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Dialogue and Performativity: Using Performance Studies to Evaluate Dialogic Norm
Construction
Cami R. Rowe
Lancaster University
Department of Politics and International Relations
c.rowe1@lancaster.ac.uk
Millennium 2010 Annual Conference
London School of Economics & Political Science
Abstract
This paper conceives of dialogue as an element of human performance, and attempts to
initiate a discussion of the usefulness of Performance Studies theories for analysing the
construction of social norms. This is intended to contribute to existing conversations in
the field of IR concerning aesthetics and the applicability of art methodologies to the
study of international relations. It also aims to uncover the rich overlapping territory
between Performance Studies and Constructivist International Relations with the
intention of instigating new conversations between these two disciplines. Performance
Studies, as an interdisciplinary “non-discipline”, makes use of theoretical insights from
sociology, anthropology, neuroscience and more, with the express aim of understanding
meaning production and reception. It is therefore inherently suited to analyses of the
circulation and competition of ideas among actors and public audiences. Through a
performative lens, even minor political roles are shown to be potentially pivotal in the
creation of values and identities. Performance Studies, I suggest, contributes a useful
analytical framework for understanding the potential success and longevity of ideas on
both domestic and international stages.
Introduction
The aim of this paper is to propose the usefulness of Performance Studies to analyses of
International Relations, and specifically studies rooted in a constructivist approach to
global phenomena. My suggestion is that Performance Studies can help to critically
explore why and how ideas change, by providing information about the interpretive
context in which meaning is processed and understood. Performance Studies scholars
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concern themselves with the frameworks and devices surrounding performed actions, and
can therefore offer insight into the social environment within which ideas are contested
and constructed. Aspects of tone, characterisation, spatial arrangements and the like all
heavily influence group interpretation. While these performative structures do not
necessarily dictate a specific mode of interpretation by audiences, they lay the
foundational atmosphere that predisposes the public toward particular avenues of
reception and response.
Furthermore, performance-informed approaches understand that international relations
are negotiated within a matrix of performed interactions. The shared understandings that
lie at the heart of international actions and reactions are developed and conveyed through
performance. To speak or interact with the intent of being viewed implies performance,
and as such political actions are always performative. Issues of identity, social hierarchy,
group interactions, public events and exchanges of power and obligation are all key
concerns of Performance Studies theorists, and are likewise central to constructivist
interpretations of international phenomena. Significantly, Performance Studies
understands that social negotiation of norms underlies many common ‘everyday’
performances, and it is therefore an ideal means of furthering our understanding of the
development and evolution of norms and ideas in politics.
In furtherance of these assertions the main effort of this paper will be to elucidate the
nature of the field of Performance Studies and offer a number of key concepts for the
consideration of constructivist IR scholars. This will entail a discussion of the evolution
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of Performance Studies as an academic discipline, followed by a brief introduction to the
notion of dialogue in a Performance Studies context. I will then explore some of the
overlapping issue areas of Performance Studies and constructivism, including notions of
identity and the range of influential actors that can be considered in norm construction
processes. The intent here is to provide some common ground that may form the basis of
further conversations between the two fields.
What Is Performance Studies?
References to “Performance Studies” in IR circles tend to be initially interpreted as an
allusion to the use of theatrical performances to interpret, analyse and occasionally
intervene in international phenomena. Performance Studies is often thought of as a field
that concerns itself with blended art-and-politics projects, such as the use of theatre as an
intervening tool in international conflict and resolution, or the interpretation of political
circumstances through the lens of locally produced plays and performances. Indeed there
is much in common between such works and Performance Studies, with a great deal of
rich common ground yet to be explored. However, Performance Studies as an academic
field stretches far beyond this, existing instead as a set of theories and methodologies
concerned with the collective significance of performed actions at multiple levels of
society. Whereas other uses of art and theatre in International Relations tend to focus on
the creative products themselves, Performance Studies removes the focus from staged
dramas and plays in favour of extrapolating their theoretical foundations and analytical
frameworks to apply to a wider range of social phenomena. In Performance Studies, it is
not Brecht’s Mother Courage or Osborne’s Look Back in Anger that are the primary
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objects of study, but rather the techniques and devices that Brecht and Osborne developed
and utilized for those productions – and more importantly, what those techniques tell us
about group interpretation and meaning-making.
