The theatrical event, or an unavowed mourning: variations on loss through a phenomenology of the gift

Abstract

The performative turn in the performing arts, and more specifically in theatre, has continued to gain popularity among successive generations of creators and researchers up to the present day. Yet if this success continues to generate interest, it is not so much because of the crises it resolves as because of the questions it continues to raise. Evential phenomenology, for its part, currently enjoys robust vitality in academic circles. Given the liveliness of both fields, the need arises to establish an urgent dialogue. Gathered around the very hearth of the evential phenomenon, we will revisit a selection of loci not only to present the yield of this dialogue within both scenic practices and phenomenology, but also to examine carefully what happens with those other translucent notions associated with the donation of the event.

It will be necessary to look beyond mere performative execution, beyond the arrival of the eminent phenomenon; we must refine our subtlety in grasping theatricality in order to approach the role of mourning, loss, or debt when we interpret scenic relations through the logic of the gift.