Tom Fielder
Tom Fielder is a PhD candidate in the department of Psychosocial Studies at Birkbeck, with a passion for theatre and impromptu dramatics. His contribution to the conference will entail an experimental theatricalisation of his thesis, which is supposed to help us think about Brexit and psychoanalysis. There will be some strong language, and those likely to be distressed by satirical impersonations of Boris Johnson are encouraged to appropriately prepare themselves.
Title: A Dramatization of Brexit Psychobabble
In this presentation I would like to explore the potential of creative practice to more effectively communicate the concerns of my doctoral research. In particular, I would like to reconfigure my research as an object of theatrical performativity or ‘play’. By rearranging the discursive objects of my academic research in this way, I aim to question the nature of knowledge production in psychosocial studies, and to draw attention to the limitations of more conventional modes of academic ‘performance’. The dual focus of my research – Brexit and psychoanalysis – lends itself particularly well to such a dramatization: the Hollywood fascination with the psychoanalytic encounter on the one hand; the familiar media spectacle of Brexit and its television personalities on the other. By bridging Brexit and psychoanalysis theatrically, I hope to creatively disrupt my own ongoing research activities, and to extend my analysis into a theatrical mode which may, in some ways, be more suited to its subject.
Title: A Dramatization of Brexit Psychobabble
Abstract
In this presentation I would like to explore the potential of creative practice to more effectively communicate the concerns of my doctoral research. In particular, I would like to reconfigure my research as an object of theatrical performativity or ‘play’. By rearranging the discursive objects of my academic research in this way, I aim to question the nature of knowledge production in psychosocial studies, and to draw attention to the limitations of more conventional modes of academic ‘performance’. The dual focus of my research – Brexit and psychoanalysis – lends itself particularly well to such a dramatization: the Hollywood fascination with the psychoanalytic encounter on the one hand; the familiar media spectacle of Brexit and its television personalities on the other. By bridging Brexit and psychoanalysis theatrically, I hope to creatively disrupt my own ongoing research activities, and to extend my analysis into a theatrical mode which may, in some ways, be more suited to its subject.