Furthermore, while most mentions of drama and performance conjure up notions of
actors, audiences, stages and the trappings of commercial productions either traditional or
avant garde, Performance Studies understands drama in a broader sense. As Peter Brook
famously stated, “A man walks across an empty space whilst someone else is watching
him, and that is all that is needed for an act of theatre to be engaged” (Brook 1968, 11).
In this sense, performance implies simply any action that is conducted with the intention
of being to some degree witnessed by another – put another way, “showing doing”
(Schechner 2002, 28). The indisputable pioneer of Performance Studies, Richard
Schechner, states that
Performance is a very inclusive notion of action; theatre is only one node on a continuum
that reaches from ritualisation in animal behaviour (including humans) through
performances in everyday life – greetings, displays of emotion, family scenes, and so on
– to rites, ceremonies and performances: large-scale theatrical performances (Schechner
1977, 1).
Indeed, Schechner’s ritual-theatre continuum has become a key concept in the
Performance Studies canon, redefining value-laden notions of efficacy and entertainment
by locating both concepts and the overlapping territory in between within the same
performative framework (Schechner 1988, 120).
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One of the major challenges that Performance Studies has faced is in defining itself as an
academic discipline. Because its objects of study are so wide ranging, and the
methodological choices vary to such a degree, it overlaps extensively with other fields.
The problem is further complicated, as Tracy C. Davis notes, by the tendency of
academics from other disciplines to use performance and ‘performativity’ as an
explanatory metaphor, without regard to the rich theoretical history of the subject or any
in depth intent to explore the many facets of what constitutes performance (Davis 2008,
2). Importantly, Performance Studies theorists use the concept of performance not in a
metaphorical way, but in the foundational belief that all social relationships and group
beliefs are contested and negotiated through performance – physical and verbal
interactions that follow certain behavioural parameters and result in a range of likely
outcomes for participants and viewers. In this sense, performance is not simply about
social constructions of identity or being, but about the interactive processes of exchange
and evolution that shape collective ideas. Performativity can be explored beyond its
application as a simple explanation and description, and by drawing on theories of actor
production and audience reception we can bring a level of understanding and analysis to
social interactions that would otherwise remain obscured.
Much of the impetus for the development of Performance Studies as a scholarly field
grew out of already established trends in the art world, particularly attempts to integrate
non-‘theatrical’ aspects of life and culture into staged performances. In the alternative
productions of the avant-garde, practitioners such as Vesvelod Meyerhold, Antonin
Artuad, Jerzy Grotowski, Peter Schumann, Peter Brook and others sought to forge theatre
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with life, providing an alternative experience for both actors and audiences which would
stimulate a transformative process for both individuals and the collective group.
Although methods and specific intent varied, the common theme here was the desire to
effect some kind of social change through performative structures or devices.
Deliberately breaking down boundaries between art and other aspects of social life was a
calculated political act.
The Vietnam era was particularly key to the trajectory of politicized and integrated art,
and the related development of Performance Studies. This period saw the escalation of
self-consciously performative tactics among political activists. While not necessarily a
new phenomenon, the extent to which antiwar organizations turned to artistic theories
gleaned from the worlds of art and theatre was unprecedented. For example, Peter
Schumann was a visual and dance artist specializing in puppetry who dabbled in political
commentary. In the heightened political climate of Greenwich Village in the mid 1960s,
his work was drafted into the antiwar movement by non-artist activists (Brecht 1988).
Schumann’s Bread and Puppet Theatre quickly became the instantly recognizable flag
bearer of most major anti-Vietnam War demonstrations, and his naive puppetry
techniques were adopted by the political left as a mascot for actions stretching into the
present day. Coupled with an increasing reliance on the impact of televised images, the
existence of these self-consciously performative groups in the political arena predisposed
future political actions to a formal concern for aesthetics. Where theatre and art were
embracing alternative (mostly critical) types of performance, political action was reconceiving itself as innately theatrical. This opened the door for Performance Studies
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analyses of political actions, ranging from marches through capitol cities to mass civil
disobedience actions to the tossing away of war medals by disaffected Vietnam veterans.
