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Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:
http://hdl.handle.net/1956/2549
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| Title: | Vokal identitet : en diskursteoretisk analyse av profesjonelle sangeres identitetsdannelse |
| Authors: | Schei, Tiri Bergesen |
| Issue Date: | 14-Dec-2007 |
| Publisher: | The University of Bergen |
| Abstract: | The main focus of the dissertation is identity formation. Three Norwegian professional singers
within classical, pop, and jazz music, respectively, have been interviewed about their thoughts
on becoming and being singers. What challenges does the stage pose? What are the demands
of perfection that mould singers’ practices? How are they governed by cultural norms
embedded in vocal ideals, voice genres, educational concerns, conceptions of normality and
common sense? What possibilities and limitations for independent vocal expression and
creation exist within classical, pop and jazz singing?
The design of the dissertation lies within a Foucault-oriented discourse theoretical
perspective. Concepts like “discursive space”, “governmentality”, “self-technologies” and
“subject positions” are among the tools used for analysing vocal identity. The main concept is
self-technology which can be understood as a disciplinary technique that the individual
applies to him/herself in order to be more competent. Self-technologies are practices that are
constituted when an individual submits to the discursive logic that constructs an individual’s
perceptions of what is normal, true and correct. When the informants describe their
professions, they talk about self-technologies, the practices through which they identitate. The
neologism identitation designates the ongoing, unfinished and complex processes that create,
confirm and renew a person’s identities. Identitaton is to be, to have and to seek identity(ies).
The study shows that genre is critical for vocal identitation by structuring the discursive
rooms where singers’ professionalism is confirmed and corrected. Even though discursive
spaces change over time, they structure the conventions that delimit the range of possibilities
within which a subject has to position him/herself, and hence to identitate. Singers are offered
subject positions through the circulating discourses of the vocal cultural room, the cultural
field where singers develop, interact and perform their art.
The singer can actively influence his/her life as a professional singer if s/he acknowledges the
normative pressure from institutions, curricula, media, colleagues and audiences. Through
reflecting on his/her own practice and identitation processes, s/he may actively choose goals,
strategies and self-technologies within the vocal cultural room. Such awareness of choice may
lead to playful, critical and bold identitation, and thereby contribute to the development and
change of dominant vocal discourses.
The study shows that the singers, despite classifying themselves in different genres,
experience the same demands, practice common self-technologies, and are regulated in part
by the same discourses. The three singers are all influenced by the central ideals of the
classical vocal discourse. The analysis indicates that classical singing maintains a hegemonic
position among professional singers. When singers, through identitation, come to embody
cultural norms, this represents an important canalization of power. |
| URI: | http://hdl.handle.net/1956/2549 |
| ISBN: | 978-82-308-0471-1 (print version) |
| Appears in Collections: | The Grieg Academy, Department of Music
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