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...
Josiah's performance brought a refreshing, perhaps mildly uncomfortable, sensation to the classroom experience. I thought his approach (lights out in room, light on text/himself) was, among other things, an important tool for commanding the room and creating an audience. This brings to mind how performers think about and engage with the space in order to get their message/s across, or at the minimum—received. It was interesting to observe how some of the audience accepted the darkness, and others made use of their own lights. One goal for performance might be to stimulate thought and questions; Josiah's performative presentation did that for me. I wonder, how the focus on text/one speaker performs this text or not? What about the audience in the dark, feeling-out unknown objects, without a text, or light (which gave focal/speaking access). I really liked this. I will say that it was no surprise to me that a long gap occurred when the transition from performer/speaker (with text and light) became conversations, meaning, Josiah asked us to speak from our seats in the dark, and his invitation was met with silence. I wonder if the light had been passed, if that had been different? If the light signifies 'speaker' and the dark represents audience/silent, what symbol/signal/declaration signifies shared speech?
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