Erika Fischer-Lichte

V této knize mapuje Alice Koubová kontext performativního obratu ve filosofii a zkoumá principy a důsledky, které z něho plynou. Nedělá to pouze pomocí analýzy konkrétní tematické oblasti, ale hledá a zpřesňuje zároveň specifický styl myšlení. Součástí tohoto stylu je připravenost filosofie transformovat se podél svého předmětu zájmu a být svou sebereflexí k dispozici něčemu jinému než své vlastní sebereflexi. Tato schopnost myslet v jistém smyslu netragicky, či z druhého místa, se ukazuje jako hlavní charakteristika tzv. performativní filosofie, ke které svým výkladem Alice Koubová směřuje.
Implicitním, avšak zcela klíčovým motivem této knihy je, že takto koncipovaný netragický filosofický styl lze snadno uplatnit na poli tzv. uměleckého výzkumu. Umělecký výzkum není čistě uměleckou tvorbou, ale není ani teorií umění, či estetikou. Je umožněn díky myšlení, které je k umělecké tvorbě ve specifickému vztahu. Tento vztah se tvoří, mohli bychom říci v excesivní blízkosti performativní umělecké aktivity a filosofické reflexe. Umělecký výzkum využívá filosofii, která se s uměleckou tvorbou vzájemně podmiňuje a mění.  Nejde tedy o jednoduchý způsob instrumentální aplikace filosofie na umění či umění na filosofii, ale o složitější vztahovou strukturu.

Throughout the course of this thesis, I examine the evidence of racial, religious and gender discrimination in Richard Wagner’s final music drama, Parsifal (1882). The question is how and with what effects these forms of discrimination are constructed. In other words, does the work promote or simply “just” dramatize discrimination, and what are the consequences of these actions? Furthermore, how should opera directors today tackle these evident forms of discrimination? In short, how can Parsifal still be acceptable and even relevant to produce today?
I examine Parsifal broadly and interdisciplinarily as both a historical document – i.e. Richard Wagner’s original music score, libretto, stage notes and photographs from 1882 – and as a contemporary, live performance – i.e. the British director Keith Warner’s staging of Parsifal at the Royal Danish Opera from 2012. This, I believe, is essential in order to explore the work’s constructions of gender, racial and religious stereotyping and discrimination in its semiotic and performative interplaying dimensions – a methodological approach inspired by German theatre theorist Erika Fisher-Lichte.
From a semiotic perspective, inspired by theorists such as Zygmunt Bauman, Simone de Beauvoir, Edward W. Said, Catherine Clément, Susan McClary and Herbert Lindenberger, I examine how the work reproduces and subverts stereotypes of the binary opposition between the norm and the Other in both the musical score, libretto and visual elements. From a performative approach, inspired by theorists such as Judith Butler, Erika Fisher-Lichte and Carolyn Abbate, I examine how these stereotypes are performed and subverted in the work as a staged (i.e. live visual, sounding and sensory) performance and experience.

I show how Parsifal can indeed be read as a critique of racial, religious and gender discrimination - and go further to suggest that the work  endorses an inclusion of the Other, symbolically represented in the characters Klingsor, Kundry and through the means of musical chromaticism. We move from Act 1 in which the Other is excluded, to Act 2 in which we are in the realm of the Other and finally to Act 3 in which the Other is included in the realm and characters.
It is in this fact that I view Parsifal as a highly relevant work to produce today. Furthermore, this places Parsifal as a work embodying strong socio-political potentials. Directors today should then not shy away from staging Klingsor and Kundry as the Other, that being any supressed group of identity to fully embrace this subversive potential.

Cовременное искусство всегда находилось в авангарде тех художественных практик, которые пытались заменить эстетический нарратив социальным активизмом. Однако в этом тексте нас будет интересовать, каким образом отказ от собственных эстетических методов и языков выражения во имя «прямой» демократии осуществлялся в театре и к каким социально-политическим и художественным эффектам привели эти эксперименты. Оказалось ли пресловутое жертвование драматизацией (т.е. собственной театральной эпистемой) в постдраматических театральных практиках эффективным политически и радикальным эстетически?

