‘Bodies of Knowledge’: Conceptualizing the Art of Acting

Abstract

We take for granted that the art of acting is based on constantly emerging modes of knowledge as well as those which have a long tradition, and that specific performance skills can be taught in order to be applied in a broad range of performance contexts. These are, alongside the virtuosity of the individual performer, what make specific performances interesting and worthy of our serious attention. But in addition to the pedagogical tools for teaching performance skills and the concrete methods for their realization on the stage, it is also necessary to conceptualize the ‘bodies of knowledge’ for the already existing and constantly developing artistic practices of actors and performers. In what follows I will examine some of the philosophical assumptions on which our discursive practices about such skills and the forms of knowledge they embrace have been formulated. I will focus on two specific ‘moments’ in time when the performance arts flourished, while also undergoing important changes, at the same time as the philosophical assumptions for the very existence of the art of acting as a form of human expression and creativity were also critically and fruitfully examined.

An act has three branches — it is to act, to do, to perform.

Clown (Gravedigger), Hamlet