Culture as Performance

O Centro de Estudo de Teatro disponibilizou já (no maior dos secretismos, aliás) as actas das jornadas História do Teatro e Novas Tecnologias, que decorreram na Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Lisboa, no passado mês de Abril. Entre essas comunicações encontra-se uma da teórica alemã Erika Fischer-Lichte, intitulada CULTURE AS PERFORMANCE - THEATRE HISTORY AS CULTURAL HISTORY:

During the last years, our understanding of cultural processes has changed considerably; and so has our concept of culture. We do not proceed any more only from the assumption that culture has to be understood as a text, made up of signs that has to be read as the concept of culture will have it that dominated since the linguistic turn in the seventies: "Culture as text". We rather have come to understand that culture is also, if not in the first place, performance. It can hardly be overlooked to what an extent culture is brought forth as and in performances – not only in performances of the different arts but also, and foremost in performances of rituals, festivals, political rallies, sport competitions, games, fashion shows and the like – performances which, in a mediatized form, reach out to millions of people. Hence it follows that the concept of performance, that performance theory is in the centre and at the heart of all debates in cultural, social and art studies. Continua...