 sclf-prescnce I 351 self-presentatioll I 97- 107.212 sclf-reflection I 351 ; 11 177 sdf-rdlexive discourse 1 299 sdf-rdlexivity 11 51; 111 98 - 100 sdr-surveillance I 250 selfishness 111 n8 Sdiek. Henry IV 365 Sellar, Tom 111 350 Sdlin. T. IV 271 sClllantic features I 328 scmieivilized tri bes I 27- 8 sCllliosis and representation 1I 297- 300 sCllliotic chora 111 76, 90 sCllIiotie desirc 111 76 sCllliolic doma in 01' Illeaning 111 97 selllilltic I'ra mesl 147 sCllliol ies " 35 ~c nsatiull ul' body I1 1(,') 71
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sl,'lh, ltk 1,,,n ~ClIst: didwlPlll Y 111 (,(, sensihle I'erlúrrnancc 111 (,h sen Il:IlCl!S, u:;c of I 91 sentimental gaze 11 271 serialilation I 378 Serrano , Andres IV 275 service occupation.5 I 103 Sessions, Georgc UI 298 Settel, Zack IV 405 Seven Types oj'Ambigui/y 11 324 sex IV 98- 102 see ulso sexual ity sex as~ignment , cl'iteria fol' IV 55 sex categoriza tion IV 55 sex-gender system 111 309- 11 sex roles I 194; IV 49- 50, 52 sexual difference" 33 4, 37 , 39, 210. 288; 111 308 - 10; IV 49- 50 and laoguage " 33 in performance sludies I 232 sexual fantasies " 57 scxual identity " .14, .17 sexual norms I 156 sexual objectifieation 111181; IV 253 sexual polítics I 249 SexlIaI/Tex/ua! Poli/ies 111 307 sexual violence against wOlllen 11 57 sexuality" 36,41: IV 98 ·- 102, 258 , 261. 263 and femini.sm IV 128 and gender" 61, 72- 3 and psychoanalysis HI .109 claboration 01' I 235 in pornography and performance 11 57..-75 representation of 11 34 truth 01' 11 :13 voyeur's lhcory I 236 Sgl. Pepper's Lonely !-Ieal'/.\' Club Band
IV 345 shade throwing, snapping use in 111 180 Shaker dances 1 120 Shakespeare, William I 110, 128·- 30; 11 38, 79 -80, 82, 84. 87- 8, 95 6. 99- 103,116,175,237, .104. 318: 111 260: IV 9 Shake.lpeare{{11 Nego/ialion.l' 1 295 shamc 111 88 Sh a nge. Nto7.·a kc IV 76 Sharpc, R. A. I 376 Shaviro , Stcvcn 11 2X8
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Sha w. Bcnlal'J I 7); 11 J 2 1 Shaw, Pcggy IV 150 S"('('I' Moy S(}I'e~v (ira::., I 373 Shepard , Sam 11 376: 111 2l)4, 298 ; IV 315 Sherk, Bonnie IV 253 Shennan. Stuart I 116: 11 116 Sherze r, D . lIJ 39 Sherzer, 1. 111 39, 44 - 7 Shetland Isle I 101 Shillingsburg, P. L. 11 97 Sh klovsky I 127 Shlepianov, llia nI 345- 6 Shlink 11 272 S/¡oah 1 295 S/¡oolÍng Piece IV 247 Siddall , Curt 1.1 201 Sidney, Philip 111 35 Sieffert , R. 11 26 Siegel, Don I 334 Sifuentes. Roberto IV .182 SIGGRAP H 1168,170, In 176, 179, 181 , 185.. 6; IV 395 sign absence 01' 11 244 audience as " 249- :50 pleasure 01' IJ 238, 244 reflcction on 11239- 41 theatre as 11 2.18 sign langu
SiSlill1! ('ha pe ll 128 Six Ga llcry I XIX, ~ 4 (¡, :144 sla vcry 11 340 Slim. Memphis 11 369 SI )', Christopher 11 36 Smith, ¡\dam 111 :193 Smith , Arma Deveare 11 97, 167; IV 154 Smith , Barbara JI 250; IV 45. 261 Smith . David IV 167, 172, 176 S1l1ith, Dorothy 111 150 Smith, Jack 11 165 Smith , Julian Maynard rv 225 Smith, MichaellV 211 Smith. Sue 11 200 snapping 111 17:1- 98 as expressive form 111 174 brother to brolher 111 186- 90 data collection 111 175 dimensions of III 180 examples m 179 functions of III 176- 80 heterosexual African-American men 111 186- 90 in context 111 175- 6 in "queen" culture 111 180- 2 in the " famil y" 111 182 media anal ysis 111 175 on the playground 111 183- 4 overview 111 173 - 5 study methods 111 175 use in shade throwing 111 180 use of term 111 173 use outside 01' African-Ameriean gay cultures 111 184- ·93 while gay men 111 190- 1 white heterosexual men '" 191 - 3 with African-American \\lomen '" 184- 6 Snydcr, Gary I 338 ; 111 299 So Wei/ /./l1d.