Book by Magnolia Pauker
As a way of rendering homage to the performative aspects of research and scholarship, Inter Views... more As a way of rendering homage to the performative aspects of research and scholarship, Inter Views engages in an interactive way with the publication format itself. Each section comprises a series of complementary elements set in dialogue, from response and companion pieces to interviews oriented towards investigating the overarching work of Performance Philosophy and its practical applications, while showcasing original texts by some of the current generation’s leading and emerging thinkers. Engaging with reflections on the performative dimensions of philosophy’s tools and mediums (rather than its possible objects), such as writing, discipline, plasticity, politics, margins, and care, this volume hopes to illuminate the ways in which philosophy constantly performs in the gap between thinking and acting.Here philosophy is the medium for and indeed of analysis. Bringing performance together with philosophy entails conceiving of philosophy not just as a theoretical endeavour, but as a material practice thus potentially reconceptualising the imbrications of theory and practice as between critical analysis and applied media production.
Interviews by Magnolia Pauker
This conversation with Donna Haraway took place on June 18, 2003 in Saas-Fee, Switzerland. Harawa... more This conversation with Donna Haraway took place on June 18, 2003 in Saas-Fee, Switzerland. Haraway was my teacher at the European Graduate School and we had just finished an intensive class together.
This interview with Jean-Luc Nancy took place on June 17, 2004 in Saas-Fee, Switzerland. Nancy wa... more This interview with Jean-Luc Nancy took place on June 17, 2004 in Saas-Fee, Switzerland. Nancy was my teacher at the European Graduate School, where we were in the midst of an intensive class.
Playfulness is a strategy for dealing with power, which is itself never playful.
- Allucquère Ro... more Playfulness is a strategy for dealing with power, which is itself never playful.
- Allucquère Rosanne Stone
This inter-view provides a glimpse into an extended and ongoing series of conversations between friends. Here philosophy is an activity and an inquiry that arises out of mutual engagement, attending to and proceeding as the generative potential of friendship. Erdem and I embrace being-with, speaking-with and questioning-with each other, as a loving engagement of conversation that is at once singular and plural. The dialectical structure of the conventional interview, in which one questions and the other answers, is intentionally set aside. Our commitment to forging a relationship of “significant otherness” is, for us, a way of thinking about being in the world that opens the possibility for agency, engagement, and intervention in cultural norms that constrict and confine both who we are and how we live, as well as who we might like to be and how we might like to live. Rather than seeking to represent or account for the artist’s work, we choose to “speak nearby,” hinting towards a third meaning that is itself fluid, subjective and permanently in process. This text might be read as a metaphor for—or better, in metaphorical relation with—Erdem’s work, opening dossiers of inquiry and coyly gesticulating towards a multiplicity of subjective interpretations and engagements.
As a performative gesture of doing and undoing through reflection and refraction, What a Drag resists full disclosure and fails, rather delightfully, to achieve status as “a superlative mode of signification.” As Erdem himself suggests, the cheekiness of this work produces a more ambiguous affect, noting that subversive acts and works are often, if not always, both consumed and co-opted by the very mechanisms they seek to critique.
Grow: DIY Manual
This interview is a partial transcription that begins in the midst of an ongoing conversation bet... more This interview is a partial transcription that begins in the midst of an ongoing conversation between friends. Holly and I sat together in her comfortable home on a chill November afternoon remembering Grow. The conversation circles through metaphors, figurations, and materialities of emergence as a series of ethico-aesthetic entanglements emanating from an acute awareness of “the ‘state of emergency’ in which we live.” What becomes evident is that for Holly, ‘emergency’ is doubly inflected, pointing at once to the direness of our shared situation on this earth and to the potential for something else yet to come.
Discussing the fine line between apocalypse and emergency, Donna Haraway reminds us that the words ‘emergency’ and ‘emergence’ share a common root. Living in a state of emergency means that “’We might lose.’ But there is a ‘we’ yet to construct here. There is a ‘we’ to inhabit. Something can still be done and must be done, and is being done.” Such is the art of the care-ful gardener—committed as she is to an “ethics of emergence” — there is always something doing and change is ever on the horizon.
