Pattern
In The Sounds of Slavery, Shane White and Graham White use the term pattern to describe the clear, repeated arrangements of, in this case rhythm and sound. The two authors touch on the appeal and importance of pattern in the sounds and rhythm of the music sung by the enslaved people. The complexity of “rhythmic pattern” in the songs and its mixing with other elements contributes to the uniqueness of the songs created and performed by enslaved people (White and White 37). In the context of The Sounds of Slavery, pattern describes the arrangement of certain musical elements in the music of enslaved people. The use of the term in this work expands upon the idea that pattern does not always have to be physical or visual and can be audible.
In chapter six of Susan Schneider’s book, Artificial You, she uses the term pattern to refer to the non-physical attributions that make up a person. Pattern becomes known as the “computational configuration” or internal make up of a person (Schneider 84). It consists of their thoughts, specifically on their perception of themself and the world around them. In the context of this text, the pattern being referred to is the arrangement of intangible, imperceptible, and inaudible elements that make up a person. Pattern as used in the text is an attempt to define personhood and Schneider mentions that because this specific pattern cannot be touched, seen, or heard, it is difficult to determine if it is all needed to define a person.
Schneider and White and White both propose the possibility of pattern as intangible arrangements as opposed to just tangible ones.
Taxonomy
In his work, Docile Bodies, Michel Foucault defines taxonomy as “the function of characterizing…and constituting classes” (Foucault 149). Foucault uses the term taxonomy as a label in order to distinguish one of the three ways in which society enforces discipline on the human body. In the context of Docile Bodies, taxonomy disciplines one’s body through the division and classification that it enforces in certain institutions and in society in general.
While Foucault uses taxonomy to convey the idea of the organization of bodies, Harraway uses it to propose the idea of how one approaches history. In Donna Harraway’s, The Cyborg Manifesto, taxonomy is referred to as “a reinscription of history” (Harraway 19). In other words, taxonomy is the recontextualization of history. The history that Harraway is focusing on in The Cyborg Manifesto and is working to recontextualize is the different kinds of labor performed by women in the past. By recontextualizing this specific aspect of history, she wants to explore new ways in which the jobs women have had in the past can be classified or labeled.
Both uses of the term deal with two different kinds of classification. Harraway focuses on the way people think of women’s jobs and Foucault on how society has come to classify itself and others.
Technique
In Ben Spatz’s What Can a Body Do?, they propose the idea of technique as “knowledge that structures practice” (Spatz 1). Spatz further argues that the historical and social context of bodies and their capabilities is deeply connected to technique. How one decides what their body is and isn’t allowed to do and what their body can or cannot do comes from knowledge that we acquire about bodies in general based on historical and social cues. Essentially Spatz refers to embodied knowledge as technique.
In Docile Bodies, technique is defined as a collection “of methods and knowledge, descriptions, plans, and data” (Foucault 141). In his text, Foucault develops the idea of control being the technique that is used in society and in institutions to creating docile bodies. The technique of control derives from observations that are made on what works in terms of discipling the body. In this case, technique is related to the body only in the sense that it is used by others to dictate how one’s body can be put to use.
While both authors use technique in terms of the body, they propose distinct ways in which it is used and by whom.
Discipline
Discipline as defined by Foucault in Docile Bodies refers to a “general formula of domination” in which “the operations of the body” are “meticulously controlled” by a series of methods and outside powers (Foucault 137). To be disciplined means to follow the rules established by those in power without having to be constantly reminded to do so. Foucault explains this through the structure of the military, hospitals, and schools. He specifically focuses on the way space is divided, how schedules are enforced, and how people are ranked or grouped as the methods used to discipline bodies.
In What Can a Body Do?, Spatz uses the term discipline to mean focus. They use it when referring to the areas of study that they discuss in the text and when discussing the movement of the body. They mention the different forms of “physical discipline” which suggests that the academic disciplines brought up in the chapter would be the mental or non-physical ones (Spatz 2). According to Spatz, a physical discipline would be one such as the martial arts and would be a discipline because of the focus on a certain type of bodily movement. A non-physical discipline would be the study of theatre or performance and would focus mainly on the areas that concern the subject.
Again, both authors propose similar ideas about the term they are discussing. For them, at the core, discipline means instruction but by whom and to whom sets their ideas on discipline apart.
Power
W.E.B Du Bois’ book, The Souls of Black Folk, touches on the concept of power in terms of people. In the chapter, Of Our Spiritual Strivings, he comes to define power as strengths and abilities that are “of body and mind” and which can be altered or taken away by society (Du Bois 39). He focuses on the taking away of power from black folk and the consequences that has on their community. Du Bois also touches on the strength that items can give a person. For example, he writes “the power of the ballot” which the black community would need for “self-defense” (43). The power of the ballot means that having the right to vote means power. It gives one strength with which one can defend themself.
Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin speaks on two different kinds of power. The first being the abilities people have and the second being the abilities outside forces have. In the chapter of The Threshing Floor, there is the constant use of the word power as something that has “struck” John and is holding him down (Baldwin 251). Baldwin also uses the term power when it comes to others, such as John’s dad, having “power” and John not having much at all (255). In the context of The Threshing Floor, power can be seen through the ability of John to turn away from sin and his willingness to be saved from it. Power as the intangible element in the text is the force that is trying to pull John away from the act of being saved.
Baldwin and Du Bois define power as internal strength and abilities that, while intangible, can still be taken away or depleted.
Identity
Susan Schnieder discusses personal identity and its relevancy to people merging with AI in the chapter Could You Merge with AI? from her book, Artificial You. Schneider claims that in order to understand what a merge between human and AI would look like, one has to understand personal identity. When Schneider urges the importance of understanding the “metaphysics” or fine details of personal identity, she asserts that there are several properties such as one’s thoughts that make up one’s personal identity (Schneider 74). She asserts this belief later in the chapter when she writes, “For what is a person if not…that which she thinks and reflects with?” (78).
In Cyborg Manifesto, Donna Harraway focuses on identity in terms of a group. In the text, she argues that for most of history, the female identity excluded “non-white women” which led to the creation of the “women of color identity” (Harraway 14). Harraway then observes how female or women as an identity has no clear unity amongst those who identify with those titles. Harraway describes identity as categorization where factors like “social and historical constitution” as well as “gender, race, and class” are considered when it comes to defining an identity (13). Harraway argues that because not everyone shares the same experiences with all those factors, a singular female identity cannot exist.
Schneider and Harraway use identity to describe unity at different levels. Schneider focuses on unity in oneself while Harraway focuses on unity within a group of people.
Oppression
In the excerpt from Theatre of the Oppressed, Boal touches on the different faces of oppression that people experience. When Boal asked adults in Lima, Peru, what oppression looked like, they showed pictures of “landlords” and “government officials” (Boal 125). When he asked the children, they showed pictures of “a nail on a wall” (125). They each showed what reminded them of oppression. A nail on the wall reminds the children of the work they must do to sustain themselves and their family while the pictures the adults provided are of people who remind them of the situation they are in because it is the landlords and government officials who are oppressing them. In his workshops, Boal asks for the people to then use those feelings that they hold to envision a solution to their problems.
In Blackpentecostal Breath, Ashton Crawley discusses the role of oppression in shaping the experience of Black Americans. The experience of Black Americans then goes on to shape what comes to be known as Blackpentecostalism. The feeling of oppression fuels Black Americans to break from “the normative…world” and envision and eventually create their own model of society (Crawley 5). Crawley writes that oppression allows people to take note of the flaws in society and to find different ways to go about in the world that would eliminate those flaws.
Boal refers to oppression as a concept that can be embodied by people or objects. Crawley on the other hand refers to oppression as an experience and a tool to identify flaws in society,
Political
Bennett’s On The Threshold of Theatre uses the word political as a descriptor for the premise of the performances created by Nicola Perrin. Perrin’s performance, Routines: A Domestic Peepshow, consists of her doing housework against a “background of women talking about cleaning” and was performed in the “downtown sin strip” of a street in Vancouver (Bennett 126). Perrin’s performance earns the label of “political statement” by deviating from the expectations of what a peepshow should be based on the location of the performance (126). The term political, at least in the way used by Bennett, means to go against the rules of conduct that are in place and challenge the system of beliefs held by people.
Poetics of the Oppressed, the fourth chapter in Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed, uses the word political to describe a type of problem that people can choose to depict in forum theatre. Boal states how either “a political or social problem” can be picked, implying that they are two separate but similar concepts (Boal 139). Boal writes of a group he worked with and how forum theatre was used to help them through their chosen social or political problem. As he follows the group’s process in finding a solution Boal mentions “political consciousness” (141). Boal indirectly points out that social problems can be recognized through the political consciousness one has about the assumed issue. A political problem and political consciousness suggest that awareness of societal issues and of the systems that allow for those issues to thrive defines the term political as used by Boal.
Both authors, in the context of their works, define political as an understanding of the world through the recognition of set systems and their roles in society.
