Performing the self : an examination of the relationships between concepts of identity and performance
This thesis sets out to examine the idea that self-identity can be coherently viewed as a performance event. If such a proposition is supportable, it would seem to argue for attention to be paid to the nature of the activity of performing as a means to better understanding the processes of human identity. Beginning with an analysis of an early example of such a theoretical position, this thesis examines some of the central issues involved in viewing the self as performative. The agenda dictating the direction of this analysis can be summarised as an effort to provide a model of the performative self that is affirmatory rather than negative; that establishes it as a positive, rather than debilitating, fact of existence. The construction of this model is achieved in large part by the adoption of the ontological outlook contained in the philosophy of Frederich Nietzsche which, it is argued, offers a reading of the nature of human identity that avoids the sometimes reductive elements of more contemporary theories such as poststructuralism. Allied to this elaboration of a theoretical model of the self is the recognition that the theory produced within and around radical theatre practice in the West over the last
Wellings, Matthew Thomas
Frederich Nietzsche
Performing the self : an examination of the relationships between concepts of identity and performance. This thesis sets out to examine the idea that self-identity can be coherently viewed as a performance event. If such a proposition is supportable, it would seem to argue for attention to be paid to the nature of the activity of performing as a means to better understanding the processes of human identity. Beginning with an analysis of an early example of such a theoretical position, this thesis examines some of the central issues involved in viewing the self as performative. The agenda dictating the direction of this analysis can be summarised as an effort to provide a model of the performative self that is affirmatory rather than negative; that establishes it as a positive, rather than debilitating, fact of existence. The construction of this model is achieved in large part by the adoption of the ontological outlook contained in the philosophy of Frederich Nietzsche which, it is argued, offers a reading of the nature of human identity that avoids the sometimes reductive elements of more contemporary theories such as poststructuralism. Allied to this elaboration of a theoretical model of the self is the recognition that the theory produced within and around radical theatre practice in the West over the last
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