2.3 Poststructuralism and performance

Poststructuralism shakes up how we think about performance. It challenges the idea of fixed meanings and universal truths, instead focusing on how language and power shape what we see on stage. This approach opens up new ways to analyze and create performances.

Poststructuralist ideas like deconstruction and discourse analysis help us unpack the complex layers in performances. They reveal how shows can reinforce or challenge social norms, and how identity and meaning are fluid, not set in stone. This lens adds depth to our understanding of theater and performance art.

Poststructuralism in Performance Analysis

Key Ideas and Their Application

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• Poststructuralism is a philosophical movement that emerged in the late 20th century challenging structuralist notions of fixed meaning and universal truth in language, culture, and society
• Key poststructuralist thinkers include Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Julia Kristeva, and Hélène Cixous who developed concepts such as deconstruction, discourse analysis, intertextuality, and écriture féminine
• In performance studies, poststructuralism emphasizes the instability and multiplicity of meaning, the role of language and discourse in shaping reality, and the deconstruction of binary oppositions and hierarchies
• Poststructuralist performance analysis examines how performances construct, subvert, or negotiate dominant ideologies, power relations, and subject positions through their formal, linguistic, and representational strategies (Brechtian epic theater, feminist performance art)
• Poststructuralist approaches to performance highlight the performative nature of identity, gender, and sexuality, as well as the potential for performance to disrupt or transform social norms and structures (drag performances, queer theater)

Poststructuralist Thinkers and Concepts

• Jacques Derrida developed deconstruction as a critical strategy to unsettle hierarchical binary oppositions structuring Western thought (presence/absence, speech/writing, male/female)
• Michel Foucault analyzed discourse as historically and socially situated practices, rules, and conventions regulating what can be said, thought, and done in a given context
• Julia Kristeva introduced intertextuality to describe how texts are constructed through the absorption and transformation of other texts and discourses
• Hélène Cixous coined écriture féminine (feminine writing) as a subversive literary practice that challenges patriarchal language and logic by writing the female body and desire

Language and Power in Performance

Language as a System of Signs

• Poststructuralism views language not as a neutral medium of communication but as a system of signs that produces meaning through difference, deferral, and play
• In performance, language shapes the construction of characters, narratives, and themes, as well as the interpretation and reception of the work by audiences (Shakespearean soliloquies, absurdist dialogue)
• The instability and multiplicity of meaning in language allows for the openness of performance texts to multiple interpretations and the ambiguity of characters' motives and actions
• The use of irony, parody, or self-reflexivity in performance language can invite, resist, or play with the proliferation of meanings (Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Author)

Discourse and Power Relations

• Discourse, in the Foucauldian sense, refers to the historically and socially situated practices, rules, and conventions that regulate what can be said, thought, and done in a given context
• Power, according to Foucault, is a productive network of relations that circulates through discourse, knowledge, and institutions, shaping subjects and their possibilities for action and resistance
• Performance practices are shaped by the power relations and discursive formations of their historical, cultural, and institutional contexts, such as the conventions of genre, the politics of representation, and the economics of production and distribution
• Poststructuralist performance analysis examines how performances negotiate, subvert, or reproduce dominant discourses and power relations through their content, form, and reception (Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed, postcolonial performance)

Deconstructing Performance Hierarchies

Binary Oppositions in Performance Texts

• Deconstruction seeks to unsettle the hierarchical binary oppositions structuring Western thought by revealing their inherent instability and interdependence
• In performance texts, binary oppositions and hierarchies may be evident in the representation of characters (protagonist/antagonist), the structure of the narrative (comedy/tragedy), or the use of theatrical conventions (realism/anti-realism)
• Deconstructive performance analysis examines how these oppositions and hierarchies are constructed, privileged, or subverted through the formal and thematic elements of the work
• Performances can challenge binary oppositions by blurring boundaries, inverting hierarchies, or exposing their ideological and arbitrary nature (Beckett's Waiting for Godot, Churchill's Cloud Nine)

Deconstructing Performance Contexts

• Performance contexts, such as the institution of the theater or the cultural politics of identity, may also be subject to deconstruction, revealing the power relations and exclusions that underlie their apparent neutrality or universality
• Deconstructive approaches can interrogate the hierarchies and oppositions embedded in performance practices, such as the division between performers and spectators, the privileging of certain genres or styles, or the marginalization of certain voices or bodies
• Performances can deconstruct their own contexts by breaking the fourth wall, incorporating audience participation, or critiquing the conventions and expectations of the medium (Handke's Offending the Audience, Schechner's environmental theater)
• Poststructuralist performance analysis can also examine how performances are shaped by and intervene in broader social, political, and cultural discourses and hierarchies, such as those of race, class, gender, and sexuality (Parks' The America Play, Split Britches' Belle Reprieve)

Meaning in Performance: Instability vs Multiplicity

Instability of Meaning

• Poststructuralism challenges the notion of a stable, unified meaning in texts, arguing instead for the inherent instability of signification
• Meaning is seen as the product of the play of differences within and between signs, rather than a fixed correspondence between signifier and signified
• In performance, the instability of meaning may be evident in the openness of the text to multiple interpretations, the ambiguity of the characters' motives and actions, or the use of irony, parody, or self-reflexivity (Pinter's The Homecoming, Fornes' Fefu and Her Friends)
• The ephemerality and liveness of performance contribute to the instability of meaning, as each performance is a unique and unrepeatable event co-created by performers and audience in the moment of encounter

Multiplicity of Meaning

• Poststructuralism also emphasizes the multiplicity of meaning, as texts are seen as intertextual constructs that absorb and transform other texts and discourses
• In performance, the multiplicity of meaning may arise from the interplay of different semiotic systems (language, gesture, scenography), the juxtaposition of conflicting perspectives or narratives, or the citation and appropriation of cultural references and intertexts (Wilson's Einstein on the Beach, the Wooster Group's L.S.D. (...Just the High Points...))
• Poststructuralist performance analysis explores how the work invites, resists, or plays with the proliferation of meanings, as well as how different audiences and contexts may produce divergent or conflicting readings
• The multiplicity of meaning in performance can be harnessed for critical, subversive, or emancipatory purposes, as it allows for the articulation of marginalized voices, the contestation of dominant ideologies, and the imagining of alternative realities and identities (Finley's We Keep Our Victims Ready, Gomez-Peña's Border Brujo)