Djoeke Arianne Spiekhout Studentnummer: 5930030 Taal- En Cultuurstudies Bachelor Eindwerkstuk Media En Cultuur ME3V15026 Studiejaar 2019-20, Blok 2 Dr

Djoeke Arianne Spiekhout Studentnummer: 5930030 Taal- en Cultuurstudies Bachelor Eindwerkstuk Media en Cultuur ME3V15026 Studiejaar 2019-20, blok 2 Dr. Chiel Kattenbelt 22 Januari 2020 6208 woorden

Abstract

Beyoncé Knowles-Carter is a common subject in academics because of her unprecedented ability to control the narrative around her. A year after performing at Coachella, she had all music journalism centered on her again by releasing a concert-documentary, named Homecoming. This film not only shows her live performance but also reveals an inside-look at the production-process behind it. As a film directed by Beyoncé herself and released by her management, it deserves a critical look concerning its message construction and agenda. There are already extensive works written about her with regards to postcolonial, gender and marketing studies. Hence this case study will be used to study Beyoncé from a new media and performance study perspective. Therefore, this research sets out to explore the use of dramaturgical strategies in Homecoming to historicize Beyoncé's star identity. It explores how Beyoncé's star identity is built on the visual world she creates and therefore argues that her star identity becomes a spectacle, a term coined by Debord. The spectacle of Homecoming employs internal focalizers and a performative voice to position the spectator to view Beyoncé in a larger, historical perspective. The use of vintage, analogue media aesthetics in a digital film creates an intimate viewing experience that suggests that the event happened in the past, simulating age value to emphasize the documentary's supposedly historical value. These dramaturgical strategies create a historical and social context in which the spectacle of Beyoncé plays out the specific role of inspiring young black people and celebrate their shared heritage.

Table of Contents

1 Introduction 4

2 Theoretical Framework & Method 7

3 Analysis 10 3.1 Spectacle 10 3.2 Address 13 3.3 Remediation 20

4. Final remarks 25 4..1 Conclusion 25 4.2 Discussion 27

5. Bibliography 28 Academic References 28 Non-Academic References 30

6. Appendix 32 Verklaring Intellectueel Eigendom 32

1 Introduction

Few artists know how to control the public narrative like Beyoncé does. In 2018, she headlined Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, one of the biggest, most well-known music festivals worldwide. Even though her performance was barely two hours long, it has been a big topic in media for more than a year after it took place. As women are often the minority on festival line-ups, Beyoncé's presence on the festival poster was already a very welcome one.1 However, she would not be the 'first lady of music' if she settled for solely countering a statistic. She was already making history as the first black woman to headline Coachella and made sure everyone, even the predominantly white audience at the festival, knew it. Inspired by the culture of historically black colleges and universities (often referred to as HBCU's), she transformed her festival performance into a battle of the bands to celebrate her black heritage and black culture overall. Ever since the release of her visual album Lemonade (Knowles-Carter 2016), Beyoncé is known to build upon her black heritage in her art, which has been thoroughly studied by academics.2 Most studies with relation to gender and postcolonialism focus on the symbolism that refer to Beyoncé's blackness. For example, Hobson analyzed from an art historical perspective how Beyoncé relates herself to black and southern history in her music video Formation through the use of film sets, costumes and compositions.3 The visual references to HBCU culture in her Coachella performance appear to continue that tradition in her art. However, instead of studying the performance from a gender- or postcolonial perspective as most studies about Beyoncé tend to do, it is also interesting from a new media- perspective that

1 Mitchum, Rob, and Diego Garcia-Olano. “Tracking the Gender Balance of This Year’s Music Festival Lineups.” Pitchfork, May 1, 2018. https://pitchfork.com/features/festival-report/tracking-the-gender-balance-of-this-years-music-festival-lineups/. 2 For examples of works, see Adrienne M. Trier-Bieniek, The Beyonce Effect : Essays on Sexuality, Race and Feminism (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 2016), http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=1281855&site=ehost-live; Janell Hobson, "Remnants of Venus: Evolutions of The Bootylicious Body," in Venus in the Dark : Blackness and Beauty in Popular Culture (Routledge, 2018): 141-78, https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315299396; Dayna Chatman, “Pregnancy, Then It’s ‘Back To Business,’” Feminist Media Studies 15, no. 6 (November 2, 2015): 926–41, https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2015.1036901. 3 Hobson, "Remnants of Venus," pp. 141-78.

focuses on her performativity and use of technology that create her star identity. During the 2019 edition of Coachella, a year after Beyoncé headlined, she released the concert-documentary Homecoming (Knowles-Carter 2019) on Netflix, sharing the story leading up to the performance as narrated by Beyoncé and her team and the final product of the live show. As a result, all media attention returned to her performance while in the meantime, a new edition of the festival was already taking place. Even though many authors like Nichols and Saunders have dedicated studies to the documentary format,4 the music documentary stays behind in academic discourse. As a hybrid form of concert-film, documentary and autobiography, Homecoming is an exceptional case study to understand the creation of celebrity identity through the use of a music documentary. It is remarkable that this documentary appears to reaffirm what her concert reviews had already been saying a year prior: that the performance will be an important part of our cultural memory.5 Netflix describes the documentary as an "intimate, in-depth look at Beyoncé's celebrated 2018 Coachella performance [that] reveals the emotional road from creative concept to cultural movement."6 As Lieb's study showed, Beyoncé tends to act in a way that she thinks her fans and contemporaries will perceive her, playing into the consumer's expectations. Lieb therefore calls Beyoncé a master of impression management as she continuously regulates how her image is perceived.7 Thus, she argues that Beyoncé's public identity is created by producers as well as consumers.8 This explains why Homecoming would play into an already existing public narrative of the Coachella performance as a historical moment in music, but does not explain how it does it. That is why this study wants to explore how Homecoming reinforces that

