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Virginie Magnat

Bio: Virginie Magnat is an academic researcher from University of British Columbia. The author has contributed to research in topics: Performance studies & Ethnography. The author has an hindex of 8, co-authored 18 publications receiving 128 citations.

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The increasingly widespread usage in American theatre departments of the enigmatic catch-word "devising" points to the gradual legitimization within the academy of alternative artistic approaches first developed in the 1960s as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: The increasingly widespread usage in American theatre departments of the enigmatic catch-word “devising” points to the gradual legitimization within the academy of alternative artistic approaches first developed in the 1960s. Given the intentionally transgressive nature of these approaches, pioneered by groups such as The Open Theatre, The Living Theatre, and the Bread and Puppet Theatre, their integration into the curriculum raises the question of whether they will eventually disrupt canonical conceptions of theatre and thereby affect the future of the discipline.

26 citations

Journal Article
TL;DR: In this article, Lassiter et al. discuss the relationship between the role of the researcher and the community in the context of performance and ethnography, and discuss the importance of accountability, relevance, and reciprocity.
Abstract: Embodied ResearchEmbodiment, lived experience and intersubjectivity are key to experimental approaches articulated at the intersection of performance and ethnography Yet the slippery nature of the territories which this research proposes to investigate has often contributed to undermining its academic credibility Since embodied experience eludes and possibly exceeds cognitive control, accounting for its destabilizing function within the research process potentially endangers dominant conceptions of knowledge upon which the legitimacy of academic discourses so crucially dependsWithin the discipline of anthropology, alternative ethnographic models that account for the lived experience of researchers and research participants have arguably been most compellingly articulated by indigenous and feminist ethnographers Lassiter notes that American Indian scholars were among the first to produce a radical critique of ethnographic fieldwork and to "call for models that more assertively attend to community concerns, models that would finally put to rest the lingering reverberations of anthropology's colonial past" (2005:6) Lassiter further remarks that feminist scholars, writing "as women whose knowledge is situated vis-a-vis their male counterparts" are already positioned as Other (2005:59) Indigenous and feminist anthropologists therefore raise related epistemological and methodological questions about ethnographic authority and the politics of representation because they share similar concerns about the ways in which conventional methodologies enable researchers positioned within the academy to authoritatively speak for the Other (Lassiter 2005:56, 59) Positioning oneself from within the community they are studying and accounting for their own embodied participation in the culture of that community has led indigenous and feminist researchers to develop alternative research methodologies which foreground embodiment, lived experience and intersubjectivity, and which privilege collaboration and reciprocityWhile feminist ethnographers are committed to creating "more humane and dialogic accounts that would more fully and more collaboratively represent the diversity of women's experience" (Lassiter 2005:56), for indigenous ethnographers, consultation with community members is meant to ensure that the research they are conducting is mutually beneficial In both cases, lived experience and accountability are linked and the researcher bears a moral responsibility to the community When reflecting on his ethnography of Kiowa songs, Lassiter acknowledges that what mattered most to the Kiowa community was the power his interpretation would have in "defining [this community] to the outside - and to future generations of Kiowas for that matter" The questions that emerged from the research process were therefore about "who has control and who has the last word" (2005:11) Indeed, what is ultimately relevant to the Kiowa people is the power of the songs, for it is the embodied experience of singing these songs which sustains the cultural continuity of the Kiowa community"Meetings with Remarkable Women/Tu es la fille de quelqu'un," the SSHRC-funded research project1 1 am currently conducting with women artists whose experiential approaches to performance vitally depend on embodiment, similarly hinges upon questions of accountability, relevance, and reciprocity Indeed, for these women from different cultures and generations, who often work with ancient traditional songs, it is the power of performance, transmitted through their teaching and performing, which gives meaning to their creative work as members of a transnational community of artists who share a direct connection to Jerzy Grotowski's groundbreaking performance researchThe significance of the cross-cultural research conducted by the Polish director was recognized through his appointment, in 1997, to the Chair of Theatre Anthropology of the College de France in Paris …

18 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The paradox-derived approaches build upon Diderot's assumptions about performance, which oppose living and acting by pitting the spectator's presumed honesty and vulnerability against the actor's alleged powers of deception and dissimulation.
Abstract: Theatricality versus Reality For a number of theater critics and scholars, the term "theatrical" still bears the imprint of Diderot's Paradox.' Consequently, criticism and research grounded in the French philosopher's conception of theater contribute to further widen the chasm between theory and practice, for Diderot's view implies disregarding the process-oriented nature of performance while emphasizing the duality between concepts such as the real and the fictitious, spontaneity and structure, the concrete and the abstract. Such a view is based on the premise that there is an unbridgeable division between body and mind, instinct and intellect, emotion and reason, and it therefore necessarily excludes the performer's perspective, which reconciles in practice what seems paradoxical in theory. Hence, paradox-derived approaches build upon Diderot's assumptions about performance, which oppose living and acting by pitting the spectator's presumed honesty and vulnerability against the actor's alleged powers of deception and dissimulation. Ironically, although they are founded on the conviction that head and heart can function separately, such approaches tend to generate passionate and emotional academic interpretations which, in turn, endow theater studies with a whimsical subjectivity, ranging from fantasy to superstition. In his Dictionnaire Encycloptdique du Thedtre, Michel Corvin evokes a fascination for theatricality in which delight and anxiety seem inextricably intertwined:

