Unheard Voices and Walter Benjamins Judgement Day (SOFEIR conference) La Sorbonne

This paper is presented in two parts. The first section considers the ways in which the theatrical performer operates as a paradigmatic figure for neoliberal capitalism in Ireland and, specifically, how this ideological function makes the material conditions and conditions of labour appear invisible. Nevertheless, theatre and performance studies can offer valuable ways of analysing cultural history in order to detect political counter traditions and forms of agency that run counter to the dominant, state-oriented forms of politics. Thus, the second part of the paper argues that cultural phenomena such as dance crazes and moving statuesthough often considered incoherent, hysterically emotional, inconsequential, partisan or superstitious--may also be understood as the expression of radically alternative ways of thinking about political and social change.