Unspeakable Acts Research Articles

“We Are Orlando”

Abstract The 2016 shooting at Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Florida, was mourned as an unspeakable act of violence against the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) community. But what was perhaps less audible was the fact that Latinxs, particularly Puerto Ricans, who represent more than one million of the state’s population, were disproportionally affected. In the wake of the tragedy, a group of Puerto Rican women came together to demand translation and mental health services for survivors and their families. This article details their public refusals to be silenced from the public imaginary of mourning and loss. It also considers how the multiple subject positions of Puerto Ricans shape belonging both locally and across transnational borders. In doing so, the author makes the case for an intersectional analysis of mass violence, mourning, and resistance, in order to generate inclusive spaces and a more just vision for the future.

Le viol des bébés, repérage et prise en charge

Le viol des bébés, repérage et prise en charge

The Sense of an Ending: Contemporary Visions of Medea

The story of Medea’s murder of her own children to gain revenge against their faithless father has been tackled from many angles by playwrights and directors from Euripides’ time to the present. In recent years, due to highly sensationalized, real-life cases of mothers murdering their children, it has become fodder for sociologists, criminologists, psychologists, and feminists. Many recent productions (both original plays and directorial approaches to Euripides’ original) have avoided tackling the difficult questions raised by Euripides’ ending, which demands an answer to the following question: how could the gods send down a dragon-drawn chariot to rescue a woman who murdered her own children? Many contemporary authors and directors prefer to eliminate Euripides’ ending in order to focus on more immediate issues, such as the psychological or social damage resulting from patriarchy, colonialism, and misogyny. After considering several such productions, this article analyzes three plays that directly tackle Euripides’ troubling ending: two original scripts, by Heiner Müller and Carol Fisher Sorgenfrei respectively; and a production of Euripides’ original by Japanese director Miyagi Satoshi. Carol Fisher Sorgenfrei is Professor Emerita of Theatre at UCLA. An expert on postwar Japanese and cross-cultural performance, she is also a translator, director, and playwright. The author of Unspeakable Acts: The Avant-Garde Theatre of Terayama Shūji and Postwar Japan (University of Hawaii Press, 2005) and co-author of Theatre Histories: An Introduction (third edition, Routledge, 2016), she has published over a hundred articles, chapters, and reviews. She is an Associate Editor of Asian Theatre Journal and a Fellow of the College of Fellows of the American Theatre.

Pornography and Speech Act Theory – An In-Depth Survey

Considering the short history of the feminist philosophy of language, Rae Langton’s article “Speech Acts and Unspeakable Acts” was highly influential as one of the first positive research programs in the movement. In her paper, Langton – using John L. Austin’s speech act theory – interprets Catharine MacKinnon’s thesis: pornography is a speech that subordinates and silences women. Despite the importance of the subject, those unfamiliar with certain historical and contextual features of the topic would hardly understand it.
 My paper aims to introduce some of the major accounts in this special area at the intersection of speech act theory and feminist philosophy. Rather than just reconstructing Langton’s arguments and the most common objections against it, I take a more holistic approach, examining its surrounding literature as well.
 My article has six sections. In Section 1, I contrast the conservative and liberal arguments against pornography and sketch MacKinnon’s liberal critique. In Section 2, I give alternative interpretations of MacKinnon’s thesis that “pornography is harm.” In Section 3, I try to make sense of the prima facie implausible assumption that pornography is speech. In Section 4 and 5, I analyze the Langtonian theories about subordination and silencing. Finally, in Section 6, I mention the most challenging problems for Langton’s approach, considering the verbal nature of pornography, the limits of the protection of free speech, and the different positions on sexual consent.

Nancy Princenthal: Unspeakable Acts: Women, Art, and Sexual Violence in the 1970s

Nancy Princenthal: Unspeakable Acts: Women, Art, and Sexual Violence in the 1970s

