- How might you explain "performativity" to a friend who has not read this chapter?
- What performative utterances have you been involved in, and how would you characterize their efficacy? Were there other elements involved that contributed to the essential happening/effectiveness?
- Explain/rephrase the essential arguments of one of the poststructuralists quoted in the text.
- What was your previous concept/understanding of postmodernism? How has this reading altered or extended that understanding? (or hasn't it?)
- Write about a performance art piece that you are aware of and critique it using at least one of the issues in the text.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Assignment Post pages 112-169
For class on Thursday, please read pages 112-169 and post at least two thoughtful comments on that reading (you may want to consider some of the following points). You should also have posted at least two thoughtful comments on our last class' game playing (see previous post) and have added four new links to your del.icio.us site. Your next four-page paper is due on Oct. 4.
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5 comments:
Performativity is basically everything. I think it goes beyond actions that we know we are doing but it definitely includes the things we are aware of as well. We might dress up for an interview and that would be something we know we are doing, trying to portray that we look the part for a certain job. However we might be head banging to music in a car all by ourselves without thinking of other people around us, we might not even know that there are other people watching. Without even knowing it we are engaging ourselves in performativity. If I had to break it down into a simple sentence, I would say that performativity is basically how we hold ourselves in all kinds of different situations with or without knowing it.
Postmodernism is a kind of performativity that I never really understood or liked and the book did not help with it. As far as I can see, postmodernism is just a way of classifying anything and everything that you can do into an “art work.” To me it seems like people who simply cant do anything that, probably by a classical definition, would be considered good art just pass anything else off as art or performance. The reading even says that it is hard to define what it means because it means one thing to dancers, another thing to painters, something else to philosophers and on and on, so me being me and not the writer of the book, I don’t see what he means. If I were writing a book on this topic then it would be how I understand it and I don’t think that would really help people except give them somebody else’s interpretation of it.
Thursday, September 27, 2007
My wedding and the weddings of others I have attended are examples of performative utterances I have been involved in. It is assumed that after the mutual statements of “I do” the couple is then married. The audience who are also participants hear these words and understand the couple to be married, whereas moments earlier the couple was not married. The actions of the participants reinforce the efficacy of the utterance “I do.” Later, there is a party and signing of a documents which further serves to reinforce the initial utterance.
Posted by heidirides at 11:56 AM
I would say that performativity involves any behavior that a person engages in (performs) that he or she is consciously aware of. The twice behaved behaviors which we engage on a daily basis would apply. From the clothes we wear to the way we greet people whether while we are being watched by others or not. However we may be more conscious of our actions when being watched. therefore our actions would tend to be more performative.
Posted by heidirides at 11:50 AM 0 comments
I would explain performativity to someone who hasn't read the chapter as every act being able to be witnessed as performance. Theatre can be shown as perfomance if one simply just pays attention to the occurence on the stage, and a person walking to their car can be viewed as performativity if one simply views it "as performance." Performance belongs to the eye and the ear mostly, but can be assisted by taste, touch, and smell. Such as, "I felt that performance", greatly adding to the overall satisfaction.
One performative utterance I have experienced is getting a job. I turn in my application, and the manager and I review it together. Once she decided that I was qualified for the job, she tells me that she would love to have me work for the company. Then, we both stand up and confirm the recent acquisition of the job with a handshake. I believe the connection of the handshake makes it official and worthy of the time spent talking about getting the job. The words were strong, but not strong enough.
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