Investigating the Citizen-Subject and its Negotiating of Space within the Postcolonial Polity

Abstract

This doctoral thesis investigates and presents the concept of the citizen-subject, via the research question of who and what is the citizen-subject, and how and when did it emerge?. Methodologically relying on archival studies based on Diana Taylor’s ideas of the archive, the repertoire and the scenario, the thesis is an interdisciplinary project combining theories from the field of performance studies with postcolonial theories together with media studies and psychoanalysis.
From the postcolonial polity, the study traces the citizen-subject via Étienne Balibar’s citoyen sujet, over the idea of psychoanalysis as representing “a brilliant culmination of the Enlightenment project”, to Hortense Spillers and Frantz Fanon, who argue that psychoanalysis has little to offer those left outside of Enlightenment ideals. Today those who hold formal citizenship of a state, can nonetheless in practice be excluded from performative enactments such as the people and instead, in relation to said performative, function as dispensables (from Judith Butler’s dispensable).
Through three case studies – from Wales, Canada and the Central African Republic respectively – we will look at how the citizen-subject, sprung from the dispensables, via performativity and theatricality comes into being via the medium of television;

- Welsh nationalist Gwynfor Evans’s campaign between 5 May and 5 October 1980 to carry out a hunger strike in protest against the UK Conservative government’s decision not to establish a Welsh-language television channel.
- Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson’s appearance during the investigation known as the Dubin Inquiry, where Johnson was interrogated about his use of performance-enhancing drugs leading up to his 100m Olympic victory in Seoul in 1988.
- Jean-Bédel Bokassa’s coronation in 1977, a re-enactment of the 1804 ceremony that saw Napoleon Bonaparte crowned Emperor.

Through above mentioned case studies, the thesis discusses how the citizen-subject seeks out alternative ways to perform their subjecthood.

Date of Award	2024
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Aberystwyth University
Supervisor	Roger Owen (Supervisor) & Margaret Ames (Supervisor)