“What the Body Can Do”: Creating Space for Critical Hope through Affective Encounters with a Different Kind of Otherness

Flockemann, Miki

doi:10.13169/intecritdivestud.2.1.0010

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International Journal of Critical Diversity Studies

Volume 2, Issue 1

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“What the Body Can Do”: Creating Space for Critical Hope through Affective Encounters with a Different Kind of Otherness

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Author(s): Miki Flockemann

Publication date (Print): 1 June 2019

Journal: International Journal of Critical Diversity Studies

Publisher: Pluto Journals

Keywords: affect, critical hope, performance, disability, embodiment

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Abstract

My aim here is to use the notion of critical hope as a lens for exploring how a dramaturgy of Affect can create spaces for challenging the on-going marginalization resulting from the intersection of disability, race and access in the context of South Africa's much-lauded “inclusive” constitution. Given that the body, especially the black and disabled body, has been seen as a site marked by physical and structural violence, a focus on what the body can do, rather than how it is seen, has particular relevance for exploring the work of Unmute, the first integrated dance company in South Africa to incorporate differently abled dancers. This discussion will take into account the effects generated by the affective performance techniques employed, as well as the discomfort experienced by spectators when familiar perceptions are disrupted. It will be argued that these disruptions have a liberatory dimension in that they can trigger cognitive shifts which are productive for conceptualizing critical hope.

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Miki Flockemann

Journal

Journal ID (doi): 10.2307/j50020082

Journal ID (jcode): intecritdivestud

Title: International Journal of Critical Diversity Studies

Publisher: Pluto Journals

ISSN: 2516-550X

ISSN: 2516-5518

Publication date (Print): 1 June 2019

Volume: 2

Issue: 1 ( doiID: 10.13169/intecritdivestud.2.issue-1 )

Pages: 10-23

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English Department, University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa

Article

Publisher ID: intecritdivestud.2.1.0010

DOI: 10.13169/intecritdivestud.2.1.0010

SO-VID: d58e3f3d-3c10-4d3d-ac79-014b61c15e90

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All content is freely available without charge to users or their institutions. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without asking prior permission of the publisher or the author. Articles published in the journal are distributed under a http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

