STAGING REVOLT: FEMINIST PERFORMANCES OF THE ABJECT BODY A Thesis Presented to The Faculty of Graduate Studies of The University of Guelph by AMANDA McCOY In partial fulfilment of requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy December, 2009 © Amanda McCoy, 2009 Library and Archives Bibliotheque et 1*1 Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 OttawaONK1A0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-58292-3 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-58292-3 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduce, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par I'lnternet, preter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans le loan, distribute and sell theses monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non­ support microforme, papier, electronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. 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While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans in the document page count, their la pagination, il n'y aura aucun contenu removal does not represent any loss manquant. of content from the thesis. •+• Canada ABSTRACT STAGING REVOLT: FEMINIST PERFORMANCES OF THE ABJECT BODY Amanda McCoy Advisor: University of Guelph, 2009 Dr. Ann Wilson In the last quarter of the twentieth century, some of the most controversial performances by women have represented the female body as unruly, unbounded, and out of control. This dissertation considers four such examples in detail: Annie Sprinkle's cervical display in the "Public Cervix Announcement", Katy Dierlam's turn as a Fat Lady in Helen Melon at the Sideshow, Orlan's surgical transformations in La reincarnation de Sainte-Orlan and Sarah Kane's psychotic stream-of-consciousness in 4.48 Psychosis. I argue that these performances are "revolting" in the dual sense that they are both disgusting and politically challenging; while situating the female body as abject, grotesque, or out-of-bounds may not initially appear transformative—and may at times seem to bolster a tradition of misogynist representations of women—I see subversive possibilities in a body that lacks containment. Feminist performances of abjection can destabilize the concept of corporeal identity as an essential, fixed feature of the material body; exaggerated, parodic performances of female uncontrollability, contagion, and spillage underscore the extent to which language constructs the meaning(s) we attach to any given body. I draw on the discourses of disability studies to argue that the abject body acts particularly as a counter-discourse to the seemingly-objective language of medicine, which has historically tended to objectify and pathologize women's bodies in ways that deny their corporeal self-knowledge and self-ownership. Medical constructions of the body from the nineteenth century circulate as a subtext throughout this work: I discuss the invention of the speculum, freak shows, vivisection, the anatomical theatre, and female hysteria in order to map shifting historical and cultural concepts of corporeal identity. While this dissertation is largely devoted to a consideration of how revolting feminist performances rearticulate the relationship between the material body and its culture, I also problematize the physical and emotional harm practitioners knowingly impose upon themselves in the process, and I ask whether the ethical issues signaled by this self-imposed risk make it impossible to champion revolting feminist performances without some deep reservations. Acknowledgments I wish to express my sincere thanks to my advisor, Ann Wilson, for her ongoing support and encouragement throughout this process, and for her patience with the considerable challenges of undertaking long-distance advisory duties. Thanks also to my committee members, Maria DiCenzo and Jennifer Schacker, for providing detailed and thoughtful feedback on earlier drafts of this work, and to Nancy Copeland for serving as my external examiner. I am also grateful to those who have provided guidance, suggestions, and coffee throughout my graduate studies, especially Ric Knowles, Harry Lane, and Paul Mulholland. Jo Jo and George Rideout at Bishop's were instrumental in convincing me to go to university at all, let alone to work towards a PhD. Thank you both for seeing my potential and for helping me to realize it. My families have also been truly supportive throughout this process, each in their own way: Madeline and George Marcotte never asked when I intended to graduate, and Patricia and Brian McCoy called every week to see if I was finished yet. Finally, my thanks to Daniel—you are the most patient, kind, level-headed human being I have ever known. It goes without saying that this is your project too. Je t'aime. i Table of Contents Chapter 1. Cultural Contexts of the Revolting Female Body in Performance 1 Chapter 2. Just Another Day at the Orifice: Annie Sprinkle's "Public Cervix Announcement" 35 Chapter 3. "Born on the First, Second, AND Third of August!": Discourses of Fatness in Katy Dierlam's Helen Melon at the Sideshow 73 Chapter 4. God Has Given You One Face and You Make Yourselves (an)Other:Transformations in La reincarnation de Sainte-Orlan 113 Chapter 5. It Is Myself I Have Never Met: Documenting Mental Illness in Sarah Kane's 4.48 Psychosis 152 Chapter 6. Conclusion: Implications, Complications, and Directions for Further Inquiry 199 Works Cited 223 ii Chapter 1. Cultural Contexts of the Revolting Female Body in Performance It is precisely at the legislative frontier between what can be represented and what cannot that the postmodern operation is being staged—not in order to transcend representation, but in order to expose that system of power that authorizes certain representations while blocking, prohibiting, or invalidating others. Craig Owens, The Discourse of Others (168) Something very different is afoot when a work does not symbolically depict a subject of social degradation, but actually is that degradation, terrorizing the sacrosanct divide between the symbolic and the literal. Rebecca Schneider, The Explicit Body in Performance (28) In the last quarter of the twentieth century, some of the most controversial performances by women have involved "images of bodily eruption" (189), to borrow a term from Bordo. This dissertation considers performances that transgress the boundaries of "normal" or "natural" corporeity by staging bodies that are strange, abject, unrestrained, and risky, or—in a word—revolting. In the following chapters, I read the female body through various lenses: as sex worker in Annie Sprinkle's "Public Cervix Announcement", as sideshow freak in Katy Dierlam's Helen Melon at the Sideshow, as surgical patient in Orlan's La reincarnation de Sainte-Orlan, and as psychiatric patient in Sarah Kane's 4.48 Psychosis. Each performance forces an encounter with the abject in order to unsettle comfortable patterns of experiencing and considering performances by and about women. Following LeBesco, my analysis is mindful of the dual meaning of 1 "revolting"; while the word connotes disgust and abhorrence, it also contains within its meaning the potential for rebellion, overthrow, and ultimately change ("Queering" 75). What possibilities are opened up by artists and spectators who are willing to interrogate disgust? What identities can be (re)constructed and (re)negotiated through performance when the symbolic boundaries between purity and defilement are prodded, exposed, or even violated? Critical to this study is the idea that performers can deliberately stage—and thus to some extent choreograph—what Thomson refers to as a "staring encounter", a visual interchange between a starer and a staree. Staring, Thomson argues, is an attempt to make sense of bodily difference: "We stare when ordinary seeing fails, when we want to know more. So staring is an interrogative gesture that asks what's going on and demands the story. The eyes hang on, working to recognize what seems illegible, order what seems unruly, know what seems strange" (Staring 3). A staring encounter that takes place in a performance context can heighten the dynamics of the interchange: the starer is invited to gaze openly rather than furtively at the visually arresting body, since staring at the performing body does not violate social conventions about how we look at each other. For the performer who deliberately places her unusual body on display, the staring encounter provides an opportunity