Пытаясь заимствовать практики contemporary art,  cовременный театр, быть может, идет по ложному пути. В тексте пост-драматическим практикам противопоставляется "театр театра", в котором парадоксальным образом концептуализация и саморефлексия ведут к усилению драматизации.

A theatrical situation engenders and maintains a peculiar ecology of events, processes, and practices, not all of which are conducted by humans. Recent performances programmatically engage with non-human actors, such as machines and algorithms, animals, plants, and mere things, and sometimes even leave the entire stage to them.
This paper develops a cosmological understanding of performance with regard to the concept and performative effect of force. The cosmological method outlined at the beginning is influenced by Alfred North Whitehead's speculative philosophy. The discussion of force then bridges natural philosophy (Aristotle, Leibniz, Schelling, Grant) and aesthetic theory (Menke, Fischer-Lichte), while the resulting ontogenetic conception of force as infinite and organized in dynamic fields builds on Gilbert Simondon's theory of individuation. This theory is finally translated into an aesthetic approach that goes beyond performative aesthetics, conceived of as in-formative aesthetics. It allows to approach different modes of being in performances on the same ontological footing, while also accounting for the different ways and intensities with which force is organized and expressed in each case. Thus a cosmological understanding of forces leads to an aesthetic understanding of performative fields.

κριτική στην έννοια του συμβάντος, όπως αυτή εμφανίζεται στις μεταμοντέρνες θεωρίες του θεάτρου (Fischer-Lichte, Josette Féral). Οι θεωρίες που προτείνουν μια πηγαία ή τυχαία, χωρίς ουσιώδεις αιτιότητες, εμφάνιση του θεατρικού συμβάντος, στην πραγματικότητα μας οδηγούν σε μια ουδέτερη νοηματικά, παθητική φυσικότητα,  αποσιωπώντας το γεγονός ότι τίποτε στον πολιτισμό δεν είναι χωρίς νόημα, τίποτε δεν είναι «φυσικό» και ότι, αντιθέτως, πίσω από τα πολιτισμικά φαινόμενα (όπως οι θεατρικές παραστάσεις) υπάρχουν πάντα σύνθετες και βαθύτερες αιτίες, συγκεκριμένες στοχοθεσίες, που εντάσσονται σε ένα πρότερο θεσμικό, ιδεολογικό, επιστημονικό, αισθητικό, φιλοσοφικό ή πρακτικό πλαίσιο το οποίο «προετοιμάζει» ή προδιαγράφει με έναν βαθμό πιθανότητας αυτό το οποίο θα συντελεστεί. Διαπιστώνεται ότι στα τρία μείζονα μεταμοντέρνα επιχειρήματα της ενικότητας, της πανσημίας και της ελεύθερης επιλογής στο πλαίσιο μίας θεατρικής παράστασης μπορούμε να αντιστοιχήσουμε τρεις από τις κύριες στοχοποιήσεις του μεταμοντέρνου θεάτρου: τον ορίζοντα αναφοράς, τη σχετική σταθερότητα του νοήματος και τον συγγραφέα. Σε αυτούς τους τρεις στόχους πάλι κρύβονται τρεις μείζονες φιλοσοφικές θεματικές που η μεταμοντέρνα συμβαντολογία επιδιώκει να ακυρώσει: η ιστορία, που πρέπει να μετατραπεί σε  έναν ρευστό χάρτη συμβάντων, η διαχρονικότητα που μεταβάλλεται σε α-χρονικότητα και το έργο ως ενιαίο σύνολο που εκπίπτει σε μια ανυπόστατη λογοκεντρική κατασκευή. Αυτές οι έννοιες και αυτά τα ζητήματα διακυβεύονται πίσω από την ουδέτερη γλώσσα που προβάλλει τα θεατρικά γεγονότα ως διεσπαρμένα συμβάντα και ως δράσεις αυτοαναφορικές, τη γλώσσα που μας διαβεβαιώνει ότι μαζί με τις μεγάλες αφηγήσεις της ιστορίας πέθανε η ίδια η ιστορία, ο λόγος που τη θεμελίωνε, καθώς  και το υποκείμενο που διατύπωνε τον λόγο αυτόν. Στη γλώσσα αυτή της ρητορικής φαρμακείας μια σύγχρονη ανοιχτή θεωρία του θεάτρου οφείλει να αντιτείνει μια κριτική γλώσσα, που να μην αποσιωπά τη γεγονότητα του θεάτρου, τους νοηματικούς πυρήνες του και την ιστορική και κοινωνική υφή του. Με τον τρόπο αυτόν, ο θεωρητικός λόγος θα μπορέσει να κατανοήσει καλύτερα τη μεταβατική φάση που διέρχεται το σύγχρονο θέατρο, ίσως δε και να εξηγήσει τις αντιφάσεις και τα αδιέξοδά του και να εκπαιδεύσει αναγνώστες και θεατές να περάσουν από τη λογική του συμβάντος στη δυναμική του γεγονότος και από εκεί ίσως πάλι στους λόγους των γεγονότων.