4 David Saunders, Documentary (Florence, United Kingdom: Routledge, 2010), http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uunl/detail.action?docID=515405; Bill Nichols, Introduction to Documentary, 3rd ed. (Bloomington, IN, United States: Indiana University Press, 2017), http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uunl/detail.action?docID=4813367. 5 Craig Jenkins, “Beyonce’s Coachella Performance Was An Instant Classic,” Vulture, April 17, 2019, https://www.vulture.com/2018/04/beyonces-coachella-performance-was-an-instant-classic.html; “Beyoncé schrijft geschiedenis met optreden Coachella,” NOS, April 15, 2018, https://nos.nl/l/2227412. 6 Homecoming: A Film By Beyoncé | Official Trailer | Netflix, accessed January 13, 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fB8qvx0HOlI. 7 Kristin J. Lieb, Gender, Branding, and the Modern Music Industry : The Social Construction of Female Popular Music Stars (Routledge, 2018): 7, https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315160580. 8 Lieb, Gender, Branding, Music Industry, p. 16.

sensation of watching history being made and positions a contemporary artist like Beyoncé as a historic figure. Therefore my research question will be: How does Homecoming use dramaturgical strategies to historicize Beyoncé's identity? This question follows the Brechtian term of historicizing, as defined by Pavis, Carlson & Shantz (1998). They define it as the act of showing the sociohistorical circumstances underlying the actions in the play (or documentary in this case). It is not as much about the individuals and their actions, but rather about the social and political context in which those actions take place. This will reveal two historicities: the context of the object being viewed and the one the spectator lives in while watching.9 Historicizing thus stands for the positioning of the object seen within a certain historical light. The following three sub-questions will guide the analysis to answer the research question: What is the role of the act of documentation in the construction of Beyoncé's identity? How do the types of address contribute to the historization of this identity? What is the role of remediation in the historization of Beyoncé? I expect to find that the mediatization of a live performance changes the meaning of the original live performance. Creating a documentary of a live performance will prioritize the appearance over the essence of the performance itself.I anticipate that the voice-overs of Beyoncé and other historical figures, in combination with the footage, create a relationship that invites the spectator to regard Beyoncé as a historical person, even though she is still part of the present. Lastly, I hypothesize that the choice of analogue aesthetics contribute to the sense of watching a historical event.

9 Patrice Pavis, Marvin Carlson, and Christine. Shantz, Dictionary of the Theatre: Terms, Concepts, and Analysis (Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 1998): 171, http://www.deslibris.ca/ID/417866.

2 Theoretical Framework & Method

Now that my research questions have been established, a fitting theoretical framework and method are necessary to answer them accordingly. For section 3.1, I would like to use Debord's concept of the spectacle as entry point to study how the film constructs an identity for Beyoncé. Debord argues that technological developments result in the spectacle, a world constructed by imagery that is indistinct from, but not equal to the physical world.10 Further characteristics will be discussed during the analysis. By approaching Homecoming as a manifestation of the spectacle, we can understand that Homecoming presents a version of Beyoncé with regard to the performance, but is not the reality itself. It helps understand that Homecoming creates its own social context and its own narrative that only exists through digital imagery. Auslander (2006) reaffirms this with his concept of performance documentation as performative. Homecoming tells its message by showing us the live show, alternated with behind-the-scenes footage, adding more information to the original live performance. Auslander argues that the documentation of a live performance is not merely a digital reproduction of an event that shows that it happened. As follows, he defends that the documentation should be regarded as a performance in itself.11 The documentation does not reflect a past event, but rather the artist's aesthetic project.12 With this perspective of the spectacle and performative documentation, we can understand that the documentary is trying to create a representation of Beyoncé and the concerning event that is separate from its actuality. The recorded event is a human product that frames real life events in a certain way that stands apart from reality. As a spectacle, it does not matter if the story is real or not, as long as it represents the narrative that Beyoncé and her team wants the public to know.

10 Guy Debord, The Society of the Spectacle, trans. Ken Knabb: 10-3, https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/guy-debord-the-society-of-the-spectacle. 11 Philip Auslander, “The Performativity of Performance Documentation,” PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art 28, no. 3 (September 2006): 5, https://doi.org/10.1162/pajj.2006.28.3.1. 12 Auslander "Performativity Documentation," p. 9.

To understand the framing of the viewed object, I would like to look at the modes of address within the documentary and its role in the construction of Beyoncé's public identity. I would like to use Nichols’ work on the voice of documentary as a framework to analyze how a documentary like Homecoming mediates the spectator’s viewpoint and how this contributes to Beyoncé's spectacle. According to Nichols, the voice of documentary relies on the editing, framing, sound, the order and organization of events, the type of footage and mode of documentary.13 His modes of documentary gives insight into the director’s choices and what type of viewing experience the director tries to accomplish with these decisions.14 The analysis will test if Homecoming is really a performative documentation, referring to Nichol's performative mode of documentary.15 As Nichols' voice of documentary offers a framework to understand how the film maker frames the message, I would also like to add some more theory to refine Nichols' use of perspective and voice and make this more specific. Hence, I would like to use Bleeker's concept of focalization. This describes the relationship between the seer and the object being seen in the construction of text (in this case a documentary). Focalization invites the spectator to take up a certain position and view the spectacle from there. As an analytic tool, it helps understand how the message of the documentary is mediated by the viewing position that it invites.16 Therefore, the use of focalization will help this research to identify which elements invite the viewer to accept a certain perspective and how this process occurs. To analyze the subjective positioning that the documentary imposes, I will analyze the textual quotes, the voice-overs and the combination of images that the editing produces. For 3.3, the last section of analysis, I will look at the role of remediation in the historization of Beyoncé's identity. Remediation follows in this case the definition of Bolter & Grusin, referring to the representation of a medium in a different medium.17 Therefore, I will look at the camera filters and the sound filter for the voice-overs that make the documentary look