Annie Briard's investigations into the subtlety of the moving image form part of her larger commi... more Annie Briard's investigations into the subtlety of the moving image form part of her larger commitment to contemplation and conversation. In this interview, which took place in Vancouver on the occasion of Briard's solo show, "Sight Shifting," presented at Joyce Yahouda Gallery in Montréal, she elaborates some of the philosophical experiential inspirations for her work. Through an attunement to the poetics of perception stemming from her attentive and generous sensibility, Briard asks that we, her interlocutors, refine and distill our own perceptual practices in consideration of the interstitial spaces between seeing and imagining.
FOR JEFF WALL THE CONTENT OF THE WORK OF ART is to be found in the aesthetic experience of its fo... more FOR JEFF WALL THE CONTENT OF THE WORK OF ART is to be found in the aesthetic experience of its forms. In this interview which took place in Vancouver on the occasion of the first major survey of his work in Australia, Wall discusses ways of seeing in the context of the history of pictorial art and spectatorship in contemporary culture. While working with the medium of photography, Wall rather famously refuses to begin by photographing and insists instead that accidents – sometimes in reading, sometimes in life – open a space where he can begin to work. In deliberating on his artistic engagements, Wall explains how his work relates to, deviates from, and ultimately shifts conventions associated with photography, incorporating and referencing the pictorial traditions associated with modernism, while drawing on techniques commonly associated with cinematography. Describing his work as near-documentary, signalling the inescapable relation between photography and the documentary form, Wall insists that viewers must refrain from deciding ahead of time how the real world appears and what it should look like in photographs.
In A. Street, J. Alliot & M. Pauker (Eds.), Inter Views in Performance Philosophy: Crossings and ... more In A. Street, J. Alliot & M. Pauker (Eds.), Inter Views in Performance Philosophy: Crossings and Conversations. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. (Forthcoming 2017)
This conversation between Butler and Pauker focuses on the intersections among performance, performativity, and philosophy. Butler brings her conceptualization of performativity to bear upon the political dimensions and disciplinary injunctions of Philosophy as an institutional practice in response to the questions pertaining to longstanding traditions of philosophical performance and the emerging field of Performance Philosophy. Deftly refusing all commands to give a clear or final account of herself or indeed her own work, Butler performs the critical subject as one who transgresses disciplinary boundaries and normative demands.
In A. Street, J. Alliot & M. Pauker (Eds.), Inter Views in Performance Philosophy: Crossings and ... more In A. Street, J. Alliot & M. Pauker (Eds.), Inter Views in Performance Philosophy: Crossings and Conversations. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. (Forthcoming 2017)
Philosophy’s disavowal of performance is taken up as a dominant mode of disciplinary practice in which gendered dimensions take center stage. Responding to the question of philosophy’s paternal residue, Avital Ronell traces a genealogy in which the “patriarchy requires speculation” across the history of philosophy that problematizes a straight reading of philosophy’s paternalistic performances as she reminds us the disturbance is always internal to the text. Turning to a consideration of her own professional life and practice, Ronell remarks upon her deployment of performance as a strategy for introducing “a different program of utterance,” as a way of moving beyond the margins. Ronell, the “inventress of the performance-lecture,” discusses both how performance philosophizes and how philosophy performs.
In A. Street, J. Alliot & M. Pauker (Eds.), Inter Views in Performance Philosophy: Crossings and ... more In A. Street, J. Alliot & M. Pauker (Eds.), Inter Views in Performance Philosophy: Crossings and Conversations. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. (Forthcoming 2017)
For the book’s coda, the co-editors conduct a roundtable interview with David Zerbib, a French scholar specializing in performance theories. “Performance Knots: Crossed Threads of Anglo-American Thought and French Theory” sheds light on the French perspective as Zerbib tries to carefully draw out different strands of thought that weave both accord and discord in transcontinental theories and practices. Situating French Theory as an American invention, Zerbib nonetheless recognizes that Anglo-American influences are slowly making inroads in French culture and its institutions. Yet despite the growing impact, angles of approach remain remarkably different across the traditions. Evoking the 1966 symposium organized at John Hopkins University where French Theory first took flight, he describes how the encounter between American and French trends reveals a confrontation between what he calls “forms of truth and forces of thought.” Heralding the misunderstandings between philosophy and performance theories around embodied presence, linguistic efficacy, and the event of the sign that were to ensue, this initial exchange stands in contrast to the contemporary evolutions to which Performance Philosophy bears witness.
