Lynching performances, theatres of violence

Abstract

The historical reality and contemporary legacy of lynching undergirds contemporary understandings, representations, and politics of race relations in this country. This essay uses archival materials—both texts and images‐to support its argument that lynchings are performance‐saturated events and posits the concept of a “performance complex” to describe the entire web of performance woven in and around lynchings. Specifically, these executions are themselves theorized as cultural performances. Further, they are examined as part of an unfolding cycle in which the actual execution is but one component.

Key words:

• lynching
• race
• cultural performance
• historical performance