Drama Trauma: Specters of Race and Sexuality in Performance, Video and Art

by Murray,Timothy

• ISBN13: 9780415157889
• ISBN10: 0415157889
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1997-10-15
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

In this engaging cross-disciplinary study, Timothy Murray examines the artistic struggle over traumatic fantasies of race, gender, sexuality, and power. Establishing a retrospective dialogue between past and present, stage and video,Drama Traumalinks the specters of difference that haunt Shakespeare's plays with recent political projects in performance and video. Murray provides close readings of cultural formations as diverse as Shakespearean drama, the Statue of Liberty, contemporary feminist plays, African-American performance, and feminist interventions in video, performance and installation. The texts discussed include plays by Ntozake Shange and Amiri Baraka, installations by Mary Kelly, performances by Carmelita Tropicana, as well as productions of King Lear, Othello and Romeo and Juliet.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations	x	(2)
Acknowledgments	xii
1 INTRODUCTION: PERFORMING TRAUMA: THE SCARE OF ACADEMIC COOL	1	(30)
Forget Shakespeare?	5	(4)
"I know what you mean, I can't find mine either"	9	(6)
Televisual fear	15	(5)
What lurks ahead	20	(5)
Notes	25	(6)
Part I Sounding silence in Shakespeare	31	(70)
2 GETTING STONED: PSYCHOANALYSIS AND THE EPISTEMOLOGY OF TRAGEDY IN SHAKESPEARE	31	(26)
Narrative transference, hyperbolized matter	33	(4)
Nation and narration	37	(2)
The gor'd state sustain	39	(7)
Stained stones	46	(3)
Seeing feelingly	49	(5)
Notes	54	(3)
3 OTHELLO, AN INDEX AND OBSCURE PROLOGUE TO THE HISTORY OF FOUL GENERIC THOUGHTS	57	(21)
Tragic dissolution	58	(3)
Tragic skepticism	61	(2)
Not black enough to decipher	63	(3)
Beguiling the Thing	66	(6)
The gastness of her eye	72	(1)
Notes	73	(5)
4 "MISSHAPEN CHAOS OF WELL-SEEMING FORMS": SPECTERS OF JOINTURE IN ROMEO AND JULIET	78	(23)
Spirits resort	80	(3)
Can you read?	83	(3)
Death's accident	86	(2)
Impossible synchronization	88	(3)
Dark seduction	91	(2)
Specters of jointure	93	(4)
Notes	97	(4)
Part II Writing women's vision	101	(44)
5 PATRIARCHAL PANOPTICISM, OR THE ENIGMA OF A WOMAN'S SMILE: GETTING OUT IN THEORY	101	(19)
Political economies	103	(7)
Libidinal economies	110	(3)
The enigmatic smile	113	(3)
Notes	116	(4)
6 THE PLAY OF LETTERS: WRITING AND POSSESSION IN CHUCKY'S HUNCH	120	(25)
Self-restoration	122	(5)
Oozing signs, early memories	127	(5)
Primal digressions	132	(4)
Rebirth or lack?	136	(4)
Notes	140	(5)
Part III Color adjustments	145	(44)
7 DIFFERA(N)CE: SCREENING THE CAMERA'S EYE IN AFRO-AMERICAN DRAMA	145	(24)
A cast of cameras	147	(3)
The veil of visible consensus: a theoretical interlude	150	(7)
Framing world views	157	(4)
Combat breath	161	(3)
Notes	164	(5)
8. IN EXILE AT HOME: TORNADO BREATH AND UNRIGHTEOUS FANTASY IN ROBBIE MCCAULEY'S INDIAN BLOOD	169	(20)
Tornado breath	170	(5)
Unrighteous fantasy	175	(4)
The sigh of a long scream	179	(4)
Notes	183	(6)
Part IV Televisual fear	189	(85)
9 CAMERA OBSCURA IDEOLOGICA: FROM VERMEER TO VIDEO IN ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL	189	(28)
Inversion with a difference	191	(3)
Ideology of the visible	194	(4)
"Truth in pleasure flow"	198	(6)
Camera obscura	204	(3)
"A most hideous object"	207	(3)
Kinsey-winsey fantasy	210	(3)
Stained judgment?	213	(1)
Notes	214	(3)
10 THE CONTRAST HURTS: CENSORING THE LADIES LIBERTY IN PERFORMANCE	217	(23)
Consuming Lady Liberty	219	(4)
Tele-visions	223	(7)
The contrast hurts	230	(6)
Notes	236	(4)
11 TELEVISUAL FEARS AND WARRIOR MYTHS: MARY KELLY MEETS DAWN DEDEAUX	240	(34)
The archeology of material affect	242	(5)
Displaying the skin of the shield	247	(10)
Interactive videomatics	257	(9)
Televisual incorporations, or golden fleecings	266	(6)
Notes	272	(2)
Bibliography	274	(21)
Index	295