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UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA PRODUCING AND PERFORMING IDENTITIES: THEORETICAL, CULTURAL, AND PRACTICAL ARTICULATIONS OF JEAN GENET'S CONCEPT OF SELF OANA G. TOMA O A THESIS SUBMIlTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES AND RESEARCH IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS DEPARTMENT OF DUMA EDMONTON, ALBERTA FALL 1997 National Library Bibliothèque nationale 1+1 of Canada du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographie Services services bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395. rue Wellington OtiawaON K1AON4 Ottawa ON K1A ON4 Canada canada Y~ur& vmRifcMmw Our Me Noire refd- The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive licence allowing the exclusive permettant à la National Library of Canada to Bibliothèque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distribute or sell reproduire, prêter, distribuer ou copies of this thesis in microfom, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic formats. la fome de microfiche/m de reproduction sur papier ou sur format électronique. The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriété du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantial extracts fiom it Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. ABSTRACT To articulate Jean Genet's concept of self is to inevitably address the ontology of representation. Genet's manipulation of the ontology of representation simultaneously employs and subverts the traditional mimetic system of reference and challenges the notions of written and performance text. As reality/representation and fodcontent binaries no longer hold identity is rendered a concept at once "produced and "performed." Such ambivalence becomes the catalytic intersection point for theoretical, socio-political, and practical articulations of Genet's concept of selc potentially disruptive, this arnbivaience challenges traditionally fixed, logocentnc concepts of self as it reveals their articulation as embedded in a politics of power. As Genet's characters experience the performative nature of their existence and struggle to escape representation, the self thus moves beyond a logocentnc concept associated with the static notion of "being." In context of The BIackr and neScreens, and in parallel to the Funambulist, or Genet's metaphoric actor, this thesis is an atternpt to articulate Genet's concept of self as a dynarnic process (of becoming), constitutive and performative in nature. To those who gave me my fht sense of self, who have stood by me, and who continue to support me throughout rny quest; to rny family for their unconditional love, support and encouragement. Pentru marna, tata, Anca fi Didi. My many thanks to my thesis advisor, Debby Thompson. for her enthusiasm, inspiration and encouragement. As weil, rny thanks to my cornmittee members, Elena Siemens, Paul Robberecht, James McTeague and Car1 Hare. My thanks also to Mariko and D. King. TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1 PRODUCING REPRESENTAnONS: THE "BEGIMVNG" OF A PROCESS Page 1 CHAPTER II THE BLACKS: CLOWNG IN 7HE PANOTPTICON Page 37 CHAPTER m MIMESIS, MIMICRY, AND THE FUNAMBULIST 'S 'TRUE-REAL' Page 75 BIBLIOGRAPHY Page 107 PRODUCING REPRESENTATTONS: The "Bepinnine)' of a Process This attempt to write a thesis on Genet's notion of Self troubles me deeply, for it is a venture into a world of didectics beyond simple dualities, a reaim of ambivalence which renders laquage, logical thought and causality, and empirical reasoning as illusions or reflectioas of "mith," a tnith always re-represented, produced and performed through representation. Meaning, knowledge, and history, to which 1had always attributed an unquestioned stability, appear as totalizations rooted in Western metaphysics, fueled by a human necessity and desire to function and to regulate human relationships; a metaphysics which reflects a desire for originality, or rather, for caphuing the "authenticity" of king. It is the ambivalent rneaning of "produced" and "perforrned" which best captures the ambivalence of Jean Genet's work which destabilizes the "truth." It is an ambivalence rooted in his dialectical mode of thought which extends beyond sucb fixed binaries as fonnkontent and realitylrepresentation, and which exposes the performative nature of existence and identity. Genet's Self is caught within concentric layers of representation, perpehially attempting to escape its own performativity, to authenticate itself or to capture an (mattainable) original. The Funarnbulist, or Genet's metaphoric actor. best expresses this dilemma: It matters not a bit that your solitude is, paradoxically, in fidi iight and that the darkness is