Peer Reviewed Chapters + Articles by Magnolia Pauker
In Gotman, K., Katsouraki, E. & Fisher, T. (Eds.), Theatre, Performance, Foucault. Manchester, UK... more In Gotman, K., Katsouraki, E. & Fisher, T. (Eds.), Theatre, Performance, Foucault. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press. (Forthcoming 2017)
In A. Street, J. Alliot & M. Pauker (Eds.), Inter Views in Performance Philosophy: Crossings and ... more In A. Street, J. Alliot & M. Pauker (Eds.), Inter Views in Performance Philosophy: Crossings and Conversations. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. (Forthcoming 2017)
Challenging origins as a legitimate source of authority, Roland Barthes, among others, has proposed that the unity of a text lies in its destination, rather than in its origin. In “The Philosophical Interview: Queer(y)ing Performance,” Magnolia Pauker suggests that it is neither the beginning nor end points that provide a cohesive force but rather the in between aspects of discourse. Consequently, she advocates for the form of the philosophical interview as a potentially “queer performance” whose multidimensional textuality invites a conversation with those present and yet to come. Displacing attention from origins and endpoints, the philosophical interview emphasizes thinking as an interactive process in which external influences blend and clash. The inherently philosophical affinities of the interview have long been neglected, despite its apparent proximity to the philosophical dialogue first championed by Plato. It is time, however, that such a practice command our renewed attention, as the act of calling into question within the scene of a live performance resonates with distinct affinities to Performance Philosophy. Moving between philosophical form and performance, the interview stages this between as the very scene—or gap—that brings philosophy and performance together.
In A. Street, J. Alliot & M. Pauker (Eds.), Inter Views in Performance Philosophy: Crossings and ... more In A. Street, J. Alliot & M. Pauker (Eds.), Inter Views in Performance Philosophy: Crossings and Conversations. (4-26) Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. (Forthcoming 2017)
Offering a diachronic approach to the ways in which the humanities have gradually been transformed by the advent of performance, this introductory chapter traces the emergence of notions and instances of the performative, first in Anglo-Saxon linguistics, then with the arrival of French Theory and the parallel development of Performance Studies, noting their unrecognized affinities. Advocating for the overcoming of these sterile oppositions across continents and traditional fields of knowledge, the introduction focuses on the fruitful encounters between performance and philosophy and the current stakes of the ever-expanding field of Performance Philosophy. While French institutions have tended to distrust and distance themselves from Anglo-American practices and multidisciplinary explorations in spite of the influence of “French Theory,” this introduction presents the volume’s varied contributions as a way of reinstating a dialogue between Continental and Atlantic perspectives. Weaving together kaleidoscopic views (and interviews), the co-editors present Performance Philosophy as an inclusive approach to performing thinking within cultural specificities while moving beyond disciplinary boundaries.
Other Publications by Magnolia Pauker
Fire/Fire was an exhibition of work by Abbas Akhavan and Marina Roy presented by Centre A and Mal... more Fire/Fire was an exhibition of work by Abbas Akhavan and Marina Roy presented by Centre A and Malaspina Printmakers that took place from June 2 to August 4, 2012. The catalogue, which I edited, contains writing by Justin Muir, Andrea Pinheiro, Randy Lee Cutler, Makiko Hara, and Joni Murphy.
This extended bibliography was prepared for Dr. Veronica Strong-Boag's project: Women Suffrage an... more This extended bibliography was prepared for Dr. Veronica Strong-Boag's project: Women Suffrage and Beyond: Confronting the Democratic Deficit.
