Bodily education in modernist culture – freedom and commodification

Abstract

The actor's practice and bodily training during the twentieth century are specifically related not only to different bodily techniques, but also to language, modern society, and the concept of freedom. Nationalism, anti-intellectualism, bodily and vitalistic purism, and a sceptical distance from the modern project at the beginning of the twentieth century serve as a starting point for a discussion about the actor's body and bodily training. From a critical point of view, phenomena like orientalism, rural escapism, and the amount of bodily techniques in actors' training in the second half of the twentieth century are juxtaposed with rhetoric about bodily freedom and a consumerism in line with tendencies in the rest of society. The discourse surrounding the concept of bodily freedom can be seen as a disciplinary project and a commodification of the body in the present-day marketplace. A contemporary discussion about identities – such as constructions, authenticity, and post-colonialism – might influence actors' education and make it more individualised, but also increase awareness of values and power relations that are at stake when working with different bodily techniques in such education.

Keywords::

• actors' training
• bodily techniques
• bodily discourses
• orientalism
• avant-garde
• modernism

Notes

^1. See also Evans (2009, p. 18).

^2. In Brecht's Stories of Mr. Keuner (Brecht 2001) one finds several examples of his concept Haltung, like ‘What's wise about the wise man is his stance’: ‘A philosophy professor came to see Mr. K. and told him about his wisdom. After a while Mr. K. said to him: “You sit uncomfortably, you talk uncomfortably, you think uncomfortably.” The philosophy professor became angry and said: “I didn't want to hear anything about myself but about the substance of what I was talking about.” “It has no substance,” said Mr. K. “I see you walking clumsily and, as far as I can see, you're not getting anywhere. You talk obscurely, and you create no light with your talking. Seeing your stance, I'm not interested in what you're getting at”’ (Brecht 2001, p. 1).

^3. As laid out in Edward Said'sOrientalism (1978), this term refers to the Western world's persistent tendency to define the non-Western world as being the polar opposite of the West – irrational, despotic, sensual, and regressive, as opposed to the rational, just, disciplined, and progressive West.