This paper discusses the conditions of possibility for relating to, understanding, and appreciating “gameplay performances”, that is, computer games as played by other people, through an existential-ludological and phenomenological analysis of 'mundane vehicle simulators', in particular Euro Truck Simulator 2 (2012, later ETS2) with TruckersMP multiplayer mod (2014).

Článek nabízí příspěvek k diskuzi nad stěžejním dílem německé teatroložky Eriky Fischer-Lichte Estetika performativity. Zaměřuje se na způsob, jakým se Fischer-Lichte odvolává na filosofické koncepce (zejména fenomenologii, poststrukturali-smus a filosofii hry) při své interpretaci performančního umění a jeho estetiky. Ačkoli Fischer-Lichte tvrdí, že postupuje v tradici post-strukturalismu a odvolává se na Judith Butler, aby se jí podařilo dekonstruovat novověký dualismus, svými východisky a argumentačním postupem to popírá. Její blízkost k Judith Butler se tak stává pouze proklamativní. Klíčový úhybný manévr provede Fischer-Lichte ve chvíli, kdy se rozhodne operovat s performativitou na poli estetiky, kterou odlišuje od každodenní performance člověka ve světě. Obdobný úkrok lze u Fischer-Lichte vystopovat i v rámci interpretace tělesnosti (Leib-Körper) a ve výkladu fenoménu hry. Své pojetí performančního umění nakonec opírá o avantgardní principy a její reflexe paradoxně potvrdí novověký dualismus v jeho převrácené podobě. 

In this article I am offering a philosophical perspective within the discussion of a seminal work by German theatre scholar Erika Fischer-Lichte, The Transformative Power of Performance. I am looking at how Fischer-Lichte applies philosophical concepts (such as phenomenology, post-structuralism and game philosophy), whilst interpreting performance art and its aesthetics. Although Fischer-Lichte claims that she relies on poststructural tradition, mainly on Judith Butler, in deconstructing modern dualism, her line of argumentation and key points contradict this. Thus, the parallels with Judith Butler are only declarative. The distance between the two scholars is especially notable when Fischer-Lichte uses the term "performativity" within the field of aesthetics, which she distinguishes from everyday human performance. In a similar manner, Fischer-Lichte interprets the term "corporeality" (Leib-Körper) and the phenomenon of play. Her understanding of the performing arts rests upon avantgarde principles, and her reflections, paradoxically, support modern dualism in its inverted form.