\'o Nahe I 304 social behaviour I 131 drama 01' I 114 social ehange IV 269- 88 teehniques adapted to IV 279- 84 social conflict I 112, 194; 111 381 social constructivists '" 18 social dance 11 :135, 339 forms 11 344 h istory 01' 11 345 social discursivc practices I 294 Social Oll¡C¡¡SC IV 203
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as l':\ Jlcritntiallllatrix 111 123 basic mollel 111 122 inauguration 111 119 labellíng 01' IV 278 litc ratun: on 111 116 s!lcial cncrgy I 296 socia 1evcnts I 201 socia 1 forc es 111 20 social forma t io ns , dialcctical dynamics
01' 111 388- 90 social frcedoms 11 21 1 -12 social gamcs I 105 social gaming I 196 social identity I 146 social institutions I lO 1 social interaction I 148 social libera tío n 11 213 social life drama analogy for I 195 gamelike conccptions of I 194 social Illetacommentary 111 124 social nomlS I 157 social organization I 64- 6 social performance I 131 social rcality, dramaturgic a pproach to
" íc ilN;\'O 11 ( )111 ic Ir:lITleS I 141:l SOCiCH.lCOl1olllic st¡¡tus I 97 socio-his torical bod y 11 166--7 sociology 11 3 11 radical al tcra tioll I 192 socio-semiotic frames I 147-fl Socrates I 292- 3; 11 184 Sole, Mary 11 209 solemnity and im mo dality I 95 Sollers, Philippe 1" 199 Solomons. G u~ 11 192- 3 Sonncman, E ve IV 191 Sonncn field, Ba rry IV 365 Sontag, S. 15: 11 396; I V 188, 199,291 So phocles 11 51 ,275: 111 4 sOllnd in poetry I 354 of signs I 353 - 60 psychic experience of 1 354 resourte for pocts I 360 South Amerita 111 131 South India 1 65 Sovict Un ion 11 349 space and matter 111 7 and time IJI 9, 90 manipulatíon of IV 208 - 10 notion of 11 9 spatiality IJI 81- 5 speakerhwdicnce, as proéluc tive pair
1203 - 14 social rclations 11 40 and production 111 375- 6 social roles and vallles 11 40 social scienccs 111 3 error 01' I 76 gcnre mixi'ng in I 189- 202 social setting I 97 social-sex ual reality 11 64 social structure I 64 in performance 111 52 01' meanings I 74 social thcory I 192, 195 social tbought genre blurring I 189- 202 religllration I 189- 202 s!lcialization and traditional drama
11 38 sociobiology I 191 S(ld ocultllral formations 111 90 spciocllllural fram es I 147 sociocullura 1 phc nomcnll 111 7S
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11 266 speak -ins 1 321 --2 Special Interest Grollp for Graphics of the Association for COlllputing Machinery see SIGGRAPlI Specific O bjects IV 166 s pecific symbolic structures IV 214 spectacles LII 253 - 65 spectacllla r represe ntation 11 9 spectatorial gaze, destabili zing 11 289,
294 spectatorial theory and media culture
11 28 2- 99 spcctators 11 3~: IV 129--30, 354 active cooperation 11 221 active dramaturgy 11 220 and pcrformati ve modalit y 285-6 attention attraction 11 228--30 attention fcatllres 11 228 attcntion structuring 11 226 - 31 dralllaturgy 11 21 9 35 cn ergi ~s elf I 292 . 306 7
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III VC llli V<.l IlC ~S 11 242 IlI lXk lll :!::! I 4 pcrlúrlllancc 11 220 pcrsonage 11 1()4 plcasurc 01'11 23648 response I 287 s ubjectivc reaction s 1 306 transported and transforrned I 26J - 90 see a/so a lldicnl'c Spec/ers (~f' Marx 111 341
