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Power Play

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The Punk Turn in Comedy

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Comedy ((PSCOM))

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Abstract

The impossibility of fully occupying both subject and object positions within one’s own gaze both produces and limits subjectivity. Yet, in some of Lydon’s performances, there is the suggestion of reclaiming ground, owning one’s own public image—a necessarily incomplete attempt to watch oneself. The resulting interplay of gazes has implications for power—putting it in oscillation, sometimes culminating in struggles over physical space and electrical power (the microphone), with performers struggling to retain enough authority to carry on performing, where the trust in traditional assumptions structuring the performer–audience relationship had been deliberately compromised. This retaking of control entailed dominance, sometimes intimidation. Unlike a typical ‘authoritarian’ paradigm however (as a reference point for contrast/comparison), reassertions of power often took place along lines that acknowledged contestation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Kent, Canterbury, UK

    Krista Bonello Rutter Giappone

  2. University of Malta, Msida, Malta

    Krista Bonello Rutter Giappone

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  1. Krista Bonello Rutter Giappone
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Bonello Rutter Giappone, K. (2018). Power Play. In: The Punk Turn in Comedy. Palgrave Studies in Comedy. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72841-4_8

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