Als populäres Sujet innerhalb der Künste markiert Blindheit keinen Gegensatz, sondern eine spezifische Ausprägung visueller Wahrnehmung. Vor dem Hintergrund der von den Visual Culture Studies, der Kunst-, Theater-und Kulturwissenschaft vorangetriebenen Beschäftigung mit Formen und Praktiken visueller Wahrnehmung, Sichtbarkeit und Repräsentation widmet sich Paradox Blindheit der grundsätzlichen Verschränkung von Konzepten des Sehens und der Blindheit. Der Band rückt mit dem Ziel, Bedeutungen und Funktionen von Blindheit in den Künsten näher zu bestimmen, eine Auswahl neuerer Arbeiten aus der Literatur, der Fotografie, dem Theater und der szenischen Installationskunst in den Fokus. Nachgewiesen wird, dass diese neueren, im Kontext des westlichen Denkens zu verortenden Auseinandersetzungen mit Blindheit keine Absage an das Paradigma der Visualität darstellen, sondern sich als produktiv für das Aushebeln und Aufbrechen verkürzter, ausgrenzender und normierender Praktiken visueller Wahrnehmung erweisen. Die Einbeziehung kulturhistorischer Deutungsmuster wie Blindheit als Strafe oder männliches Privileg ist dabei unabdingbar, dienen diese kulturellen Deutungsmuster doch bis in die Gegenwart als Matrix für vielschichtige und ambivalente Aushandlungen von Blindheit an der Schwelle zwischen konventionellen Kategorien des Sehens und Nichtsehens, des Wissens und Nichtwissens sowie des Materiellen und Immateriellen.

The discussion is directed towards a special form of aesthetic revolution (in the sense described by Jacques Ranciere), the so-called performative turn of the 1960s and 1970s, as defined by Erika Fischer-Lichte. In a dialogue with Artaud, who blazed a trail for the neo- and post-avantgardes, the discussion follows these performative revolutions, or turns from a referential culture towards a performative one, in the works ol Slovenian theatrical neo-avantgarde and the  postmillennial theorised performative art (Dušan Jovanovič, Janez Janša, Via negativa by Bojan Jablanovec, Maja Delak, Sebastijan Horvat ...). It establishes that, in ali mentioned examples, we encounter Ranciere's paradox, according to which the very desire to emancipate the spectator produces the awareness that it is precisely this desire for the abolishment of distance that produces an even stronger distance. Insofar as they succeed in transcending this paradox and abolishing the opposition betvveen looking and acting, they embody the provisional victories of the Artaudian revolution, in which the phenomenal body and the semiotic body of the performers, the performance and the spectators enter into a dialogue and merge.

Seeing, according to the enactive approach, is not something that happens inside our brain, rather it is something we do, but, as I will argue thanks to the performance art, it is something we do together. The performing arts, with their characteristics-autopoietic feedback loop, spectator/performer exchange, oscillation of the dichotomous subject-object pair-constitute a model through which to investigate the nature of our perception, which is constitutively relational, participative, and transformative.

This paper provides an interpretation of the play Feng šus v gledališču brez igralca (Feng Shui in the Theatre without an Actor). The play’s distinct characteristic is the absence of the performer’s phenomenal body. The author thematises, using Erika Fischer-Lichte’s typology of the performing bodies, a unique relationship between the present semiotic and the absent phenomenal body of the performer on the one hand and the present phenomenal and semiotic body of the spectator on the other hand. In addition, he also uses elements of Eviatar Zerubavel’s cognitive sociology (meaning as a social relation between signifier and signified) and Tim Dant’s theory of material culture (the significance of an artwork as the mediating object in communication process). The author describes and explains how during the play, the spectator cognitively makes a substitution of the absent performer’s phenomenal body using her own phenomenal body, which gives new connotations to Edward Gordon Craig’s visionary statement about the theatre without use of a written play or actors.

