Moving Language: An Investigation into Text's Kinetic Potential in Theatre.

The project 'Moving Language: An Investigation into Text's Kinetic Potential in Theatre', will examine the dominating presence of textuality within the work of certain contemporary artists and the way in which it triggers a new form of theatricality. The use of text in the work of, amongst others, Mette Edvardsen, Jan Lauwers and Abke Haring, is deeply influenced by dance aesthetics and therefore very distinct from traditional text theatre. Text is no longer used to produce the words of a certain character (mimetic), neither does it function as mere material presence, within the realm of other performative elements. The aforementioned artists make explicit use of text, in a way that is not conceivable by use of current theoretic paradigms on text. This peculiar status forces scholars to rethink and redefine theory on textuality and to connect it with concepts from performance studies, such as 'embodiment', 'presence' and 'spatiality', concepts that are less likely to be used in dominant theoretic contemplations on textuality. This project departs from this theoretical impetus and will work around the hypothesis that certain contemporary uses of text can be labelled as 'kinetic'. Therefore, the conceptualising of text from a mimetic/semiotic view will be connected with and replaced by a kinetic framework, which will enable performance scholars to study contemporary textual tendencies within the realm of physicality and spatiality. This research project is thus both practical and theoretical: by use of a selected corpus, traditional (theoretical) conceptions will be redefined to frame how textuality in contemporary text theatre 'moves' around the performative dynamic.

Keywords:THEATRE STUDIES

Disciplines:Theatre and performance