13 Nichols, Introduction to Documentary, p. 52. 14 Nichols, Introduction to Documentary, p. 109. 15 Nichols, Introduction to Documentary, p. 157. 16 Maaike Bleeker, Visuality in the Theatre: The Locus of Looking (London, United Kingdom: Palgrave Macmillan Limited, 2008): 28, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uunl/detail.action?docID=416828. 17 in Philip Auslander, Liveness: Performance in a Mediatized Culture, 2nd ed. (London: Routledge, 2008): 6.

as if it was made before the digital age. To understand how these analogue aesthetics mediate the sense of watching history, I will draw upon Schrey's arguments about 'analog nostalgia' and the affective attributes of this esthetic.18 I will also refer to Holtorf (2017) and Niemeyer (2015) to understand how the look of old media contributes to the historical value of the documentary. I will thus study the sound filters, the analogue filters and the juxtaposition of high definition shots with analogue film shots. This way I hope to understand how the aesthetics of analogue media in a digital film contribute to the sense of historization. To put these theories into practice, I will perform a critical, textual analysis of the documentary to examine how it constructs its message and attributes to Beyoncé's star identity. For section 3.1, I will look at the documentary as a medium in its entirety. For section 3.2 and 3.3, I would like to focus on one part of the documentary that is representative for the rest of the whole media text. Homecoming has a specific narrative structure that continues throughout the whole film. It is divided into chapter-like sections that have the same fixed order of elements that contribute to the overall tone of the documentary. First, it shows a part of the concert documentation, then switches to a section of background information that is divided into a narratological theme. This theme is set by a historical quote at the beginning of it. The background information is provided to the viewer by Beyoncé's voice-over and footage of the production process leading up to the performance. As this fixed order repeats itself throughout the documentary and the overall tone and style of the documentary is constant, the analysis of one repetition of this cycle should suffice to make an argument about the dramaturgical strategies. Therefore, I would like to analyze the first twenty-one minutes of the documentary that showcases the first repetition of this cycle. This part sets the overall mission of the performance and documentary, as it focuses on the importance of the celebration of black culture and inspiring the youth, whereas the other chapters have more specific sub-themes. Thus, I expect this corpus to provide enough material to base my conclusion on.

18 Dominik Schrey, “Analogue Nostalgia and the Aesthetics of Digital Remediation,” in Media and Nostalgia: Yearning for the Past, Present and Future, ed. Katharina Niemeyer, Palgrave Macmillan Memory Studies (London: Palgrave Macmillan UK, 2014): 27–38, https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137375889_2.

3 Analysis

3.1 Spectacle

Beyoncé controls her likeness. Media as well as academics have drawn the same conclusion.19 No one, not even other celebrities, record and preserve so much footage of themselves as Beyoncé does. Since 2005, she has a director that records her every waking moment and owns a personal archive to maintain it.20 Beyoncé's recorded existence makes it difficult distinguish: who is Beyoncé in reality and which Beyoncé do we see through mediation? That is why the first section will focus on the question "What is the role of the act of documentation in the construction of Beyoncé's identity?" Macrossan argues that Beyoncé creates a visual world through her art, her media images and her performances as well as her public appearances.21 She calls this 'Beyoncé World', borrowing the concept of worlding from film theory.22 Although I will not deny this creation of a seperate world, I would rather opt for the term spectacle when it comes to defining the creation of Beyoncé's star identity. Macrossan's choice for worlding gives the illusion that Beyoncé's public identity is an easily identifiable, separate fiction that contains elements based on real life. Debord's definition of the spectacle exposes the intertwinement of reality and the world existing in visual imagery. Debord describes the spectacle as a separate world, built by autonomous

19 For examples, see Amy Wallace, “Miss Millennium: Beyoncé,” GQ, January 10, 2013, https://www.gq.com/story/beyonce-cover-story-interview-gq-february-2013; Rawiya Kameir, “Review: Beyoncé’s HOMECOMING Film Is Her Latest Act of Meticulous Archiving,” Magazine, Pitchfork, April 18, 2019, https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/beyonce-homecoming-film-review-her-latest-act-of-meticulous-archiving/; Melissa Avdeeff, "Beyoncé and Social Media: Authenticity and the Presentation of Self," in The Beyonce Effect : Essays on Sexuality, Race and Feminism, ed. Adrienne M. Trier-Bieniek (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 2016): 112, http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=1281855&site=ehost-live. 20 Wallace, “Miss Millennium." 21 Phoebe Macrossan, “Intimacy, Authenticity and ‘Worlding’ in Beyoncé’s Star Project,” in Popular Music, Stars and Stardom, ed. Stephen Loy, Julie Rickwood, and Samantha Bennett (ANU Press, 2018): 138, https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv301dk8.12. 22 Macrossan, "Beyoncé's Star Project," p. 139.

images. It appears to present itself as if it is society, but it is not.23 The spectacle is therefore built upon separation. It can never be accessed and never be questioned, which forces the spectator to accept its message.24 A spectacle is therefore inbedded in reality but never is reality, which makes it difficult to distinguish the two. Nonetheless, there are fundamental differences between the two. Debord states that "What appears is good; what is good appears,” when it comes to the manifestation of the spectacle. Without elaborating much on what this saying means, he explains that the spectacle demands a passive acceptance of the message because of its monopoly of appearances.25 As Homecoming is produced and directed by Beyoncé and her team, the producers are invested in creating a message that is fruitful for the Beyoncé enterprise. The documentary shows what Beyoncé and her team want the public to see. This accounts for the performance footage as well as the behind-the-scenes footage. Homecoming is the only widely accessible recording of the Coachella performance and the preparations leading up to it. As a result, the public just has to accept its message as it can never access a different recollection of the event. The documentary is the only recording that showcases what happened behind the scenes and is the only source material that shares Beyoncé's commentary on the event. From this perspective, it is safe to regard Homecoming as a part of transmedia storytelling. Jenkins describes this as the phenomenon of building a storyworld by using multiple media platforms.26 As users navigate the storyworld through different outlets, every piece of media should contain new information to enrich the storyworld and tell this in a way that is typical for that media form.27 Thus, Homecoming makes a new contribution to the spectacle of Beyoncé, by giving new information about the performance. By combining the performance documentation with behind-the-scenes footage and voice-overs to carry the creation story, a narrative is created that did not exist before the documentary. This narrative or reality is part of Beyoncé's spectacle.

