Browsing by Author "Jephta, Amy"

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    Free falling bird : an encounter with the Trojan women of Euripides.
    (2012) Jephta, Amy
    The focus of this research relates to finding praxis for making theatre within a contemporary feminist framework with specific emphasis on writing for the theatre. It explores ways of opening up the possibility of feminist conversations beginning with the written text and how playwriting may problematise the representations of women on stage. This essay is a supporting document to my script, Free Falling Bird, as well as a supplement to the full production of the script in partial fulfillment of my MA degree in Theatre and Performance with a focus on playwriting. Firstly, I will establish a context by tracing the history and evolution of feminist performance practice, focusing especially on process, form and purpose, and introduce Sue-Ellen Case’s notion of contiguity as well as recent developments in post-feminism from theorists Elizabeth Wright and Elin Diamond. I will use the work of Roland Barthes, Richard Schechner, Hans-Thiess Lehmann and Catherine Bouko to trace parallel developments in the field of post dramatic theatre, especially with regards to the ‘death of the author’ and the decentralisation of the playwright as the maker of meaning. Finally, I will introduce Simone Benmussa and Helene Cixous’ term ‘spheres of disturbance’, as adopted by Elaine Aston, to propose how feminist playwriting may offer an intervention which disturbs the representations of women on stage. Secondly, I explore a practical model for creating and staging theatre which is located in the ‘sphere of disturbance’. Using a scheme proposed by Aston, I will offer an analysis of my own text and look at Diamond’s writing on narrative interventions in order to offer ways that the feminist text may be ‘ activated’ in performance. Finally, I return to the post dramatic, focusing on Hans-Thiess Lehmann’s notion of independent auditory semiotics, Liz Mills’ writing on acoustic spaces and Bouko’s ideas around the jazz body of the performer to investigate how the silenced female can articulate, speak and sound herself. I will lastly discuss how the combination of theory and practice articulated in this essay will feed into my own process as I work towards staging work which embodies and gives voice to the female experience.
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    Questions for Amma: Tracing the manifestations of violence on the South African Indian Female body
    (2018) Naicker, Kivithra; Jephta, Amy
    “[i]n the eyes of the law, a woman is both Eve and Eva. As a pure, fragile female she must be specially protected; as a seductive object, from whom men must be protected. In both cases women are the victims” (Navi Pillay in Gqola, 2015: 36). This research investigates performance as a medium through which the South African Indian female body transgresses and transcends the limitations and barriers of identity, culture and society. As this study positions the brown female body as a site for violence and codification, it challenges the mythical and stereotypically gendered representations of brown females in media and culture. In examining the performance of gender through the performative case studies supporting this research, this study critically engages with the fluid and shifting territory of identity and culture, tracing a feminist tradition beyond western notions, challenging overlooked cultural and domestic injustices which perpetuate a culture of patriarchy. Rape culture thrives on manufacturing power and fear, with rape being “sexualised violence” that has “survived as long as it has because it works to keep patriarchy intact” (Gqola, 2015: 21). Through performance, this study documents the manifestations of violence on the brown female body, theoretically engaging with how subtle and surreptitious forms of violence work to reinforce patriarchy playing into rape culture, perpetuating a cycle of oppression. In examining the 'tradition’ of Indian theatre in South Africa, this research examines the theatrical devices used to express anxieties, crisis of identity and representation, focusing on the South African Indian female experience through an auto-ethnographical study interrogating my identity and position as a South African Indian (Hindu-Tamil) female, artist, and feminist scholar. This study also unpacks the complexities and contradictions embedded within the representations of the brown female body in theatre, 'Indian’ and Hindu culture through a feminist lens, arguing that gender stereotypes perpetuate a cycle of oppression; highlighting ways in which the brown female body is trained and disciplined into performing as an Indian woman.