In the aftermath of the September 11th terrorist attacks, the tendency toward examining
mostly subversive political actions expanded from a concentration on leftist protests to
include the subject of terrorism itself. John Bell, one of the chief directors of the Bread
and Puppet Theatre and a leading Performance Studies scholar, made a call for serious
Performance Studies accounts of terrorist violence in 2004. He strongly opposed those
critics who alleged that combining performance terminology and aesthetic philosophies
to the sociological understanding of terrorism amounted to disrespectful frivolity or
unnecessary validation by overlaying violence with the terminologies of high art. Bell
steadfastly asserted that terrorist violence falls within the category of “twice-behaved
behaviour”,1 and as such insights can be drawn from other modes of performance to help
us understand the function of violence and the issues surrounding both its implementation
and prevention (Bell 2004). He maintained that:
Using the tools of Performance Studies to analyze how calculated violence is employed
in a media-saturated society is not an insult to the memories of those who died, but an
essential means of understanding the undeniably symbolic level at which global conflict
is now being played out. It is clear that such vivid terms as “Axis of Evil”, “Homeland
Security”, and “Weapons of Mass Destruction” have been put into play with full
cognizance of their semiotic value, and we will only understand the actual implications of
1
Twice-behaved behaviour is a term coined by Richard Schechner to
designate actions that fall under the category of performance. For Schechner, most social
customs and norms are learned socially and repeated, rendering everything from gender
traits to social graces ‘twice-behaved behaviour’. For more on this see Between Theatre
and Anthropology (Schechner 1985).
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these concepts and the actions connected to them – performatives all – if we are able to
comprehend them on an equally sophisticated level of analysis (Bell 2004, 57)
In this way, Bell opened the way for critical Performance Studies analyses of both
terrorism and state and public responses to terrorism. This has resulted in an increase in
the number of Performance Studies projects that take politics as a central concern, and
perhaps has laid the groundwork for more productive collaborations between
Performance and Politics scholars.
Contextualising Dialogue
The next point to consider is the role that dialogue plays in Performance Studies theories.
Although it is difficult to arrive at a singular definition of the term, for the purpose of this
paper I would like to outline some of the key points that are common to most
Performance Studies references to dialogue. These include the notions of exchange,
viewership and negotiation/evolution.
To start with, many Performance Theorists conceive of dialogue as fundamentally a form
of exchange, in which two or more entities interact performatively in a responsive
manner. This extends the definition of dialogue from a primarily verbal activity to one
that encompasses all the ranges of human action. It also implies a degree of obligation on
the part of those involved, in the sense that actions must be perceived and responded to –
no participant can escape the framework of performance which encompasses the event,
even where that which is performed is non-activity. Dialogue is therefore a central
component of all performance, the first sophistication of the “empty space” analogy
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outlined by Peter Brook above. In the case of dialogue, not only is someone watching but
that someone is an implied participant with an obligation to be similarly perceived.
This raises the second point that is key to all Performance Studies scholars – dialogue is
always couched in a context of viewership. Indeed, rather than placing an emphasis on
the exchange that occurs between the primary actors of any given dialogue, Performance
Studies focuses more on the interaction that occurs between the central participants and
those viewing or otherwise perceiving that interaction. This is not to imply that viewers
are or must remain inactive non-participants, but simply highlights the issues of
interpretation that arise from a position of removed viewership rather than privileged
participant. This point is key to the usefulness of Performance Theory to studies of
politics, as will be seen below.
