Walsh Alwyn 2014 Performing
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This work has been submitted to NECTAR, the Northampton Electronic Collection of Theses and Research. Thesis Title: Performing (for) survival: performance tactics of incarcerated women Creator: Walsh, A. M. Example citation: Walsh, A. M. (2014) Performing (for) survival: peRrformance tactics of incarcerated women. Doctoral thesis. The University oAf Northampton. Version: Accepted version http://nectarC.northamptTon.ac.uk/8889/ NE Performing (for) Survival: Performance Tactics of Incarcerated Women Submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy At the University of Northampton 2014 Aylwyn Mae Walsh © Aylwyn Walsh, 2014. This thesis is copyright material and no quotation from it may be published without proper acknowledgement. Declaration I declare the work in this thesis is entirely my own, comprising of work undertaken during the period of registration. Signed: Aylwyn Mae Walsh ABSTRACT In an era characterised by impacts of cuts and austerity in the UK, this study is positioned at the interface between two socio-cultural institutions against which societies are judged: the arts and criminal justice. Within this field, the thesis investigates the ways women in prison are positioned in a carceral performance that is cyclical and inevitably ‘tragic’. The argument considers the tactics women use in order to firstly, survive their incarceration, and sometimes, resist, the institution. The theoretical frame is drawn from feminist criminology and Bourdieu’s ‘habitus’ to examine everyday performances as well as theatrical works by and about incarcerated women. This project adds to the field by locating performance practices in and of prison within wider social contexts of the politics of carceral spaces. The main questions posed by this project were ‘what does theatre/ performance offer to challenge stereotypes of ‘the cage’?; and to what extent and in what ways does performance in (and of) prison challenge/ subvert/ augment/ transform the site itself’? The research sought to understand to what extent women’s articulations of subjectivity could be a radical alternative to the logocentric and discursive prisons of sentences and prison records. The study was developed as an ethnographic examination of performance in and of prison, alongside exploring how contemporary performance modes are implicated in defining, containing, and correcting (criminal) women’s everyday performances. The thesis is primarily concerned with a critical reflection on theatre practices in prison, with particular emphasis on the political implications of the effects of prison as/and performance. The study makes claims for a radical practice in and about prisons that is distanced from current applied theatre practices, and as such points towards a more troubled rehearsal of how punishment is performed. TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS………………………………………………………………………………………………………….i INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................................... 1 PERFORMANCE, POWER AND PATRIARCHY: DEFINING THE PARADOX ................................................................. 4 Starting from the Fence ............................................................................................................................... 7 PRISON ARCHITECTURES: CONCEPTS AND FRAMEWORKS ..................................................................................... 8 WALLS AND BARBED WIRE: ADDRESSING LIMITATIONS ..................................................................................... 10 CHAPTER ONE: AGAINST REPRESENTATION: PERFORMANCE ETHNOGRAPHY IN WOMEN’S PRISON ................................................................................................................................................... 17 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................................................... 17 PERFORMING (FOR) SURVIVAL: DEFINING THE PROJECT .................................................................................... 19 TRANSGRESSING DISCIPLINES: FROM ETHNOGRAPHY TO PERFORMANCE ETHNOGRAPHY .............................. 21 CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES: PERFORMANCE ETHNOGRAPHY IN THE CONTEXT OF PRISON ................................... 30 Fictional Release .............................................................................................................................................. 34 Ariadne’s Threads and the Labyrinths of Arts in Prisons ................................................................. 37 FIELDWORK METHODOLOGIES: LOCATING PERFORMANCE/RESEARCH PRACTICE IN PRISON ......................... 38 Preparing to Face the Minotaur: Bullish Bureaucracy ...................................................................... 45 CONCLUDING REMARKS: TOWARDS A CLAIM FOR METHODOLOGICAL CONTRIBUTION .................................. 46 CHAPTER TWO: HABITUS & ‘TRAGIC CONTAINMENT’ ................................................................... 51 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................................................... 51 PRISON TERMS: AVOIDING ‘OFFENCE’ ................................................................................................................ 54 PERFORMATIVITY OF PUNISHMENT: GOFFMAN’S FRAMES AND THE TOTAL INSTITUTION .............................. 56 (EN)GENDERING HABITUS ..................................................................................................................................... 60 TOWARDS A MODEL: ‘VICTIM-SURVIVOR-HERO’ ............................................................................................... 67 Archive: Scar(r)ed ............................................................................................................................................ 69 LOCATING HABITUS IN A PRISON CONTEXT: THE CYCLES OF ‘TRAGIC CONTAINMENT’ ................................... 75 Archive: Play, Pause, Repeat ....................................................................................................................... 79 Archive: I’ve Stood at so Many Windows ............................................................................................... 80 CONCLUDING REMARKS ........................................................................................................................................ 81 CHAPTER THREE: GENEALOGIES OF PRISON AS PERFORMANCE: TOWARDS A THEORY OF SIMULATING THE CAGE ....................................................................................................................... 83 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................................................... 83 CARCERAL SPACES: POWER, PUNISHMENT AND THE PANOPTICON .................................................................. 86 PRISON CULTURES: PERFORMANCE & CULTURAL CONSTRUCTIONS OF THE INSTITUTION .............................. 92 ‘TRANSIENT CARCERAL LANDSCAPES’: THE STANFORD EXPERIMENT AND THE SIMULATED PRISON .............. 98 THE COUPLE IN THE CAGE: GUILLERMO GÓMEZ-PEÑA AND COCO FUSCO .................................................... 101 ETHNOGRAPHIC WITNESSING: THE ‘GOTOJAIL’ PROJECT AT THE SOUTHBANK CENTRE ................................. 104 Performing Prisoners .................................................................................................................................. 105 Banality and Doing Time ........................................................................................................................... 109 CONCLUDING REMARKS ...................................................................................................................................... 111 CHAPTER FOUR: TRAUMA, STRATEGIES AND TACTICS: PROBLEMS OF PERFORMANCE IN PRISON ................................................................................................................................................ 115 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................................................... 115 RESISTING ‘MEASURES’: REFUSING LEGIBILITY ................................................................................................. 117 MAPPING THE PROBLEMS OF APPLIED ARTS IN PRISONS ................................................................................. 119 PRISON REPERTOIRES: DE CERTEAU’S STRATEGIES AND TACTICS .................................................................... 122 FROM PRIVATE TO PUBLIC: WHAT HAPPENS WHEN PERFORMANCE IS STAGED INSIDE PRISON? CLEAN BREAK’S THERE ARE MOUNTAINS ...................................................................................................................... 124 TRAUMA, MASKS AND MIMESIS: GEESE THEATRE’S JOURNEY WOMAN ........................................................ 134 Keep the Change ........................................................................................................................................... 141 PERFORMANCE IN PRISON AND THE CYCLES OF TRAGIC CONTAINMENT ........................................................ 144 CONCLUDING REMARKS ...................................................................................................................................... 145 CHAPTER FIVE: ETHNOGRAPHY: PERFORMANCE OF PRISON ...................................................