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lang eng

ScienceOpen disciplines: Social & Behavioral Sciences

Keywords: performance,critical hope,disability,affect,embodiment

References

Alexander, P. (2013). Marikana, turning point in South African History. Review of African Political Economy, 40(138). Retrieved from https://www.sahistory.org.za/archive/marikana-turning-point-south-african-history-peter-alexander (accessed 23 March 2016).
Babbage, F. (2015). Active audiences: Spectatorship as research practice. Studies in Theatre and Performance, 36(1), 48–51. Retrieved from http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/94069 (accessed 23 January 2019).
Boler, M. (2014). Teaching for hope: The ethics of shattering worldviews. In V. Bozalek, B. Leibowitz, R. Carolissen & M. Boler (eds), Discerning critical hope in educational practices (pp. 26–39). New York: Routledge.
Bozalek, V., Leibowitz, B., Carolissen, R., & Boler, M. (2014). Introduction. In V. Bozalek, B. Leibowitz, R. Carolissen, & M. Boler (eds), Discerning critical hope in educational practices (pp. 1–8). New York: Routledge.
Breeman, A. (2017). Performance philosophy: Audience participation and responsibility. Performance Philosophy Journal, 2(2), n.p. Retrieved from http://www.performancephilosophy.org/journal/article/view/67/138 (accessed 25 June 2019).
Campbell, A. (2011). Adapting musicology's use of affect theories to contemporary theatre-making: directing Martin Crimp's Attempts on her Life. Journal of Adaptation in Film and Performance, 5(1), 1–17. Retrieved from https://bura.brunel.ac.uk/bitstream/2438/6603/2/FullText.pdf (accessed 14 July 2016).
Cox, E. (2012). Victimhood, hope and the refugee narrative: Affective dialectics in Magnet Theatre's Every Year, Every Day, I Am Walking. Theatre Research International, 37(2), 118–133.
Deleuze, G., & Guattari, F. (1988). A thousand plateaus: Capitalism and schizophrenia. Trans. B. Massumi. London: Athlone Press.
Edmonson, L. (2007). Of sugarcoating and hope. Drama Review, 51(2), 7–10.
Fleishman, M. (2012). The difference of performance as research. Theatre Research International. 3(1), 28–37.
Furniss, M. (2014, May 27). Megan's head (blog post). Retrieved from https://www.meganshead.co.za/tag/meganshead (accessed 16 October 2015).
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Hickey-Moody, A., & Crowley, V. (2010). Disability matters: Pedagogy, media and affect. Discourse Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 31(4), 399–409.
Jacobs, D. (2005). What's hope got to do with it? Towards a theory of hope and pedagogy. Jac, 25(4), 784–802.
Massumi, Brian. (2002). Parables for the virtual: Movement, affect, sensation. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
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Micu, A. S. (2010). Book review: Performance, Ethics and Spectatorship in a Golden Age, by Helena Grehan. Liminalities: A Journal of Performance Studies, 7(1). Retrieved from http://liminalities.net/7-1/grehan-rev.html (accessed 15 October 2015).
Mohamed, Y. (2016, April 25). Unmute Dance Company [Facebook]. Retrieved from https://www.facebook.com/pg/unmutedance/posts/?ref=page_internal (accessed 23 September 2017).
Mulcahy, D. (2012). Affective assemblages: body matters in the pedagogic practices of contemporary school classrooms. Pedagogy, Culture and Society, 20(1), 9–27.
Powell, B. D. & Shaffer, T. S. (2009). On the haunting of performance. Liminalities: A Journal of Performance Studies, 5(1), 1–19.
Reznek, J. (2016). Magnet Theatre and the moving body. In M. Lewis & A. Krueger (Eds), Making space: Three decades of Magnet Theatre. (pp. 141–162). Bristol: Intellect Books & Unisa Press.
Shouse, E. (2005). Feeling, affect, emotion. M/C Journal, 8(6). Retrieved from http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0512/03-shouse.php (accessed 15 July 2016).
Taylor, D. (2003). The archive and the repertoire: Performing cultural memory in the Americas. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
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Zembylas, M. (2014). Affective, political and ethical sensibilities in pedagogies of critical hope: Exploring the notion of “critical emotional praxis.” In V. Bozalek, B. Leibowitz, R. Carolissen & M. Boler (eds), Discerning critical hope in educational practices (pp. 11–25). New York: Routledge.

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[1] Alexander, P. (2013). Marikana, turning point in South African History. Review of African Political Economy, 40(138). Retrieved from https://www.sahistory.org.za/archive/marikana-turning-point-south-african-history-peter-alexander (accessed 23 March 2016).

[2] Babbage, F. (2015). Active audiences: Spectatorship as research practice. Studies in Theatre and Performance, 36(1), 48–51. Retrieved from http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/94069 (accessed 23 January 2019).

[3] Boler, M. (2014). Teaching for hope: The ethics of shattering worldviews. In V. Bozalek, B. Leibowitz, R. Carolissen & M. Boler (eds), Discerning critical hope in educational practices (pp. 26–39). New York: Routledge.

[4] Bozalek, V., Leibowitz, B., Carolissen, R., & Boler, M. (2014). Introduction. In V. Bozalek, B. Leibowitz, R. Carolissen, & M. Boler (eds), Discerning critical hope in educational practices (pp. 1–8). New York: Routledge.

[5] Breeman, A. (2017). Performance philosophy: Audience participation and responsibility. Performance Philosophy Journal, 2(2), n.p. Retrieved from http://www.performancephilosophy.org/journal/article/view/67/138 (accessed 25 June 2019).

[6] Campbell, A. (2011). Adapting musicology's use of affect theories to contemporary theatre-making: directing Martin Crimp's Attempts on her Life. Journal of Adaptation in Film and Performance, 5(1), 1–17. Retrieved from https://bura.brunel.ac.uk/bitstream/2438/6603/2/FullText.pdf (accessed 14 July 2016).

