Browsing by Subject "professional wrestling"

The thesis at hand regards the form of performance called “professional wrestling”. A professional wrestling match is where two (or more) performers or wrestlers perform a bout with a predetermined outcome in and in the close proximity of a wrestling ring in front of a live audience. Thus, the performance is a part of a fictional combat sport in that the combatants work together in order to tell a story. This thesis concentrates on the fictionality of professional wrestling but also on the role of the live audience which is active and participatory. Lastly, professional wrestling is examined in the light of theories regarding participatory art. The primary research question of this thesis is the following: can professional wrestling realize the potentials of participatory art? Even though the primary goal of this thesis is not to offer an absolute explanation of the phenomenon of professional wrestling, it is a rather alien subject in aesthetics. Thus, the goals of chapters 1 and 2 are to explain the history of professional wrestling in the United States and to attempt to categorize it in the field of the arts. In chapter 3 professional wrestling is examined in the light of Kendall Walton’s theories on fiction formatted in his Mimesis as Make-believe (1992). The chapter states that professional wrestling presents a uniform fictional world. Chapter 3 concludes in the idea that professional wrestling has in fact historically and organically engulfed its audience as a fundamental element of the fictional world it presents. Chapter 4 is a summary of the main theories regarding participatory art, the main sources on this subject being Claire Bishop’s Artificial Hells (2012) and Jacques Rancière’s The Emancipated Spectator (2011). According to Bishop’s definition, participatory art is such where people constitute the central artistic medium and material, in the manner of theater and performance. Bishop argues that the main motive of participatory art is a critique of spectacle and capitalism. According to Rancière, the ideal of participatory art is a “new theater”, where the audience’s role is to be an active and radical community audience, and even further, where the piece of art is a part of said community. The main thesis of chapter 4 is that the artworld fails to realize the ultimate goals of participatory art, for the artworld presupposes a certain power dynamic between the artist and the audience, and this dynamic leaves no room for a rancièrian “unpredictable subject”. Chapter 5 examines the role of the professional wrestling audience in the performance it is presented with. The chapter includes a thorough explanation on the participatory elements in professional wrestling and the significance of the audience regarding televised professional wrestling. The chapter especially concentrates on recent phenomena in the participation of the professional wrestling audience through case studies. The examples echo the notion that the professional wrestling audience has power that is the product of the fact that the professional wrestling audience is an element of a fictional world. Finally, chapter 5 examines professional wrestling through the ideals of participatory art formatted by Bishop and Rancière. The thesis concludes in the notion that even though professional wrestling fails to realize several ideals of participatory art, it has the potential to become an example of a rancièrian new theater. This is because unlike in participatory art where the dynamic between the artist and the audience is dictated by auxiliary contracts, in professional wrestling the audience has power which is a natural part of the fictional world presented to it. At times the professional wrestling audience can become an active and radical community audience, which is the ideal of participatory art according to Rancière. Thus, participatory art may have things to learn from professional wrestling.