Jarring Voices: Preserving and Releasing Memory in Suzan-Lori Parks’ Pickling (1988)
The playlet Pickling, presented by its author as an irresolvable equation between “spending time/saving time”, features a single character post-poning the beginning of her own performance, surrounded by jars containing memories and used as musical instruments to resurrect lost voices. Parks builds t...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Centre de Recherche "Texte et Critique de Texte"
2013-06-01
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| Series: | Sillages Critiques |
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| Online Access: | http://journals.openedition.org/sillagescritiques/3073 |
| Summary: | The playlet Pickling, presented by its author as an irresolvable equation between “spending time/saving time”, features a single character post-poning the beginning of her own performance, surrounded by jars containing memories and used as musical instruments to resurrect lost voices. Parks builds the work around a series of contradictions: refusing to perform still amounts to performing, albeit a different production, preserving pickled parts implies a physical transformation, then casting doubts as to the quality and legitimacy of the artifact compared to the original, etc. The tightening/opening up of the jars takes on a metaphorical, metatheatrical dimension typical of Parks' obsessively self-referential oeuvre. The juxtaposition of logical impossibilities turns the work into a hermeneutical quandary, leaving the equation unresolved: is Miss Miss a self-parody of or foil for Parks? Both and neither. |
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| ISSN: | 1272-3819 1969-6302 |