| This dissertation proposes that contemporary theatre should be read through the lens of ethical philosophy. By juxtaposing a variety of recent theatrical performances with the philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas, it frames a consideration of the theatre as the paradigmatic instance of the ethical relation. Looking at the notion of "the encounter" within Levinas's philosophy and "the event" in recent work by Alain Badiou, I propose that theatre lies at the base of new models of social relations. In the encounter between audience member and performer, the individual faces the imperative challenge of "being-for-the-other." Within this dissertation, I argue that the theatre instantiates "ethotopos," the space of ethics, as a laboratory in which the personal relationship can be viewed and in which society can begin to imagine a new foundation for justice.Through examining performances that have been historically read through lenses of identity politics, I demonstrate the ways in which reading them instead with relation to their establishment of an ethical relation changes an understanding of their production of meaning. The works that I examine include the plays of Tony Kushner and performances by Guillermo Gomez-Pena, Anna Deavere Smith, Sarah Jones, John Leguizamo, Tim Miller, and Kiki and Herb. I argue that the formal relationships present within these performances produce a relationship with the audience that demands fidelity, and propose this as the starting point for developing a concept of ethical subjectivity in the contemporary world. I develop these readings through interrogating Levinas's notions of ethical language, the face-to-face, and the caress. These works begin to allow us to imagine a new universal subject, one who is defined in substitution, in the prostration of the self at the foot of the Other this is a subject defined theatrically in obligation to another who appears before her/him. |
