Suspension: Repeating repetition!
This introduction to the thematic section about repetition deals with the question of why we need to rethink the relation between repetition and performing arts. We claim that it is precisely with repetition that contemporary performing arts circle their field and are inscribed in social discourses, capital mechanisms of the labour market and the mechanisms of truth production and knowledge deployment. By considering two traditional presuppositions about the connection between theatre and repetition, we unfold their problematic nature and show why it is necessary to – again – talk about repetition and performance. Continuing with the critique of the paradigm of authenticity and the idea of artistic positivism or vitalism, we show that today the connection between performance and repetition needs to be considered through a modern conception of repetition, articulated already by Kierkegaard, through which we need to grasp not only that repetition is inscribed in contemporary performance, but also that it is precisely with repetition that performing practices are inscribed in the social and thereby generate their political power.