Diegesis and Mimesis
Quotidian Insurrection: Repurposing the Situationist’s Radical Urban "Everyday"
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Amy Melia
According to the Situationists, the "everyday" was a demonstrable repository of late capitalism’s consumer culture and its quasi-puritan work ethic. However, as emblematised by their concepts of détournement, dérive and psychogeography, as well as their general anti-hierarchical position, this somewhat nebulous existential principle, which we call the "everyday," had also signaled a potential opening for the empowerment of the urban proletariat. The Situationist’s urban "everyday" was thus dialectical – a locus of capitalist oppression, yet also an underestimated gateway to activating the people’s power. The aim of this paper is to contend that the Situationist’s urban "everyday" may be repurposed to critically analyse instances of contemporary art, which have been influenced by the capitalism-urbanism nexus. Specifically speaking, it will demonstrate how Situationist concepts of détournement, psychogeography, dérive, as well as their rejection of hierarchy (in favour of horizontality), can function as a critical framework for analysing said contemporary practice. The works addressed locate radical socio-aesthetic value within the quotidian aspects of urban experience in order to reclaim it from economic hegemony and activate its potential as a site for the urban proletariat’s empowerment. The Situationists were amongst the many voices in critical theory (i.e. Lefebvre, De Certeau, Perec) to highlight the urban "everyday" as a site for the common masses to acquire social potency. Nevertheless, this paper will argue that, as an urban socio-aesthetic debate, the work of the Situationists is the most fruitful to repurpose for a critical examination of contemporary art’s activation of the radical urban "everyday."
New Representational Strategies in Experimental Lyric Poetry: Metaphor and the Racialized Subject
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Katherine Preston
This paper is interested in how contemporary Black American poets reclaim the lyric subject in formally experimental new work. To what extent can anecdote as a metaphor in Claudia Rankine’s Citizen: An American Lyric convey the racialized experience to white readers? How can poetry expose the grammatical and semantic logic that complement a hegemonic liberal ideology of subjectivity as universal and individual, never particular or collective? Can poetry effectively communicate across racial difference to inspire social change, or does poetic communication remain limited by interpretative openness and confined to an aesthetic, or abstract, realm? Concerned with similarity and difference, metaphor mirrors the process of racial categorization that imbues the aesthetic with signification. Yet the same capacity to represent the abstract and intervene in assumed equivalencies allows metaphor to imaginatively challenge assumed relationships between signifier and signified. I will take Rankine’s anecdote as a metaphor as an example of poetic language’s potential to reimagine and contest racial meaning. I will also confront the political dangers of the same poetic capacity for openness as it gestures toward universal intersubjectivity and accommodates indeterminacy. I will draw from Rankine as well as contemporary lyricists Thomas Sayers Ellis and Tonya Foster to point toward an emergent renegotiation of the politics of recognition in poetry. I will ultimately suggest that poetry contains a unique potential to reimagine and communicate the subject in ways that acknowledge its socially interpellated, collective, and always racialized nature.
Diegesis and Mimesis in Modern Text Theory
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Seung Hwan Kim
Unlike logos, “what is said”, Lexis, “how it is said” can be divided two; Diegesis and Mimesis. In general term, diegesis is narration, mimesis is representation. Both of the terms originated from Platonic idealism which is based on theory of form, Idea. Ideal Idea for Plato is real truth, good and beauty. Because poets, same as artists, are usually imitating secondary idea next to real truth so artists should be kicked out of his Republic. In the modern text theory, narrative diegesis is usually regarded as telling and representative mimesis is usually regarded as showing. Because these framework is little ambiguous so we would rather back to the authentic terms coined by Plato and Aristotle; diegesis and mimesis. As said by Plato, there are pure diegesis, diegesis by means of mimesis, mixed form of diegesis and mimesis. It can be reframed as diegetic diegesis, mimetic diegesis, diegetic mimesis, mimetic mimesis. This quadripartite framework should be adapted to modern text and genres. Literary text are two types; telling and showing. But all literary texts, if it is literary text not literary work, are basically and originally diegesis. It is authentic characteristics of literary text unlike other genres as drama, movie, animation, opera etcIn this reason, literary text can be analyzed as bipartite framework; 1)diegetic diegesis 2)mimetic diegesis. On the other hand, other genre except literature, must be analyzed as art work.
Noh Theatre’s Artistic Vitality and Primitive Creativity
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Yukihide Endo
Noh is widely considered the epitome of pure artistic perfection. Yet, this success necessitates the interaction between perfect artistry and primitive, but inspiring, power. By virtue of the contribution of Zeami, its preeminent theorist, Noh cast off its old clothes in the process of creative evolution. Despite its highly sophisticated façade, Noh needs to preserve the primitive, naïve, and vital elements of ancient rituals and pure entertainment. These primitive elements helped serve as the foundation of Noh in the early stages of artistic independence and have continued to inconspicuously inspire vitality. Although noh has sought to develop creative and expressive artistry, traces of their influences remain partially intact. The role played by these imprints can be likened to the concept “palimpsest,” which states that preceding inscriptions, notwithstanding repeated attempts to erase them, survive. Traditionally, academia’s emphasis lies on Noh’s poetic and dramatic excellence, and scholars tend to consider pre-noh primitive performing arts less artistic, even crude. To redress this tendentious view, the present study will shed light on the under-explored contribution to Noh of ancient ingenuous forms of theatricality.
