At the Crossroads of the Body and the Word: Interrogating Culture Through a Performance Paradigm

摘要

This article is an empirical reflection on interdisciplinary research. Surveying theories of performance and performativity, it proposes performance as a heuristic tool to breach and bridge the divide between Literature and Culture. The scriptocentricism of academia that reiterates the imperialist ideals and ideas of knowledge, history, and culture itself often ignores or dismisses the lived and embodied “texts” of culture. Performance paradigm can help shift this skewed status quo of “the word.” The appeal of performance studies lies in its attempt to elevate the body to the same status as the word, tracing performatives of identity, culture, history, myth, and more and offering a holistic critique of culture through this kaleidoscope. As a product of qualitative research in contemporary Hindu Nationalism, this article advocates the performance paradigm as an effective tool in the study of ethnic nationalism as an embodied and a discursive cultural phenomenon.