Finally, I would like to point out the way that Performance Studies also emphasises the
process of negotiation and evolution that occurs when dialogue takes place. In many
interpretations, performed actions are the instigators of social transformation, particularly
when enacted under specific structural rules or with a transgressive intent to interrupt the
status quo. This environment of transformation can be found in events including wars,
political elections and unexpected performances of civil disobedience. When events like
this occur, the normal constraints on social interaction are altered or suspended in some
manner, and openings for change are created. Through the performed negotiation of
these events, the status quo will either be temporarily suspended or in some cases,
permanently altered (Schechner 1988). Some political actions are therefore already
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enacted with the intent of this kind of social change, as when a new Prime Minister is
elected or when a peace treaty is signed. However, it is also important to point out that
ordinary, everyday dialogue can also evolve toward this level of eruption through specific
actions. When actors operate in such a way as to volubly disrupt the expectations
surrounding a given dialogic event, they create the possibility of crisis that can have a
long term impact on social norms. In this vein, Performance Studies stresses the way that
dialogue is saturated with the possibility of instituting social change.
Bringing Performance Studies to Constructivist Concerns
The remainder of this paper will focus on demonstrating the way that Performance
Studies can directly supplement constructivist approaches to International Relations. I
will conduct this exploration by first discussing a sampling of Performance Theories
relating to individual and group identity, a key concern for constructivists. I will then
review Performance Studies conceptions of valid actors, which has significant
implications for the role of the domestic sphere and individuals in the process of norm
construction. I will conclude with a brief discussion of the way that Performance Studies
intersects with other aspects of the constructivist research agenda, and offer some areas
where further research would be fruitful.
Identity
To start with, an obvious area of overlap between Constructivism and Performance
Studies is the concern with the social construction of identity. For Performance theorists,
personal characterisations are seen as essential in understanding the way that identity can
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function microcosmically and impact collective sentiments and ideals. As a starting
point, Performance Studies theorists have paid great attention to the way that individual
personae are complicit in social interactions at all levels. Many have cited the writings of
sociologist Robert E. Park in which he details the way that personhood is about the
wearing of various masks. Park wrote that it is through the donning of various social
masks that we come to know both ourselves and others, and that throughout an
individual’s life these masks are employed with a greater or lesser degree of conscious
deliberation for varying social functions (Park 1950, 249). For scholars steeped in an
awareness of the nuances of influence behind theatrical masks in staged performance, the
notion of everyday social masks and identity formation invited application of theatrederived theories.
This study of identity has taken several turns: some theorists have focused on the way
that individual identity is shaped by society in a performative way. For example, Erving
Goffman conducted one of the first studies of performative identity in 1959, exploring the
way that everyday actions and typical social roles consist of learned and repeated
behaviours. He noticed that most behaviours are made up of patterns or routines
replicated from the behaviour of others (Bial 2004, 59). Importantly, Goffman described
two types of identity performance, which he termed “cynical” and “sincere”. In the latter,
individuals wholly believe in the parts they are playing, displaying learned traits and
characteristics with full integrity, unconscious of the constructed origins of the various
aspects of identity. In these aspects,
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The individual can be fully taken in by his own act; he can be sincerely convinced that
the impression of reality which he stages is the real reality (Goffman 1959, 28).
On the other hand, Goffman describes “cynical” performers, those that are conscious of
the artifice involved in self-characterisation, and that frequently make use of this fact to
deliberately influence their reception by others. This is not to say that cynical performers
always do so out of self-interest, as this behaviour may be equally motivated by a desire
to mislead others for their own good or for the good of the community. This
phenomenon is obviously not restricted to the waging of statecraft or governance, and can
be seen in Goffman’s examples of placebo-prescribing doctors, myth-perpetuating
parents and reassuring salespeople (Goffman 1959).
Although Goffman’s cynical and sincere performers are an apt metaphor, it would be
more accurate to state that degrees of cynicism and sincerity vary in any given individual
in relation to the particular identity trait under consideration. For example, genders may
be performed with utmost sincerity despite their performative nature, while other aspects
of character such as class or intellect may be deployed for specific ends in a conscious
and deliberate way. In any given dialogue, participants employ a range of sincerity
throughout.
Added to this is the fact that, as Goffman states, observers of other people are in a mode
of reception which entails a high degree of belief in the parts other people play (Goffman
1959, 31). For the most part, people are trained to believe in the presentation of self
offered by other individuals, and while it is possible for a degree of scepticism to be
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deployed in relation to others, this is generally only in effect in relation to particular sets
of actions or precise aspects of character and identity. Some classes of individuals may
encourage a greater degree of scepticism on the part of “audiences”, and this includes
politicians and anyone engaging in public dialogue for overt persuasive effect.
