Performance 2.0: Observations toward a Theory of the Digital Performance of Folklore

Buccitelli, Anthony Bak

doi:10.7330/9780874218909.c03

Cited by 19 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…New forms of digital folklore, such as memes, also have emerged. Anthony Buccitelli (Buccitelli 2012) has argued for a theory of digital performance, noting that even actions such as Facebook posts suggest that people take on the role of performer and become responsible for displays of communicative competence to an audience, even if the time and distance between performer and audience response (in the form of comment threads, repostings, and the embedding of other websites) is vast. What is interesting about the digital sphere for folk drama-the most "performance-oriented" of the folklore genres-is that it brings questions about participant interaction, contexts, audience and transformation to the fore in new and interesting ways.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Folk Drama

Gabbert

2018

Humanities

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract:This article provides an overview of how scholars in the discipline of folklore have approached the topic of folk drama over the past one hundred fifty years, arguing that, despite relative neglect in the field, folk drama is a valuable window into culture and should be taken more seriously. I begin with nineteenth century ideas about ritual drama that stem from Sir James Frazer. I then discuss the growing emphasis on context that emerged in the twentieth century, including overlaps between ideas about folk drama, performance, and theories of play more generally. I conclude by providing a brief overview of the relationship between play, drama, and politics, and suggest that contemporary digital realms, such as YouTube, offer a new ecology of folk drama that brings traditional questions about actors, context, play-frames, audience and transformation to the fore in new and interesting ways. Keywords: folk drama; folk plays; ritual drama; playIn the Introduction to his book Rethinking Folk Drama, Steve Tillis writes, "given the nearly universal impulse toward drama, it might well be that folk drama can teach us something not only about particular cultures, but about humanity at large" (Tillis 1999, p. 11). Tillis's provocative comment certainly suggests the potential for studies of folk drama to mount a challenge to the humanities, but while the impulse towards drama may well be universal, scholarly ideas about and approaches to folk drama are not. On the one hand the term "folk drama" is an etic term used by scholars in various disciplines to encompass different ideas and applied to a broad range of performance traditions. As an etic term, it easily imposes frameworks of interpretations that are not necessarily grounded in local understandings. When used in non-western contexts, for example, the term imposes western understandings of drama on traditions that may be more profitably understood as something else, such as worship, sacred retellings, or a visitation by deity, thus drawing disparate performance traditions into the same interpretive sphere. Additionally definitions and understandings of what actually constitutes folk drama have changed over time and this understanding is contingent upon a variety of factors that, themselves, have evolved. Folk drama therefore has been applied to a wide range of traditions that may or may not be related, making it difficult to define and universal conclusions unlikely. Yet on the other hand as a vernacular cultural performance intrinsically tied to immediate social, political, and cultural contexts, folk drama offers insights into and transformations of society unavailable in other expressive forms. Folk drama temporarily invokes an alternate world in order to speak about and comment on the real one in aesthetically heightened ways, providing participants with alternate means of viewing and understanding both society and themselves. In doing so folk drama does not merely comment on the world but rather, in its own small way, transforms it.This article provides an...

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Folk Drama

Gabbert

2018

Humanities

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Viewers see the screen as the gamer plays and talks over the experience, sharing their discoveries, observations, and challenges as they go. For a folkloristic application, see Buccitelli 2012. 4. Included within this grouping is the highly intertextual subgenre of creepypasta known emically as the "lost episode" format, which typically employs intricate stories that detail the mysterious or accidental discovery of shocking unreleased, unseen, or underground episodes of either fictional (user-created) or real, actual popular television programs in which major franchise characters are brutally harmed, killed, or both.…”

Section: Notesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Slender Man is Coming

Blank¹,

McNeill²

2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…A great deal of recent work in folkloristics has considered aspects of Internet-mediated communication (Blank 2012;Howard 2008;Buccitelli 2012). Of particular interest here are social media sites that allow for asynchronous interaction, and the sharing of narrative.…”

Section: The Generative Model In Online "Archives": Vaccination Hesitmentioning

confidence: 99%

Toward a Generative Model of Legend: Pizzas, Bridges, Vaccines, and Witches

Tangherlini¹

2017

Humanities

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract:We propose a generative model of the legend. The model is elaborated based on two case studies, the first of contemporary storytelling related to vaccination on parenting blogs, and the second of historical storytelling related to witchcraft and folk healing in nineteenth century Denmark. The model reveals the interdependent levels of the multiscale model, solving a problem of poor fit related to many two level models of folklore genre structure. The model supports the study of rumor, and the dynamics of storytelling, including the hyperactive transmission state of "viral" stories.

show abstract

Performance 2.0: Observations toward a Theory of the Digital Performance of Folklore

Cited by 19 publications

References 0 publications

Folk Drama

Folk Drama

Slender Man is Coming

Toward a Generative Model of Legend: Pizzas, Bridges, Vaccines, and Witches

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About