Isaac Ariail Reed
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780226689319
- eISBN:
- 9780226689593
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226689593.003.0005
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Movements and Social Change
This chapter examines the performative dimension of power in depth, putting it in relationship to the material, relational, and discursive dimensions of power. It begins with the concept of ...
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This chapter examines the performative dimension of power in depth, putting it in relationship to the material, relational, and discursive dimensions of power. It begins with the concept of illocutionary force, developed by J.L. Austin, and moves to the work of Judith Butler. Performative power involves (1) an accrual of agency, (2) the dependence of this accrual for its efficacy on the dramatic felicity of actions as they are interpreted by a public or audience, and therefore (3) the dependence of sending-and-binding, or exclusion from sending-and-binding, on the interpretation of front stage drama. The chapter examines two cases, so as to put performative power in relationship to to the overall theory of power being proposed: The Salem Witch Trials and the fall of Oscar Wilde. It also considers where and when in chains of power and their representation tends to flourish: at the extreme top and far bottom of power pyramids, in situations of spatial separation from organized power relations, and in inchoate interactional situations. Finally, the chapter considers the importance of founding performances, and does so via an examination of Hannah Arendt's work On Revolution.Less
This chapter examines the performative dimension of power in depth, putting it in relationship to the material, relational, and discursive dimensions of power. It begins with the concept of illocutionary force, developed by J.L. Austin, and moves to the work of Judith Butler. Performative power involves (1) an accrual of agency, (2) the dependence of this accrual for its efficacy on the dramatic felicity of actions as they are interpreted by a public or audience, and therefore (3) the dependence of sending-and-binding, or exclusion from sending-and-binding, on the interpretation of front stage drama. The chapter examines two cases, so as to put performative power in relationship to to the overall theory of power being proposed: The Salem Witch Trials and the fall of Oscar Wilde. It also considers where and when in chains of power and their representation tends to flourish: at the extreme top and far bottom of power pyramids, in situations of spatial separation from organized power relations, and in inchoate interactional situations. Finally, the chapter considers the importance of founding performances, and does so via an examination of Hannah Arendt's work On Revolution.
Ian Brown and Gerard Carruthers (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- May 2022
- ISBN:
- 9781474457149
- eISBN:
- 9781474495806
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474457149.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature
This pioneering book explores varieties of performance – and their contexts – of Burns’s texts, specifically in song, in his local theatre and in public ceremonies or dramatisations of his work. It ...
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This pioneering book explores varieties of performance – and their contexts – of Burns’s texts, specifically in song, in his local theatre and in public ceremonies or dramatisations of his work. It discusses how aspects of such performances mediate versions of ‘Robert Burns’. It begins by paying close attention to how editors shape perceptions of Burns and his work by providing versions and selections of texts which become the ‘script’ through which performance of ‘Robert Burns’ is based.
Eminent experts address how Burns has become both subject and object of performance since his death, through celebratory events like Burns Suppers or public procession, or as a dramatic theme on stage and screen. They explore popular representation of him and his work in music hall, pantomime, public ceremonial and folk song. The collection complements existing writing about Burns, offering deep insights into ways he provides matter for – and himself become material for – performance. It concludes with detailed exploration involving two leading modern interpreters, Jean Redpath and Sheena Wellington, of the performance of Burns’s songs, so complementing theoretical and historical study with insights derived from the work of such performers.Less
This pioneering book explores varieties of performance – and their contexts – of Burns’s texts, specifically in song, in his local theatre and in public ceremonies or dramatisations of his work. It discusses how aspects of such performances mediate versions of ‘Robert Burns’. It begins by paying close attention to how editors shape perceptions of Burns and his work by providing versions and selections of texts which become the ‘script’ through which performance of ‘Robert Burns’ is based.
Eminent experts address how Burns has become both subject and object of performance since his death, through celebratory events like Burns Suppers or public procession, or as a dramatic theme on stage and screen. They explore popular representation of him and his work in music hall, pantomime, public ceremonial and folk song. The collection complements existing writing about Burns, offering deep insights into ways he provides matter for – and himself become material for – performance. It concludes with detailed exploration involving two leading modern interpreters, Jean Redpath and Sheena Wellington, of the performance of Burns’s songs, so complementing theoretical and historical study with insights derived from the work of such performers.