23 Debord, Society Spectacle, p. 10. 24 Debord, Society Spectacle, p. 12. 25 Debord, Society Spectacle, p. 12. 26 Henry Jenkins, Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide, (New York, NY: New York Univ. Press, 2008): 20-1. 27 Jenkins, Convergence Culture, pp. 95-6.

Even though Homecoming shows the live performance, it still forms a new addition to the spectacle as transmedia storytelling is supposed to do. As Auslander argued, performance documentation is performative.28 Thus, a concert film like Homecoming is a work of performance art by itself, the same way that the live performance was. Hence, Auslander argues that we should that we should look at the recording as a reflection of an artist's aesthetical project.29 This is in line with the law of the spectacle, which does not value what is or what someone has, but value and status is rather based on how things appear.30 Therefore the value of the live Coachella performance does not depend on whether it was really as historically and culturally important as Beyoncé's team claims. It is about giving people the impression that it is, which makes them want to watch the documentary and fuel consumer's affection for Beyoncé. It is ultimately the spectacle of Beyoncé being sold. So whereas the original live performance had the intention of honoring HBCU's and black culture, the following sections will analyze how Homecoming as visual performance by itself has an even greater one: making Beyoncé a present part in history.

28 Philip Auslander, “The Performativity of Performance Documentation,” PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art 28, no. 3 (September 2006), 5, https://doi.org/10.1162/pajj.2006.28.3.1. 29 Auslander, "Performativity Documentation," p. 9. 30 Debord, Society Spectacle, p. 13.

3.2 Address

Documentaries are different from films. They tend to show real people as they are living their real lives. Moments are caught on camera rather incidentally than intendedly. As a result, a documentary's narrative is ultimately shaped in the editing.31 The same applies for Homecoming. It is compiled by hundreds of shots that appear meaningless by themselves, shown in a non-chronological order. However, it is the combination with the sounds and voices that give the documentary a coherent narrative. As Dancyger says, the narrator is crucial when a documentary relies on archival footage.32 Even though he uses many examples to illustrate how documentaries narrate a story, he does not develop a framework for study. Thus, I would like to refer to Nichols to understand how a documentary depicts a story. Nichols states that the narrative relies on the voice of the documentary, which conveys the filmmaker's point of view of with relation to the filmed event. This perspective manifests itself in the creative decisions made for the documentary.33 The voice depends on the editing, the framing and composition of the images, the sound, the arrangement of events, the type of footage that is used and the mode of representation that the film relies on.34 The voice can either take on the form of direct address, whereby an embodied, visible person comments on the footage, or by a disembodied, invisible agent that comments on the footage through voice-overs and printed titles. However, the voice can also be expressed through embodied indirect address by observing social actors, or disembodied indirect address through the use of film techniques.35 Thus, a spectator might not always be aware of the perspective steering the documentary as the voice is not always explicit. However, the voice remains to focus on the different ways of giving information and expressing the filmmaker's perspective. In order to understand what the viewer experiences, I will borrow the term focalization from performance studies to understand the relationship

31 Kenneth Dancyger, The Technique of Film and Video Editing: History, Theory, and Practice, 5th ed., (Burlington, MA: Elsevier/Focal Press, 2011): 327, http://site.ebrary.com/id/10429789. 32 Dancyger, Technique Film Editing, p. 332. 33 Nichols, Introduction to Documentary, p. 50. 34 Nichols, Introduction to Documentary, p. 52. 35 Nichols, Introduction to Documentary, p. 55.

between what is presented and what is seen.36 As defined by Bleeker, focalization analyses the position from which things are seen. It describes how, through types of address, the subjective positioning of the object seen mediates what is presented to the spectator and invites them to take on a certain viewing position.37 Internal focalizers invite the viewer to take on a viewing position that exists within the documentary-world.38 The external focalizer implies a certain viewing position through which the whole performance (or documentary) is ought to be seen.39 This act of focalization is often invisible, which entails that the viewer accepts the presented point of view without being aware of this process. This external focalizer then creates a sense of immediacy between the object being seen and the spectator, as they watch the piece from the implied viewing position.40 When the documentary starts, it immediately showcases the first type of narration that the documentary uses: a disembodied direct address in the form of textual quotes (see fig. 1). Like all the quotes used, this one belongs to an important person in black history and culture, writer and Nobel prize winner Toni Morrison in this case. "If you surrender to the air, you can ride it,"41 appears as a motto in a literary novel. There is no explanation for how to interpret it as it stands alone, as announcement for what is to come. Only the year of origin of the quote and the university that Morrison attended are explicitly given, signalling to the spectator that these are important facts, as they are the only provided information. This expressive dimension that refers us to a commonly known part of the historical world to determine the documentary's ultimate meaning, is characteristic for the performative mode of documentary.42 Instead of explaining and convincing on a rhetorical level, the filmmaker rather wants the spectator to experience and feel the meaning.

36 Bleeker, Locus of Looking, p. 27. 37 Bleeker, Locus of Looking, pp. 27-8. 38 Bleeker, Locus of Looking, p. 28. 39 Bleeker, Locus of Looking, p. 31. 40 Bleeker, Locus of Looking, p. 33. 41 Toni Morrison, quoted in Homecoming, directed by Beyoncé Knowles-Carter & Ed Burke (California, USA: Parkwood Entertainment, 2019): https://www.netflix.com/title/81013626. 42 Nichols, Introduction to Documentary, p 157.

Fig. 1. Still from Knowles-Carter, see Homecoming (0.00.09)

The first intermission of the performance documentation is used to establish the mission that is the foundation of the Coachella performance: the celebration of black culture and heritage. The tone is first set by using a recording of the late Nina Simone talking about her quest of inspiring other black people to get familiar with their heritage.

