A PERFORMATIVE ANALYSIS OF EXISTENTIAL “IN-BETWEENNESS” THROUGH THE THEATRICAL MATERIAL OF GOETHE’S FAUST
Arts Academy, cilt.2, sa.18, ss.5-19, 2026 (Hakemli Dergi)
- Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
- Cilt numarası: 2 Sayı: 18
- Basım Tarihi: 2026
- Doi Numarası: 10.56032/2523-4684.2026.2.18.5
- Dergi Adı: Arts Academy
- Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Index Copernicus, Root Indexing
- Sayfa Sayıları: ss.5-19
- Akdeniz Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet
Özet
Abstract
This article offers a performative analysis of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust as theatrical material, treating the play not as a philosophical document but as a stage event in which the existential condition of "in-betweenness" – the subject's irreducible inter-esse – is materially constituted through corporeality, bodily language, and dramaturgical structure. Working within contemporary theatre studies and the methodology of performative analysis, the study foregrounds the conditions of staged performance: blocking, vocal address, the temporal arc of the tragic horizon, and the limits of theatrical representation. The argument stages a sustained dramaturgical confrontation between two paradigms: the ancient tragic horizon, whose open temporal structure allows the performer a non-teleological encounter with contingency, and the Abrahamic teleological paradigm, identified here as a form of "ontological censorship" that fragments the performer-subject into permanent suspension between lived facticity and transcendental fictions. Drawing on the reflections of Heidegger, Shestov, and Strauss as instruments for theatrical reading – rather than for philosophical exegesis alone – the article traces how this schism is internalised in the performer's body and re-enacted on stage. The study contributes to theatre and performance research by proposing "Neo-Tragic Humanism" as a stage-oriented practice: a recovery of tragic consciousness in contemporary dramaturgy that reopens the conditions for authentic theatrical agency against fragmented subjectivity.