ABSTRACT
Proceeding from the assumption that, contrary to J.L. Austin’s famous claim, speech acts in performances are actually able to “do things,” Erika Fischer-Lichte introduces the essays collected in this volume as explorations on how language functions in performance, what it may accomplish under particular conditions and what kinds of problems may arise as a result. With regard to processes of interweaving performance cultures, theatrical speech acts may function as their agents but may also prevent or obstruct them. Fischer-Lichte elucidates that words in performance entail important and interlinked political and philosophical issues, the first particularly relevant to postcolonial societies, while the latter more generally probes the phenomenon of language as a fluid and constantly evolving activity, a permanent state of becoming. The resulting differences between languages bring Fischer-Lichte to the question of translation in performance, concluding that a theory of translation in performance must also consider the production process through which the translated text is adapted to the needs of particular performance aesthetics.
