On the Analogical Comparison of Performance Environments: Lament Poetry’s Soundscape as a Case Study (original) (raw)
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Introduction: the archaeology of performance
Traces of past performances are abundant in the archaeological record. The events that captured and held the attention of audiences in the past continue to fascinate archaeologists. Performances had significance in political, social and cultural spheres of past societies, full of potential not only to transmit established meanings, but also, through time, to transform them. Excavating the remains of theatres, plazas, stages, masks and costumes, portable objects, as well as investigating a rich iconographic record (depicting past performances), researchers have sought to understand the significance of these dramaticand often costlyundertakings. Beyond the spectacles of ancient states, the rituals and other face-to-face interactions that characterized smaller-scale societies are also amenable to analysis from a 'performance' perspective.
An bheochan agus an ‘performance’ i dtraidisiúin na hÉireann
[English-language summary] Is there a particularly Irish culture of performance? I suggest that there is – the defining feature of which is the role played by alterity - the living presence of an “other" in performance. This “other” is usually a person or persons, the being of whom is felt to be immanent in the material performed. Performance thus has a strong element of animation. Following the lead of Gary Gossen, for whom Chamula oral traditon constituted an “ethical statement”, I argue that Irish tradition also carries an implicit ethics, as can often be seen from performers’ statements about what they do. Scholars such as Silvio, Manning, and Gershon have been re-examining the term “performance” itself, showing its cultural and historical boundedness. I suggest that Irish tradition be likewise re-examined in the light of these theoretical developments.
Phenomenological reconstruction of a medieval ceremonial entry based strictly on financial records. Opening paragraph: The study of performance is governed by an inherent dualism. On one hand, the enactment of the performance itself constitutes an ephemeral and unique event with strict spatial and temporal limitations. On the other hand, the documentation regarding the event – often in the form of a text – serves to record the experience and extend it beyond the limitations of the immediate performance. This document may be a script, composed prior to the enactment, prescribing roles, dialogue and actions to the performers. The text may also be a post-facto record that memorializes the performance as a historical phenomenon. While some scholarship examines the dramatic event proper, a large branch of performance studies focuses on the documentation and its relationship to the event. Notably, then, a great deal of successful research establishes its arguments and conclusions on the basis of an imagined reality closely drawn from texts, but completely isolated from the original live performance. Whenever interpreting the textual record of a dramatic event, the reader typically engages in processes and strategies different from those used for reading other kinds of texts.
Performing Poetry: Body, Place and Rhythm in the Poetry Performance
Over the past decades, the poetry performance has developed into an increasingly popular, diverse, and complex art form. In theoretical and critical discourse, it is referred to as performance poetry, spoken word poetry, and polipoesía; some theorists argue that it is an independent poetic genre, others treat it as a contemporary manifestation of oral poetry or of the poetry recital. The essays collected in this volume take up the challenge that the poetry performance poses to literary theory. Coming from a variety of disciplines, including Literary Studies, Theater Studies, and Area Studies, contributors develop new approaches and analytical categories for the poetry performance. They draw on case studies from a variety of contexts and in several languages, including Brazilian Portuguese, Dutch, Catalan, English, French, Galician, and Spanish. Essays are organized in three sections, which focus on critical and theoretical approaches to the poetry performance, on the mediatic hybridity of this art form, and on the ways in which the poetry performance negotiates locatedness through engagements with space and place. The structure of the volume intersperses essays on theory and analysis with self-reflexive essays from performance poets on their own performance practice.
Performing Texts 6th Open International Conference June 30 - July 4, 2021 Harvard University’s Center for Hellenic Studies, Washington, DC, on behalf of the Network for the Study of Archaic and Classical Greek Song, and Harvard University’s Center for Hellenic Studies in Greece Zoom webinar: https://harvard.zoom.us/j/98907116806 The contribution will explore innovative ideas revolving around chorality, virtual chorality, aesthetics, rituality, eros, corporeity, and cognitive approaches in advancing a new understanding of Sappho’s songs. The philosophical work of Maurice Merleau-Ponty and his phenomenology of the body will be the inspiration for this essay. New aesthetic and kinesthetic approaches have mostly focused on the perception of song, whereas I intend to move forward to the performative practice, the composition in performance, and its cognitive implications. The body conceived as moving or actually moving in space as the primary site of consciousness and knowing the world is thus intrinsically linked with the aspects of performance and occasion of a song. Although we always proceed from a literary, close reading of the deeper structure of the text as script, the specificity of Sappho, still based on an aural culture linked with orality, consists in performance or reperformance and context. The world and the human body as a perceiving and creative instance are intricately intertwined. In this concept the mutual production and perception of beauty is interactively connected with the occasion, the context inscribed in the ‘text’.