Laughing It Off: Neo-Burlesque Striptease as a Theatre of Resistance
Abstract
This article examines ‘bodily humour’ within the context of neo-burlesque. By analyzing various techniques including the use of parody, exaggeration, costumes and make-up, it considers the ways in which bodily humour operates within counterhegemonic resistances through the use of pleasure, biopower and performances of new subjectivities. Nonetheless, it argues that, neo-burlesque’s continued focus on bodily display and objectification set parameters on the types of resistances that can unfold.References
Allen, R. C. (1991) Horrible Prettiness: Burlesque and American Culture. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
Bakhtin, M. M. (1941/1993] Rabelais and His World. Trans. Hélène Iswolsky. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Burke, K. (1937). Attitudes Toward History. New York: Editorial Publications Inc.
Buszek, M.E. (1999). Representing “Awarishness”: Burlesque, Feminist Transgression, and the 19th-Century Pin-up. The Drama Review. 43(4), 141-162.
Butler, J. (1993). Bodies that Matter: On the Discursive Limits of 'Sex'. New York: Routledge.
Butler, J. (1990). Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge.
Carlson, A. C. (1988). Limitations on the comic frame: Some witty American women of the nineteenth century. Quarterly Journal of Speech . 74 (3), 310-322.
Carroll, W. K. (2007). Hegemony and Counter-Hegemony in a Global Field. Social Justice Studies, 1(1), 36-66.
Chalcraft, J. & Y. Noorani, (2007). Counterhegemony in the Colony and Postcolony. London: Palgrave Macmillan
Douglas, M. (1975). Jokes In Implicit Meanings: Essays in Anthropology. London: Routledge, 90-115.
Ferreday, D. (2008). `Showing the girl': The new burlesque. Feminist Theory. 9 (1), 47- 65.
Foucault, M. (1978/2007) Security, Territory, Population. Graham Burchell (trans.). New York: Palgrave MacMillan.
Foucault, M. (1982). The Subject and Power in Critical Inquiry. 8(4), 777-795.
Foucault, M. (1978/1990). The History of Sexuality: Volume 1: An Introduction. Robert Hurley (trans). New York: Vintage Books.
Foucault, M. (1976). Les Mailles de Pouvoir. In Dix et Écrits. 4, 297. Paris: Gallimard.
Fraser, N. (1997). Heterosexism, Misrecognition and Capitalism: A Response to Judith Butler. Social Text 52/53, 15(3, 4) 279-289.
Friedman, A. (1996). "The Habitats of Sex-Crazed Perverts": Campaigns against Burlesque in Depression-Era New York City. Journal of the History of Sexuality. 7(2), 203-238.
Gilbert, D. (1968). American Vaudeville: Its Life and Times. New York: Dover Publications
Jenkins, R. (1994). Subversive Laughter: The Liberating Power of Comedy. New York: Free Press.
MacDonald, M. (1995). Representing Women: Myths of Femininity in the Popular Media. New York: St. Martin’s Press.
Nally, C. (2009). Grrrly Hurly Burly: Neo-burlesque and the Performance of Gender. Textual Practice. 23(4), 621-643.
Payne, L.A (1986). Humor that Makes Trouble. In The Art of Truth-Telling about Authoritarian Rule. Madison, Wisconsin: The University of Wisconsin Press. 68-77.
Ross, B.L (2000). Bumping and Grinding on the Line: Making Nudity Pay. Labour / Le Travail. 46, 221-250.
Scott, J.C. (1985). Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Sexual Overtones. (February 4, 2013). In Facebook. Retrieved June 4, 2014 from https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sexual-Overtones/76146528186
Shteir, R. (2004). Striptease: The Untold History of the Girlie Show. Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press.
Wesley, J.K. (2003). Exotic Dancing and the Negotiation of Identity: the Multiple Uses of Body Technologies. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography. 32 (6): 643-669.
Williams, R. (1980). Problems in Materialism and Culture. London: Verso and NLB.