An Intercultural Theory of the Comic Spirit: Insider/Outsider Dynamics and Representation in Theatre and Performance
Citation:
Animashaun, Olakunle, An Intercultural Theory of the Comic Spirit: Insider/Outsider Dynamics and Representation in Theatre and Performance, Trinity College Dublin.School of Creative Arts, 2022Download Item:
Abstract:
This dissertation commences with an enquiry into the origins of comedy in Greek fertility rituals and nature, drawing upon theories of play, ritual, and community to explicate case studies that have been decidedly sourced from different cultural contexts. The objective is to articulate principles of comedy across time and culture in order to stimulate new insights into its intercultural aspects. Some social coding within group interactions is arguably rooted in ancient Greek comedy, especially as a site of two opposing tendencies. Some of these social codes developed from the ritualistic and later metamorphosed into cultural structures and sets of rules or norms that evolved into comedy as a vital social and cultural phenomenon.
The idea is to develop a new intercultural theory of the comic spirit, identifying this with an affirmative force of life, and the cognition of laughter?s function regarding social and spatial distance. The comic spirit has the capacity and the proclivity to perpetuate life through friction, especially as it pertains to how joking behaviours, socially defined categories and structures serves to establish ties, create solidarity, and also serve as a means of hierarchy-building. These potentialities of comedy to engender convergence and dichotomy, or even in some instances, further political agendas are found in the following texts:
? The Acharnians (Athens, 425 BCE) by Aristophanes.
? Death and the King?s Horseman (Nigeria, 1975) by Wole Soyinka
? The Playboy of the Western World (Ireland, 1907) by John Millington Synge
? The Playboy of the Western World (Ireland, 2007) by Bisi Adigun and Roddy Doyle
? Sizwe Bansi Is Dead (South Africa, 1972) by Athol Fugard
Four of the case studies have been chosen based on their origins in formerly colonized countries, and also based on their play with tradition and modernity. They have been analyzed in detail in the dissertation by unravelling their social and cultural significance and particularities, in the context of the society from which they emanated. At least two of the modern plays (by Synge and Soyinka) self-consciously play with and problematize the genre of comedy as a decolonizing strategy through their play on 'time' and 'place' at a defining liminal moment in the life-cycle (i.e. death).
The methodology relies on textual analysis and interpretative analysis in order to probe the historical, cultural, and social context of the case studies. The foundational conceptual inquiry of the research is integrative in terms of the perspectives from different cultural experiences. These comprise of academic theories, practical analysis, and pedagogical perspectives, rooted in hermeneutical phenomenology. This has been complemented by an iterative interaction between extant literature and analysis of the case studies. The dissertation suggests a new understanding of the case studies in relation to their conception as comedy that is contingent on the degree of cultural exigencies, the strength of plot, the thematic structure, and the potentialities of the characters in the texts or performances, where applicable.
This study also presents an historical interrogation of the deployment of state and institutional power especially in relation to identity, nationalism, and race, ranging from the activities in the arts, media, theatrical productions, and comedian performances. The study confirms humour as a safe haven where the controversial topic of race is being addressed in contemporary Irish society. Ultimately, the study demonstrates how clich? can be used to insinuate stereotypical connotations, and also how immigrant experiences have been used as a means to negotiate cultural identity and representation.
The study theorises a critical understanding of the interculturalism-from-below concept with a consideration of the immigrant perspectives. Through the logical reasoning of an interculturally driven engagement, relationships that could be construed as potentially conflicting in terms of interests and allegiances are also examined from the prism of social interactions and differentiated capacities. These are evidently explored in the different instances of the investigation by the dissertation into the collaborative efforts on interculturalism by theatre companies and their desire to incorporate different and sometimes opposing cultural voices towards participating on projects of intercultural relevance in Ireland.
This dissertation has been structured in two sections. Section One (comprising Chapters 1??4) examines the origins of comedy historically and etymologically, followed by the theoretical and conceptual frameworks of the thesis, from phenomenology to postcolonialism. Contemporary productions dominate the focus of the second section (Chapters 5??7), exploring intercultural dimensions, grassroots integration strategies, and the status of the migrant as ?other? in UK and Irish contexts. It concludes by evaluating the significance of stand-up comedy in a multicultural setting, drawing the discussion into a social context beyond the theatre.
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https://tcdlocalportal.tcd.ie/pls/EnterApex/f?p=800:71:0::::P71_USERNAME:ANIMASHODescription:
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Author: Animashaun, Olakunle
Advisor:
Johnson, NicholasPublisher:
Trinity College Dublin. School of Creative Arts. Discipline of DramaType of material:
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Full text availableKeywords:
Interculturalism, Comedy, Ireland, Immigration, Humour, Identity, Nigeria, Postcolonial, Carnivalesque, Stand-up ComedyMetadata
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