Randy Lee Cutler and Magnolia Pauker, “FeminismS without End...,” Fuse Magazine, 25, no. 3(2012),... more Randy Lee Cutler and Magnolia Pauker, “FeminismS without End...,” Fuse Magazine, 25, no. 3(2012), 8-10.
It strikes us that feminism as an idea, a history and a practice is all too often posed as a question—feminism? This is not to say that questions should be foreclosed, but rather that the validity of feminism itself must be marked otherwise! The assertion of an exclamation mark is a shout otherwise (under)scoring a statement that expresses pleasure and protest, sometimes simultaneously. Indeed, the winter 2012 issue of the German art journal Texte zur Kunst (TzK) opens with a single word Feminismus! organized as it is around the theme of feminism today. But what does this auspicious opening offer readers, and in this case the reviewers who seek to provide a glimpse into the range of essays presented under the sign Feminismus!?
Notes from PPSS, Free School Events by Magnolia Pauker
This piece was deliberately written as a spoken text for the feminist free school, Pleasure + Pro... more This piece was deliberately written as a spoken text for the feminist free school, Pleasure + Protest, Sometimes Simultaneously! event: Tentacular Thinking Together. A response to Donna Haraway's article "Tentacular Thinking: Anthropocene, Capitalocene, Chthulucene" (e-flux journal #75, September 2016), it is a provocation and a call to conversation...
Books by Magnolia Pauker
Performance Philosophy Collection, 2017
This book offers a glimpse of new perspectives on how philosophy performs in the gaps between thi... more This book offers a glimpse of new perspectives on how philosophy performs in the gaps between thinking and acting. Bringing together perspectives from world-renowned contemporary philosophers and theorists – including Judith Butler, Alphonso Lingis, Catherine Malabou, Jon McKenzie, Martin Puchner, and Avital Ronell – this book engages with the emerging field of performance philosophy, exploring the fruitful encounters being opened across disciplines by this constantly evolving approach. Intersecting dramatic techniques with theoretical reflections, scholars from diverse geographical and institutional locations come together to trace the transfers between French theory and contemporary Anglo-American philosophical and performance practices in order to challenge conventional approaches to knowledge. Through the crossings of different voices and views, the reader will be led to explore the in-between territories where performance meets traditionally philosophical tools and mediums, such as writing, discipline, plasticity, politics, or care.
Papers by Magnolia Pauker
"The Grow DIY Manual draws from the writing and creative projects generated during the Grow ... more "The Grow DIY Manual draws from the writing and creative projects generated during the Grow project. Inspired by the Farmers’ Almanac which is a repository for sage advice about gardening, weather predictions and canning recipes, the Grow DIY Manual brings together critical writing, illustrated DIY projects, weather reports and local seasonal recipes. The manual furthers the reach of the project to an expanded audience, reflecting upon its legacy while looking forward to future possibilities." -- Publisher's web site
"The Grow DIY Manual draws from the writing and creative projects generated during the Grow ... more "The Grow DIY Manual draws from the writing and creative projects generated during the Grow project. Inspired by the Farmers’ Almanac which is a repository for sage advice about gardening, weather predictions and canning recipes, the Grow DIY Manual brings together critical writing, illustrated DIY projects, weather reports and local seasonal recipes. The manual furthers the reach of the project to an expanded audience, reflecting upon its legacy while looking forward to future possibilities." -- Publisher's web site
Uploads
Book by Magnolia Pauker
Interviews by Magnolia Pauker
- Allucquère Rosanne Stone
This inter-view provides a glimpse into an extended and ongoing series of conversations between friends. Here philosophy is an activity and an inquiry that arises out of mutual engagement, attending to and proceeding as the generative potential of friendship. Erdem and I embrace being-with, speaking-with and questioning-with each other, as a loving engagement of conversation that is at once singular and plural. The dialectical structure of the conventional interview, in which one questions and the other answers, is intentionally set aside. Our commitment to forging a relationship of “significant otherness” is, for us, a way of thinking about being in the world that opens the possibility for agency, engagement, and intervention in cultural norms that constrict and confine both who we are and how we live, as well as who we might like to be and how we might like to live. Rather than seeking to represent or account for the artist’s work, we choose to “speak nearby,” hinting towards a third meaning that is itself fluid, subjective and permanently in process. This text might be read as a metaphor for—or better, in metaphorical relation with—Erdem’s work, opening dossiers of inquiry and coyly gesticulating towards a multiplicity of subjective interpretations and engagements.