:.peculu/11 mundi 11 288 Specu/um oI/he Olh er 11/0/11011 IV 259 spccch and theat re 11 109 and writing I 349 -53 congruent 111 66 di sc ur,sive consciousness 111 78 tmnscription of 11 12 spcech acts 1I 89 speech behaviour 111 64 speech cOllllllunieation 1 226 speech education I 247 speech ,i lllpediment 111 38 Speiolbe rg, Stcphen 11 272: IV 365 spells I 79 Spelman , Eli zabeth IV 45 - 7, 51 - 2 Spelman , E. V. IV 59 Spe ncer , Herbert 111 3 Spencer, Julius S. IV 36 spina bifida 11 195 Spindlcr, George IJI 110 Spin ga rn , Joel 11 82 spiritual power I 305 Spitzack, 1 236 Spivak, G . I 233: 111 219, 341 , 377,395;
e
IV 107 Spli/ Bri/ches 11 68 spoil-sports I 44, 53 spokcn a rt 111 33 spokcn commllnication 111 36- 7 spoken language 1 353 spo ken lltte ranccs I 346 Spol in , Viola I 321 spontancous speech 11 109 sportsm an I 49 Sprinklc. A nnie 11 97 Sprmil ime 11 58 sq uibs and alcoholislll I 80 S rc orenica . Bosn ia 111 215 , 217 18, 223. 229 S rini va~,
M. N. I 58
SI: JI;CY. Judil li I V 52
Slack , C arol B. IV ú4 c1assical fo rgetting 01' 11 7 stage a ttendants I 309 Swgecoach 11 305 stagehaod , role of I V 26 - 30 sta ging IIJ 156 7 Stallybrass, Peter 11 207-8: 111 391 , 397 Stam, Robert 11 292 standardiz.ed performance 1 127 Stanislavski I 264, 284, 318: 11 179 Stankicwicz, E. 111 34, 39 Stanlcy, Kaufmann 11 100 Stanna rd , D. E. 111234 Stanton, Elizabeth Cad y I 238 star image 1 145 statements as 11lasq ueraders f 92 consta tive I 92 descriptive 1 92 role of 191 uItera nees as 1 93 verifiable 1 91 SUltes. Bert O. I 15, 108: 11 253 status ranking 1 194 S la)' TUllc" 11 283 4, 288 , 293 Stebbins, E. 1 23<:> Stein , G c rt rudc 11 182: 111 (), 2()8, 3D), ~tage,
311,315 Stei ner. G eo rgc 1 190: 11 327 Stelarc 111 210 Stella , F ra nk IV 317- J 11 Stephans, Nancy IV 52, S7 Stevens. \Vallacc 111 328,333 Stewart , James I 328: 1V 75 Stimpson , C. R. 111 305 stirnulus-response 1250 Stoddart , Tom 111 217 Stone , Allucquerc Rosarllle I 174 stop-action anirnation and animatronics IV 375 stop-action flgure s IV 375-7 stop-action puppcts IV 378 Stoppard, Torn I 115 S/ores 1'. S'/a/e 111 420 storytelling 11 237; 111 24 -5, 30, 38, 41.
150 Stowc, Harriet Beechcr 11 168 S /rllngers on a Train 1 327 strategic cxpe ri e ncc, truth oC 111 91 3 si rat egy/t a ~1 ic 111 92 ~I r:lt ()s. Dc mi t rios IV 32() S llall s~ . ( ¡l nri: 1 11148
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SI re h. 1':Ii l :thclh IV 142 SI rilldhcrl(, A . I 304; 11 XI , 27 5, 310 11; 111 ), 202; IV 93, W) Strille , M. S. 1IlJ6 ."'lfII/I,!!, Medicine IV 32H st rut:l1tra 1 discoll tinllitics, musical performance 1 176 -· 7 Sllllt:tllralisl11 1191; 11 35 stlllclllre alld pradice 111 91 nI' Icdinp. 11 326 SI lidio of Movcment Registration 111 345 Stllrges, Preston 11 114 Styan, J . L. 11 87 styli l ation I 83 - 4 slIhmntrading 111387 slIbject ivity I 142·-3, 353 slIbordination JI 58 slIflering, spcetacles of UJ 234 .. 52 SlIlllner, C. IV 271 S/III/I./fl1l1 I 160 Sun Ra IV 89 SII/lSel Boulel'i/rd 11 401 Supereondueting Supereollidcr JII 16. 23 slIperfieiality JIJ 140 .\'lIl'e/'/1/{{1/ IV 303 slIpport performers IV 30- 2 SlIpr1'lr/e R ecord.l' \'. necea R ecord.\· JII 407