15 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The transdisciplinary travels of ethnography at the intersections of anthropology, ethnography, cultural studies, performance studies, sport and physical culture studies, as well as theology, emerged from a roundtable panel coconvened by Magdalena Kazubowski-Houston and Virginie Magnat at the Canadian Association for Theatre Research (CATR) Annual Conference held at Brock University in 2014 as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: The theme for this special issue, which examines the transdisciplinary travels of ethnography at the intersections of anthropology, ethnography, cultural studies, performance studies, sport and physical culture studies, as well as theology, emerged from a roundtable panel coconvened by Magdalena Kazubowski-Houston and Virginie Magnat at the Canadian Association for Theatre Research (CATR) Annual Conference held at Brock University in 2014. This discussion became the basis for their co-authored presentation titled “Transdisciplinary Travels of Ethnography: Potentials and Perils” for the 2015 International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry hosted by the University of Illinois, Urbana–Champaign. This special issue of Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies offers a unique opportunity to enter into a cross-disciplinary dialogue by opening this discussion to an international community of qualitative researchers whose work engages with ethnography. In recent years, the transdisciplinary romance with ethnography has become an urgent topic of concern vehemently debated among social sciences and humanities scholars in informal conversations and graduate seminars. Responses to this romance have varied, ranging from an outright skepticism and criticism to initiating conversations and ethnographic collaborations across disciplinary boundaries. Notwithstanding, thus far, no special issues or edited volumes have taken up the question of what is at stake for researchers employing ethnography within, as well as across, disciplinary formations sanctioned by the neoliberal university. This issue addresses this publication gap by asking the following: What is lost and gained when ethnography “travels” across disciplines? How can ethnography’s transdisciplinary travels contribute to how we might conceptualize, reimagine, and practice ethnography today and in the years to come? What does it mean for ethnography to “travel” within a competitive and profit-driven neoliberal academia, where the pursuit of knowledge is no longer seen as a public good and an end in and of itself? While many anthropologists and ethnographers in cognate disciplines have been critical of the pursuit of knowledge detached from real-life concerns and social problems, and have, instead, practiced socially engaged and interventionist research that benefits the people with whom they work, the utilitarian notions of knowledge under the neoliberal academic regime represent something quite different entirely. As Kazubowski-Houston (see this special issue, 2018, pp. 410-422) asserts, the language of social justice and activism has been co-opted by the neoliberal academy to disparage the notions of knowledge for knowledge’s sake to advance its entrepreneurial goals and agendas. Also, as prominent anthropologist Paul Stoller notes in his recent Huffington Post blog, ethnography has come under attack from other scholars, most frequently from legal and quantitative researchers. Its plausibility, accuracy, and honesty are questioned and contrasted with the rigour and verifiability of “scientific” methods (Stoller, 2017, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-stoller/indefense-of-ethnography_b_8028542.html). Stoller’s entry blog is a rebuttal to legal scholar Paul Campos’s recent essay scathing the ethics and legitimacy of Alice Goffman’s (2014) controversial ethnography, On the run, investigating the damaging and dehumanizing effects of policing of African-American men in a Philadelphia neighbourhood. Consequently, academic ethnography frequently finds itself in defense of its own legitimacy and authority as a research methodology. Certainly, Stoller’s entry blog is an indication 737100 CSCXXX10.1177/1532708617737100Cultural Studies Critical MethodologiesMagnat and Kazubowski-Houston research-article2017

13 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, an interdisciplinary exploration of voice seeks to open a space for the non-discursive performative power of vocality in qualitative research, focusing on anthropology and ethnography.
Abstract: This interdisciplinary exploration of voice seeks to open a space for the nondiscursive performative power of vocality in qualitative research. In the first part, I focus on anthropology and ethnog...

11 citations


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TL;DR: Familiarity, ease of access, trust, and awareness of risks, will all be important for the future.
Abstract: 萨义德以其独特的双重身份,对西方中心权力话语做了分析,通过对文学作品、演讲演说等文本的解读,将O rie n ta lis m——"东方学",做了三重释义:一门学科、一种思维方式和一种权力话语系统,对东方学权力话语做了系统的批判,同时将东方学放入空间维度对东方学文本做了细致的解读。

3,845 citations

Journal Article
TL;DR: In this paper, a research has been done on the essay "Can the Subaltern Speak" by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, which has been explained into much simpler language about what the author conveys for better understanding and further references.
Abstract: In the present paper a research has been done on the essay ‘Can the Subaltern Speak’ by’ Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak’. It has been explained into much simpler language about what the author conveys for better understanding and further references. Also the criticism has been done by various critiques from various sources which is helpful from examination point of view. The paper has been divided into various contexts with an introduction and the conclusions. Also the references has been written that depicts the sources of criticism.

2,638 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
01 Jun 1989
TL;DR: The meaning of Africa and of being African, what is and what is not African philosophy, and is philosophy part of Africanism are the kind of fundamental questions which this book addresses as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: What is the meaning of Africa and of being African? What is and what is not African philosophy? Is philosophy part of Africanism ? These are the kind of fundamental questions which this book addresses. North America: Indiana U Press

1,338 citations