Themed Issue on the Performativity of Masks in Theatre and Culture
Volume 4, Number 1, 2021
The history of the ‘mask’ is invariably as old as the history of the theatre. The traditional use of the mask as one of the most important ‘performing objects’ goes back, at least, to the Paleolithic Age. As an essential means of disguise or concealment or deception, the mask has been used widely in sacred rituals, theatrical conventions, folk performances and so on across the globe primarily to entertain the masses. The performative use of the masks could be seen in the early classical theatres of Greece, India and China, in Tshechu of Bhutan, Noh Theater and Kabuki of Japan, Commedia dell’arte of Italy, Cupak of Bali and in puppetry all over the world. India too has a very rich tradition of using masks in theatrical practices; and some of the well-known examples of the ‘masked performances’ in India are the Sanskrit Classical theatres, Yakshagana, Krishnattam, Ramman of Uttarakhand, Prahlada Natika of Odisha, Chham in Tibet, the facial masked performance called Kathakali of Kerala and so on. In several folk performances of Bengal like Chhau Naach, Gambhira and others, the mask is an integral performing object.
John Emigh, author of the book called Masked Performance: The Play of Self and Other in Ritual and Theater posits that the mask acts, especially, in the non-Western theatrical traditions (chiefly in Africa and Asia) as a significant tool for “revelation” rather than of “concealment”, and thus, it gives voice to the “ineffable”. Quite obviously, the mask enables, as Emigh puts it, in establishing the connection between the individual ‘Self’ and the ‘Other’ adversarial forces. It is this interplay of the ‘Self’ and the ‘Other’ that the mask or the ‘masked performance’ allows, clustering together, what the famous British cultural anthropologist Victor Turner, described as the ‘liminal phrase’. According to Turner, this ‘liminal phrase’ helps in clumping together ‘the betwixt’ and ‘the between’. However, Prof Richard Schechner has given a different opinion that the performativity of the mask is not merely confined to the theatrical spaces to “cloak the identity of the masker”; rather it has a broader function in the socio-cultural milieu. And herein comes the functional role of a mask as one of the essential means of resistance or protection and the use of such ‘functional masks’ could be seen in medical fields, in sports and warfare. Actors in the theatre, magicians and festival celebrants, however, resort to the performative roles of the mask. In the present pandemic situation, the social individuals are sometimes wearing masks to perform safety knowing well that such ordinary masks won’t help them to fight the virus; the mask protects them from various repressive means of the state apparatus. It is interesting to note that in today’s world mask even performs different other roles: it is used as a fashionable accessory and also as an ideological/ political symbol.
The issue comprises interviews, research articles and scholarly papers on the performativity of masks in theatrical as well as in different other socio-cultural contexts accommodating theoretical analysis coming from a wide range of emerging fields like Cultural Studies, Social Media Studies, Comparative Literature, Cyberspace Studies, and Popular Culture and so on. For example, the masking for Dionysus in ancient Greek theatre, the masked performances of Bengal, and the ritualistic masked dances of North East India and so on. This issue also gives scopes to the budding scholars to take interviews not only of experts but also of practising artists like Dharmendra Sutradhar, an internationally acclaimed Chhau Mask maker from Purulia who has discussed in depth the changing modes of the making of Chhau mask.
Mir Ahammad Ali
Chief Editor
The Golden Line
(ISSN 2395-1583 [Print], ISSN 2395-1591 [Online])
& Assistant Professor, Department of English,
Bhatter College, Dantan