Abstract
Analyzes the conditions under which historical representation can be seen to contribute to the production and reformulation of cultural situatedness and historical understanding, with reference to the potential mediating role of live performance in conveying the reality of the past. Performance art, with its ambivalent status between immediate reality and artistic presentation, is better suited than (post)modernist literary forms of narrative to challenging traditional representation in terms of its ability to furnish the direct and concrete experience of otherness in relation to understanding associated with a genuinely successful encounter with history. In this context, the physical presence of the performer often generates a form of alienation in the viewer but also involves interpersonal communication rather than introspection as a form of understanding. Performance also allows the avoidance or suspension of interpretive or narrative closure and focuses attention on questions of power and representation.