Goffman also outlined the way that individuals move from cynicism to sincerity and back
again through various social processes (Goffman 1959, 31). This has great implications
for studies of dialogue between political actors. Foremost, it implies an ability for
individual identities to be impacted either temporarily or permanently through interaction
with others. When actors engage in dialogue, either as a primary participant or a
peripheral observer, the identities they don can shift as a consequence of the performative
processes they are engaged in. Frequently, identities that are deployed in a cynical effect
for the benefit of others can become ingrained in the consciousness of the actor and
therefore move more toward sincerity. By contrast, it is also possible for overt
performances of characteristics to create a level of critical awareness in an actor that then
alters their attitude to that character. Crucially, these phenomena would not occur
without the framework of performative dialogue, wherein actions are reactions are reliant
upon fellow actors and a context of viewership.
While Erving Goffman began the enthusiasm for Performance Studies accounts of
individual identity processes, other theorists have concentrated on the way that the
performance of these individual identities feeds back into collective norm construction
and is used as a set of theatrical signals that delimit appropriate ranges of action and
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emotion for “audiences”, which here can be defined as the general membership of a given
collective.
Cultural historian and film critic Neal Gabler is one author who has contributed to this
aspect of the Performance Studies canon. Gabler makes the case that individual identities
are now at the centre of American culture, saturating everything from popular
entertainment to depictions of major news events. He calls these “lifies”, his term for the
ever-present vignettes of individuals that absorb and entertain the general public. More
than just a new trend in entertainment, Gabler argues that “lifies” function as teaching
and regulating devices for the American public in particular due to the extreme level of
media saturation in everyday life. This has great implications for the use of individual
lives and identities for persuasive political effect. Furthermore, Gabler believes that this
increase in popular representations of individual lives, from reality television to celebrity
exposés, to short-lived tabloid scandals, creates an environment in which entertainment is
convoluted with news and information dissemination. This leads to a public regard for
political dialogue which is altered by the habits derived from this entertainment-media
saturation:
We escape from life by escaping into the neat narrative formulas in which most
entertainments are packaged. Still, with movies there was always the assumption that the
escape was temporary. At the end of the film one had to leave the theater and reenter the
maelstrom of real life. When life itself is an entertainment medium however, this process
is obviously altered (Gabler 2004, 77).
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Significantly, Gabler is linking identity processes with the potentially disturbing trend of
reading life itself as a kind of narrative entertainment. He notes that there seems to be a
trend for using life to escape from life – by interpreting the social masks of others with an
attitude of detachment derived from expected narrative closures and inconsequentiality,
the public views the plight of others, is momentarily absorbed, and ultimately relieved of
their anxieties (Gabler 2004). The advent of online blogs and daily social networking
sound bites increases this phenomenon. The effect is to increase the transience and
triviality of publicly viewed actions, while simultaneously demanding an ever-increasing
level of drama in order to elicit attention from audiences oversaturated with opportunities
for escapism.
Along similar lines, Schechner makes a distinction which he terms make-belief vs. makebelieve; the former made up of performances that tacitly teach, inform and construct
everyday norms and reality – particularly those dealing with identity and social roles such
as gender, race, class, etc – and the latter being the more recognizable and overt type of
role playing engaged in by children or individuals consciously choosing to behave “as if”
they were someone or something else. He cites the American President as an individual
frequently engaged in make-belief, but importantly he describes the complicity of the
public in this process. Since nearly all Americans are aware of the scripted nature of
presidential “performances”, they too must actively suspend disbelief to the level of
relegating performative devices to the invisible and unnoticeable. In this way they
become those essential viewers of dialogue that enable the suspended performative nature
of politics.
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Schechner goes on to describe the way that an increase in media saturation and
accessibility has resulted in a multiplication of the number of individuals who can claim
enough status to actively shape make-belief narratives. For example, there are increasing
numbers of experts, commentators or interested parties displayed on network news, in
internet web logs, and through various print media. Each of these individuals engages in
the same kind of scripted (whether by self or others) performance which adds to the
make-belief drama of the mass public (Schechner 2002).
