THE IRRUPTION OF TRANCE IN CONTEMPORARY YORUBA THEATRE: THEATRE,WITCHCRAFT, AND SOCIAL FRAGMENTATION IN LAGOS,NIGERIA

The golden age of Yoruba folk opera, Yoruba travelling theatre, and Yoruba theatre is over and the brightly coloured trucks carrying the companies that cruised the Nigerian Federation up to the middle of the 1980s have certainly long since been dismantled. Although many actors, musicians, and directors have indeed moved from theatre to the flourishing home-video industry, a community of actors continues to present live performances that can be categorized as “neotraditional.” This genre of Yoruba theatre is undergoing a crisis in the context of an unrelenting economic recession in Nigeria that began in the early 1980s. This situation has released tensions that lead to a real and sadly all-too-justifiable sense of insecurity and to proliferating accounts of witchcraft attacks. The outcome has been a rise in violence manifested in the unleashing of the powers of witchcraft and enflaming relations between small rival groups hitherto unified under the sway of a salaried and—at least until the beginning of the 1980s—optimistic middle class. Yoruba neotraditional theatre that represents deities on stage that belong to “an invisible world” is playing with fire and, by conjuring up the powers of witchcraft, has in turn itself been bewitched.     

Hemispheric Visions and Border Divisions: Differential Decolonizations at the US National Museum of the American Indian

Abstract

While many populations have suffered unique forms of colonial oppression, what these varying populations seem to share is an understanding of the importance of community support and cultural continuity in the face of struggle. Drawing on notions of differential oppositional consciousness and decolonization, this article examines the US National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC in light of its efforts to represent a hemispheric indigeneity. The Our Lives gallery exhibit co-curated by the Campo Band of Kumeyaay Indians (whose aboriginal lands straddle the border between the US and Mexico) is analyzed alongside the author’s personal reflections of her encounters with the NMAI as a US Chicana/Latina subject. The article urges scholars to recognize how they have been differ entially positioned against power and, furthermore, to acknowledge how and when efforts to decolonize may result in the re-colonization of another already marginalized group. This project asserts that the strength of alliances may not always be built on sameness, but perhaps can be built out of differences.     

The Ecologies of Protest in the Theatre of Aztlán

Abstract

This essay looks at the work of the contemporary Mexican-American woman playwright, Cherríe Moraga. It focuses on two of her plays which were produced during the mid-1990s entitled Heroes and Saints and Watsonville: Some Place Not Here, although other plays from this period, such as Circle in the Dirt: El Pueblo de East Palo Alto, also appear in the study. The plays are based on Moraga’s responses to certain environmental and historical events which took place in California during this period. I explore how each work stages environmental protest in ways that reinscribe gender, myth, and indigeneity. In particular, I explore how Moraga recreates on stage utopian and dytopian and past and present landscapes, and how she stages feminist protest in response to both the levels of pesticides used in large-scale agricultural farming and the exploitation of the workers.     

The Play's the Thing: How Social Group Work and Theatre Transformed a Group into a Community

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the potential of the purposeful use of activity in cultivating community in a life review and performance group with bilingual elders in a community based organization. Activity used to promote community among group members enables a diverse group separated by language and cultural barriers to find commonality, accept differences, take risks as acts of self-determination, and find a strengthened identity in the pursuit of a shared goal. Examples are given that detail the ways in which expressive activity develops the group's ability to exercise self-determination.     

“假相”与真义——人类思想转折点上的科技镜像

高科技带来的前所未有的问题暴露了人在认知上的天然局限性,也暴露了目前作为人文基础的世界观与价值观的哲学缺陷,哲学研究的整体范式亟待突破。借用培根酌“种族假相”“洞穴假相”“市场假相”“剧场假相”说,可以清楚地看到目前高科技观上存在的根深蒂周的人类中心主义、“无意识”的主体形而上学、缺乏反思的流行观念、难以突破的旧哲学等。从某种程度上说,高科技领域是哲学创新的突破口,科学技术带来的前沿问题是人类思想更新换代的契机。     

主体的眼睛:美国戏剧的中国形象谱系

自18世纪中期以来就出现在美国舞台上的中国形象是多面、驳杂的,但从总体上看,一直徘徊在低劣和美好的两极之间。美国戏剧中的中国形象都在不同的尺度上强调其"真实",但它们与现实的中国没有直接的必然联系,只是美国文化对于他者的想象和表述。美国戏剧通过表述、展示有关中国形象的种种"奇观"并凸显与美国的差异,履行了对美国文化主体的自身认同功能,也暗示了西方对于中国的焦虑和欲望。     

The Relationship Between Socioeconomic Factors,Wellbeing, and Homosexuality in the Theatrical Profession

This article relates to the theory suggesting that there is a prevalence of male homosexuality within the theatrical profession that can be explained through male performers becoming homosexual due to their low socioeconomic position. In a questionnaire-based study, the socioeconomic status (SES) is measured of 121 homosexual performers who considered themselves to have been heterosexual at the time of joining the profession, and results are compared with a control group of 121 heterosexual male performers. The experimental group was chosen in this way due to the suggestion of the hypothesis that the change in sexual orientation occurs after the man begins performing professionally. Results were not significant and little difference was noted in any of the parameters of SES, including annual earnings and home ownership. However, a marginal though insignificant increase in SES was noted in the experimental group of homosexual men. Consequently, existing theories for homosexuality and possible reasons for the high prevalence within the performing profession are discussed; the notions of adult performing and creativity being extensions of childhood gender atypical behavior are considered and possible links between sexual orientation and these traits. Elements of genetic heritability of homosexuality are likewise implicated.     

"戏场":从印度到中国——兼说汉译佛经中的梵剧史料

“戏场”是汉语中的一个复合词 ,却最早出现在建安初的汉译佛经中 ,并在晋、唐之际的佛经中多次被使用 ,指印度的歌舞、百戏、戏剧演出场所 ;隋唐时期汉族文人的著述中多用以指与佛教有关的场所 ,宋代始用以指优戏演出场所 ,完成了它“出口转内销”的过程。汉译佛经中保存了一些梵剧史料 ,对于研究早期梵剧及其与中国戏剧的关系 ,弥足珍贵。梵剧中的“引线匠”与南宋杂剧中的“引戏”、安徽贵池傩戏中的“报台先生”酷似 ,说明梵剧对南戏进程已构成实质性影响。     

《孙行者》中“生民视角”的华裔身份建构

"生民视角"是华裔美国作家通过界定、书写和明确华裔美国人的身份,以便对抗东方主义主流话语强行赋予华裔美国人的文化形象,来实现"还我美国"的社会政治目标。汤亭亭借助赵健秀所提出的"生民视角"看到的华裔美国人的实际问题,在《孙行者》中为怎样才能实现"还我美国"这一最高目标提供了一个答案。汤亭亭在《孙行者》中对阿新形象的塑造,通过对华裔社区的建构和华裔主体的构想,触及了建构华裔身份的核心问题。     

基于认知心理学的高效视觉信息加工可视化策略

决策剧场是一种辅助决策者面对复杂问题进行群决策的新技术结合体。通过专家团队对复杂问题建立数学模型,并运用计算机进行可视化模拟,呈现不同决策所产生的结果,提高决策质量。如何优化决策剧场中可视化呈现的效果,使决策者能够高效加工视觉信息,成为决策剧场研究中的基础性问题。文章结合认知心理学的有关成果,通过以降低决策者认知负载为目标的研究,生成了四条可视化策略。在此基础上,基于人视觉信息加工特点,生成了另外四条可视化策略。以上策略将用于指导可视化技术对于事件模拟仿真的实现。