Vision
Isadora Duncan’s Vision of America Dancing presents the concept of “vision” as mentally conceiving a genre of dancing she wishes to become prominent in the United States (Duncan 196). As Duncan expresses, she sees a “vision of America dancing a dance that would be the worthy expression of the song Walt heard when he heard America singing” (196). Duncan then goes on to provide an exclusionary framework of what her vision of American dancing looks like to her, excluding dances such as “the Charleston” or “the ballet” (199). Vision as used by Duncan highlights the concept of creation in terms of one’s personal utopia, revealing the strict rules that come into existence for these imagined utopias regardless of how liberating they feel.
Julia Foulkes use of the term “vision” in Manifestos touches more on the act of understanding an idea under a new light as opposed to reimagining an existing concept as a new one (Foulkes 9). Foulkes writes of Loie Fuller, an American dancer who was a pioneer in modern dance, and the “new theatrical visions” of lighting on stage that she discovered after experimenting with different forms of technology (9). Fuller’s discovery provides an example of how the view one has of an existing idea or concept can morph into another one given liberty we take in making use of them. Vision as used by Foulkes entails working with ideas and concepts that already exist and coming up with ways in which their uses can expand beyond their initial reasons for creation.
Foulkes and Duncan’s use of the term vision offer distinct understandings of self-centered ideas of progress versus ideas of progress open to the public.
Traditional
Luigi Russolo’s The Art of Noises Futurist Manifesto points out the restraints that traditional ideas impose on individuals’ abilities to expand upon them when they encounter non-traditional concepts. “Traditional” in the context of studying and making music would refer to the terminology and technique circulated in the academic discipline of music (Russolo 29). Traditional also refers to the application of terms and techniques used to understand music. Russolo’s use of traditional lays clear that the term works as a method of understanding that can hinder one’s approach to new concepts due to the misconception that traditional means restrictive.
Parable of the Sower, Octavia Butler’s 1993 novel, explores the concept of tradition and traditional values through the familial and communal structures of Robledo, the gated community that Lauren and her family lives in for the first half of the novel. Through Lauren’s character, Butler demonstrates the resistance against tradition and traditional ideals, reinforcing ideas of tradition being restraining but also persistent. For example, in the Robledo neighborhood, marriage, religion and family seem to be fundamental traditional values despite the ongoing situation, demonstrating the persistence of tradition. However, Lauren expresses to Joanne her wishes against the expectation of marriage and starting a family due to the hopelessness of society, demonstrating the restraining of tradition (Butler 153). Tradition in Parable of the Sower highlights the need for structure in a world that is falling apart.
While Rossolo looks at traditional ideas and concepts that can be used as the basis for expansion of new ideas, Butler offers a more pessimistic approach highlighting how restrictive and unnecessary tradition can be.
Undiscussable
In the introduction of “Utopia in Performance,” Jill Dolan shares feminist performance theorist Elin Diamond’s thoughts on the weight of performativity in performance. Diamond touches on the effects that performativity has on undiscussable issues such as “embodiment” and “ideological interpellations” by making them discussable (Dolan 6). This claim of Diamond’s is further expanded upon through the insistence that theatre and performance make these typically undiscussable issues and topics easier for the audience to grapple with. The undiscussable in the context of Diamond and Dolan’s words is that of which is difficult for one to comprehend if not presented in the correct format.
The “undiscussable” in Arlene Croce’s critique of Bill T. Jones’s “Still/Here” refers to the themes and topics that Jones’s piece centers around (Croce 54). Croce argues that the spotlighting of “victimhood” in the piece is not the sole reason for it being undiscussable (54). The insistence of “Still/Here” as an art piece adds to the undiscussable nature of it. Croce’s understanding of the undiscussable is issues that make people uncomfortable, issues that shouldn’t be made a spectacle of to simply make a point. An issue remains undiscussable if it is placed out of reach for conversation.
What Dolan makes to be understood is that the undiscussable is only in that state for a temporary amount of time until something is done about the way we approach its discussion. Croce, however, is critical of how the undiscussable is approached and is more set on keeping it discussion based and not spectacle based.
Resistance
Bartolome de las Casas writes about resistance when speaking of the reactions the indigenous people of places such as the island of Hispaniola had to the treatment from the Spanish. Through the examples provided such as Hatuey and his resistance towards the Christian faith, resistance is acknowledged as a powerful tool. The “slightest sign of resistance” on behalf of the indigenous people called for the violent outbursts of the Spaniards (De las Casas 12). Resistance is not only a challenge to the power of an outside force, but an assertion of one’s own power.
Resistance in David Wojnarowicz and James Romberger’s “Seven Miles a Second” offers the understanding of resistance as a method driven by emotion. Wojnarowicz writes about focusing his “rage into nonviolent resistance,” therefore creating categories for resistance (Wojnarowicz 44). Wojnarowicz’s idea of resistance involves the impact that one’s level of emotions has on the type of resistance they perform. The emotions one has impacting the resistance one can perform implies that, at least for Wojnarowicz, resistance serves as an outlet of sorts.