Konieczność samoograniczania się tradycyjnej pedagogiki religii, związana z myśleniem metafizycznym i silną ontologią oraz określanymi konfesyjnie warunkami ortodoksji, może w niełatwych, postsekularnych warunkach, prowadzić do pytań o możliwości i granice dalszego rozwoju. Alternatywą dla takiej pedagogiki staje się inspirowany postmetafizyczną myślą włoskiego filozofa Gianniego Vattima projekt „słabej” pedagogiki religii wraz z kluczową dla niej koncepcją kenosis i ideą produktywności interpretacji. Słaba ontologia i radykalna hermeneutyka stają się rodzajem strategii osłabiania ortodoksji, a tym samym otwierania pedagogiki religii na twórczą i ożywczą dla tradycji herezję – na wieloznaczność, polifonię interpretacyjną tekstów, artefaktów i praktyk religijnych. Pedagogika religii inspiruje się już nie tylko teologią, lecz także religioznawstwem; sekularyzuje się, tak jak wcześniej czyniły to współczesna filozofia, socjologia czy psychologia religii. Dzięki strategii kenotycznej pedagogika religii uwalnia się z gorsetu teoretycznych dogmatów i uzyskuje możliwość poszukiwania dla siebie inspiracji na nowych pograniczach – nie tylko pedagogika czy szeroko rozumiana religia stają się jej naturalną przestrzenią poszukiwań, lecz także i sztuka. Wszystkie one interesują się fenomenem doświadczenia, owej wewnętrznej, egzystencjalnej i przemożnej prawdy dla podmiotu. Stąd poszukiwanie inspirujących dla pedagogiki religii analogii między doświadczeniem estetycznym a religijnym. Przywołane w artykule koncepcje estetyki formatywności Pareysona oraz estetyki performatywności Fischer-Lichte ukazują interesujące przykłady progresji na drodze od ortodoksji do herezji: pierwsza koncentruje się na problemie rozumienia w doświadczeniu estetycznym, druga odwołuje się już tylko do wydarzenia, w którym podmiot doświadcza zmiany, a refleksja dokonuje się po zdekonstruowaniu przypisanych początkowo temu wydarzeniu znaczeń. Zarysowane w artykule przejście od ortodoksji do herezji, dla którego inspiracją jest hermeneutyczna „słaba myśl”, stanowi podstawę projektu „słabej” pedagogiki religii, któremu zamierzam poświęcić uwagę w kolejnych próbach badawczych.

The  book  speaks  about  the  process  of  re-examining  and  restructuring  theatre  and  drama as well as performance arts in general by means of intertextuality, intermedi-ality and interculturality. During the last few decades of the 20th century, the (post-)dramatic  textual  and  performative  tactics  developed  together  with  a  new  wave  of  “post-avant-garde”,  “post-conceptual”,  and  theatre  of  images  that  governed  most  Slovene stages in the confusion of the post-socialist world. This was clearly seen in performances which undermined both the notion of theatre as mimesis, and the logo-centricity of dramatic theatre.

The dramatic and no longer dramatic innovations can therefore be seen as a part of the specificity of the second part of the 20th century, marked by unrest and a Badioui-an inability to decide between ending the old and beginning the new. The artists wit-nessed and participated in a series of aesthetic revolutions that disrupted the configu-ration of drama and theatre. They were not only witnesses but also the key figures of a process in which media, theatre and literature went through distinct transformations from the dramatic to the non-dramatic, non-literary, and post-dramatic, and to the primacy of the performative. Throughout the century the stage itself was re-examined and restructured, dismantled, and newly put together over and over again

Will be available in English in the future.
Translating into English bear difficulties, and possibilities of reducing or confusing the terms used in the Norwegian original. This will be dealt with in an additional appendix in the English translation.

