Performance Research Vol. 19 No. 1 (Feb 2014)

On Abjection

Editors: Rina Arya (University of Wolverhampton) and Nicholas Chare (University of Melbourne)

Proposal Deadline: 15 April 2013

Overview

The aim of this issue is twofold. First, to examine a number of ways in which the concept of abjection enhances understanding of various works of modern and contemporary performance. Second, to analyze what performance reveals, at times, about the limitations of current theorizations of the abject.

Abjection is a complex cultural concept that refers to the impulse to reject what threatens the stability of the self. It is associated with feelings of disgust and repulsion. According to Julia Kristeva, whose text Powers of Horror is frequently cited in discussions of abjection, the abject plays a vital role in early psychic life and is related to the infant’s earliest attempts to establish boundaries in the face of maternal engulfment. This process of psychic development entails the formation of borders by way of a process of rejection that renders the figure of the mother abject. Once the abject has been expelled, however, it does not disappear. In adulthood it continues to hover at the margins of existence perpetually posing a threat to the stability of the self. Borderline phenomena, in-‐between states, trouble the adult self as they act as a continual reminder of the subject’s fragility and provisional nature.

The pervasiveness of abjection can be seen in the way its presence has been explored in a variety of areas of life and culture including religion, anthropology, film, literature and the visual arts. One area of investigation that is highly pertinent when thinking about abjection is performance. Since the 1960s performance artists, contemporary dancers, dramatists and stand-‐up comics, have each employed abject material in their work as a means of political expression and as a way of reconfiguring existing ideas about identity, sexuality and race, among other issues. In artworks by Ron Athey, Franko B, Yoko Ono, Yves Klein, Herman Nitsch, dance works by Ballet Rambert and Pina Bausch, theatre by Sarah Kane and David Rudkin and comedy by Richard Pryor and Sarah Silverman, for example, the body has been used in various experimental ways or referred to in abject terms. Performance artists, in particular, have used practices such as piercing or cutting their flesh, excreting bodily substances, bloodletting and placing the body in precarious and potentially life-‐ threatening situations, as a means to explore the relationship between the inside and outside.

In experiencing all the performances outlined above, spectators have been exposed to sights, sounds and other sensory stimuli that made them feel uncomfortable. These performances disturb because they invite interventions of an unconventional nature and also because they transgress the boundaries of social propriety – between private and public, inside and outside (of the body), self and other.

In religious practices and hygiene regimes many rituals have been oriented towards keeping abjection in abeyance. There are, however, a number of cultural forms that seek to recall the abject, to remind us of it in everyday life. This recent trend demonstrates the continuing relevance of abjection in psychic life and suggests that, as much as we try to repress it, we benefit from experiences that bring about abjection because they are cathartic and vital.

Some theorists, like Georges Bataille, use the term ‘abjection’ in a different sense to refer to people or activities that are marginalized because of their criminal associations or because they stand on the peripheries of society. These people have

been cast aside and are rendered abject. Examples in this category include asylum seekers, criminals, specific groups such as the dalits and the hijras in India.

Scope

This issue will include a range of contributions that address the varied affinities and relationships that exist between performance and abjection. Abjection is a culturally resonant concept that determines our responses to anything that is outside and ‘other’ to us.

We invite a range of responses from academics and performers and aim to include philosophical engagements with abjection and performance, writings ‘on’ the abject and critical reviews of abject performances.

Possible questions and topics include

-‐ What does the concept of abjection bring to performance studies?
-‐ What are the ethical implications of wounding the body in performance?
-‐ The phenomenology of pain and the loss of self in performances
-‐ The relationship between abjection and laughter
-‐ The relationship between abjection and the sublime
-‐ Liminal performance and the limits of artistic practice
-‐ How does abjection expand ideas about the body and embodiment?
-‐ Rites of passage
-‐ The performatics of rituals that individuals and communities employ to

marginalize abjection, such as eating habits, rituals of washing and cleansing

and death rituals
-‐ Abject language in performance
-‐ Abjection and illness
-‐ Voyeurism and abjection
-‐ Abjection, abreaction and catharsis
-‐ Acts of transgression

-‐ Sadomasochism in performance
-‐ The relationship between the semiotic and the symbolic in performance

Schedule

Proposals:   15 April 2013
First Drafts:   15 July 2013
Final Drafts: October 2013
Publication Date:   February 2014

ALL proposals, submissions and general enquiries should be sent direct to: Rosa Bekkenkamp info@performance-research.org

Issue-related questions and enquiries should be sent direct to the issue editor(s):

Rina Arya [log in to unmask]
Nicholas Chare [log in to unmask]

General Guidelines for Submissions

Proposals will be accepted by e-‐mail (Word or RTF files). Proposals should not exceed one side of A4. Please DO NOT send images electronically without prior agreement.

Please note that submission of a proposal will be taken to imply that it presents original, unpublished work not under consideration for publication elsewhere. If your proposal is accepted you will be invited to submit an article in first draft by the deadline indicated above. On the final acceptance of a completed article you will be asked to sign an author agreement in order for your work to be published in Performance Research.

For detailed Submission Guidelines, see http://www.performance-research.org