Surrealist empiricislll IJ 10 surrogation , performance as 11 98 SlIsllroka I 177 SlI vin , Darko 11 376 Svohoda, Jose!' IV 302 SlI'tll1 Lake II 49 SYl11holic 11 52 sYlllbolic language III 76 sYl11bolic order JI 40; JII 325 sylllbolic proecsses JI 42 symbolism of dance II 346 .'YlIlholized Illatrix IV 36 sylllphonic form I 79 sYllerctism JI 366 systcl11s (Jf represcntation 111 98 -;¡ccman , Ilarold IV 194 Si'wcd, .1.111 53 , (-,2 1",;1ica 1l';( pcricncc, 11'111 h (Ir 111 '1:ilfc1 . Nll rIll all I J I
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Taiwa n JI 361 , 399
talent 11 231
in musical perfonnam:e 1385
talk a baut tal k 111 64
Tamblyn, Chri,tine IV 396
Tan , E. II 230
ta ng ible puppets IV 374, 378
t8JlgO 11 334
analysisoflV 129
hi story of JI 338
Tallgo and Ihe Polilieal EcorlOrny of PassiOI1 IV 128 tape cOlllpostitions IV 335
T aplin, O . 11 87 Taussig, M. 11 87 Taylor. Diana I 162 Taylor, Elizabeth 11 99 Taylor, F. W IJI 345 -7, 359 - 60 aylorism IU 345, 350, 358 Tea Ceremo ny I 286 teachers , ¡¡ttitude to pllpi)S 1 104 teaehing, women in I 241 tech nical mediatio n IV 326 technological perfo rmativity 1 175, 180 tcchnological philistinism IV 336 teehnology and puppetry IV 367 present theories IV 361 uncanny perfo rm er in space of IV 381 - 94 technoscapes IV 355 ·- 6 Tedlock , D. 111 34, 39 telemetry IV 372 Telepl/OllC' Book I 187 telepla y JI 282- 3 telepresence I 169, 172 Telepresencc Research. Inc. I 171 telc vision n 282- 3, 307; IV 358 and returned gaze 11293- 4 commercials 1120 overview of look ing strllctw'es 11 284 - 5 soaps I 120 spect ator\ gaze IJ 287 viewer as 'instantaneous grid' JI 291 - 3 Temple, Sil irley I 325 te mpor:i1il y 111 R1 .'i Ic ns io l1 11 24:\, 211 t1 TCl) I~ l' '' ' J 111 1')
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Big Sleep I :178 Birlh 0(' Philo.\'ophy II 17 !3ook o( Ih e ('ourlier 111 257 Brig 1 :1 19 Ca{¡il/('/ o( Dr. Cafigari 1V 29j ('arelal((,;' 111 1m C(I!''' IV 142 O /err.\' O,.d/lm l I 2(13; 11 400 ('"1,,,. IJlllpl, ' 111 IX') ( '010/'1 '" " ' 1/1"'1/111 111 1XI ,
n/e C0l1.1'lal/1 Prince 1 ~,,(, Tibe Curalor's Exb ibitionism 111 141 The C ustodian 's Ri p-Off JJI Jj8 40 Th e Dead Cfas.\·1 264 - 5 Tir e Drall/ a ReFieu' I 318: III 253 The Dreol/l Play I 304 'l/e Elep/wn! l"tal1 I 276, 286 Tir e Emergence ol lh!! A lI/eri(,([/1 'n iversily 11 31 i\
The Emergence of the Concept of Personality in a Study of Cultures IIJ 11 O 'he EI'l'Ipire ol Signs 11 397 'he Eml'ly ."'pace IV 153 The Engfish Conslílwion JIl 256 lhe Enthusiast 's Infatuation '" 140- 1 Tir e Fly " 6:1 The Folklore TeXI: fi 'om Peljomw/lce lO Prinl 1 220 The Forced Marriage "1 3 16 The ForeSI IJJ 299 n/e Fug ilil'e JI 285 TI/ e Gel1ealogy oJ M orals 1I 18 The Ger/l/(//l Meology 111 337, 384 The Glce Cl ub IV 220 The Cood PerSO Il o( Sez!I(fl! 1 304 Tire Cood, Ihe Bad 11/1(1 Ilre Ug~v I 32S
The Gra in o f ¡he Voiee I 14:1 TIr e Cyp.\y Killgs 11 345 The High Valfey 1 272 1'171' His lory (Jl Sexlllil)' 111 :132 The Holy Farnil)' 111 26] TI/ e Idea ot 11 Thealer JI ]24 'Jire Idea uf Wildemess: From Pre{¡¡slory IU Ihe Age of Ecology 111 297 Tir e /llusio/'l oJ Ihe Elld 111 229 Tite llI1jJossible Theoler IV 153 The II/.\ ec l Ploy IV 302 711e IlIlerprela.lion of nreol/1s " 12 The Jealous Rridegroul11 111 31 (¡ Th e King and I 11 163 The Lasl (ir 1171' Nuha IV 38 The Lau"IlI1WlI'er Man IV 142 The Li/e al1.d Times olJose"h Swlil7 IV 215 The U(e 01 Rrian 11 402 The lJps o/ Tho//ws IV 238 , 241 - 3
The Living Theat re I 263 nI!' I,o/lg Re l'OllIl;o,., 11 326 '111,' ~/ ahl/¡'¡f(fral(/ 11 400
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