G. Simondono‘o ontogenezės teorinių sampratų pritaikymas E. Fischer-Lichtės Performatyvumo estetikoje apibrėžtai atlikimo medialumo, estetiškumo ir medžiagiškumo sampratai – įprasmina konceptualų teorinį poslinkį nuo atlikimo meniškumo, politiškumo ir socialumo sintezės, kaip fenomenaliesiems atlikėjų kūnams „ontologiškai“ prisklausančio (iš jų raiškos atlikime kylančio) performatyvaus gebėjimo, link procesualiai įgyjamo meniškumo–politiškumo–socialumo, kaip performatyvųjį atlikimo medžiagiškumą sudarančių dinamiškų veiksmo santykių tarp vitalinių ir nevitalinių individų, performatyviai tampančių abipus ekrano. XXI a. atlikimo virtualizacijos procese pasireiškiant suvokėjo įtraukties epistemai, semiotinis S.C. Peirce‘o virtualumo apibrėžimas papildytinas mišraus, nuo kūniško atlikimo suvokėjo tebepriklausantčio, tačiau „grynojo“ fiziškumo ribas peržengusio, atlikimo samprata, kurią galima įprasminti taip: Virtualūs X (kuomet X yra keli, tarpusavyje laikiškai susiję bendriniai daiktavardžiai) yra kažkas, ne X, kuris X turi skirtingą poveikį (virtus), tiesiogiai priklausantį nuo laikiškos suvokėjo, patiriančio virtualių X, įtraukties į įreikšminimo procesą. Ši virtualumo „formulė“ laikytina taip pat ir virtualumo šiuolaikiniame performanso mene apibrėžtimi, kurios kintamaisiais pasitelktinos nuo kaskart skirtingų kuriamo atlikimo strategijų priklausomos (jame funkcionuojančios) G. Simondon‘o filosofijos sąvokomis išplėsto kritinių performatyvumo dėmenų instrumentarijaus (pgl. Fischer–Lichtę) kategorijos. Tokia virtualumo formulė – leidžia vertinti istorinį performatyvumo–virtualumo sąsajų bei sampratų spektrą kai gyvai kuriamuose ar medializuojamuose performansuose (skirtingai) pasireiškiantis virtualumas – įsteigia virtualumą, kaip integralų performatyvumo metmenį. Virtualybe šiuolaikiniame performanso mene laikytinas ontologiniame lygmenyje suvoktas jo virtualumas.

Many contemporary performances as well as the theories that accompany them demand the self-reference and the self-existence that will allow them to be perceived by the public without any reference not only to a previous script or to the “outside” world in general, but even to the past of the theatre itself. This is where the unique and unprecedented character of the performance is confirmed. According to these positions, that are supported by Antonin Artaud and Jacques Derrida, the theatrical performance is differentiated from the traditional theatre since it imitates nothing, it does not represent a previous reality and does not convey any given message from the stage. The theories that are occasionally set forth by distinguished intellectuals (Judith Butler, Erika Fischer-Lichte, Josette Féral, Nick Kaye among others) contribute to the comprehension of the theatrical performance to an absolute ‘here and now’, but suppress mention of the fact that any performance presupposes a minimal “text”, a minimal base of common references and cultural facts that are equally shared by both the performers and the spectators. Without this common base, that exists in all the performative arts (dance, circus, opera etc.) the risk of the extreme subjectivism and the relativism of knowledge is obvious but additionally we cannot completely comprehend and interpret with some extent of clarity the complex relationships in communication that are developed in the theatre.

Asumiendo que el arte pudiera ser acicate de agitación social y cambio político, sigue siendo preciso abordar el interrogante acerca de las dificultades para comprobar la eficacia de las estrategias artísticas de alteración o negación del discurso oficial y, en consecuencia, los resultados de los procesos iniciados y dirigidos contra la realidad que se pretende cuestionar. Sirviéndonos de la tesitura en la que se situaba el propio Adorno, la autonomía del arte puede embarrancar en los términos de un discurso afirmativo, ideológicamente complaciente en relación a la realidad social contra la que se dibuja, burgués, destinado a los placeres privados y a la programación de unas afinidades más selectivas que electivas; puede también fracasar al negar una lectura inmediata de la existencia humana para elaborar, desde elecciones discursivas, juicios de existencia que, en consecuencia, harán que el propio arte se cancele en tanto que arte –aunque haya rendimiento social-; o puede también procurar que la negación se realice desde una posición radical en la que se salvaguarde no sólo la autonomía de la actividad, sino el valor político de una negación que, en la esperanza de generar la irritación crítica del espectador y enfrentarse al continuo aplazamiento de sentido de la obra, permita encauzar la génesis de un discurso crítico auténtico. Este último planteamiento postula así la existencia de estrategias artísticas (1) capaces de subvertir los valores dominantes, (2) sin renunciar a la dimensión esencialmente estética de las propuestas y (3) generando en el espectador una experiencia capaz de colapsar el dominio extraartístico de ciertos discursos. El estudio propuesto analiza dos de tales propuestas, así como los riesgos ideológicos y contradicciones estéticas en las que incurren: el "teatro de masas" de Georg Fuchs, Peter Behrens y Max Reinhardt, a comienzos de siglo; y el "teatro de orgías y misterios" de Hermann Nitsch.

