A �Paradox of Expression�: Merleau-Ponty and the Intertwining Nature of Brecht�s �not...but� Procedure

Abstract

This article seeks to investigate the practical applications of a performance process that Bertolt Brecht called the procedure of �fixing the �not�but�,� which produces a Verfremdungseffekt. The article also interrogates the philosophy that such a process inherently performs. In one of his last writings, Maurice Merleau-Ponty argues that to look at oneself through the eyes of another necessarily blends the divide between one body and another and, by applying one�s senses to another�s, one engages in a �paradox of expression.� I explore the process of working with actors to produce distancing effects in their acting by chronicling the results of a 2012 practice-as-research project titled The Galileo Experiment. I use Merleau-Ponty�s �paradox of expression� as a way of considering Brecht�s call for the co-presence of the actor and their character in a stage performance. I borrow Nick Crossley�s approach to phenomenological intersubjectivity and consider other theoretical implications of performing the �not...but� procedure. I argue that in order for the actor to successfully perform Brecht�s �not...but� procedure, the actor must play into their character while occasionally playing out of the character in an alternative attitude, using what I call the �reflective block�.