Essentially, the number of
credible participants in the dialogue is increasing appreciably. However, with this
increase in availability of the media comes an increasingly cynical public mode of
response:
With so many kinds of performances on view, people are sophisticated and suspicious
deconstructors of the theatrical techniques employed to lure them (Schechner 2002, 35).
This underscores the necessity of applying Performance Studies to political actions (or
performances) in order to understand the evolving potential of such enactments among an
increasingly savvy mass audience.
When contemplating the impact of dialogue on the construction of political ideas, these
aspects of identity can supplement our understanding by elucidating the way that
individuals influence the wider public and vice versa. Performance Studies
interpretations could clearly engage with constructivist concerns regarding the degree of
sincerity of political actors, and the implications of this on the development of foreign
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policy. Performance Studies not only presupposes a level of make-believe among
political actors, it also underscores the complicity of all actors in this process. As a
result, theories of global interactions could be sophisticated with an in-depth regard for
the performative indicators that surround the donning of certain identities and the
outward perception of these.
The Importance of Actors
Performance Studies also has a great deal to offer in regard to who or what constitutes a
valid participant in political dialogues. To conceive of international relations in a
performative context demands an acceptance of the notion that small groups or
individuals frequently have a serious and lasting impact on larger social processes. In the
same way that mainstream theatre audiences may give their attention to a small band of
players on a commercial stage, we can understand political norms as deriving from the
viewership of dialogues by global society. Further, because Performance Studies
removes the dividing footlights from conceptions of staged action, we can conceive of the
audience as potential participants who may intervene in or contribute to the dialogue
taking place in the centre stage area of international politics. As Gabler and Schechner
have pointed out, the rise of ‘lifies’ predisposes society to a greater level of attention paid
to short-lived individual biographies. Importantly, this frequently comes about through
the nomination of such characters by elite political figures. The use of life-stories by
politicians seeking to influence identity-driven norms and policies actually lays the
foundation for intertextual resistances to those norms by entities that can don the identity
mask of the nominated persona. We have seen this in recent years with the number of
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individuals who come forward and become figureheads for political movements, ranging
from the grieving mothers of dead soldiers to plumbers with ideas about domestic
policies. The performative devices employed by such characters are central to the impact
they will have on established norms. Effectively, an awareness of this process of
nominated performance implies a much greater level of authority for individuals in the
context of international relations. Positions of authority are not reserved solely for
appointed officials or institutions of power, but may be claimed by any member of global
society through strategic performative tactics.
For the purposes of combining Performance Studies with IR, it is also important to note
that Performance Studies frequently places an emphasis on the everyday, or on
pervasively repeated act-ions within a given community:
Performances mark identities, bend time, reshape and adorn the body, and tell stories.
Performances – of art, rituals, or everyday life – are made of “twice-behaved behaviors,”
“restored behaviors,” performed actions that people train to do, that they practice and
rehearse. That training and effort go into making conscious art is clear. But everyday
life also involves years of training, of learning appropriate bits of behavior, of finding out
how to adjust and perform one’s life in relation to social and personal circumstances
(Schechner 2002, 24).
This is important firstly because this statement clearly begins to overlap with similar
definitions of politics – definitions that understand politics as a basic brand of human
interaction, an anthropological necessity and one that is evident at all levels of society. It
may be said that politics is a brand of “showing doing” with some degree of political
intent behind both the act and (potentially) the witnessing. This of course extends our
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definition of the political to so-called everyday interactions, those that happen on streets
or in homes, between family members, friends, or schoolchildren, and places this on
equal footing with the kind of politics that happen between world leaders, in large
auditoriums equipped with microphones and podiums, translated and re-broadcast around
the world to countless other audiences. This being the case, a Performance Studiesinformed analysis emphasizes the political potential of marginalized or non-mainstream
actors. By reinforcing the link between elite and domestic and emphasizing their basic
functional similarity, Performance Studies supplements those political theories that place
equal value on non-elite participants and subjugated social classes. For Performance
Studies practitioners, the statement that the personal is political simply celebrates the
evident.
