engleski

Narrating fear through movement: Democratic articulation of personal and community fears on the example of theater amateurism

The postmodern condition has simultaneously generated a sense that our activities are mainly narrative, and announced a break-up with grand narratives and expressed doubt in the modern human’s ability to narrate, especially fear and trauma. The final consequence of this state is moving towards non-language and silence. These circumstances bear significantly on the possibilities and reach of ethnological and folklorist research of contemporary narrations of fear and trauma that aim for understanding the fullness of the human existence beyond the semiotic concepts of representation and identity construction. These circumstances also prompt questions of method, representation and ethics. The goal of this presentation is, on the one hand, to examine the modes of approaching the narration of unpleasant and painful emotions and silence, which is often the only narrative mode of communicating these emotions, focusing on movement and its narrative potential. I will examine the possibilities of ethnodrama and related methodologies in researching the potential of movement in narrating fear and other unpleasant emotions. Namely, ethnographic methods that are sometimes called “following the narrative”, ethnography of listening and sensory scholarship have proven to be inadequate to shed light on the limits and the disproportion between language competences and the psychological world of the individual. On the other hand, the focus of the presentation is the case study of an amateur theatre group (dr. Inat from Pula, Croatia), that is founded on the idea of theatre as an arena for narrating emotions. On this example I will examine the possibilities of theatre amateurism as a democratic space for individual articulation, processing and presentation of emotions to a community that produces, but also shares the individual’s fears. The goal is to assert the social and research values of theatre amateurism that is founded on communication through movement. Through this case study I will explore the possibilities of methodological innovations in researching the verbal inability to narrate fear, trauma, pain, inhibition, neglect, conflict and powerlessness.

narrating fear, movement, democracy, theater amateurism

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