MOTAL, Jan. Imagine the Utopia! Rethinking Alain Badiou´s Theatre-Politics Isomorphism. Slovenské divadlo / The Slovak Theatre. 2018, vol. 66, No 3, p. 311-329. ISSN 0037-699X. Available from: https://dx.doi.org/10.2478/sd-2018-0019.
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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
Original language English
Type of outcome Article in a journal
Field of Study 60403 Performing arts studies
Country of publisher Slovakia
Confidentiality degree is not subject to a state or trade secret
WWW URL
Organization unit Theatre Faculty
Doi http://dx.doi.org/10.2478/sd-2018-0019
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
Changed by Changed by: doc. MgA. Jan Motal, Ph.D., učo 5807. Changed: 14/4/2019 22:55.
Abstract
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.
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