Between the image and anthropology: theatrical lessons from Aby Warburg's "Nympha"

Gough, K.M. (2012) Between the image and anthropology: theatrical lessons from Aby Warburg's "Nympha". TDR, 56(T215), pp. 114-130. (doi: 10.1162/DRAM_a_00191)

Abstract

In this article, I reconsider Richard Schechner’s “Restoration of Behavior” by rewinding the clock to a time that predates the film technology that animates this paradigm. In doing so, I consider the still image whose movements animate an analogical performance paradigm that the late art historian, Aby Warburg, began to theorize in the 1890s: a paradigm he called the “Pathos Formula,” and conceptualized around the figure of woman in movement who he referred to as “Nympha.” In considering Warburg’s theories as an antecedent to the Restoration of Behavior, I explore the ways that the invocation of film strips (“strips of behavior”) as culturally neutral inflected performance studies from the outset with a gendering that has been reified, reflected and contested ever since.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Gough, Dr Kathleen
• Authors: Gough, K.M.
• College/School: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Culture and Creative Arts > Theatre Film and TV Studies
• Journal Name: TDR
• Publisher: MIT Press
• ISSN: 1054-2043
• ISSN (Online): 1531-4715