This position engages well with the efforts of scholars who seek to seriously account for
the role of the domestic realm in the construction of social norms. A number of recent
studies have detailed the importance of the general public in the interpretation and
perpetuation of political norms (Seabrooke 2007; Sjostedt 2007). However, studies of
this nature frequently fall short of their intended aims by amalgamating public response
into a singular entity that fails to account for marginality or diversity. Performance
Studies approaches can remedy this by highlighting the role of diverse and multiple areas
of the “public”. This can range from a focus on the political significance of interpersonal
interactions to the analysis of multiple modes of reception induced by various dramatic
tactics.
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Along similar lines, Performance Studies contributes an awareness of the construction
and re-construction of social roles and relationships through the medium of performed
actions. As Erving Goffman has noted, social roles become defined through repeated
performance of characterizations to the same audience on more than one occasion. It is
through this repetition – and rehearsal – of proscribed social characteristics, duties and
norms that social relationships are solidified (Goffman 1959, 15). Both actor and
audience repeat the experience of a particular social relationship and in this way
hierarchies of power and sanctification of norms may occur. For example, soldiers are
repeatedly presented (and simultaneously present themselves) for public audiences
through parades, memorial services, marches and the like. Through the performative
devices employed, the trope of Soldierness takes hold and becomes solidified in regard to
public interpretations of proscribed behaviors and norms of the US military. This is very
similar to work done by Judith Butler and others regarding the performance of gender
through social conditioning and repetition. What Performance Studies can add here is an
understanding of particular performative devices which shape transformations of both
public interpretation and actor embodiment, so that a space may be opened for dissenting
individuals to alter and evolve said social roles rather than simply re-present them. This
notion can also be extended beyond the realm of the individual to encompass the roles
performed by states and global institutions, further clarifying the process of identity
formation and promulgation among elite actors. In this sense, Performance Studies can
make significant contributions to constructivist approaches that seek to engage with the
social power hierarchies that lie at the heart of norm creation, and would be particularly
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useful to the kind of feminist-constructivism advocated by Birgit Locher and Elisabeth
Prugl (2001).
Conclusion
In the brief account above I have attempted to outline some of the ways that Performance
Studies may prove effective for scholars concerned with the power of ideas in the context
of International Relations. I have offered a summary of the field and noted some of the
key thinkers and issue areas in which Performance Studies scholars are engaged. I then
provided some of the chief points which I feel could become common ground for
scholars from both performance and IR backgrounds. Specifically, I described the way
that issues of identity in Performance theory are ideally suited to the concerns of many
constructivist scholars, and I demonstrated the usefulness of performance-informed
notions of ‘actors’ to the study of international politics.
In conclusion, it is my belief that Performance Studies can supplement constructivist
approaches to International Relations in a highly productive manner. This stems largely
from the ability of this field to consider actions and intents conveyed not only through
verbal language but through a whole range of performative organs – voice, physicality,
movement, characterization, etc. Where discourse analysis and rhetorical theories
analyse shared grammars and overarching linguistic rules, Performance Studies broadens
the lexical framework to include non-verbal and even non-personal communicative
devices. Furthermore, Performance Studies places the emphasis not on actions and
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reactions or dialogue and replies, but on what happens between the two… in other words,
Performance Studies is, at its core, about relationship.
To treat any object, work or product “as” performance means to investigate what the
object does, how it interacts with other objects or beings, and how it relates to other
objects or beings. Performances exist only as actions, interactions and relationships
(Schechner 2002, 25).
It also provides beneficial insight into performative affect, the mood and tone with which
actions are conveyed and the effect this has on viewers. For example, theatre
practitioners have provided us with incisive studies on the impact of violence, humour,
empathy and the body which can provide significant information about the effect of
political actions on the mass public. By considering not only the outer layer of
appearance of dialogue, such as language and visual composition, Performance Studies
captures the impact of many of the surrounding trappings of international politics,
otherwise overlooked by theorists. It is hoped that this paper will provide the foundation
for ongoing fruitful conversations between Performance Studies and IR scholars.
22
Draft version only. Please do not cite without prior permission from the author.
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