The Rise of The Concept of “The Theatrical” Outside the Performative Arts

Abstract

The terms theatrical and theatricality have mostly been used to imply the relationship between a performer and its audience, with the theater providing the most immediate connection. This thesis, however, tries to explore a different meaning of theatrical, and examines the term as an epistemological perspective, a particular view of knowledge that, in America, spans a temporal line from the 1960s to the 2000s. Drawing on the work of Michael Fried, Josette Féral, Susan Sontag, and Judith Butler, the inquiry aims to unearth a new meaning theatrical and theatricality that that differs from the traditional definition. Discussion starts with Michael Fried, who sees the theatricality as a negative value, a name for qualities of exaggeration, inauthenticity, and artifice. It continues with Josette Féral who claims and defends theatricality as synonymous with artifice, offering the specific example of the performer who, Féral contends, becomes the fictionalized version of himself, an unauthentic individual. Discussion continues by drawing on Susan Sontag, particularly her essay on “camp,” where Sontag proposes an idea of theatricality that is a combination of performance and artificiality. Sontag, in fact, is shown to be the first to devise this concept as referring to much more than the theater. Indeed, Sontag’s camp delineates an ampler view of theatricality, applying the term to many social contexts as a cultural construction, and as a metaphor for "life as theater.” Discussion shows that the theatrical is a concept that goes beyond the opposition between what is real and what is artificial. To better understand the lasting impact of this sense of the term, the last part of the thesis addresses Judith Butler showing that her notion of performativity – understood a sustained social performance in which the subject acts – is the heir of this American line of thought on theatricality. This thesis, hence, examines a possible shared terrain of theatricality, camp, and performativity as different but related concepts.