"Shut Your Mouth and Know Your Role": Barthes, Baudrillard, Debord and the Spectacular Narrative of Professional Wrestling (original) (raw)

Abstract

Before I read his writing on the subject, I wouldn't personally have had the philosopher Roland Barthes down as a professional wrestling fan. Yet in his 1957 essay 'The World of Wrestling', Barthes claims for wrestling 'a grandiloquence which must have been that of ancient theatres', and that 'it is no more ignoble to attend a wrestled performance of Suffering than a performance of the sorrows of Arnolphe or Andromaque.' 1 He also, crucially, states that 'wrestling derives its originality from all the excesses which make it a spectacle and not a sport.' 2 Professional wrestling is a unique performance art [CLICK], halfway between sport and drama. Staged bouts with predetermined finishes are used to tell an overarching narrative, both in terms of how the performers act during said bouts, and in terms of televised storylines which promote the matches. Jean Baudrillard writes that '[t]he American way of life is spontaneously fictional, since it is a transcending of the imaginary in reality', 3 and where American wrestling is concerned, the dramatic and narrative elements are particularly emphasised. It's not necessarily the case that the most popular and well-known performers, who because of their status are given greater prominence on television programmes and live shows staged by wrestling promotions, and scripted to win more matches, are the best athletes or have the greatest arsenal of throws, slams and submissions; the biggest stars in British wrestling decades ago were these two men [CLICK], and as you can imagine their contests were not exactly brimming with fastpaced athleticism. But what is arguably more important than athletic ability is charisma; as Barthes puts it, 'excessive gestures, exploited to the limit of their meaning.' 4 1

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References (40)

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  2. Barthes, pp. 18-9.
  3. Guy Debord, Comments on the Society of the Spectacle, trans. Malcolm Imrie (London and New York: Verso, 1990), p. 2.
  4. 10 Ibid., p. 80.
  5. Guy Debord, The Society of the Spectacle, trans. Ken Knabb (London: Rebel Press, 2004), p. 9. 12
  6. Baudrillard, America, p. 32.
  7. Jean Baudrillard, Passwords, trans. Chris Turner (London and New York: Verso, 2003), p. 40. 14 Ibid., p. 57.
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