As a performative gesture of doing and undoing through reflection and refraction, What a Drag resists full disclosure and fails, rather delightfully, to achieve status as “a superlative mode of signification.” As Erdem himself suggests, the cheekiness of this work produces a more ambiguous affect, noting that subversive acts and works are often, if not always, both consumed and co-opted by the very mechanisms they seek to critique.
Discussing the fine line between apocalypse and emergency, Donna Haraway reminds us that the words ‘emergency’ and ‘emergence’ share a common root. Living in a state of emergency means that “’We might lose.’ But there is a ‘we’ yet to construct here. There is a ‘we’ to inhabit. Something can still be done and must be done, and is being done.” Such is the art of the care-ful gardener—committed as she is to an “ethics of emergence” — there is always something doing and change is ever on the horizon.
This conversation between Butler and Pauker focuses on the intersections among performance, performativity, and philosophy. Butler brings her conceptualization of performativity to bear upon the political dimensions and disciplinary injunctions of Philosophy as an institutional practice in response to the questions pertaining to longstanding traditions of philosophical performance and the emerging field of Performance Philosophy. Deftly refusing all commands to give a clear or final account of herself or indeed her own work, Butler performs the critical subject as one who transgresses disciplinary boundaries and normative demands.
Philosophy’s disavowal of performance is taken up as a dominant mode of disciplinary practice in which gendered dimensions take center stage. Responding to the question of philosophy’s paternal residue, Avital Ronell traces a genealogy in which the “patriarchy requires speculation” across the history of philosophy that problematizes a straight reading of philosophy’s paternalistic performances as she reminds us the disturbance is always internal to the text. Turning to a consideration of her own professional life and practice, Ronell remarks upon her deployment of performance as a strategy for introducing “a different program of utterance,” as a way of moving beyond the margins. Ronell, the “inventress of the performance-lecture,” discusses both how performance philosophizes and how philosophy performs.
For the book’s coda, the co-editors conduct a roundtable interview with David Zerbib, a French scholar specializing in performance theories. “Performance Knots: Crossed Threads of Anglo-American Thought and French Theory” sheds light on the French perspective as Zerbib tries to carefully draw out different strands of thought that weave both accord and discord in transcontinental theories and practices. Situating French Theory as an American invention, Zerbib nonetheless recognizes that Anglo-American influences are slowly making inroads in French culture and its institutions. Yet despite the growing impact, angles of approach remain remarkably different across the traditions. Evoking the 1966 symposium organized at John Hopkins University where French Theory first took flight, he describes how the encounter between American and French trends reveals a confrontation between what he calls “forms of truth and forces of thought.” Heralding the misunderstandings between philosophy and performance theories around embodied presence, linguistic efficacy, and the event of the sign that were to ensue, this initial exchange stands in contrast to the contemporary evolutions to which Performance Philosophy bears witness.
Peer Reviewed Chapters + Articles by Magnolia Pauker
Challenging origins as a legitimate source of authority, Roland Barthes, among others, has proposed that the unity of a text lies in its destination, rather than in its origin. In “The Philosophical Interview: Queer(y)ing Performance,” Magnolia Pauker suggests that it is neither the beginning nor end points that provide a cohesive force but rather the in between aspects of discourse. Consequently, she advocates for the form of the philosophical interview as a potentially “queer performance” whose multidimensional textuality invites a conversation with those present and yet to come. Displacing attention from origins and endpoints, the philosophical interview emphasizes thinking as an interactive process in which external influences blend and clash. The inherently philosophical affinities of the interview have long been neglected, despite its apparent proximity to the philosophical dialogue first championed by Plato. It is time, however, that such a practice command our renewed attention, as the act of calling into question within the scene of a live performance resonates with distinct affinities to Performance Philosophy. Moving between philosophical form and performance, the interview stages this between as the very scene—or gap—that brings philosophy and performance together.
