SOCIOLOGIES OF DISABILITY AND BODILY PERFORMATIVES in SAMUEL BECKETT’S ROCKABY
SAMUEL BECKETT’İN ROCKABY ADLI OYUNUNDA ENGELLİLİK SOSYOLOJİLERİ VE BEDENSEL EDİNİMSELLİKLER

Author : Hatice EŞBERK
Number of pages : 181-188

Abstract

In this study, under the light of the recent studies on disability it is claimed that the concept of disability is constructed through discursive practices and it is believed that perceptions on disability must go beyond thinking it as a physical condition. The word practice is used intentionally together with the word discursive in order to underline how language is effective in the formation of social issues and how it stimulates actions that are the representations of the key concepts such as identity, power and ideology. The recent studies on disability criticize the traditional approaches to the body and claim that one must consider the influence of social, cultural and political inscriptions on the body. Thus, it is suggested that disability should be considered not as a physical condition but as “a way of interacting with a world that is frequently inhospitable” that is “as something one does rather than something is” (Sandahl & Auslander, 10). In literature writing the body, except for the feminist writing, does not go beyond the traditional representation of it. Undoubtedly, the theatre stage is the best place to reflect the performative understanding of the body. With the rise of avant-garde theatre that seeks to subvert the traditional norms, the questioning of the idea of the body that is thought full and complete has been arisen. In avant-garde theatre there is an emphasis on fragmentariness and Samuel Beckett is among the best representatives of this subversion of the idea of completeness.. His play Rockaby, through which he portrays a motionless body of a woman with expressionless face, annihilates all of the imposed labels on the body in general and on the female body in particular. Moreover, the play by rejecting to represent the body in a generally accepted framework serves to the findings of this study that has the same purpose in the consideration of the disabled body.

Keywords

disability, bodily performatives, Samuel Beckett, Rockaby, Judith Butler

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