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GENDER AS RITUAL AND ‘POETIC RITUALITY’
IN CONTEMPORARY ‘BIOSCIENCE DRAMA’
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BIRTE GIESLER
The following article explores the relationship between social and aesthetic
drama in regard to the interaction of gendered bodies, rituals, and “poetic
rituality” in contemporary plays addressing topical issues of human biotech¬
nology development such as fertility medicine and human cloning. After an
introduction to the newly coined term “bioscience drama” and a selection of
relevant dramas, Saskia Fischer’s concept of “poetic rituality” will be applied
to a sample German-language “bioscience drama.” In doing so, not only will the
strong connection between ritual, drama, and social norms become apparent,
but also this new dramatic subgenre will turn out to be an aesthetic vehicle of
a multi-layered critique of ritualized gender norms.
GENDER AS RITUALIZED SOCIAL DRAMA
From the perspective of a praxeological theory of culture, both sex and gender
identity are hardly a manifestation of biologically determined essence but rath¬
er embodied cultural knowledge materialized in the body. As Andreas Reck¬
witz points out in his theory of social practices, it is in the bodily techniques
of “gender management” that gender identity is produced.’ However, according
to the influential gender theorist Judith Butler: “the materiality of sex is con¬
structed through a ritualized repetition of norms.”* Gender identity can not
only be perceived as a physical embodiment of cultural routines and everyday
practices but also as a product of constant and ritualized performance. Gender
identity can thus also be considered a prime example of our ongoing “doing
culture” and both the theatricality as well as the rituality of everyday culture.
However, although hitherto there has been no coherent theory of ritual and
rituality, current research in studies on drama, ritual, and performance agree
Andreas Reckwitz: Kreativität und soziale Praxis. Studien zur Sozial- und Gesellschaftstheo¬
rie, Bielefeld, transcript Verlag, 2016, 70.
? Judith Butler: Bodies That Matter. On the Discursive Limits of “Sex”, London, Routledge, 1993,
X.
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