Offering a diachronic approach to the ways in which the humanities have gradually been transformed by the advent of performance, this introductory chapter traces the emergence of notions and instances of the performative, first in Anglo-Saxon linguistics, then with the arrival of French Theory and the parallel development of Performance Studies, noting their unrecognized affinities. Advocating for the overcoming of these sterile oppositions across continents and traditional fields of knowledge, the introduction focuses on the fruitful encounters between performance and philosophy and the current stakes of the ever-expanding field of Performance Philosophy. While French institutions have tended to distrust and distance themselves from Anglo-American practices and multidisciplinary explorations in spite of the influence of “French Theory,” this introduction presents the volume’s varied contributions as a way of reinstating a dialogue between Continental and Atlantic perspectives. Weaving together kaleidoscopic views (and interviews), the co-editors present Performance Philosophy as an inclusive approach to performing thinking within cultural specificities while moving beyond disciplinary boundaries.
Other Publications by Magnolia Pauker
It strikes us that feminism as an idea, a history and a practice is all too often posed as a question—feminism? This is not to say that questions should be foreclosed, but rather that the validity of feminism itself must be marked otherwise! The assertion of an exclamation mark is a shout otherwise (under)scoring a statement that expresses pleasure and protest, sometimes simultaneously. Indeed, the winter 2012 issue of the German art journal Texte zur Kunst (TzK) opens with a single word Feminismus! organized as it is around the theme of feminism today. But what does this auspicious opening offer readers, and in this case the reviewers who seek to provide a glimpse into the range of essays presented under the sign Feminismus!?
Notes from PPSS, Free School Events by Magnolia Pauker
Books by Magnolia Pauker
Papers by Magnolia Pauker
- Allucquère Rosanne Stone
This inter-view provides a glimpse into an extended and ongoing series of conversations between friends. Here philosophy is an activity and an inquiry that arises out of mutual engagement, attending to and proceeding as the generative potential of friendship. Erdem and I embrace being-with, speaking-with and questioning-with each other, as a loving engagement of conversation that is at once singular and plural. The dialectical structure of the conventional interview, in which one questions and the other answers, is intentionally set aside. Our commitment to forging a relationship of “significant otherness” is, for us, a way of thinking about being in the world that opens the possibility for agency, engagement, and intervention in cultural norms that constrict and confine both who we are and how we live, as well as who we might like to be and how we might like to live. Rather than seeking to represent or account for the artist’s work, we choose to “speak nearby,” hinting towards a third meaning that is itself fluid, subjective and permanently in process. This text might be read as a metaphor for—or better, in metaphorical relation with—Erdem’s work, opening dossiers of inquiry and coyly gesticulating towards a multiplicity of subjective interpretations and engagements.
As a performative gesture of doing and undoing through reflection and refraction, What a Drag resists full disclosure and fails, rather delightfully, to achieve status as “a superlative mode of signification.” As Erdem himself suggests, the cheekiness of this work produces a more ambiguous affect, noting that subversive acts and works are often, if not always, both consumed and co-opted by the very mechanisms they seek to critique.
Discussing the fine line between apocalypse and emergency, Donna Haraway reminds us that the words ‘emergency’ and ‘emergence’ share a common root. Living in a state of emergency means that “’We might lose.’ But there is a ‘we’ yet to construct here. There is a ‘we’ to inhabit. Something can still be done and must be done, and is being done.” Such is the art of the care-ful gardener—committed as she is to an “ethics of emergence” — there is always something doing and change is ever on the horizon.
This conversation between Butler and Pauker focuses on the intersections among performance, performativity, and philosophy. Butler brings her conceptualization of performativity to bear upon the political dimensions and disciplinary injunctions of Philosophy as an institutional practice in response to the questions pertaining to longstanding traditions of philosophical performance and the emerging field of Performance Philosophy. Deftly refusing all commands to give a clear or final account of herself or indeed her own work, Butler performs the critical subject as one who transgresses disciplinary boundaries and normative demands.
