Towards an Enactive Paradigm: A Cognitive Approach to Naomi Wallace's Spectator.

Abstract

This thesis started as a means to illustrate the necessity of new epistemologies in spectatorship analysis of theater. Numerous studies have attempted to approach spectatorship, however, a non-textual analysis is lacking in most of them. In this research, I suggest that the study of the spectator’s mind is the gate that leads towards understanding the spectatorial phenomenon. Therefore, I propose a cognitive approach to spectatorship, in accordance with the growth of neuroscience that the humanities are experiencing in the last ten years. I focus on the works of the contemporary American dramatist Naomi Wallace as a complex model for spectatorship in the current Off-Broadway theater. Wallace’s plays intend to shock the spectator and to undermine stereotypes related to politics, social issues, race, and family. The playwright, who is considered by some critics a neo-Brechtian writer, questions the American capitalistic system and traditional values. Since Wallace pays special attention to the spectator’s emotions and the impact of theater beyond the performance, I believe that a cognitive approach to study spectatorship will not only enhance the understanding of the experience but also will help to elaborate a deep analysis of her plays. Within the cognitive approach to theater, Bruce McConachie’s recent studies on performance and evolution point towards the Enactive approach, which—more than paying attention exclusively to the mind—contemplates other concepts such as embodiment, environment, and experience. According to this breakthrough and the interdisciplinary pathways that are open nowadays in the humanities, this thesis relies on such theories, and therefore, focuses on a cognitive approach to spectatorship that progressively moves towards an Enactive analysis of Naomi Wallace’s work.