What is a body without identity? Capoeira and the migration of form

在这个研究项目中，我计划将卡波埃拉作为一种由乔治·巴塔耶概念化的“活着的神话”来研究。以萨特夫人(1900-1976)的历史(和传奇)为例，我看到卡波埃拉和萨特如何通过身体的表演性解散来例证非同一性原则。卡波埃拉诞生于对强加的身份(奴隶的身份)的抵抗和颠覆，是一种伪装成舞蹈的武术，以逃避和转换身份。巴塔耶的“活着的神话”理论强调身体的“活力”，而不是“解体社会”的“静态”社会主体(巴塔耶，1985：233)，这一观点在身份政治和种族隔离类型(包括强加的和要求的)主导的时代仍然适用。卡波埃拉既是一种形式，也是一种信息，(Dis)体现了一种“主权”模式--这是Bataille区别于主宰和奴役的一个概念--是在非生产性支出的文化实践中实现的。这项对卡波埃拉的研究将论证它作为一种仪式形式的神话起源在流离失所和被剥夺公民权的社区中仍然是一种持续的实践。我的项目将提供对表演作为身份的消解的原创解读(Martin，R.，2012)，并将神话作为一个形成的过程重新焕发生机。它与理论家朱迪思·巴特勒(Judith Butler)最明确地阐述了围绕身份政治的当代话语背道而驰，是我作为殖民边界内的移民、混血儿和卡波埃拉实践者的批判性接触的结果。我会争辩说，为了适合激进的运动，解散社会认同是很重要的。我的项目不是以实践为基础的；相反，它是对舞蹈形式的批判性审查，利用跨学科的研究方法和文献综述。

In this research project I plan to study Capoeira as a form of 'living myth', as conceptualized by Georges Bataille. Using the historical (and legendary) example of Madam Satã (1900-1976), the Afro-Brazilian capoeirista, outlaw and drag artist with whom the form is associated, I look at how capoeira and Satã exemplify the principle of non-identity through the performative dissolution of the body. Born of the resistance to, and subversion of, an imposed identity (that of a slave), Capoeira is a martial art that masquerades as dance in order to evade and transform identity. Bataille's theory of 'living myth' emphasizes the 'dynamism' of the body in place of the 'static' social subject of 'disintegrated society' (Bataille, 1985: 233), an idea still relevant today in an era dominated by identity politics and types of segregation (both imposed and demanded). Capoeira, as both form and informe, (dis)embodies performance as a mode of 'sovereignty' - a concept that Bataille differentiates from mastery and slavery - that is achieved in cultural practices of non-productive expenditure. This study of Capoeira will argue that its mythical origin as a ritual form still lives as an ongoingpractice among displaced and disenfranchised communities.My project will offer an original reading of performance as the dissolution of identity (Martin, R., 2012) and revitalize myth as a process of becoming. It stands in opposition to contemporary discourse surrounding identity politics articulated most explicitly by the theorist Judith Butler, and results from my critical engagement with my own experiences as a migrant within colonial borders, a mixed-race person and capoeira practitioner. I will argue that it is important to dissolve social identity in order to appropriate radical movement. My project is not practice-based; rather, it is a critical examination of the dance form utilizing an interdisciplinary research method and literature review.