Introduction

theatrical metaphors, textile philosophies

pp. 1-45

in: Teemu Paavolainen, Theatricality and performativity, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2018

Abstrakt

The introductory chapter outlines theatricality and performativity by way of their tensions and paradoxes—between seeing and doing, novelty and normativity—and argues for a more perspectival approach with notions of "texture," derived from anthropologist Tim Ingold and philosopher Stephen Pepper. After a section on "metaphor," those of texture and weaving are further elaborated in three extensive segments, beginning from their prior usage in dramaturgy (Eugenio Barba) and philosophy (feminism, Pepper, ecology). The third and most important section introduces Ingold's meshwork as a key figure of plural performative becoming: the interweaving of lines, as opposed to the network as a key figure of theatrical detachment or abstraction—the connecting of points or objects into which the meshwork is simplified when we optically "zoom out" from its haptic engagement. In the end, the ensuing chapters are introduced, themselves addressed as specific "threads' within the book's overall texture.