From “The Cotton Wool” to Criticality: Unpacking FC Bergman’s The Sheep Song

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article discusses the relationship between the critical potential of the arts and dominant notions of criticality. Traditionally, “critical thinking” is often equated with rationality and deliberation. Feminist thought has criticized both the traditional notion of the public sphere for its exclusion of groups based on their modes of discourse, and critical thinking for its overreliance on a limited model of criticality that excludes affectivity. Through an analysis of FC Bergman’s theater performance, The Sheep Song, we explore emergent structures of feeling that include such new critical affects. We draw inspiration from Maxine Greene’s work on how aesthetic sense-making can break through the “cotton wool” of taken-for-granted ways of thinking and seeing. Our analysis shows how specific moments of transition between scenes and representations of disability have the potential to foreground an audience’s sense- and meaning-making. However, the performance opens and then closes off the emergence of criticality, thereby showing the temporary nature of critical affects.