Lecture performance as a genre

Žmak, Jasna. (2018). Lecture performance as a genre. PhD Thesis. Filozofski fakultet u Zagrebu, Department of Comparative Literature.
(Poslijediplomski doktorski studij književnosti, izvedbenih umjetnosti, filma i kulture) [mentor Bauer, Una].

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Abstract

The thematic focus of this thesis deals with the artistic format of lecture performance which has, emerging at the border between the artistic and the academic, the performative and the theoretical, in the last years become an established practice of contemporary perfoming arts scene. Despite its wide presence, however, there are still no extensive studies of its origins, factors that have made its occurrence possible, or the specificity of its contemporary appearance. This kind of historical examination brings up insights based on which it is possible to create more precise tools for further analysis of this genre, because without an adequate historical contextualization, a comprehensive background cannot be created and the genre cannot be closely examined. In this work I establish an operative definition of lecture performance as a genre, relying on the Rhetorical Genre Studies as the main theoretical axis. Based on that definition, I carry out a revision of all the works which have so far been awarded that attribute, both in the theoretical field and art practice. Analysing the group in which the genre was formed (contemporary european independent performing arts scene), the motives of its emergence (affirmation of artistic research and presentation modes and subversion of scientific research and presentation modes) and the generic situation in which it is brought about (artistic performance referring to the format of the academic lecture), I identify the basic principles of its functioning, recognizing the phenomena of the educational turn and of pedagogization as the central factors of its occurrence. Dealing with the issue of its naming and chronology, in the thesis I also analyze the genre’s relation towards the format of academic lecture and conclude that lecture performance aims at revising the respective format and conceptualizing artistic peformance as a mode of knowledge production. Based on this framework I establish four basic strategies in which the genre of lecture performance functions – negotiating authority, truth, rationality and body which I elaborate based on concrete examples from practice including works by the following authors: Robert Morris, Andy Warhol, Mladen Stilinović, Coco Fusco, Barbara Matijević and Giuseppe Chico, Robert Filliou, Nana Petzet, Marko Gutić Mižimakov, Melanie Wilson, Ivana Müller, Hito Steyerl, Xavier Le Roy and Carolee Schneemann

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