composed of thousands of eyes watching which are judging you. But nothing - and above all not applause or laughter will keep you fiom dancing for your image. It is not you who will be dancing, but the wire. But if it is the wire that dances rnotionless, and if it is your image that the wire bounces, then where will you be?' The metaphor of the circus where the funarnbulist, under the brilliant artifice of make- up and costume, performs his quest for his other, or for his unattainable image, captures the nature of Genet's work: the artSicial form, or the conventions of the circus, rnake possible the funambulist's death-defjmg performance, which is simuItaneous and inseparable fiom the funambulist's "reaP' means of achieving self. This circus "production" produced simultaneously through the interdependent spectator's gaze and the funambulist's performance of self, undermines the fodcontent and reality/representation binaries. In Genet's drarna, form is content, and reality of self is achieved through representation, thus constituted and performed. In this sense, Genet simultaneously employs and subverts the traditional mimetic system of representation which in hun results in an ambivalence beyond simple dualities. an ambivalence within which infinitely mirrored truths and meanings prepare the stage for a dynamic, shifting identity, or for being as a perpetual process of becoming. Through theatncd illusion, Genet's drama is a direct extension and overlapping of life, a drama which potentially questions imposed fomor conventions involved in producing and performing identities. Genet's dramatization of life thus destabilizes huth and meaning as natural "givens," and by extension, the self, or 1 Jean Genet, 'The Funarnbulists," trans. Bernard Frechunan, Evergreen Review, 32 (Apr. 1964): 46. 3 identity as a fixed or naturally conceived concept. Rooted in a deep personal interest in the notion of identity, this thesis is my investigation of the theoreticaï. and by extension, social, political and pmcticd implications of such perfomative notion of identity. It is an attempt to arrive at an articulation of Genet's notion of self, an articulation shaped from my present Romanian-boni Canadian citizen, fernale student position. through English as my second language. My tools of analysis wili be fragments of post-structuralist theones and theorists with which 1will shape a ternporaq framework for my subsequent discussion. In this introductory chapter 1wiii address some of the Wiculties involved in writing about Genet's dramatic texts. This demands a discussion of his dialectical mode of thought and the resuiting ambivalence, as well as a discussion of language, of working with a translation of Genet's text, and of discourse in relation to meaning or signification. Also, 1 will briefly address some main cntical approaches to Genet's work, and the (limiting) common denominator of these approaches, the Westem metaphysical frame of thought which cannot fully encornpass the ambivalence of Genet's work. A discussion of the Westem metaphysics of presence which posits the self as a fixed referent, in parallel to a discussion of mimesis and representation, will provide a backdrop against which Genet's drama can be seen as a departure from and subversion of traditional dramatic conventions, a self-referential metadrama which draws attention to the processes involved in producing stage-audience and actor- character relationships. Examples fkom his dramatic works, particularly The Blacks: a 4 clown show2 and The screenr.' will reinforce and carry the discussion of the stage- audience relationship into chapter two. Social and political implications of "producing" and "performing" identities is explored in the second chapter, which focuses specificaily on The Blacks: a clown show, whose titie suggests Genet's play with the performativity of identity, specifically of racial identity, or, as 1will Uustrate, with race as c~lturally-defmed~ constructed, and performed. In relation to performativity, 1wiil inevitably re-address the implications of dramatic representation as it intersects with the social and political spheres, by focusing on the self-referentiality of the play. This chapter will thus primariiy focus on Genet's intended black cast - white audience relations, which reflect the ambivalence inherent in the colonial impulse.4 As a paradigrn for such relations, the eighteenth-century Panoptic principle of surveillance, dong with Michel Foucault's analysis of power relations,' will create a framework for the discussion and articulation of racial identity as produced and perfonned. The vortex of Genet's thoughts, the ambivalence of "producing" and "perfoming" identities, brings me

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