Notes from the Semiotic Chora

Abstract

This article argues that diffraction sits at the heart of the affective experience of being in audience. By combining affect theory, new materialism and feminist psychoanalysis, I establish diffraction as a metaphor for grappling with the unnameable 'in-between' of affect and performance, and use performative writing to illustrate the intra-active affective attachments that are formed – only to dissolve again – in moments of performance. By entering into an affective engagement with the audience, theatre and performance's diffractive potential opens up in both cerebral and affective forms: subjects become not-subjects and not-objects; light and shadow takes on meaning in both body and mind; language moves through a multiplicity of forms. In short, theatre and performance's diffraction opens out into affect. Affect, in turn, moves through, around and within bodies, with these new affective realities diffract into feelings, emotions and thoughts that are carried out into public life. Borrowing from Peggy Phelan's (1997) performative writing, this paper uses performative, diffractive writing (and, therefore, urges performative and diffractive reading) in order to evoke the affective experience of being in audience. This matching of form and content aims to disrupt the phallogocentrism inherent to academic writing, offering something 'more-than'. By circling with and around affect, writing, and performance, I am arguing for diffraction not just as a mode of critical inquiry, but a leaky, affective, performative methodology.