J 2018

Imagine the Utopia! Rethinking Alain Badiou´s Theatre-Politics Isomorphism

MOTAL, Jan

Basic information

Original name

Imagine the Utopia! Rethinking Alain Badiou´s Theatre-Politics Isomorphism

Authors

MOTAL, Jan (203 Czech Republic, guarantor, belonging to the institution)

Edition

Slovenské divadlo / The Slovak Theatre, 2018, 0037-699X

Other information

Language

English

Type of outcome

Článek v odborném periodiku

Field of Study

60403 Performing arts studies

Country of publisher

Slovakia

Confidentiality degree

není předmětem státního či obchodního tajemství

References:

Organization unit

Theatre Faculty

Keywords (in Czech)

divadlo; dialog; utopie; politika; událost; univerzalita; materialita; zpětnovazební smyčka

Keywords in English

theatre; liveness; dialogue; utopia; politics; event; universality; materiality; feedback loop

Tags

International impact, Reviewed
Změněno: 14/4/2019 22:55, doc. MgA. Jan Motal, Ph.D.

Abstract

V originále

The presented article is a polemic with Alain Badiou’s concept of theatre-politics isomorphism. The author adapts the basic elements of Badiou’s philosophy (event, void, truth etc.), provides an interpretation of his theory of theatre and presents crucial critical arguments to reveal the reductionism of Badiou’s philosophy. Subsequently, the author presents his alternative theory of theatre based on this ground. The article assumes that theatre performance is a live, truthful event, an encounter of humans experiencing an imagined Utopia based on their structural homology (shared materiality, phylogenetic archetypal memory, existentiality). The argument is supported by the recent research in neuroscience. As the article argues, this Utopia has its social and political significance. The theatre is not political only if it constructs both a political body (crowd, public) and a discourse, as Badiou suggests. The author concludes that theatre is inherently political because its imaginative nature, which allows humans to experience the utopical attachment exceeding the subject-object boundaries. This imagined Utopia with its critical and anticipative power allows people to transcend their singularity to interpersonal and intercultural dialogue and universality, and it provokes their political imagination (in the sense of David Graeber). The author employs Erika Fischer-Lichte’s concept of performativity to present theatre performance as an event.