Ritual, Sacrifice, and Identity in Recent Political Drama - with Reference to the Plays of David Greig (original) (raw)
Related papers
Congruence of rituals and theatre. The use of drama for religious ceremony
I have started this research as a response to a pejorative question that religious rituals are merely theatrical, and the personnel involved nothing else but actors; beyond this there is nothing any religion suggests, e.g. healing, divine touch, blessings et.al. This paper is about rituals and their meanings and roles played as in social drama and theatre play. Considering the relationship between ritual and theatre to be reciprocal I will use their functions to evaluate the process of religious ceremonies and the role they play for adherents/participants, as if they would be attending a play. Religious Studies and Drama joint study offers the opportunity to combine two complementary humanities subjects, as both drama and religion are mainstays of cultural practice.
On the Theatricality and Historicity of the Political
Capitalism and the New Political Unconscious. A Philosophy of Immanence (eds. Riccardo Panattoni and Fabio Vighi), 2023
The aim of this chapter is to explore the distinction between the theatricality of ‘polite everyday interactions and exchanges’ on the one hand and the theatricality of ‘a staged Real’ on the other hand as a way to introduce a distinction also between two concepts of performativity in Žižek’s political thought. Author claims that in addition to the atemporal analysis of the two types of the political performative, we should also take into account a dimension of historicity which we can find in Hegel’s political philosophy. In this sense, the author argues that of the two staple Hegelian concepts which may be explained through performativity—the ceremonial monarch and the historical repetition—the latter is perhaps better suited for Žižek’s political theory precisely because it provides it with a historical dimension.
Ritual performance and the politics of identity: On the functions and uses of ritual
Journal of Historical Pragmatics, 2003
The theory of ritual presented in this article is based on the notion of “territory.” Ritual performance encompasses a set of techniques to affect the identity of participants: away from individuality and by communal demarcation of a symbolic territorial model in space or time. The form of ritual is seen as autonomous, i.e. as relatively independent of meaning. As a set of identity-affecting techniques, the elements of ritual can be integrated into both religious and secular settings. There is a natural tension between individuality, responsibility and the potentially totalitarian implications of ritual discourse. Ritual is claimed to be relatively harmless with respect to the symbolic territories of designated “sacred spaces”, while it is considered dangerous under conditions of “overflow”, when the elements of ritual are brought into public space. The harmful secular religions of the past two centuries are discussed, culminating in a plea for the separation between Ritual and State.
Ritual and Identity in Late Twentieth-Century American Drama
2005
In a previous article on ritual and drama, I suggested that ritual in British political drama of the 1990s should be read as performance and confirmation of identity. The assertion of group membership and loyalty was found to be made from the sacrifice of Others (or from self-sacrifice); furthermore, this ritual destruction was read as confirming a current identity (and not the means to a more authentic nor liberated identity). A good test of this hypothesis, therefore, would be its application to dramas that focus on identity; the so-called “minority” drama of America in the late-twentieth century would appear to offer an ideal testing ground. In pursuit of this end, this article will offer a re-interpretation of a famous Albee drama, examine several key African-American and feminist-themed dramas from the sixties onward, and conclude with a discussion of the politics of ritual exchange.
ARYS. Antigüedad: Religiones y Sociedades, 2020
In theatre, actors often perform religious rituals on stage. In this article, we argue that in some cases, like in Plautus and Simone Weil, religious rituals are not just imitated but the specific performative structure of the ritual enhances the affective charge of the theatre play. To illustrate this technique we apply Gérard Genette’s theory of hypertextuality to develop a new concept of hyper-performativity. Consequently, we analyze Plautus’ Rudens and Simone Weil’s Venise sauvée to portray their hyper-performative techniques, in antiquity as well as in late modernity, how to write religious rituals into theatre. || En el teatro, los actores a menudo realizan rituales religiosos en el escenario. En este estudio defendemos que en algunos casos, como en Plauto y en Simone Weil, los rituales religiosos no son sólo imitados, sino que la estructura performativa específica del ritual realza la carga afectiva de la obra teatral. Para ilustrar esta técnica, aplicamos la teoría de la hipertextualidad de Gérard Genette en el desarrollo de un nuevo concepto de hiper-performatividad. Por consiguiente, analizamos el Rudens de Plauto y la Venise sauvée de Simone Weil con el fin de mostrar sus técnicas hiper-performativas para escribir rituales religiosos en el teatro, tanto en la Antigüedad como en la Modernidad tardía.
Review: The Journal of Dramaturgy, volume 24, issue 1
2018
I am pleased to share with the readers of Review our latest issue, published in concert with the LMDA annual conference in beautiful Vancouver, British Columbia. In "Dramaturgy and Risk in Pakistan," LMDA President Vicki Stroich recounts a journey undertaken in service of a new play that had its world premiere at the Enbridge playRites Festival of New Canadian Plays at Alberta Theatre Project in March 2013. The risk to which Stroich alludes in her title is both artistic and physical, something few of us working in stable democracies must face. It is a sobering and inspiring reminder of the personal risks artists must take when working for social justice in repressive societies. At long last, we have a conversational review of Scott R. Irelan, Anne Fletcher, and Julie Felise Dubiner's The Process of Dramaturgy: A Handbook (Focus, 2010). The reviewers, Martine Kei Green-Rogers and Curtis Russell, provide a lively overview of the book from the point of view of those most likely to use it: a theatre professor/dramaturg and an undergraduate student. We also bring our readers two peer-reviewed articles; each addresses dramaturgy in production but from very different perspectives. "Emancipating Dramaturgy," by Will Daddario and Wade Hollingshaus, deconstructs the theoretical underpinnings of the idea of dramaturg as pedagogue (or "ghost light," in Michael Mark Chemers' book by that title), suggesting that despite claims to the contrary, dramaturgs of this sort are not essential to the production process. Following Jacques Rancière among others, Daddario and Hollingshaus propose emancipating the dramaturg (and the audience) through the practice of what Michele Foucault termed "psychagogy." In "Directing Like a Dramaturg," Becky Becker presents a case study of EDITORʼS NOTE
Theatricalization of Politics: Aspects of Politics in Media Scenes – Introduction
Open Journal for Sociological Studies, 2017
Theatricalization is an important aspect of social life in general, of political life in particular. Aspects of the political scene and action are given in mass and new media discourse as well as in mass cultural productions (as "narratives" of the contemporary reality). Given that people understand reality first of all on the symbolic level, the analysis of these narratives is an ideal approach of the meaning given to politics and communication nowadays: images of the economic crisis, of the migrants and/or refugees, of identities (given by media discourse or by mass cultural productions), constitute a basic imprint of the expressions of the current "social myths". We emphasize on the concept of theatricalization as a constitutive social (and political) symbolism and on the importance of theatricalization in the contemporary communication. Because diverse narratives symbolize our reality, we focus on particular contemporary social myths; myths may be not real but they influence reality because they symbolize it (they explain it, they justify it and eventually they could make it change). In this sense, we consider this thematic volume as quite revealing for the contemporary communicational trends and for the contemporary (globalized) society.