The body unmasked : the uncanny and masked acting

Abstract

The body is not only a natural conglomeration of different internal organs, but it is also the site around/on/through which narratives of subjectivity are constructed and deconstructed. The Freudian unheimlich, translated into English as ‘the uncanny’, transgresses the rules of signification established by such narratives. This study focuses on a particular play on the site of the body, i.e. the ‘body’ suggested by masked acting. Masked acting takes place within the structure of the uncanny in transgressing the discourse of the transcendent self based on the meaningfulness, expediency and unity of the ‘body’. The case study is the masks designed by Kuzgun Acar for Mehmet Ulusoy’s 1975 Théatre de Libérté production of Bertol Brecht’s The Caucasian Chalk Circle.