The articulation of concepts of identity in discourses of contemporary performance art

Thisthesis arose from a concern with the construction and manifestation of identity in performance art, particularly the articulation ofconcepts of identity within the realm of discourses, e.g. scripts, verbal and writtendiscourses by artists as wellas actual performances. Identity in performance is understood mainly as an ideological construction which is typical ofrecent political performances. The thrust of this research is that concepts of identity in performance have other not so explicit articulations andin somecasesthey are unconscious constructions. Theories and histories of performance haveneglected the occurrence of more subtle processes of identity conception in performance discourses andare unable to explain andinclude those constructions. By means of discourse analysis, this thesis presents two interconnected strands. The first is a review of early 20th century performative works as well as 1960's and 1970's performance art works, in an attemptto showthat these workswere also engaged in identity construction. The second approach is empirical and comprises interviews with performance artists, as well as analyses ofpieces ofperformance. The findings haverevealed that works of the past were engaged in identity conceptualisation as much as current pieces. This conceptualisation is made throughpatterns of specific conceptual frameworks and characterise political, carnivalesque, spontaneous, unconscious, standardised, celebratory and educational identities. In the kernel ofidentity conceptualisation in performance, liesconcepts that relateto an idea of essentiality, authenticity, authority, access and revelations about the self. Theunderstanding of performance's identity concepts presented here contribute to a moreinclusive theoryand history of performance. It calls attention to the fact that in performance art an intense exercise of identity construction is possible, because in this art genrethe physicality of the artist.is more emphasised than in other art forms