Jane Chin Davidson
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781526139788
- eISBN:
- 9781526150516
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7765/9781526139795
- Subject:
- Art, Art History
Staging art and Chineseness is about the politics of borders ascribed to Chinese contemporary art and the identification of artists by locations and exhibitions. The paradoxical subject of ...
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Staging art and Chineseness is about the politics of borders ascribed to Chinese contemporary art and the identification of artists by locations and exhibitions. The paradoxical subject of Chineseness is central to this inquiry, which begins with the question, what does the term Chinese Art mean in the aftermath of the globalized shift in art? Through an exploration of embodied and performative representations (including eco-feminist performances) by artists from China and diasporic locations, the case studies in this book put to the test the very premise of the genealogical inscription for cultural objects attributed to the residency, homeland, or citizenship of the Chinese artist. Acknowledging the orientalist assumptions and appropriations that Chineseness also signifies, this study connects the artistic performance to the greater historical scope of ‘geographical consciousness’ envisioned by past and present global expositions. The emergence of China’s shiyan meishu experimental art movement in the 1980s–1990s has largely been the defining focus for ‘global art’ during the period when artfairs, biennials, and triennials also came into prominence as the new globalized art institution (exemplified by China’s first biennial in Guangzhou). The political aim is to recognize the multiple contradictions and repetitions of history engendered by art, nationalism, and capital in the legacy of Althusserian/Maoist interpellations – the reifications of global capitalist illusions in the twenty-first century are conveyed in this book by performative artistic expressions and the temporal space of the exposition.Less
Staging art and Chineseness is about the politics of borders ascribed to Chinese contemporary art and the identification of artists by locations and exhibitions. The paradoxical subject of Chineseness is central to this inquiry, which begins with the question, what does the term Chinese Art mean in the aftermath of the globalized shift in art? Through an exploration of embodied and performative representations (including eco-feminist performances) by artists from China and diasporic locations, the case studies in this book put to the test the very premise of the genealogical inscription for cultural objects attributed to the residency, homeland, or citizenship of the Chinese artist. Acknowledging the orientalist assumptions and appropriations that Chineseness also signifies, this study connects the artistic performance to the greater historical scope of ‘geographical consciousness’ envisioned by past and present global expositions. The emergence of China’s shiyan meishu experimental art movement in the 1980s–1990s has largely been the defining focus for ‘global art’ during the period when artfairs, biennials, and triennials also came into prominence as the new globalized art institution (exemplified by China’s first biennial in Guangzhou). The political aim is to recognize the multiple contradictions and repetitions of history engendered by art, nationalism, and capital in the legacy of Althusserian/Maoist interpellations – the reifications of global capitalist illusions in the twenty-first century are conveyed in this book by performative artistic expressions and the temporal space of the exposition.
Isaac Ariail Reed
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780226689319
- eISBN:
- 9780226689593
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226689593.003.0011
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Movements and Social Change
The introduction to part II of Power in Modernity introduces the problematic of modernity—or, to be more specific, transitions to modernity in the Atlantic world—to the analysis. In studying ...
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The introduction to part II of Power in Modernity introduces the problematic of modernity—or, to be more specific, transitions to modernity in the Atlantic world—to the analysis. In studying modernity, a useful conceptual method is to examine revolt and rebellion; when power formations falter and violence breaks out, then we see the articulation of the underlying cognitive, moral, and aesthetic orders that render politics possible. It is also possible that we will see therein new formats of politics performed into being. In moments of revolt—trouble at the edge of empire—the imagination of the state and the logistics of the state's operation come together and co-illuminate each other in the urgency of circumstances. In other words, liminality reveals regime. Conceptual points of focus for building the historical interpretations that follow include: examining the nexus of violence and alliance in the making of politics; tracing signs across zones of activity; being aware that, during crisis, emic philosophies or right explode into speech and writing, and that, amidst revolt and uncertainty, everyone is a political philosopher; and utilizing the rector-actor-other vocabulary so that it allows us to see that the politics of representation admits not only struggle and strategy, but also fantasy.Less
The introduction to part II of Power in Modernity introduces the problematic of modernity—or, to be more specific, transitions to modernity in the Atlantic world—to the analysis. In studying modernity, a useful conceptual method is to examine revolt and rebellion; when power formations falter and violence breaks out, then we see the articulation of the underlying cognitive, moral, and aesthetic orders that render politics possible. It is also possible that we will see therein new formats of politics performed into being. In moments of revolt—trouble at the edge of empire—the imagination of the state and the logistics of the state's operation come together and co-illuminate each other in the urgency of circumstances. In other words, liminality reveals regime. Conceptual points of focus for building the historical interpretations that follow include: examining the nexus of violence and alliance in the making of politics; tracing signs across zones of activity; being aware that, during crisis, emic philosophies or right explode into speech and writing, and that, amidst revolt and uncertainty, everyone is a political philosopher; and utilizing the rector-actor-other vocabulary so that it allows us to see that the politics of representation admits not only struggle and strategy, but also fantasy.
