Performing Ethnography in Postsocialist Poland

JUGGLING POWER: PERFORMING ETHNOGRAPHY IN POSTSOCIALIST POLAND Magdalena Kazubowski-Houston BA, University of Manitoba, 1995 MFA, Simon Fraser University, 2000 DISSERTATION SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY In the Department of Sociology and Anthropology Special Arrangements 0Magdalena Kazubowski-Houston 2006 SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY Spring 2006 All rights reserved. This work may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopy or other means, without permission of the author. Approval Name: Magdalena Joanna Kazubowski-Houston Degree: Doctor of Philosophy Title of Thesis: Juggling Power: Performing Ethnography in Post-Socialist Poland Examining Committee: Dr. Trude Heift, Chair Dr. Dara Culhane, Senior Supervisor Associate Professor, Sociology & Anthropology Dr. D. D. (Don) Kugler, Supervisor Associate Professor, Contemporary Arts -- Dr. Jerald Zaslove, Supervisor Professor Emeritus, English & Humanities Dr. Peter Dickinson, Examiner Assistant Professor, English Dr. Julia Diane Harrison, External Examiner Associate Professor, Anthropology & Women's Studies Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario Date Approved: April 3,2006 SIMON FRASER ' u~~v~~s~nlIbra ry DECLARATION OF PARTIAL COPYRIGHT LICENCE The author, whose copyright is declared on the title page of this work, has granted to Simon Fraser University the right to lend this thesis, project or extended essay to users of the Simon Fraser University Library, and to make partial or single copies only for such users or in response to a request from the library of any other university, or other educational institution, on its own behalf or for one of its users. The author has further granted permission to Simon Fraser University to keep or make a digital copy for use in its circulating collection, and, without changing the content, to translate the thesislproject or extended essays, if technically possible, to any medium or format for the purpose of preservation of the digital work. The author has further agreed that permission for multiple copying of this work for scholarly purposes may be granted by either the author or the Dean of Graduate Studies. It is understood that copying or publication of this work for financial gain shall not be allowed without the author's written permission. Permission for public performance, or limited permission for private scholarly use, of any multimedia materials forming part of this work, may have been granted by the author. This information may be found on the separately catalogued multimedia material and in the signed Partial Copyright Licence. The original Partial Copyright Licence attesting to these terms, and signed by this author, may be found in the original bound copy of this work, retained in the Simon Fraser University Archive. Simon Fraser University Library Burnaby, BC, Canada STATEMENT OF ETHICS APPROVAL The author, whose name appears on the title page of this work, has obtained, for the research described in this work, either: (a) Human research ethics approval from the Simon Fraser University Office of Research Ethics, (b) Advance approval of the animal care protocol from the University Animal Care Committee of Simon Fraser University; or has conducted the research (c) as a co-investigator, in a research project approved in advance, (d) as a member of a course approved in advance for minimal risk human research, by the Office of Research Ethics. A copy of the approval letter has been filed at the Theses Office of the University Library at the time of submission of this thesis or project. The original application for approval and letter of approval are filed with the relevant offices. Inquiries may be directed to those authorities. Simon Fraser University Library Burnaby, BC, Canada Abstract This dissertation is an autoethnographic account of my interdisciplinary Ph.D. research project - conducted in postsocialist Poland between May 2001 and June 2003 - which explored theatre performance as an ethnographic research methodology. I document and analyse the process through which the relations of power in the field challenged my original research field, plans, objectives, assumptions, theoretical frameworks, and methodologies that were to guide my fieldwork; and forced me to re- articulate and critically reflect on my role as ethnographer and theatre artist. At the center of my discussion are three ethnographic theatre projects -Dance as I Play You, Horses and Angels, and Hope - I developed in collaboration with my co- investigator, Shawn Kazubowski-Houston, and with the research participants. The first two performances were created with student actors from the Cultural Centre for International Cooperation in the Arts in Elblag, and explored themes of intolerance, racism, gender and violence. Hope, created with student actors and five Roma women from Elblag, examined issues of racism, sexism, and violence in relation to Roma. This thesis analyses the relations of power as they were negotiated in the various stages of the project, including the building of