"DER SCHAUSPIELER ALS DOPPELWESEN?


DER SCHAUSPIELERKÖRPER ALS AUSNAHMEZEICHEN


ZEICHENHAFTIGKEIT VS. MATERIALITÄT DER KÖRPER IM FILM

DIE "NATÜRLICHEN" KÖRPERZEICHEN DER FILME DER STALINZEIT

DIE FRÜHE EXZENTRIK

ÜBERDIMENSIONALE ROLLEN: VON STUMM- UND DUMMHEIT ZU PATRIACHALER MACHT

DIE GESCHICHTE VON CERKASOVS AUSNAHMEKÖRPERLICHKEIT

CERKASOVS BEWEGLICHE MASKEN"

The article is devoted to the unique character of the Slovene post-WWII drama, which has been ignored by the previous attempts of a historical treatment of the drama and theater of the second half of the 20th century, despite the fact that it is, in the author’s view, extremely important.

Discussed is the special feature of the Slovene absurd drama and the significance derived from it in the deconstruction of the so-called literary or drama theater and in realization of the performative turn at the turn of the 1970s. Using the selected examples of plays (rather than dramatic texts for theater and performance) by Peter Božič, Milan Jesih, and Dušan Jovanović as well as essays by Rudi Šeligo, the author aims to show how the history of the Slovene post-WWII drama and theater was a true breeding ground for dramatic and dynamic narratives about the relationship between the text, discourse, and the performance. They went from the first ruptures in the Social Realism and literary theater, through experimental theaters of the 1950s and 1960s, performative turn of the theaters Pupilija Ferkeverk, Pekarna, and Glej in the 1970s, as well as numerous new transformers of the theater, literature, and culture in the last decades of the 20th century.

This era was marked by an extraordinary dynamics in realizing new concepts of stage presentation and continuous abolition of classic staging. This was not only a matter of acting and directing, but also and often mainly a matter of the text and of drama and other no-longer-drama authors. Nevertheless, within Slovene literary criticism and study of theater, the absurd drama was never considered a part of postmodern turn, which occurred in Slovenia considerably later than in the U.S. However, Kerstin Schmidt’s thesis— that the technique of transformation as cultivated by the American theater avant-garde, particularly by the Open Theater of Joseph Chaikin, is the basic technique as well as the metaphor of the postmodern American drama—also holds true for the Slovene absurd drama and theater and for the series of literary and theater artists who realized the performative turn. As in the U.S., in Slovenia the performative  turn took place directly linked to the contemporary drama and to the poetry and prose along with it.

Furthermore, in the case of the Pupilija Ferkeverk Theater as the most obvious agent of the performative turn in the Slovene theater, there is an apparent connection between young poets-dramatists and other stage and visual artists. The essential characteristics of the literary parataxis of the generation that made a breakthrough in the beginning of the 1970s are related to the notions “performative” and “performativity” (Austin) and to the fact that their author derives from a doubt that the only characteristic of any utterance is that it is true or at least untrue, and that s/he is interested in performatives more than in constatives. Once the language becomes one of the main protagonists of his plays, Jesih abolishes any duality between the text and its performance.

The word, the utterance as a performative in itself, becomes a spectacle, it is what creates the structure of the text and the performance. Jesih and Jovanović with their textual and theater acts embody transformation from the verbal to the performative culture, which is specifically characterized by the performative character of corporeal co-presence. Jesih with Limite [Limits] and Grenki sadeži pravice [Bitter Fruits of Justice] and Jovanović with Pupilija and the ritual slaughter of a chicken in the Križanke hall (similarly to Handke in Offending the Audience) and with Jožica Avbelj’s exact translation of the textual into the ritual-corporeal in Spomenik G [Monument G]—they both fully realize the turn from the theater as a piece of art, a fixed artifact to performative corporeal co-presence of co-subjects (actors and spectators) of the event/happening.

