Of Marionettes, Boxers, and Suffragettes: Djuna Barnes's Performative Journalism

Abstract

Performative writing can be distinguished by its presentation of textual moments that invoke performance, its ability to actively take on the force and affective power of the event, and its emphasis on writing as a human act as well as an action. Djuna Barnes’s stunt journalism demonstrates aspects of performative writing that are linked to corporeal performances, as well as to bodily violence. In her sharp and emotive interpretations of performers, audiences, and such performance events as a puppet show and a boxing match, Barnes tackles the complex issues of mortality and gender, exploring the significance of violence enacted on bodies and the politics of gendered spectatorship. In perhaps her most controversial article, Barnes creates a political spectacle with her own body and pushes the limits of representational journalism as she is force-fed in prison to simulate the experience of American and British suffragettes.