Where is the performance in Joseph Roach's "Culture and Performance"?
I’d like to ask for some help, both in sorting out an essay, and in answering the question, “What is performance theory for?” I’ve been struggling with Joseph Roach’s essay in Performativity and Performance . At first reading, it seemed to be a clear tracing of three funeral performances as examples of social memory. Stepping back from it, though, I feel like it wanders over lots of territory, and I’m having difficulty finding the main point he is arguing. I believe one of his main theses is that literature and orature are interrelated, “that these modes of communication have produced one another interactively over time” (45). Another thesis is that performance allows culture to change. I don’t see how these arguments are supported with the analysis of different funeral performances, though. The literature he refers to is the libretto of an opera (an obvious aesthetic performance form) or a newspaper. How is performance related to what has traditionally been considered literatu...
Week 7 was 10/2 according to my notes. I recall our class discussion was mostly centered around project discussions, and intermittent talks about the text, Said, and others. We passed around the Act Up Manifesto twice; the second time changing the words 'straights' for 'men', etc. I enjoyed reading this text because it seems to fit well with Piper's confrontational ethos in her artwork. I often contemplate the double-edged sword of confrontation. How important it is to be able to intervene and disrupt the status quo, and on the other hand, how important it is for me, someone for whom 'being disruptive' is a role bequeathed to me by society, to find moments of self-protection. Radicals have hard lives. I'm not saying I am a radical, but from the mini-research I did on Piper, it looks like her legacy was profound, and eventually put her in a (temporary) exile. Beside that stream of consciousness, I think the distancing of her confrontation, positioning herself in a small t.v. screen, is helpful for herself and the viewer too. She gets to state her important confrontation questions using a medium that at once puts her in the room, and exiles her from the interpersonal blowback.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed the project discussions, which brought to light what smart, talented colleagues I have in the class. I felt like y'all way further ahead than me. But watch outI'll figure myself out.
I was not able to be in attendance for this class because I was preparing the arrangements for my father's funeral. I am a writer and I struggle to get these things out verbally, but it is much easier for me to process things through text. I am grateful for peers like Misty who sent me a copy of the notes, but I was unable to process the experience you all had in class. However, I can reflect on ACT UP and Cornered because I have seen both of these mediated performances. ACT UP is a coalition working toward the awareness of AIDS in New York and Cornered was the video installation by Piper discussing her racial heritage. Both of these performances expand our cultural understanding about performative utterances. They are not only describing a reality, but are also changing the social reality by saying the words that therefore does something to the actual reality--- how they interpret and understand the world around them. For ACT UP, the performative manifesto accomplished the task of creating awareness and forced people to listen to the pain associated with people not caring about a particular communities health, etc. For Cornered, by her placing this instillation in a museum, the context was appropriate for the type of audience she intentionally wanted to reach---therefore making her declaration or insisting more impactful.
ReplyDeleteI would have loved to hear more about other projects as I am still working through a few thoughts of my own.
laura