Acts and Apparitions: Discourses of the Real in Performance Practice and Theory 1990-2010

在过去的四十年里，后结构主义理论对实验性能的影响是一个被广泛报道的研究领域。通过对雅克·德里达、罗兰·巴特、雅克·拉坎和让·鲍德里亚等人的阅读和应用，佩吉·费兰、菲利普·奥斯兰德和埃莉诺·福克斯等表演理论家帮助为长期存在的表演实践传统奠定了理论基础，这一传统拒绝接受戏剧的传统，即所有意义都是偶然和相对的，现实本身必然是多重和主观的。这项研究将利用现有的这种学术来证明压倒性的共识，即公开的后结构主义表演提供了一种激进的替代戏剧现实主义的能力来挑战现代性的宏大叙事，最具体地说，它的论点是，现实必须被理解为主观的和偶然的而不是客观和绝对的。我研究的目的不是否定或否定这一共识的前提，而是质疑它们广泛适用的全面性。我会争辩说，他们太普遍地被用来代表所有利用后结构主义表演主题的作品支持政治激进主义的主张，并以政治反动为由对所有保持戏剧传统的作品不屑一顾。通过我自己对后结构主义理论和当代实践的广泛模式的分析，我将试图证明，意识形态的后果不一定仅仅通过遵守或拒绝戏剧惯例来预测。我还将展示基于形式的意识形态分析的过度简单化如何渗透到新作品的市场，并影响到由国际表演网络制作、资助和支持的新作品的类型。我的结论将通过曼彻斯特大学出版社2011年出版的一本专著向学术界传播。我还将寻求在期刊上发表从研究中提取的文章和特写，供更广泛的行业制定者、资助者和推动者阅读。

The influence of post-structuralist theories on experimental performance produced over the last four decades is a well-covered field of research. Through readings and applications of Jacques Derrida, Roland Barthes, Jacques Lacan and Jean Baudrillard, among others, performance theorists such as Peggy Phelan, Philip Auslander and Elinor Fuchs have helped to lay the theoretical foundations for a long-standing tradition of performance practice which rejects the conventions of dramatic theatre to adopt the premise that all meanings are contingent and relative, and that reality itself is necessarily multiple and subjective.This study will draw on such existing scholarship to evidence the overwhelming consensus that overtly post-structuralist performance offers a radical alternative to dramatic realism in its capacity to challenge the grand narratives of Modernity, most specifically, through its contention that reality must be understood as subjective and contingent, rather than objective and absolute.The aim of my research is not to dismiss or deny the premises of this consensus, but to question the widespread totality of their application. I will argue that they are too commonly employed to support claims to political radicalism on behalf of all productions which draw on poststructuralist performance motifs, and to dismiss, as politically reactionary, all productions which maintain the conventions of dramatic theatre. Through my own analysis of post-structuralist theory and a wide range of models of contemporary practice, I will seek to demonstrate that ideological consequences cannot necessarily be predicted purely by an adherence to, or rejection of, dramatic conventions. I will also aim to show how an over-simplification of ideological analysis on the basis of form has penetrated the market for new work, and impacted on the type of new work which gets made, funded and supported by the international performance networks.My conclusions will be disseminated to the academic community through publication of a monograph by Manchester University Press in 2011. I will also seek to publish articles and features drawn from the research in periodicals which are accessed by the wider readership of industry makers, funders and promoters.