Presencing the Wound: Mediations of Trauma, Affect, and Memory in Simon Stone's Ibsen House

Abstract

This thesis introduces and develops a processual methodology of presencing, a manner of embodied cognitive thinking and empathic connection that extends from an affective consciousness of singular and collective existence. This is facilitated through an analysis of the theatre production of Ibsen House by Simon Stone which constitutes central themes of trauma and memory. Within the context of performance, my research assembles ways of sensing, relating, and understanding to mediate different knowledge forms and develop capacities for empathic thought. My argument is that an affective presencing can further a sense of social-political consciousness, as exemplified through my analysis of Ibsen House. The impetus for this research is ecological, in that it proposes a way of thinking about our interconnectedness as entities and our positions within dominant social orders. A core analytical framework is that of affect, as per the work of Lauren Berlant, in that the thesis abides by certain beliefs as to how crisis is encountered and contemplated: first by affect, then by thought, but also simultaneously. This study comprises four outlooks that guide: first, to study the infrastructure of trauma through the environment; second, to understand the spectatorship of the wound through its relational presence; third, to locate the mediation of traumatic affects through instinctual responses; and fourth, to develop an ecological perspective of Ibsen House by situating presencing observations along existent research in the field of trauma studies.