Alexander Laban Hinton
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198820949
- eISBN:
- 9780191860607
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198820949.003.0008
- Subject:
- Law, Public International Law, Criminal Law and Criminology
Chapter 5 shifts from aesthetics to performativity, even as the two are intertwined. Just as the parties came together at Tuol Sleng in a performance of transitional justice and law, one that seemed ...
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Chapter 5 shifts from aesthetics to performativity, even as the two are intertwined. Just as the parties came together at Tuol Sleng in a performance of transitional justice and law, one that seemed to realize the transitional justice imaginary’s aspiration for transformation, so too did the civil parties enter into legal proceedings that had clear performative dimensions, including an ethnodramatic structure that led some to refer to it as “the show.” Indeed, justice itself is a momentary enactment of law, structured by power including legal codes and the force of law, which is plagued by the impossibility of realizing the universal in the particular, a dilemma Derrida has discussed in terms of justice always being something that is “to come.” Other scholarship, ranging from Butler’s ideas about the performativity of gender to Lacan’s theorization of the self, similarly discusses how idealizations break down even as they are performatively asserted with the momentary manifestation of the particular never able to fully accord with idealized aspirations—including those of the transitional justice imaginary and its facadist externalizations. The chapter begins with a discussion of the ways in which Vann Nath’s testimony illustrates the ways the court seeks to performatively assert justice through courtroom rituals, roles, and discourses. The chapter then turns to examine the related work of the court’s “public face,” the Public Affairs Section (PAS), which promoted its success in busing in tens of thousands of Cambodians as evidence of public engagement with the court. The chapter discusses some of the ways in which the head of the PAS, Reach Sambath, who was sometimes referred to as “Spokesperson for the Ghosts,” translated justice when interacting with such Cambodians with many of whom he shared a deep Buddhist belief. I then explore the issues of “Justice Trouble,” or some of the ways in which the instability of the juridical performance at the ECCC broke down, including Theary Seng’s later condemnation of the court.Less
Chapter 5 shifts from aesthetics to performativity, even as the two are intertwined. Just as the parties came together at Tuol Sleng in a performance of transitional justice and law, one that seemed to realize the transitional justice imaginary’s aspiration for transformation, so too did the civil parties enter into legal proceedings that had clear performative dimensions, including an ethnodramatic structure that led some to refer to it as “the show.” Indeed, justice itself is a momentary enactment of law, structured by power including legal codes and the force of law, which is plagued by the impossibility of realizing the universal in the particular, a dilemma Derrida has discussed in terms of justice always being something that is “to come.” Other scholarship, ranging from Butler’s ideas about the performativity of gender to Lacan’s theorization of the self, similarly discusses how idealizations break down even as they are performatively asserted with the momentary manifestation of the particular never able to fully accord with idealized aspirations—including those of the transitional justice imaginary and its facadist externalizations. The chapter begins with a discussion of the ways in which Vann Nath’s testimony illustrates the ways the court seeks to performatively assert justice through courtroom rituals, roles, and discourses. The chapter then turns to examine the related work of the court’s “public face,” the Public Affairs Section (PAS), which promoted its success in busing in tens of thousands of Cambodians as evidence of public engagement with the court. The chapter discusses some of the ways in which the head of the PAS, Reach Sambath, who was sometimes referred to as “Spokesperson for the Ghosts,” translated justice when interacting with such Cambodians with many of whom he shared a deep Buddhist belief. I then explore the issues of “Justice Trouble,” or some of the ways in which the instability of the juridical performance at the ECCC broke down, including Theary Seng’s later condemnation of the court.