Drawing on an anthropological study of the social organisation of the world of Irish writers, this article investigates the literary reading as performance which has become central for the career and promotion of contemporary writers. How is the reading - live as well as recorded - constituted, and how is it experienced from the writer's point of view? The data are derived from participant observation and interviews at literary festivals and conferences, writers' retreats, book launches and more informal situations with writers, as well as from fiction and essays by the writers. For this article, I asked some of the writers to write short texts on the reading. It turned out that the frames of the reading as performance reach beyond the reading event, and also that a reading includes elements of risk, such as not attracting a big enough audience or performing badly. Finally, the article considers the changing role of the ethnographer.
Search Results
Literary Readings as Performance
On the Career of Contemporary Writers in the New Ireland
Helena Wulff
In Anthropological Journal of European Cultures
- Published (Print):
- 01 Sep 2008
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 98–113
Intimidation, reassurance, and invisibility
Israeli security agents in the Old City of Jerusalem
Erella Grassiani and Lior Volinz
understand the nature of this kind of policing. Our second point of departure is to analyze the policing strategies mentioned above as performances, in which visuality plays a significant role (see Cook and Whowell 2011 ; Diphoorn 2016 ). With this approach
Jens Kreinath and Refika Sariönder
in both its constitutive parts and overall design, ranging from the modes of performance and participation to the intended audiences. As a response to different audiences in the environs of cities like Istanbul, there have been some collective
The Many Layers of Moral Outrage
Kurdish Activists and Diaspora Politics
Nerina Weiss
will provide a discussion on moral outrage, in which I particularly draw on literature of political rituals and performances. In doing so, I will highlight the importance of performative and expressive contexts in the study of emotions. It is in the
Introduction
Performance, Power, Exclusion, and Expansion in Anthropological Accounts of Protests
Aet Annist
( Youngs 2017 ), we are offering this topical special section to analyze protests through an ethnographic lens. Concentrating on power and performance, the articles consider the matrix within which the protests emerge—the time and space, the historic and
Perspectives of (and on) a Comedic Self
A Semiotics of Subjectivity in Stand-up Comedy
Marianna Keisalo
, addressing the audience directly with original material. The success of the performance hinges on whether or not the audience laughs. In current Anglo-American stand-up comedy, in Finland and elsewhere, the individuality of comedians is emphasized. Changing
Weapons for Witnessing
American Street Preaching and the Rhythms of War
Kyle Byron
responding to this imperative, street preachers transform streets, sidewalks, and other forms of urban infrastructure into sites of religious performance. 2 Referencing Filip De Boeck (2012) , Penny Harvey and Hannah Knox (2015: 5) describe
The Power of Music
Issues of Agency and Social Practice
Norman Long
This article aims to contribute to the increasingly rich body of ethnographic and sociological studies that focus on processes of musical practice. After a brief introduction to the significance of music in social life, it outlines the advantages of adopting an actor-oriented analysis that gives close attention to issues of agency and emergent socio-cultural forms. This is followed by a brief encounter with the dynamics of musical performance as perceived by members of the Guarneri Quartet, after which two contrasting musical scenarios are analyzed in depth. The first focuses on music and ritual practices in the Peruvian Andes, and the second on the English musical renaissance of the early twentieth century. The article closes with a brief comment on the need to examine in depth the social components of musical composition and performance.
Irit Dekel
Is the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin a Jewish space? How are Jews presented there? What are the points of interest about Jews in the memorial from the perspective of the foundation that runs it as well as from various visitors' perspectives? This article focuses on interaction and performance at the memorial, an understudied topic in comparison to what the memorial presents in its installation and the debates that preceded its realisation. I argue that the memorial's form and location create interpretation strategies that are based on the dialectics of representation and non-representation, emotional experience versus knowledge about the Holocaust. This is differently manifested in the action of various groups visiting the memorial. Interpretation strategies rest on Jews being a category of memory. In substantiating this claim, I focus on the experience of German visitors, compared to that of Jewish visitors and claim that whereas Jews' experience of the site is directly linked to sharing intimate knowledge about the Holocaust, Germans tend to talk about the site metaphorically and in emotional terms, confirming the memorial's own ontology.
In Anthropological Journal of European Cultures
- Published (Print):
- 01 Sep 2014
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 71–84
Color-Coded Sovereignty and the Men in Black
Private Security in a Bolivian Marketplace
Daniel M. Goldstein
The appearance of effective security making—demonstrated through surveillance, visibility, and ongoing performance—is significant to contemporary sovereign authority in urban spaces characterized by quotidian violence and crime. This article examines La Cancha, Cochabamba, Bolivia’s enormous outdoor market, which is policed not by the state but by private security firms that operate as nonstate sovereign actors in the space of the market. The article provides an ethnographic account of one of these firms (the Men in Black), and documents the work of both municipal and national police—all of them distinguished by differently colored uniforms—in the management of crime, administration of justice, and establishment of public order in the market. Sovereignty here is derived through public performance, both violent and nonviolent, through which the Men in Black demonstrate and maintain their sovereign power.