Patriarchal Panopticism, or the Seduction of a Bad Joke

Theatre places us right at the heart of what is religious-political: in the heart of absence, in negativity, in nihilisme as Nietzsche would say, therefore in the question of power. A theory of theatrical signs, a practice of theatrical signs (dramatic text, mise en scene, interpretation, architecture) are based on accepting the nihilisme inherent in a re-presentation. Not only accepting it: reinforcing it. For the sign, Peirce used to say, is something which stands to somebody for something. To Hide, to Show: that is theatricality. But the modernity of our fin-de-siecle is due to this: there is nothing to be replaced, no lieutenancy is legitimate, or else all are; the replacing therefore the meaning is itself only a substitute for displacement. . . . Is theatricality thus condemned? Jean-Francois Lyotard, Tooth, The Palm

Art · Joke · Literature · Art, Politics, and Modernism · Postmodernism in Literature and Education · Theatre and Performance Studies