Water songs, spell books, and land rites; the reparations of ceremony in diaspora
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Performance Studies, like English, Post-Colonial Studies, and other related Humanities fields, has issued an extensive critique on the detrimental effects of Enlightenment Rationalism (chattel slavery, colonization of land and bodies), but these fields have not yet been self-reflexive enough to critique how this normative theoretical apparatus continues to govern what constitutes knowledge, and the way we, as scholars, go about getting it. My dissertation, influenced by the burgeoning fields of Eco-Criticism, Indigenous Studies, and the radical turn in the sciences, investigates "the sacred" as a source of knowledge about the world. My project takes as its subject three playwrights and performance artists who engage with "the sacred" by utilizing pre-colonial African and Native American epistemological practices (ceremony, spell, song, performance, and prayer) in projects of social and environmental justice. Towards this end, I conduct an analysis on the work of Sharon Bridgforth (African-American playwright), Cherríe Moraga (Chicana playwright), and Celia Herrera Rodríguez (Chicana/Odami Multi-disciplinary Artist and Ceremonial Leader). Because the African-American and Chicana artists/ritualists I write on are simultaneously female, diasporic, and queer, they are triply situated to question notions of patriarchal and heteronormative cultural tradition, at the same time as maintaining ancestral and intuitive inheritance. Rejecting the always already sinfulness of their sexualities taught by an inherited colonial Christianity (from within their communities), these artists/ritualists 1) engage indigenous belief-systems which, in both colonialist and oral narratives, are considerably more accepting of a diversity of gender/sex possibilities and 2) utilize alternative epistemological strategies, like intuition, ceremony, and dance as means to re-apprehend "tradition" where the existing sources of knowledge are absent or inaccurate. The textual and embodied communal practices enacted by these women recover value systems alternative to Enlightenment Rationality, prioritizing inter-subjectivity with the environment, a balanced social and ecological system, and perhaps most importantly, another way to "know." Their works fruitfully engage with indigeneity, allowing us to perceive an innovative role for women of color in the creation, critique, and transmission of culture in diaspora.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic; electronic resource; remote |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Publication date | 2012 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Associated with | Witherspoon, Nia Ostrow |
|---|---|
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Drama |
| Primary advisor | Elam, Harry Justin |
| Thesis advisor | Elam, Harry Justin |
| Thesis advisor | Menon, Jisha, 1972- |
| Thesis advisor | Yarbro-Bejarano, Yvonne |
| Advisor | Menon, Jisha, 1972- |
| Advisor | Yarbro-Bejarano, Yvonne |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Nia Ostrow Witherspoon. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Drama. |
| Thesis | Thesis (Ph.D.)--Stanford University, 2012. |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2012 by Nia Ostrow Witherspoon
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