Abstract
This essay examines theatrical dimensions of the future in Signals, a performance by the Israeli vocalist Victoria Hanna. An examination of four scenes from this performance, I argue, shows that the sounds in Hanna's voice act in the symbolic dualities of femalemale, humantechnological, and embodieddisembodied figures. These dualities amplify the discrepancy between Hanna's staged identity (female, human, embodied figure) and an absent exterior other (male, technological, disembodied figure). The notion of envoicement is developed in order to analyse these dualities and, in particular, to explore the bodyvoice relationship that they compose. Drawing on Emmanuel Levinas's ethical theory in Time and the Other, I argue that the meaning attributed to the future is never conveyed in its presence but rather in its absence; that is, signifying practices that represent the absent exterior referent stage the future. Through this central claim, I thus assert that Hanna's disembodied voice envoices the future.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 159-165 |
Number of pages | 7 |
Journal | Theatre Research International |
Volume | 34 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jul 2009 |
Externally published | Yes |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Visual Arts and Performing Arts
- Literature and Literary Theory