Peter Božič, Dušan Jovanović, Milan Jesih, and Rudi Šeligo with their (no longer) dramatic, theatric, and essayistic corpora demonstrate that Slovenia has also undergone the transformation from the textual to the performative culture. Božič with his anti-drama Vojaka Jošta ni [There is No Soldier Jošt], Jesih with Limite and Grenki sadeži pravice , Jovanović with Pupilija Ferkeverk and Spomenik G, Šeligo with his early prose and drama and particularly with theoretization of his practice—they ultimately realized the turn from literature and theater as a piece of art, a fixed artifact to the performative corporeal co-presence of co-subjects: writers and readers, actors and spectators.

ÖZET Bu çalışmada, Avrupa'da ortaya çıkmış olan performans sanatının önemli teorisyenlerinden olan Erika Fischer-Lichte'nin yaklaşımı özetlenecek ve performansın en önemli üretim alanlarından bir tanesi olan beden kullanımı üzerine tartışılacaktır. Performansın temel özellikleri arasında yer alan, sanat akımlarındaki biçimciliğe karşı muhalif ve yaşam-sanat sınırlarını ortadan kaldırma amacıyla alternatif malzeme ve yöntemler geliştiren anlayışından bahsedilecektir. Bu anlayış çerçevesinde, Marina Abramović'in Rhythm serileri performanslarının, icracı bedenini ve aslında her türden nesneyi dahil ederek, sanattaki klasik normları nasıl parçaladığına değinilecektir. ABTRACT In this work, the approach of Erika Fischer-Lichte, one of the important theoreticians of performance art which emerged in Europe, will be summarized and the use of body, one of the most important production areas of performance, will be discussed. It will talk about the concept of developing alternative materials and methods to remove the opposition and life-art boundaries against formalism in artistic movements, which are among the main characteristics of performance. Within this understanding, Marina Abramović's performance of the Rhythm series will be discussed from the perspective of breaking down the classical norms in the world, by including the performer body and indeed all kinds of objects.

»Sangspruch as cultural performance« seeks to understand how norms are created and recreated in public acts. By examining the medieval functional literature of Walther von der Vogelweide, the book develops a model of performance and performativity in order to explain the construction of social norms.

"With contributions by Anders Kristian Strand, Mads Thygesen, Svend Erik Larsen, Patrizia Lombardo, J. Hillis Miller, Ragnhild Evang Reinton, Lars Sætre, Tone Selboe, Erika Fischer-Lichte, Jorunn S. Gjerden, Asbjørn Grønstad, Anders M. Gullestad, Atle Kittang and Randi Koppen.

"Exploring Textual Action questions how we analyse works of art after the performative turn and shows how the interplay of performativity (textual action), space and topography, and the converging of genres and art forms is essential in modern drama, theatre, prose fiction, poetry and film. The volume also fosters a keen concern for the development of congenial theory.

Its 14 detailed essays analyse works of art ranging from Balzac, Melville and George Eliot, to Breton, Kafka, Benjamin, Blixen and Woolf; and from W.C. Williams, Bresson and Scorsese, to Sarraute, Duras, Reygadas, Dumont and Waltz. The approach of these studies discloses the art works as creative and dynamic utterances with active and shaping forces so powerful, and consequential, that they have the potential to transform human perception and blur clear distinctions between art and "real" life.

Using an alternative and dynamic method and suggesting a direction towards the detailed analysis of literature, art, media and culture, Exploring Textual Action addresses current debates within the humanities."

Review from Journal of Theatre Research International:
"(…) the quality of the essays and their bold attempt to connect literary and art theories with the theories of subject, intersubjective relations and communication merit respect and recognition.""