I think what you're trying to ask is, why am I so insistent upon giving out to them that Blackness, that Black power, that Black-- pushing them to identify with, uh, Black culture. I think that's what you're asking. I have no choice over it in the first place. To me, we are the most beautiful creatures in the whole world; Black people. My job is to somehow make them curious enough or persuade them by hook or crook, to get more aware of themselves and where they came from and what they are into, and what is already there and just to bring it out. This is what compels me to compel them. And I will do it by whatever means necessary.43

This quote is presented to the spectator through a voice-over. Because of the fuzz, the spectator knows it is an old sound recording. As Simone asks herself the question why she wants to spread black culture, we see a close-up of Beyoncé, looking at something outside of the frame and therefore invisible to the spectator (see fig. 2). This creates the association that Beyoncé has Simone's words inside her head. This idea is amplified by the shots that follows. We see Beyoncé's golden hoops and braids as Simone speaks about spreading Black culture (see fig. 3).

43 Nina Simone, quoted in Homecoming, directed by Beyoncé Knowles-Carter & Ed Burke (California, USA: Parkwood Entertainment, 2019): https://www.netflix.com/title/81013626.

Through disembodied direct address, the filmmaker shows that Beyoncé embodies Simone's ideal of a black woman being informed by her heritage.

Fig. 2. Homecoming (0.16.27). Fig. 3. Homecoming (0.16.34).

Although the spectator might read Beyoncé as Simone's pupil at first, we quickly identify her with Simone as the camera zooms in on her while she is surrounded by her dancers (see fig. 4). This happens exactly when Simone explicitly states that "[her] job is to somehow...". When Simone finishes her sentence about inspiring others to study their heritage, the camera switches to her band and her dancers, putting them on the receiving end of that job (see fig. 5 and 6). This voice is created with indirect disembodied address as this perspective is generated by editing and combining sound with shots that did not originally belong together.

Fig. 4. Homecoming (0.16.55). Fig. 5. Homecoming (0.17.02).

Fig. 6. Homecoming (0.17.06). Fig. 7. Homecoming (0.17.32).

Beyoncé has not said a word and yet she is already positioned to be regarded as Simone's successor through disembodied address, directly through a voice-over that voices the mission and indirectly through the combination of images that imply that viewing position. When the voice-over ends, the camera switches to Beyoncé and finally shows her speaking on camera. The filmmaker chose a shot that shows Beyoncé discussing the importance of showcasing the performance so people will understand her vision (see fig. 7). This again reaffirms that Simone's quest is the mission of the live performance. Simone's voice-over therefore functioned as a focalizer to offer a frame through which we should look at the images provided. Her voice-over functions as a frame for the viewer to put the shown event in the perspective of a larger, historical and cultural tradition. In this case, the viewer is invited to regard Beyoncé in the light of this larger history. Even though Simone is not a visible character within the documentary world, she can still be regarded as an internal focalizer. Because she is a participant of the historical context that the documentary presents, her voice-over still invites the viewer to take on a viewing position within the historicity that the documentary shows. The spectator is invited to see Beyoncé in the historical context that she as a co-director creates. The argument that Beyoncé follows in Simone's footsteps is not explicitly made. It is rather intended to be felt and experienced, as performative modes tend to strive for according to Nichols.44 Beyoncé thus invites the viewers to look at her as she embodies and carries out her own examples.

44 Nichols, Introduction to Documentary, p. 151.

When Beyoncé literally takes the voice as a narrator and is heard through the voice-overs, the line between external and internal focalizer becomes thinner. She is nevertheless ascribed as the director of the documentary as well as he is a character within it. Her role as a focalizer can therefore be explained by regarding the documentary as performative. In the voice-over, Beyoncé explains why her live performance is inspired by HBCU's and how proud she is of the amount of talent and individuality that her dancers and band members display. She invites the spectator to look at the performers through her eyes eyes as a proud leader as they are shown rehearsing. Whereas her voice-over sounds like a voice outside of the documentary world, the camera shows her watching her dancers while applauding proudly.

Fig. 8. Homecoming (0.18.54).

Beyoncé as a narrator is thus very involved with the world that she is trying to show as a director, which is characterizing for a performative mode.45 Nichols describes the performative mode to be about sharing the emotional experiences of the concerning events in order for the audience to understand the events on an affective and visceral level, rather convincing them with facts. The spectator is meant to align with the subjective perspective that the documentary offers. 46 With this in mind, it is safe to argue that this scene aims to invite the spectator to step inside Beyoncé's head, or at least convince them that Beyoncé experienced the events as narrated. The documentary thus uses written and audible text to create a historical context. The combination of textual narration with specific, visual shots invite the spectator to view Beyoncé

45 Nichols, Introduction to Documentary, p. 109. 46 Nichols, Introduction to Documentary, pp. 151-2

within the frame of this historicity represented. For the corpus analyzed, this historical context entails Nina Simone's mission of inspiring others to celebrate their black heritage. Beyoncé is in this case positioned as her successor to continue this mission. This viewing position is created implicitly in order for the spectator to experience what Beyoncé as a spectacle is supposed to feel. The performativity mode of showing rather than telling will be further explored in the next section that focuses on the aesthetic style of the documentary.