De las Casas and Wojnarowicz both understand resistance as power with De las Casas explaining it more as a tool and Wojnarowicz as a release.
Soul
Manifestos explores the concept of the soul as an important component of the body that requires fulfillment from the actions carried out by an individual. Mention of the soul comes from examples that Foulkes provides from other dancers as they relate its importance to the self. One of the scholars that Foulkes pulls from, Martha Graham, refers to dance as an art form as “the fruit of a people’s soul” (Foulkes 20). Graham emphasizes the importance and value of dance to cultivating and maintain one’s soul.
Kodwo Eshun’s “Synthesizing the Omniverse” refers to soul as the music genre but also as a component of human existence. The importance of the soul is that it “affirms” the human, implying that to be human means to have the presence of a soul within you (Eshun 155). Interestingly, in “Synthesizing the Omniverse,” Sun Ra is described as “the end of soul,” and not being particularly fond of humans (155). Eshun’s exploration of the concept of soul through explaining the mission of Sun Ra defines soul as an unnecessary attribute of human existence.
Foulkes focuses on the concept of the soul as an important component of not only being human but of the body and emphasizes the importance of nurturing it. Eshun acknowledges that soul is a component of being human but explores a different perspective on the necessity of the soul for humans.
Human Nature
Fyodor Dostoevsky’s character from Notes from Underground heavily criticizes current human nature. The underground man argues that not much change has occurred between the “barbaric times” of humanity and the present day which for him was the early 1860s (Dostoevsky 17). He goes on to claim that many believe change will occur in human nature through the influence of science. Human nature to the underground man means human reasoning and the ability for human comprehension of their actions and their consequences.
The term Human nature as it appears in The Communist Manifesto revolves mostly around the inclinations and desires held by members of the working class. Karl Marx and Frederick Engels use of the term “human nature” when listing the interests “of man in general” suggests that human nature is a label for man in general or the working class (Marx and Engels 108). Human nature stems from grounded experiences, which the working class are more likely to have gone through. Marx and Engels offer the concept of human nature as those who create the core desires of humas through their place in society as the majority.
Human nature is approached differently by Dostoevsky and Marx and Engels. To Dostoevsky, human nature refers to action and reaction on behalf of humans whereas Marx and Engels focus on it being a label shaped by human experience.
Unity
In his work, Dada Manifesto, Tristan Tzarais all for independence and against cohesion and structure. Tzara believes that “all pictorial or plastic work is useless” due to the structure that tends to exist within these art works and movements (Tzara 2). For Tzara, unity represents all that Dada is against, as it relates more to structure and community rather than independence and individuality. Unity in the Dada Manifesto is defined as the restrictive structure of working with a community which interferes with one’s ability to freely express themselves.
Julia Foulkes defines unity in her text Manifestos as togetherness through blending. Foulkes’ definition comes from the exploration of techniques developed by modern dancers that derived from “contrary elements” (Foulkes 17). Modern dancers sought to find ways in which contrary elements could coexist and work alongside one another. Manifestos understanding of unity takes into consideration that the blending, although not always permanent, occurs long enough for its existence to be noticeable.
Tzara’s unity differs from Foulkes as it has more to do with a set structure made up of similar components as opposed to the blending of contrasting elements that Manifestos brings up.
End
Flowers and Songs of Sorrow, an elegy written by post-Conquest Aztec poets,highlights the grief felt by the people of Tlatelolco after their city has fallen. The concept of end in this elegy refers to the elimation of the customs and way of life that the people knew. “Beauty and valor,” are the two attriburtes of their city and way of life that the poets keep repeating as having been elimanted due to the conquest (Leon-Portilla 149). The understanding of the end of times for the people of Tlatelolco not only comes from the bloodshed that they faced because of the conquest but because of the lack of intervention from the Giver of Life. To thier understanding, the end of their city and of them was meant to be given that their god made no attempts to prevent it.
Parable of the Sower deals with the concept of end as a continuous matter. The way of life of the characters cannot be maintained forever given the state of the world around them. Lauren understands this concept of end as she constantly emphasizes the importance of learning survival skills and having a bag of supplies ready in case of an emergency. Parable of the Sower explores the concept of end through the end of humanity. Community and society and their continuous deterioration are how end is understood in the novel.
Flowers and Songs of Sorrow and Parable of the Sower understand end as inevitable. The two works focus on end in terms of the deterioration and corruption of the costumery way of life.
Sources
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