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Transitions and transcendence of the self: stage fright and the paradox of shy performativity

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posted on 2023-06-08, 21:09 authored by Susie ScottSusie Scott
This article explores the paradox of shy performativity, whereby people who identify as shy in everyday life can nevertheless give confident displays on stage. Professional performing artists’ accounts reveal that this is both enabled and complicated by transformations in consciousness concerning the Meadian social self. While taking on a fictional persona can provide liberating opportunities for the transcendent subject ‘I’, the critically self-doubting ‘Me’ reappears at certain moments, such as stage fright, transitions in and out of character, and disruptions of a scene’s dramatic frame. Managing the shifting boundaries between contrivance and reality creates ontological dangers, the brave pursuit of which presents a thrilling challenge for the shy performer. Symbolic Interactionist and dramaturgical theories are therefore applied alongside concepts of edgework and flow to analyse shy performance art as voluntary risk-taking action.

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Accepted version

Journal

Sociology

ISSN

0038-0385

Publisher

SAGE Publications

Issue

4

Volume

51

Page range

715-731

Department affiliated with

  • Sociology and Criminology Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2015-10-28

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2016-07-01

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2015-10-28

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