3.3 Remediation

As Homecoming is a documentary about a recent event, distributed on an online streaming platform, it is noticeable that it largely relies on an analogue film aesthetic. Naturally, analogue media are no longer the status quo in this digital media environment and has thus become an artistic choice. As is established in 3.1, Homecoming does not reflect reality but rather represents what Beyoncé wants us to see. Not only the type of address aims to position her within a historical tradition, but also the aesthetics contribute to that historic feeling. Therefore, this section will analyze the role of this analogue aesthetic in establishing Beyoncé as a historical figure and Coachella as a historical event. For the public, Homecoming is the only access point to the Coachella event in 2018. This is what Holtorf would call the historical value of an object: its relation to a certain stage in human development.47 This allows a certain object to claim its place in society as a monument. As a representation of a past event, the Homecoming documentary can be considered a monument in its own way. Only unlike material monuments, a digitally contained documentary does not decay. Therefore, it does not gain visible 'age value' with time like material monuments do, what Holtorf calls the other requirement for an object to acquire its monumental status. He thus argues that it is not age value, this corrosion with time, that gives an object historical status, but that it depends on its pastness, the perception that an object is of the past.48 This sense depends on three things: traces of deterioration (age value), its correspondence with contemporary stereotypes about the historical object and the narrative surrounding it that connects its past to the present.49 This chapter will largely focus on the first two conditions for pastness. As a digital recording, Homecoming will not wear off like a photograph. Still, a large part of the film looks as if it is from before this time. All the behind-the-scenes footage looks like it has been recorded on analogue film. Whereas the concert is mostly shown in high definition, the

47 Cornelius Holtorf, “Perceiving the Past: From Age Value to Pastness,” International Journal of Cultural Property 24, no. 4 (November 2017): 498, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0940739117000236. 48 Holtorf, "Perceiving the Past," p. 500. 49 Holtorf, "Perceiving the Past," pp. 501-3.

footage is alternated with black-and-white filters and analogue film footage. However, it is unlikely that all the analogue shots were caught on analogue film as Wallace revealed that Beyoncé records her life everyday and stores the footage safely in an archive.50 Regardless of whether the shots are digitally altered to look analogue or not, the documentary showcases a heavy reliance on remediation. This concept stands for the representation of one medium in another, according to Bolter and Grusin.51 They first defined this concept in 1996, but in a 2016 article, Bolter argued that remediation is reserved for all media, not only the digital types, and is therefore a timeless concept.52 Even though the documentary is only accessible via an online platform, it showcases an aesthetic that looks like old film. The grain and fogging of the filters simulate age value for the documentary that it would not acquire by itself. This has various consequences for the experience of the spectator. First and foremost, these references to vintage media often situate the narrative, as Niemeyer points out.53 By making a digital recording look analogue, the documentary reminds us that the thing we see happened in the past. The documentary does this immediately after the opening quote, as the first shots of the documentary show the Californian desert and the Coachella ferris wheel on analogue film where the performance took place (see fig. 9 and 10). The filter creates a look that fits the stereotype of a historic festival event, thus creating a sense of pastness that Holtorf describes.54 Even though Homecoming uses more stylized shots, the filters suggest a comparison between Coachella in 2018 and the old footage of the historic Woodstock 1969-edition, arguably one of the most well-known festivals of all time.

50 Wallace, "Miss Millenium." 51 Jay D. Bolter and Richard A. Grusin, “Remediation,” Configurations 4, no. 3 (September 1, 1996): 339, https://doi.org/10.1353/con.1996.0018. 52 Jay David Bolter, “Remediation,” The International Encyclopedia of Communication Theory and Philosophy (American Cancer Society, 2016): 2, https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118766804.wbiect207. 53 Katharina Niemeyer, “A Theoretical Approach to Vintage: From Oenology to Media,” NECSUS European Journal of Media Studies 4, no. 2 (September 30, 2015): 95, https://doi.org/10.5117/NECSUS2015.2.NIEM. 54 Holtorf, "Perceiving the Past," p. 502.

Fig. 9. Homecoming (0.00.16). Fig. 10. Homecoming (0.00.21).

Fig. 11. 1969 Woodstock Experience 50th Anniversary (0.11).55 Fig. 12. Country Joe & The Fish (1.20.30).56

When the concert starts, this sense of watching history is also amplified. An example of this is during Beyoncé's first dance at the top of the pyramid. The first shots of this are in high definition (see fig. 13). When she stops to receive the applause, the documentary switches to an analogue camera (see fig. 14). This filter not only reminds us that we are watching something of the past, but the camera position also offers a point of view from the live audience's perspective, creating the sensation of physically being a part of something historical.

55 “1969 Woodstock Experience 50th Anniversary Video r - YouTube,” accessed January 16, 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsV4wGysDxw&t=1191s. 56 “Country Joe & the Fish - VietNam Song - Live Woodstock 1969 - Full HD Video - YouTube,” accessed January 16, 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ft0vkKCadgk.

Fig. 13. Homecoming (0.04.21). Fig. 14. Homecoming (0.05.04).

Even though the use of this analogue filter makes the mediation more visible to the spectator, it actually tends to increase the sense of being present. Schrey argues that visible signs of mediation, like the grain or distorted colors in analog film, actually creates a sense of intimacy and authenticity. This is because media development has historically been driven by the desire for intimacy and to present a look into life itself.57 The HD-footage of the concert is currently the most realistic recreation of the concert. The mediation is then as invisible as is currently possible for a Netflix-film. When we see the analogue footage, we are reminded that we are watching a mediated representation. This is an example of hypermediacy, a term introduced by Bolter.58 He argues that the act of showing mediation actually creates a sense of immediacy as it focuses on experiencing the medium itself instead of focusing on what it represents.59 This phenomenon is especially visible when Beyoncé enters the stage as queen Nefertiti. This part is shown in HD before the recording switches to an analogue filter (see fig. 15). The strategy of hypermediacy created by the filter then takes on a literal form as this shot shows Beyoncé disappearing behind the cameramen that are filming her (see fig. 16). As Niemeyer suggests, media play a central role in what will be remembered and forgotten, as they are actively used to store present events that will become nostalgic memories in the future.60 Therefore this emphasis on mediation reinforces the idea that we are watching something that is part of history.

57 Schrey, “Analogue Nostalgia," pp. 31-2. 58 Jay David Bolter, “Remediation,” p. 5. 59 Bolter, "Remediation," p. 6. 60 Niemeyer, "Theoretical Approach Vintage," pp. 96-7.