The Chester Penn Higby Prize for 2020

The Chester Penn Higby Prize for 2020

The Chester Penn Higby Prize for 2018

The Chester Penn Higby Prize for 2018

The Chester Penn Higby Prize for 2016

The Chester Penn Higby Prize for 2016

Regulating the Commander in Chief: Some Theories

Recent events have caused scholars to consider a long ignored issue: the relation between the commander in chief (CINC) and Congress's powers to regulate the armed forces and captures. The famous Bybee memorandum brought this issue to the fore when it asserted that Congress could not interfere with "the President's direction of such core war matters such as the detention and interrogation of enemy combatants. The memo's critics scoffed at this claim, insisting that Congress may regulate the detention of enemy soldiers. With their articles in this issue, Dean Harold Koh, Neil Kinkopf, and others have added their voices to the clamor against the Bybee memo.Although one might generate any number of theories about the interaction of the Commander in Chief Clause and Congress's war regulatory powers, four seem most plausible. This essay sketches these theories with sufficiently broad strokes that none of these sketches will satisfactorily answer questions about who may regulate certain aspects of a war. In particular, these theories will tell us nothing about whether the Bybee memo or its critics have the better argument about whether Congress can limit the CINC's ability to order coercive interrogation techniques.First, it is possible to suppose that congressional and presidential powers do not overlap at all. A second thesis (the Coterminous Thesis) posits that the powers are coterminous, or at least largely so. A third possibility is what we might call the Partial Overlap. It is possible to suppose that the two powers overlap in some ways, but that each also has an exclusive sphere. The final theory posits that the President has all the powers that Congress has and more, but when Congress acts in its more limited sphere, its rules always trump the President's. Arguments about the structural Constitution that seek to further a particular moral view are likely to be utterly feckless. Torture may be an evil necessary for the successful prosecution of war against Al-Qaeda, or an unspeakable act that benefits absolutely no one. Whatever it is, these difficult moral questions have little to do with whether the Constitution enables the President to order the use of coercive interrogation techniques in the face of a statute that prohibits such means.

Un objet culturel digital. Le cas de la « restauration » de l’Ecce Homo de Borja

In August 2012, the Centro de Estudios Borjanos of Borja, in Spain, published on his blog his “deep regrets” after having discovered what the centre calls an “unspeakable act”: a mural painting, situated in the Sanctuary of Mercy Church, has been restored in such a manner that the original subject – the Man of Sorrow – can hardly be recognized. The case is rapidly diffused by the international press and resulted in an unexpected dimension, sparking mockery and empathy. Almost all commentators in the press and on the Internet described the case as “botched restoration”. In contrast, the face of the Ecce Homo, transformed by this “restoration” gave rise to a variety of reinterpretations on the Internet. This article seeks to analyze the phenomenon of a collective re-appropriation made possible by the Web 2.0.1.

‘Supernatural Soliciting’: Pathways from Betrayal to Retribution in Macbeth and Yotsuya Kaidan

Although written two centuries apart and in divergent cultures, the kabuki play Tōkaidō Yotsuya Kaidan and Shakespeare's Macbeth exhibit marked similarities (as well as differences) in plot. Here, Carol Fisher Sorgenfrei analyzes some of the ways that these plays reflect (mostly male) anxieties regarding shifting patterns of gender and political power in Jacobean England and Tokugawa Japan. Professor Emerita of Theatre at UCLA, Carol Fisher Sorgenfrei is a specialist in Japanese theatre and intercultural performance, and was recently a Research Fellow at the International Research Institute in Interweaving Performance Cultures at the Free University, Berlin. She is the author of Unspeakable Acts: the Avant-Garde Theatre of Terayama Shūji and Postwar Japan (University of Hawaii, 2005) and co-author of Theatre Histories: an Introduction (Routledge, third edition, 2015). She is also a playwright whose latest play, Ghost Light, is a contemporary fusion of Macbeth and Yotsuya Ghost Stories, in which the ghost of a Japanese-American actress returns to wreak vengeance on the husband who betrayed her. The play will be staged as an Equity Showcase in New York in Autumn 2015.

Alluring Ambiguity: Gender and Cultural Politics in Modern Japanese Performance

In contrast to most studies of cultural nationalism, which tend to focus on literary style, narrative devices, or the static visual arts, in this article Carol Fisher Sorgenfrei analyzes the ways that Japanese actors deploy physical and vocal techniques in portraying gender and ethnic ambiguity. Expanding on her recent work on actor-dancer Itō Michio (1893–1961), she uses the concept of J-centrism (Japancentrism) to demonstrate how modern Japanese performing bodies (in both traditional and contemporary genres) imply political meaning – her title being a riff on Susan Sontag's famous essay ‘Fascinating Fascism’. While not suggesting that the artists under consideration promulgate fascism, Sorgenfrei maintains that the Japanese aesthetic preference for gender and ethnic ambiguity fuels the politics of Japanese cultural nationalism, even when the performers or directors adamantly disavow rightist, nationalistic ideologies. Through a focus on analysis of selected performances by Bando Tamasaburō and theoretical writings by Suzuki Tadashi, Sorgenfrei suggests that the performance of ambiguity by a single actor implies the ‘universality’ and cultural superiority of the Japanese body. Professor Emerita of Theatre at UCLA, Carol Fisher Sorgenfrei is a specialist in Japanese theatre and intercultural performance, and was recently a Research Fellow at the International Research Institute in Interweaving Performance Cultures at the Free University, Berlin, where she researched the work of Japanese dancer Itō Michio. She is the author of Unspeakable Acts: the Avant-Garde Theatre of Terayama Shūji and Postwar Japan (University of Hawaii, 2005) and co-author of Theatre Histories: an Introduction (Routledge, third edition 2015).

