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Responding to rupture: kids killing kids

journal contribution
posted on 2023-05-20, 02:48 authored by Asher WarrenAsher Warren
What is the duration of rupture? In this essay I wish to investigate how rupture may be traced past an ephemeral moment, sustained and transformed through performance. Central to this investigation is the theorization of rupture developed by Paul Eisenstein and Todd McGowan in their book, Rupture: On the emergence of the political. Eisenstein and McGowan claim that ‘[t]he theory of rupture is first and foremost a theory of signification’, and that rupture is central to the development of political values such as equality and freedom (2012:11). While they develop this theory using a number of cinematic and literary ruptures, an early example they give, that rupture may simply be a slip of the tongue, raises the question of rupture in performance. Eisenstein and McGowan suggest that through a theoretical commitment to moments of rupture, politics emerges: ‘[I]t is possible to commit oneself to the position that the slip opens up. This is the politics of rupture, and it occurs when we pay attention to the act of signification itself rather than to what has been signified’. Performance then, in this politicized theorization of rupture, may offer not simply the moment of rupture, but also an opportunity for artistic commitment to rupture, to draw attention to the act, and opportunities to not only develop but to enact an alternative politics of rupture.

History

Publication title

Performance Research: A Journal of Performing Arts

Volume

19

Issue

6

Pagination

71-77

ISSN

1352-8165

Department/School

School of Creative Arts and Media

Publisher

Taylor & Francis Ltd

Place of publication

4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, England, Oxon, Ox14 4Rn

Rights statement

© 2014 Taylor & Francis

Repository Status

  • Restricted

Socio-economic Objectives

The performing arts

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