Theatricality And Performativity: Writings On Texture From Platos Cave To Urban Activism (performance Philosophy)
by Teemu Paavolainen /
2018 / English / PDF
6.8 MB Download
This book defines theatricality and performativity through metaphors of texture and weaving, drawn mainly from anthropologist Tim Ingold and philosopher Stephen C. Pepper. Tracing the two concepts’ various relations to practices of seeing and doing, but also to conflicting values of novelty and normativity, the study proceeds in a series of intertwining threads, from the theatrical to the performative: Antitheatrical (Plato, the Baroque, Michael Fried) Pro-theatrical (directors Wagner, Fuchs, Meyerhold, Brecht, and Brook) Dramatic (weaving memory in Shaffer’s Amadeus and Beckett’s Footfalls) Efficient (from modernist “machines for living in” to the “smart home”) Activist (knit graffiti, clown patrols, and the Anthropo(s)cene). An approach is developed in which ‘performativity’ names the way we tacitly weave worlds and identities, variously concealed or clarified by the step-aside tactics of ‘theatricality’.This book defines theatricality and performativity through metaphors of texture and weaving, drawn mainly from anthropologist Tim Ingold and philosopher Stephen C. Pepper. Tracing the two concepts various relations to practices of seeing and doing, but also to conflicting values of novelty and normativity, the study proceeds in a series of intertwining threads, from the theatrical to the performative: Antitheatrical (Plato, the Baroque, Michael Fried) Pro-theatrical (directors Wagner, Fuchs, Meyerhold, Brecht, and Brook) Dramatic (weaving memory in Shaffers Amadeus and Becketts Footfalls) Efficient (from modernist machines for living in to the smart home) Activist (knit graffiti, clown patrols, and the Anthropo(s)cene). An approach is developed in which performativity names the way we tacitly weave worlds and identities, variously concealed or clarified by the step-aside tactics of theatricality.