How to Screw Things with Words

Since its influential rendering by Rae Langton in her 1993 paper, “Speech Acts and Unspeakable Acts,” the “silencing argument” against pornography has become the subject of a lively debate that continues to this day. My intention in this paper is not to join in the existing debate, but to give a critical overview of it. In its current form, I suggest, it is going nowhere (and has been en route for too long already). Yet the silencing argument, I believe, nevertheless contains an indispensable insight—and more radical potential than is usually acknowledged either by its defenders or its opponents. I argue that in order to preserve this insight and unleash its potential, we should begin by adopting the following motto: MacKinnon, not Austin!

“The Unnatural History and Petticoat Mystery of Boulton and Park”: A Victorian Sex Scandal and the Theatre Defense

The 1870–71 tabloid trial of cross-dressers Ernest Boulton and Frederick Park revealed Victorian society wrestling with the concept of “theatricality” in everyday life. The prosecution sought to expose that the traditionally unspeakable act of sodomy was (paradoxically) encoded in cross-dressing; while the defense employed the “theatre defense”—a systematic insistence that the defendants were just amateur actors. But within British society theatre was both part of the status quo and a haven for a disturbing doubleness—“conspiracies of meaning” that troubled Victorian obsessions with truth-telling and the “natural.”

Guilt, Nostalgia, and Victimhood: Korea in the Japanese Theatrical Imagination

How has post-war Japanese theatre grappled with Japanese responsibility for its imperialistic/militaristic past in Asia, and for institutionalized discrimination against resident minorities? Using the tools of guilt, nostalgia, and the valorization of victimhood that are embedded in the idea of hōgan biiki (sympathy for the loser/victims), Carol Fisher Sorgenfrei here analyzes Japan's often contradictory, flip-flopping self-image as both victimizer and victim in relation to Korea and resident Koreans. Looking at both mainstream and alternative performances, her article suggests that despite attempts to discuss these issues openly, most theatre artists actually present images that soften or displace responsibility for the past. Carol Fisher Sorgenfrei is Professor Emerita of Theatre at UCLA, and was recently a Research Fellow at the Institute for Interweaving Performance Cultures, Freie Universität, Berlin. An authority on post-war Japanese and cross-cultural performance, she is also a translator, director, and award-winning playwright. Her books include Unspeakable Acts: the Avant-Garde Theatre of Terayama Shuji and Postwar Japan and the co-authored Theatre Histories: an Introduction. She has published numerous articles and presented papers and keynotes throughout the world. Professor Sorgenfrei is Associate Editor of Asian Theatre Journal and Editor of the Association for Asian Performance Newsletter.

A Gay Immigrant Student's Perspective: Unspeakable Acts in the Language Class

This article focuses on a subset of the student cohort that has, until recently, been largely hidden from view in the literature of language education: gay immigrants. Little is known about what sorts of classroom experiences gay immigrant students find engaging or alienating, or why this sort of knowledge is needed. This case study uses interview excerpts to examine self‐accounts of three classroom interactions that were significant to Pablo (a pseudonym), a 25‐year‐old gay man from Mexico studying English at a community college in the United States. The analysis takes into account Pablo's premigration experiences, together with relevant literature on second language socialisation, sexual migration, and gay language learners. By tracing Pablo's responses to the shutting down of gay themes, the presumption of heterosexuality, and the potential risks of signalling a gay identity, the analysis shows how gay topics and perspectives are constructed as unspeakable in the language classroom. The findings indicate that it can be difficult for gay immigrant (and international) students to establish communicative legitimacy in the language classroom, which can restrict learning opportunities. The classroom challenges that gay immigrants encounter—and the identity savvy they require—yield useful insights about language teaching in this age of mass migration.

Unspeakable Acts: The Avant-Garde Theatre of Terayama Shu¯ji and Postwar Japan. By Carol Fisher Sorgenfrei. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2005; pp. 340. $48 cloth.

Unspeakable Acts: The Avant-Garde Theatre of Terayama Shu¯ji and Postwar Japan. By Carol Fisher Sorgenfrei. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2005; pp. 340. $48 cloth.

