Beyond the Linear Narrative: Fractured Narratives in Writing and Performance in the Postcolonial Era

以品特的作品为起点，或象征，在二十世纪和二十一世纪的许多艺术形式的工作叙事断裂，这个研究项目将问一系列的问题之间的联系，文化和政治变化和出现，或重新出现，非线性和断裂的叙事。重点放在文学和表演，特别是在后殖民和散居的背景下，它会问为什么非线性叙事一直是这个时期的艺术生产的特点。如果这些支离破碎的实验形式是对西方宏大的进步叙事崩溃的回应，那么它们提供了什么样的抵抗或修正？在殖民、殖民后和冷战后世界中，不同文化之间日益增加的相互作用以何种方式产生了这些变化？这种断裂的叙事在后殖民和流散的写作和表演中是如何起作用的？这些破碎的形式如何探索我们文化多样性社会的竞争和冲突的叙事？该项目还将询问以何种方式改变对自我的理解有助于破坏线性叙事，特别是，破碎的叙事如何使远离笛卡尔的心灵/身体二元性的理解体现自我，使身体的写作成为当代表演，小说和生活写作的重要元素。此外，如果非线性叙事是从传统权力等级制度的不稳定中产生的，那么写作和表演中的性别和性问题会产生什么影响？该项目将不承担传统的“文学”类型的独特身份，但将提出这些问题的所有形式的文学和表演作为一个连续的工作。到目前为止，大多数对非线性叙事的研究都局限于其数字化发展，从技术变革的角度看待它。在对这项研究及其影响保持警惕的同时，该项目的重点有所不同，集中在殖民后期和后殖民时期断裂叙事与文化变革之间的关系，以及当代艺术实践中的跨文化和离散交流。我们的项目绝不是形式主义的：相反，它将询问在这些艺术实践中正在映射的深刻的社会，政治和概念变化，解决对于理解艺术在当今文化多样性社会中谈判社会变革中所扮演的角色的根本问题。该项目将对三个领域进行深入研究：非洲/非洲侨民表演，加勒比/加勒比侨民生活写作，以及当代英国侨民写作和表演中的性别和性。采用的研究方法将是多种多样的，结合传统的学术手段，如会议和研讨会，与创造性的实践，戏剧，表演，阅读，音乐活动，电影，视频和数字艺术。两名博士生将参加该项目，一名从事非洲表演，另一名从事加勒比生活写作;将有两名驻场艺术家，每人为期三个月。Goldsmiths在创意写作和创新表现，批判性创作实践，社区艺术，城市研究和后殖民理论方面的优势，以及跨学科研究的悠久传统，使其成为该项目的理想场所。传播将采取各种形式，包括会议、研讨会和创造性活动，以及出版书籍和期刊，对活动和表演进行录像和存档。我们的研究成果将对学者和创意艺术家都感兴趣。它将有助于理解后殖民和散居文学和表演，其演变和发展，并评估当代创作实践的性质和影响。

Taking Pinter's work as a starting point for, or symbol of, the fracturing of narrative across many art-forms in twentieth and twenty-first century work, this research project will ask a series of questions about the links between inter-cultural and political change and the emergence, or re-emergence, of non-linear and fractured narrative. Focussing on literature and performance, particularly in postcolonial and diasporic contexts, it will ask why non-linear narrative has been such a feature of this period's artistic production. If these fractured and experimental forms are a response to the breakdown of the west's grand narratives of progress, what forms of resistance or revision do they provide? In what ways can they be seen to emerge from the increasing interaction of different cultures in the colonial, post-colonial and post-Cold War world? How do such fractured narratives work in postcolonial and diasporic writing and performance? How can these fractured forms explore our culturally diverse society's competing and conflicting narratives? The project will also ask in what ways changing understandings of the self have contributed to the disruption of linear narrative, and in particular, how fractured narratives enable the move away from the Cartesian mind/body duality to an understanding of the embodied self, making the writing of the body such an important element in contemporary performance, fiction and life-writing. In addition, if non-linear narratives emerge from the destabilising of traditional hierarchies of power, what are the implications for issues of gender and sexuality in writing and performance? The project will not assume the distinct identity of traditional 'literary' genres, but will ask these questions of all forms of literature and performance as a continuum of work. Up till now, most investigations of non-linear narrative have been limited to its digital development, seeing it in terms of technological change. While being alert to this research and its implications, the emphasis of this project is different, centring as it does on the relation between fractured narratives and cultural change in the late colonial and post-colonial period, and on intercultural and diasporic exchange in contemporary art practices. Our project is in no way formalistic: rather it will ask what profound social, political and conceptual changes are being mapped in these artistic practices, addressing questions fundamental to an understanding of the role the arts play in negotiating social change in today's culturally diverse society. The project will have in-depth studies of three areas: African/African diasporic performance, Caribbean/Caribbean diasporic life writing, and gender and sexuality in contemporary British diasporic writing and performance. The research methods employed will be varied, combining traditional academic means, such as conferences and seminars, with creative practice, plays, performances, readings, musical events, film, video and digital arts. Two doctoral students will be attached to the project, one working on African performance, the other in Caribbean life writing; there will be two artists-in-residence, each for three months. Goldsmiths' strengths in creative writing and innovative performance, in critical creative practice, community arts, urban studies and postcolonial theory, as well as its strong tradition of interdisciplinary research, make it an ideal place for this project. Dissemination will take a variety of forms, through conferences, seminars and creative events, as well as book and journal publication, and the videoing and archiving of events and performances. The outcomes of our research will be of interest both to scholars and to creative artists. It will contribute to the understanding of postcolonial and diasporic literature and performance, their evolution and development, and to the assessment of the nature and impact of contemporary creative practices.