Fig. 15. Homecoming (0.01.34) Fig. 16. Homecoming (0.02.10)

Another use of remediation is displayed during the intermission of the performance. The quote by Nina Simone, discussed in 3.2, displays audible signs of recording as the fragment contains a lot of white noise. Therefore the spectator immediately recognizes that this sound recording originates from before the digital era and connects it to the past. However, Beyoncé's voice-over that follows has the same type of white noise even though it has been recorded in the late 2010's. This increases the visibility of mediation, creating a more intimate experience as Beyoncé offers a peek inside her head. At the same time, this vintage sound effect positions Beyoncé at a less identifiable position with regard to the spectator, as the similar sound puts her voice at equal footing with Simone. This again emphasizes Beyoncé's positioning as Simone's successor and suggests that perhaps in the future, we will look back on Beyoncé as we now do at Simone.

4. Final remarks

4..1 Conclusion

The goal of this research was to explore the employment of dramaturgical strategies in Homecoming to historicize Beyoncé. This follows the Brechtian definition of historicizing. By executing a critical textual analysis of the first twenty minutes of Beyoncé's Netflix documentary Homecoming, it attempted to answer the following sub-questions: What is the role of the act of documentation in the construction of Beyoncé's identity? How do the types of address contribute to the historization of this identity? What is the role of remediation in the historization of Beyoncé? For the first sub-question, the research took Macrossan's findings that Beyoncé creates a visual world around herself for audiences to enjoy as a starting point. However, instead of approaching Homecoming as a manifestation of the film concept worlding, it rather opted to approach Homecoming as a part of the spectacle of Beyoncé's star identity, an overarching media phenomenon, as defined by Debord. Consequently, her star identity is embedded in reality, but stands apart from it. It is therefore difficult for the spectator to distinguish what part of what is seen is really Beyoncé and what part is solely a visual construction. We cannot question the content of what Beyoncé as a spectacle offers, but we can only attempt to understand what it says and how that message is constructed. To answer the sub-question concerning the address, this paper used the concepts focalization and voice to determine how the address relates Beyoncé to a specific history. By referring to Bleeker and Nichols, this analysis focused on how the quotes used in the documentary create a historical context. By showing references to other important people in black history in the form of textual quotes and sound recordings, the documentary shows a larger historical tradition. It positions Beyoncé within this tradition by combining these quotes with specific visual sequences that replace the original meaning of these quotes with the events shown

in the documentary. The spectator is thus invited to regard Beyoncé in a historical light through an embodied, visceral experience rather than by explicitly narrated arguments. For the last question, the thesis focused on the role of remediation on situating Beyoncé in a historical context. By looking at the aesthetics and sounds that mimic analogue media in the documentary, it aimed to understand their role for the message of the spectacle. With reference to Bolter & Grusin, Schrey, Niemeyer and Holtorf, it found that the mimicking of analogue film and old radio sound situates the narrative in the past, gives the documentary age value to emphasize its historical value and creates a more intimate viewing experience to increase the sensation that the spectator is present at the viewed events. In conclusion, Homecoming contributes to Beyoncé's spectacle as a narrated recollection of events, telling a story that is separate from reality but exists through visual imagery. The combination of quotes and voice-overs with specific shots and the extensive use of analogue (sound) filters place Beyoncé in a specific historical context that the documentary constructs. That is how Homecoming invites the spectator to regard Beyoncé within the historicity it creates.

4.2 Discussion

With every conclusion drawn, it is necessary to keep the complications in mind. It is important to note that this study only analyzed the first twenty minutes of the film. Even though this has been a conscious decision as it represents most of the techniques used in the complete documentary, the remaining parts may showcase different techniques that historicize Beyoncé. However, a study that focuses on different parts of the case study may find out that the documentary has more agenda points than just historicizing Beyoncé. The paradigm of this study influenced the outcome as well. This research approached the case study from a media perspective with special regards to performativity and use of technology and mediation. With its HBCU theme and references to historic black women, it would also be a useful case study to analyze from a gender and postcolonial perspective. This type of study would rather look at the role of representation within the documentary. A study from this perspective could consider the truthfulness of the documentary and whether its representations are indeed as positive for society as the documentary itself suggest. This study could only test how a certain spectatorship is created and how a spectator can experience the documentary as situating Beyoncé as an important part in history. However, it did not test if Beyoncé is really an important figure in history and an important role model for society.

5. Bibliography

Academic References

Auslander, Philip. Liveness: Performance in a Mediatized Culture. 2nd ed. London: Routledge, 2008.

Auslander, Philip. “The Performativity of Performance Documentation.” PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art 28, no. 3 (September 2006): 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1162/pajj.2006.28.3.1.

Avdeeff, Melissa. "Beyoncé and Social Media: Authenticity and the Presentation of Self," in The Beyonce Effect : Essays on Sexuality, Race and Feminism, edited by Adrienne M. Trier-Bieniek (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 2016): 109-123. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=1281855&site=eh ost-live.

Bleeker, Maaike. Visuality in the Theatre: The Locus of Looking. London, United Kingdom: Palgrave Macmillan Limited, 2008. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uunl/detail.action?docID=416828.

Bolter, J. David, and Richard A. Grusin. “Remediation.” Configurations 4, no. 3 (September 1, 1996): 311–58. https://doi.org/10.1353/con.1996.0018.

Bolter, Jay David. “Remediation.” In The International Encyclopedia of Communication Theory and Philosophy, 1–11. American Cancer Society, 2016. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118766804.wbiect207.

Chatman, Dayna. “Pregnancy, Then It’s ‘Back To Business.’” Feminist Media Studies 15, no. 6 (November 2, 2015): 926–41. https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2015.1036901.

Dancyger, Kenneth. The Technique of Film and Video Editing: History, Theory, and Practice. 5th ed. Burlington, MA: Elsevier/Focal Press, 2011. http://site.ebrary.com/id/10429789.