[7] Cox, E. (2012). Victimhood, hope and the refugee narrative: Affective dialectics in Magnet Theatre's Every Year, Every Day, I Am Walking. Theatre Research International, 37(2), 118–133.

[8] Deleuze, G., & Guattari, F. (1988). A thousand plateaus: Capitalism and schizophrenia. Trans. B. Massumi. London: Athlone Press.

[9] Edmonson, L. (2007). Of sugarcoating and hope. Drama Review, 51(2), 7–10.

[10] Fleishman, M. (2012). The difference of performance as research. Theatre Research International. 3(1), 28–37.

[11] Furniss, M. (2014, May 27). Megan's head (blog post). Retrieved from https://www.meganshead.co.za/tag/meganshead (accessed 16 October 2015).

[12] Grain, M.K., & Lund, E. (2016). The social justice turn: Cultivating “critical hope” in an age of despair. Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, 23(1), 1–21. Retrieved from https://www.questia.com/library/journal/1G1-493462251/the-social-justice-turn-cultivating-critical-hope (accessed 20 January 2019).

[13] Hickey-Moody, A., & Crowley, V. (2010). Disability matters: Pedagogy, media and affect. Discourse Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 31(4), 399–409.

[14] Jacobs, D. (2005). What's hope got to do with it? Towards a theory of hope and pedagogy. Jac, 25(4), 784–802.

[15] Massumi, Brian. (2002). Parables for the virtual: Movement, affect, sensation. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

[16] Mbuli, T. (2015a, April 2). A fiery start to Dance Umbrella. Retrieved from https://www.artlink.co.za/news_article.htm?contentID=37308 (accessed 2 February 2019).

[17] Mbuli, T. (2015b, February 26). Choreographer Themba Mbuli on Ashed. SABC Digital News. Retrieved from http://iono.fm/e/144394 (accessed 10 September 2016).

[18] Media Update. (2015, November 16). Celebrating difference at the Unmute ArtsAbility Festival. Retrieved from https://www.mediaupdate.co.za/media/84367/celebrating-difference-at-the-unmute-artsability-festival (accessed 27 January 2019).

[19] Micu, A. S. (2010). Book review: Performance, Ethics and Spectatorship in a Golden Age, by Helena Grehan. Liminalities: A Journal of Performance Studies, 7(1). Retrieved from http://liminalities.net/7-1/grehan-rev.html (accessed 15 October 2015).

[20] Mohamed, Y. (2016, April 25). Unmute Dance Company [Facebook]. Retrieved from https://www.facebook.com/pg/unmutedance/posts/?ref=page_internal (accessed 23 September 2017).

[21] Mulcahy, D. (2012). Affective assemblages: body matters in the pedagogic practices of contemporary school classrooms. Pedagogy, Culture and Society, 20(1), 9–27.

[22] Powell, B. D. & Shaffer, T. S. (2009). On the haunting of performance. Liminalities: A Journal of Performance Studies, 5(1), 1–19.

[23] Reznek, J. (2016). Magnet Theatre and the moving body. In M. Lewis & A. Krueger (Eds), Making space: Three decades of Magnet Theatre. (pp. 141–162). Bristol: Intellect Books & Unisa Press.

[24] Shouse, E. (2005). Feeling, affect, emotion. M/C Journal, 8(6). Retrieved from http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0512/03-shouse.php (accessed 15 July 2016).

[25] Taylor, D. (2003). The archive and the repertoire: Performing cultural memory in the Americas. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

[26] Unmute Dance Company. (2015, April 7). Unmute Dance Company [Facebook]. Retrieved from https://www.facebook.com/pg/unmutedance/posts/?ref=page_internal (accessed 23 September 2017).

[27] Vellem, A. (2017, February 6). Unmute Dance Company [Facebook]. Retrieved from https://www.facebook.com/pg/unmutedance/posts/?ref=page_internal (accessed 23 September 2017).

[28] Zembylas, M. (2014). Affective, political and ethical sensibilities in pedagogies of critical hope: Exploring the notion of “critical emotional praxis.” In V. Bozalek, B. Leibowitz, R. Carolissen & M. Boler (eds), Discerning critical hope in educational practices (pp. 11–25). New York: Routledge.