Philosophy’s disavowal of performance is taken up as a dominant mode of disciplinary practice in which gendered dimensions take center stage. Responding to the question of philosophy’s paternal residue, Avital Ronell traces a genealogy in which the “patriarchy requires speculation” across the history of philosophy that problematizes a straight reading of philosophy’s paternalistic performances as she reminds us the disturbance is always internal to the text. Turning to a consideration of her own professional life and practice, Ronell remarks upon her deployment of performance as a strategy for introducing “a different program of utterance,” as a way of moving beyond the margins. Ronell, the “inventress of the performance-lecture,” discusses both how performance philosophizes and how philosophy performs.
For the book’s coda, the co-editors conduct a roundtable interview with David Zerbib, a French scholar specializing in performance theories. “Performance Knots: Crossed Threads of Anglo-American Thought and French Theory” sheds light on the French perspective as Zerbib tries to carefully draw out different strands of thought that weave both accord and discord in transcontinental theories and practices. Situating French Theory as an American invention, Zerbib nonetheless recognizes that Anglo-American influences are slowly making inroads in French culture and its institutions. Yet despite the growing impact, angles of approach remain remarkably different across the traditions. Evoking the 1966 symposium organized at John Hopkins University where French Theory first took flight, he describes how the encounter between American and French trends reveals a confrontation between what he calls “forms of truth and forces of thought.” Heralding the misunderstandings between philosophy and performance theories around embodied presence, linguistic efficacy, and the event of the sign that were to ensue, this initial exchange stands in contrast to the contemporary evolutions to which Performance Philosophy bears witness.
Challenging origins as a legitimate source of authority, Roland Barthes, among others, has proposed that the unity of a text lies in its destination, rather than in its origin. In “The Philosophical Interview: Queer(y)ing Performance,” Magnolia Pauker suggests that it is neither the beginning nor end points that provide a cohesive force but rather the in between aspects of discourse. Consequently, she advocates for the form of the philosophical interview as a potentially “queer performance” whose multidimensional textuality invites a conversation with those present and yet to come. Displacing attention from origins and endpoints, the philosophical interview emphasizes thinking as an interactive process in which external influences blend and clash. The inherently philosophical affinities of the interview have long been neglected, despite its apparent proximity to the philosophical dialogue first championed by Plato. It is time, however, that such a practice command our renewed attention, as the act of calling into question within the scene of a live performance resonates with distinct affinities to Performance Philosophy. Moving between philosophical form and performance, the interview stages this between as the very scene—or gap—that brings philosophy and performance together.
Offering a diachronic approach to the ways in which the humanities have gradually been transformed by the advent of performance, this introductory chapter traces the emergence of notions and instances of the performative, first in Anglo-Saxon linguistics, then with the arrival of French Theory and the parallel development of Performance Studies, noting their unrecognized affinities. Advocating for the overcoming of these sterile oppositions across continents and traditional fields of knowledge, the introduction focuses on the fruitful encounters between performance and philosophy and the current stakes of the ever-expanding field of Performance Philosophy. While French institutions have tended to distrust and distance themselves from Anglo-American practices and multidisciplinary explorations in spite of the influence of “French Theory,” this introduction presents the volume’s varied contributions as a way of reinstating a dialogue between Continental and Atlantic perspectives. Weaving together kaleidoscopic views (and interviews), the co-editors present Performance Philosophy as an inclusive approach to performing thinking within cultural specificities while moving beyond disciplinary boundaries.
It strikes us that feminism as an idea, a history and a practice is all too often posed as a question—feminism? This is not to say that questions should be foreclosed, but rather that the validity of feminism itself must be marked otherwise! The assertion of an exclamation mark is a shout otherwise (under)scoring a statement that expresses pleasure and protest, sometimes simultaneously. Indeed, the winter 2012 issue of the German art journal Texte zur Kunst (TzK) opens with a single word Feminismus! organized as it is around the theme of feminism today. But what does this auspicious opening offer readers, and in this case the reviewers who seek to provide a glimpse into the range of essays presented under the sign Feminismus!?