The Performance of Racialized Bodies and Brechtâs Operatic Anthropology

Kevin S. Amidon

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ChapterÂ 2 The Performance of Racialized Bodies and Brechtâs Operatic Anthropology

In: Philosophizing Brecht

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Kevin S. Amidon

Kevin S. Amidon
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Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 7â23

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004404502_003

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Abstract

Taxonomic tropes and themes, particularly gender and class, but also race, function together in Brechtâs plays to create overdetermined characterizations. Parallel to these characterizations, he developed a multilayered theory of performance that emphasizes how those who enact text should approach the representation of diverse human types and groups. His encounter with Chinese acting established foundational elements in this theory. In parallel to his theoretical thinking about performance and race in the mid-1930s, Brecht was developing his stance toward operatic representation. While these two conceptual spheres, race and opera, might appear far apart in their content, they parallel each other closely in their theoretical stakes. The work of Joy Calico reveals that the way the voice becomes fungible through operatic performance both repelled and fascinated Brecht, such that this voice-object of opera accompanied his work as a kind of dialectical foil throughout his career. When read through the lens of race, this insight can be extended to reveal how the acting body itself becomes a fungible object, one that Brechtâs theories of estrangement and gestus strive, however inadequately, to make aesthetically and politically productive.

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Philosophizing Brecht

Critical Readings on Art, Consciousness, Social Theory and Performance

Series:Â Consciousness, Literature and the Arts, Volume: 55

E-Book ISBN:: 9789004404502

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 07 May 2019

Subjects
- Literature and Cultural Studies
- Philosophy
  - Aesthetics & Cultural Theory
  - Continental Philosophy

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ChapterÂ 2 The Performance of Racialized Bodies and Brechtâs Operatic Anthropology

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Philosophizing Brecht

Critical Readings on Art, Consciousness, Social Theory and Performance

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ChapterÂ 2 The Performance of Racialized Bodies and Brechtâs Operatic Anthropology