Hysterical aesthetics in contemporary performance: Theatre, dance, voice
Document Type
Book Chapter
Publication Title
Hysterical methodologies in the arts: Rising in revolt
Publisher
Springer
School
Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA)
RAS ID
36184
Abstract
Joanna Townsend argues that the historic medical condition called hysteria can act as a structural metaphor to support the construction of a “hysterical performance text” which emphasizes the “splits and contradictions” within and between characters, their voices and their bodies. This aesthetic strategy was pioneered by the Surrealists and others who encountered hysterical patients at the Pitié-Salpêtrière. Artists today do not necessarily draw directly on these precedents, but the hysterical aesthetic is still with us. The most prominent strategy employed within hysterical performance is that of dialectical corporeal surrogation—or “hosting” (Laura González). In the phrasing of vocalist Sage Harlow, this constitutes a dangerous but necessary aesthetics of love, wherein that which arises from within or without the host body must be accepted with compassion, even as this challenges one’s own sense of subjectivity.
DOI
10.1007/978-3-030-66360-5_12
Access Rights
subscription content
Comments
Marshall, J. W. (2021). Hysterical aesthetics in contemporary performance: Theater, dance, voice. In J. Braun (Ed.), Hysterical methodologies in the arts (pp. 271-295). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-66360-5_12