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Paradoxes of Spectacular/Political Performativity: Dionysian Dance in Classical Greek Theater, Dubois’ Tragédie, Femen's Sextremist Protests, and Harrell's Antigone Sr.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 August 2016

Michel Briand
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Abstract

In Athenian classical theater (especially in Dionysian choruses; the tragic in Aeschylus, Sophocles, or Euripides; the satyric in Euripides’ Cyclops; or the carnivalesque in Aristophanes), aesthetics, ethics, and politics intermingle in kinesthetic, musical, and textual pragmatics. This paper questions the reference to classical performativity (especially the gendered bodies it stages) in contemporary performances, from Olivier Dubois’ Tragédie (2012) (and the committed nudity it enacts) to Femen's sextremist protests and Trajal Harrell's Antigone Sr. / Paris is Burning at The Judson Church (L) (2012). These issues are central to the philosophy of performance, from F. Nietzsche's The Birth of Tragedy (1872) to J. Butler's and A. Athanassiou's Dispossession: The Performative in the Political (2013).

Type
Research Article
Information
Congress on Research in Dance Conference Proceedings , Volume 2016 , Fall 2016 , pp. 27 - 37
Copyright
Copyright © Michel Briand 2016 

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