rapport with research participants, my professional engagement with the Cultural Centre, the development process, the public presentation, and audience and participant responses to the performances. The participants' struggles over representation, resulting from disparate notions of aesthetics, ethnography, and the political, are the focal points of the study. My analysis draws from Antonio Gramsci's and Michel Foucault's conceptions of power; and Johannes Fabian's, Dwight Conquergood's, Jim Mienczakowski's, and Paul Stoller's approaches to participatory and performative ethnography. It also explores the Polish avant-garde theatres of Jerzy Grotowski, Tadeusz Kantor, and Jozef Szajna; and the political theatres of Bertolt Brecht and socialist Poland, and their influences on my work. I discuss my re-conceptualisation of performative ethnography, and my roles as ethnographer and artist, as the outcomes of the study. To conclude, I consider an ethnography of discovery as the trajectory I envision for my future ethnographic journey, and for any study of this kind. ... 111 Dedication For my mother, Xafina i(azu6ows&a An anthropology that makes an ethnographic problem of itself offers pragmatic insight into the social worlds it examines and to which it belongs. Michael Herzfeld The critical ontology of ourselves has to be considered.. as an attitude, an ethos, a philosophical life in which the critique of what we are is at one and the same time the historical analysis of the limits that are imposed on us and an experiment of going beyond them. Michel Foucault What has not been given sufficient consideration is that about large areas and important aspects of culture no one, not even the native, has information that can simply be called up and expressed in discursive statements. This sort of knowledge can be represented - made present - only through action, enactment, or performance. Johannes Fabian Acknowledgements As I reflect back upon the journey of my Ph.D. research and the writing of this dissertation, I would like to express my gratitude to all of those who have traveled alongside me, providing support, inspiration, and encouragement. Members of my supervisory committee have endured with me all the bumps and hazards of this journey which would not have been possible without their questions and advice. I am deeply indebted to Professor Dara Culhane for nurturing the anthropologist- in-me through years of mentoring and friendship. She has been a great inspiration in my life and work. I thank Professor DD Kugler for cultivating the artist-in-me, and for providing invaluable feedback and moral support. And I thank Professor Jerald Zaslove for his encouragement and erudition that helped me to marry the anthropologist- and the artist-in-me in challenging ways. My supervisors' insights will continue to shape, in the years-to-come, how I think about and practice anthropology and art. I would also like to express my gratitude to Professors Julia Harrison and Peter Dickinson for serving as my external examiners, and for providing me with challenging and thought provoking questions and comments that have inspired me to re-think my work anew, and imagine further directions for my future studies. I also thank Professor Jonathan Driver for his support and advice; and Vivian Blaker, Mickey Naisby, and Karen Payne for their tireless assistance, both during my studies at Simon Fraser University, and while I was away in Poland conducting my research. To all my research participants - the Roma women and Roma community from Elblag, the Roma I met throughout Poland, and the student actors from the Cultural Centre - goes my heartfelt gratitude for undertaking this challenging journey with me, and teaching me so much about anthropology, art, and life itself. Their insights, stories, and hard work marked countless days in the field, and are impressed upon every page of this dissertation. I also thank Elblag's Cultural Centre for providing me with rehearsal and performance space, without which this project would have been so much more difficult to realise. I am greatly indebted to my postdoctoral supervisors Dr. Susan M. Cox and Dr. Jeffrey Nisker; without their generous support and encouragement, this work would not have been completed. Last, but certainly not least, I thank all my friends and family in Canada and in Poland for their love, care, and support throughout my years of academia. I am grateful to Brenda McLean, Brenda Leadlay, Jennifer and Cameron Thomson, Elzbieta and Andrzej Okonscy, Ewa and Wlodek Garbeccy, and Agata Ziemiec for their undying friendship and encouragement. I express my deep appreciation to my in-laws, Sandy and Dennis Houston, for all of their help and kind words, which were a source of moral support for me always. I especially wish to thank my mother Halina Kazubowska: her unending love, strength, determination, and her loyalty to others has inspired me to speak to social injustice. My husband Shawn and my son Amadeusz have traveled with me most intimately on this journey, and know all-too-well its joys and sorrows.

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