Unspeakable Acts: The Avant-Garde Theatre of Terayama Shuji and Postwar Japan. By Carol Fisher Sorgenfrei. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2005; ix + 335 pp.; illustrated. $48.00 cloth.

<i>Unspeakable Acts: The Avant-Garde Theatre of Terayama Shuji and Postwar Japan</i>. By Carol Fisher Sorgenfrei. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2005; ix + 335 pp.; illustrated. $48.00 cloth.

Unspeakable Acts: The Avant-Garde Theatre of Terayama Shūji and Postwar Japan (review)

Reviewed by: Unspeakable Acts: The Avant-Garde Theatre of Terayama Shūji and Postwar Japan David Jortner Unspeakable Acts: The Avant-Garde Theatre of Terayama Shūji and Postwar Japan. By Carol Fisher Sorgenfrei . Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2005; pp. vii + 335. $48.00 cloth. For the past several years, Carol Fisher Sorgenfrei has been tempting conference attendees with excerpts from her forthcoming book, presenting alluring fifteen-to-twenty-minute snippets of the life and work of one of Japan's most enigmatic theatrical figures, Terayama Shūji. Although several scripts and essays about Terayama exist in English (see, for example, "Knock: Street Theatre," in Robert T. Rolf and John K. Gillespie, ed., Alternative Japanese Theatre: TenPlays), this volume is the first major English work about this fascinating and controversial playwright and director. In this text, Sorgenfrei uses theoretical and historical models to provide a comprehensive scholarly analysis of Terayama's life and career, and illustrates both the Japanese and Western cultural influences on his work. The book also contains translations of three Terayama plays as well as selections from his writings on theatre. Sorgenfrei's Unspeakable Acts is a scintillating work of research that greatly adds to current scholarship on modern Japanese theatre and the work of avant-garde theatre artists. For many years Terayama Shūji was one of the leading figures of the Japanese 1960s avant-garde theatre movement known as shōgekijō (little theatre). Terayama and his troupe, Tenjō Sajiki, performed numerous avant-garde plays throughout Japan and internationally. He was so influential on the Japanese avant-garde that several scholars, both in Japan and the West, mark his death in 1983 as the end of the shōgekijō movement. Despite this influence, there has (until now) been no book-length study of Terayama, and only a few of his performance pieces have been translated. Sorgenfrei's work remedies this situation. Her first four chapters present a scholarly overview of Terayama's life and work. The analytical patterns follow a loose biographical chronology, examining the major themes, influences, and styles of Terayama's [End Page 142] theatre. The first chapter presents a broad biographical overview of Terayama's life, which includes historical and cultural influences upon the playwright. The next three chapters examine different periods in the playwright / director's development, as well as provide theoretical tools for a greater understanding of his work. In the second chapter, Sorgenfrei discusses Terayama's theatrical explorations of psychology and family. Here, the author provides an interesting and useful tool for psychoanalytic theorists. In discussing Terayama's maternal relationship, she suggests Kosawa Heisaku's "Ajase complex" as a "culturally appropriate substitute in Japan for the father-centered Oedipus complex" (60). The Indian story of Prince Ajase tells of a child whose mother kills in order to conceive him, and upon birth, attempts to kill the child out of guilt, until she finally accepts her role as a mother. The son, upon reaching adulthood, learns of his history, attempts to kill his mother, and is deserted by all but her, eventually leading to reconciliation and forgiveness. Not only is the Ajase story mirrored in the personal history of Terayama and his mother, but this idea provides scholars with new ways of approaching traditional psychoanalytic theory. As Sorgenfrei deftly shows, the ideas contained within the Ajase complex can be used to analyze familial, gendered, and sexual relationships in literature. In the third chapter, Sorgenfrei explores Terayama's interest in the removal of traditional theatrical boundaries, including his (sometimes) controversial uses of mobile audiences and nontraditional theatre spaces. In this chapter, she also looks at how this nontraditional staging reflected the thematic content of Terayama's work, with its emphasis on shifting identities, trickster figures, and cultural (and familial) dependency. The fourth chapter looks at the cult of Terayama and explores the nostalgic and postmodern effects of his life and work. One of the more interesting aspects of this chapter is Sorgenfrei's comparison of the cultural roles played by Terayama and Mishima Yukio. Although Mishima was the political antithesis of Terayama, the author illustrates how both of them (as well as the singer Misora Hibari) created a cult-like...

Unspeakable Acts: The Avant-Garde Theatre of Terayama Shūji and Postwar Japan (review)

Unspeakable Acts: The Avant-Garde Theatre of Terayama Shūji and Postwar Japan (review)