Debord, Guy. The Society of the Spectacle. Accessed October 23, 2019. https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/guy-debord-the-society-of-the-spectacle.

Hobson, Janell. "Remnants of Venus: Evolutions of The Bootylicious Body," in Venus in the Dark : Blackness and Beauty in Popular Culture. Routledge, 2018. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315299396.

Holtorf, Cornelius. “Perceiving the Past: From Age Value to Pastness.” International Journal of Cultural Property 24, no. 4 (November 2017): 497–515. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0940739117000236.

Jenkins, Henry. Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York, NY: New York Univ. Press, 2008.

Lieb, Kristin J. Gender, Branding, and the Modern Music Industry : The Social Construction of Female Popular Music Stars. Routledge, 2018. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315160580.

Macrossan, Phoebe. “Intimacy, Authenticity and ‘Worlding’ in Beyoncé’s Star Project.” In Popular Music, Stars and Stardom, edited by Stephen Loy, Julie Rickwood, and Samantha Bennett, 137–52. ANU Press, 2018. https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv301dk8.12.

Nichols, Bill. Introduction to Documentary, 3rd ed. Bloomington, IN, United States: Indiana University Press, 2017. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uunl/detail.action?docID=4813367.

Niemeyer, Katharina. “A Theoretical Approach to Vintage: From Oenology to Media.” NECSUS. European Journal of Media Studies 4, no. 2 (September 30, 2015): 85–102. https://doi.org/10.5117/NECSUS2015.2.NIEM.

Pavis, Patrice, Marvin Carlson, and Christine. Shantz. Dictionary of the Theatre: Terms, Concepts, and Analysis. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1998. http://www.deslibris.ca/ID/417866.

Saunders, David. Documentary. Florence, United Kingdom: Routledge, 2010. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uunl/detail.action?docID=515405.

Schrey, Dominik. “Analogue Nostalgia and the Aesthetics of Digital Remediation.” In Media and Nostalgia: Yearning for the Past, Present and Future, edited by Katharina Niemeyer, 27–38. Palgrave Macmillan Memory Studies. London: Palgrave Macmillan UK, 2014. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137375889_2.

Trier-Bieniek, Adrienne M. The Beyonce Effect : Essays on Sexuality, Race and Feminism. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 2016. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=1281855&site=eh ost-live.

Non-Academic References

“Country Joe & the Fish - VietNam Song - Live Woodstock 1969 - Full HD Video - YouTube.” Accessed January 16, 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ft0vkKCadgk.

Jenkins, Craig. “Beyonce’s Coachella Performance Was An Instant Classic.” Vulture, April 17, 2019. https://www.vulture.com/2018/04/beyonces-coachella-performance-was-an-instant-clas sic.html.

Kameir, Rawiya. “Review: Beyoncé’s HOMECOMING Film Is Her Latest Act of Meticulous Archiving.” Magazine. Pitchfork, April 18, 2019. https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/beyonce-homecoming-film-review-her-latest-act-of-meti culous-archiving/.

Knowles-Carter, Beyoncé. Lemonade. CD. Parkwood Entertainment, 2016.

Knowles-Carter, Beyoncé, and Ed Burke. Homecoming. Film. Reprint, Parkwood Entertainment, 2019. https://www.netflix.com/title/81013626.

Mitchum, Rob, and Diego Garcia-Olano. “Tracking the Gender Balance of This Year’s Music Festival Lineups.” Pitchfork, May 1, 2018. https://pitchfork.com/features/festival-report/tracking-the-gender-balance-of-this-years- music-festival-lineups/.

NOS. “Beyoncé schrijft geschiedenis met optreden Coachella,” April 15, 2018. https://nos.nl/l/2227412.

Wallace, Amy. “Miss Millennium: Beyoncé.” GQ, January 10, 2013. https://www.gq.com/story/beyonce-cover-story-interview-gq-february-2013.

“1969 Woodstock Experience 50th Anniversary Video r - YouTube.” Accessed January 16, 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsV4wGysDxw&t=1191s.

6. Appendix

Verklaring Intellectueel Eigendom

De Universiteit Utrecht definieert plagiaat als volgt:

Plagiaat is het overnemen van stukken, gedachten, redeneringen van anderen en deze laten doorgaan voor eigen werk. De volgende zaken worden in elk geval als plagiaat aangemerkt:

● het knippen en plakken van tekst van digitale bronnen zoals encyclopedieën of digitale tijdschriften zonder aanhalingstekens en verwijzing; ● het knippen en plakken van teksten van het internet zonder aanhalingstekens en verwijzing; ● het overnemen van gedrukt materiaal zoals boeken, tijdschriften of encyclopedieën zonder aanhalingstekens of verwijzing; ● het opnemen van een vertaling van teksten van anderen zonder aanhalingstekens en verwijzing (zogenaamd “vertaalplagiaat”); ● het parafraseren van teksten van anderen zonder verwijzing. Een parafrase mag nooit bestaan uit louter vervangen van enkele woorden door synoniemen; ● het overnemen van beeld-, geluids- of testmateriaal van anderen zonder verwijzing en zodoende laten doorgaan voor eigen werk; ● het overnemen van werk van andere studenten en dit laten doorgaan voor eigen werk. Indien dit gebeurt met toestemming van de andere student is de laatste medeplichtig aan plagiaat; ● het indienen van werkstukken die verworven zijn van een commerciële instelling (zoals een internetsite met uittreksels of papers) of die al dan niet tegen betaling door iemand anders zijn geschreven.

Ik heb bovenstaande definitie van plagiaat zorgvuldig gelezen en verklaar hierbij dat ik mij in het aangehechte BA-eindwerkstuk niet schuldig gemaakt heb aan plagiaat. Tevens verklaar ik dat dit werkstuk niet ingeleverd is/zal worden voor een andere cursus, in de huidige of in aangepaste vorm.

Naam: Djoeke Arianne Spiekhout Studentnummer: 5930030 Plaats: Utrecht Datum: 22 januari 2020

Handtekening: