Interrupting the courtroom organism: screaming bodies, material affects and the theatre of cruelty

Brooks, V. 2019. Interrupting the courtroom organism: screaming bodies, material affects and the theatre of cruelty. Law, Culture and the Humanities. 15 (2), pp. 332-351. https://doi.org/10.1177/1743872114543767

TitleInterrupting the courtroom organism: screaming bodies, material affects and the theatre of cruelty
TypeJournal article
AuthorsBrooks, V.
Abstract

This article offers a method of reading the courtroom which produces an alternative mapping of the space. My method combines a reading of Antonin Artaud’s Theatre of Cruelty with a Deleuzian theoretical analysis. I suggest that this is a useful method since it allows examination of the spatial praxes of the courtroom which pulsate with a power to organize, terrorize and to judge. This method is also able to conceptualize the presence of ‘‘screaming’’ bodies and living matter which are appropriated to build, as well as feed the presence and functioning of the courtroom space, or organism. By using a method that articulates the cry of these bodies in the shadow of the organism, it becomes clear that this cry is both unwelcome and suppressed by the courtroom. The howl of anxious bodies enduring the process and space of the law can be materialized through interruptions to the courtroom, such as when bodies stand when they should not and when they speak when they should be silent. These vociferous actualizations of the scream serve only to feed the organism they seek to disturb, yet if the scream is listened to before it disrupts, the interruption becomes-imperceptible to the courtroom. Through my Artaudian/Deleuzian reading, I give a voice to the corporeal gasp that lingers before the cry, which is embedded within the embodied multiplicity from which it is possible to draw a creative line of flight. The creative momentum of this line of flight produces a sustainable interruption to the courtroom process, which instead of being consumed by the system, has the potential to produce new courtroom alignments. My text therefore offers an alternative reading of the courtroom, and in doing so also offers a refined understanding of how to productively ‘‘interrupt’’ the courtroom process.

Keywordscourtroom; deleuze; artaud; affect; material; body; interruption
JournalLaw, Culture and the Humanities
Journal citation15 (2), pp. 332-351
ISSN1743-8721
Year2019
PublisherSage
Publisher's version
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1177/1743872114543767
Publication dates
Published online21 Jul 2014
Published in print01 Jun 2019

Related outputs

Rethinking Research Ethics in the Humanities: Principles and Recommendations
Kasstan, Jonathan R., Pearson, Geoff and Brooks, Victoria 2023. Rethinking Research Ethics in the Humanities: Principles and Recommendations. University of Westminster. https://doi.org/10.34737/w36yq

Mistress Ethics: On the Virtues of Sexual Kindness
Brooks, V. 2022. Mistress Ethics: On the Virtues of Sexual Kindness. Bloomsbury.

Sexual offences and to have done with the courtroom
Brooks, V. 2021. Sexual offences and to have done with the courtroom. in: Bartel, R. and Carter, J. (ed.) Handbook on Space, Place and Law Edward Elgar. pp. 61-70

A Recipe for Shocking the Urban Body
Brooks, V. 2020. A Recipe for Shocking the Urban Body . Lo Squaderno - Explorations in Space and Society . 56 (0), pp. 57-60.

Greer's 'bad sex' and the future of consent
Brooks, V. 2020. Greer's 'bad sex' and the future of consent. Sexuality and Culture. 24, pp. 903-921. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-019-09671-x

Fucking Law: the search for her sexual ethics
Brooks, V. Forthcoming. Fucking Law: the search for her sexual ethics. Zero Books.

Ethical awareness and socio-legal research in the UK
Brooks, V. 2019. Ethical awareness and socio-legal research in the UK. in: Mason, M., Creutzfeldt, N. and McConnachie, K (ed.) Routledge Handbook of Socio-Legal Theory and Methods Routledge.

Dude Looks Like a Lady: Gender Deception, Consent and Ethics
Brooks, V. and Clayton Thompson, J. 2019. Dude Looks Like a Lady: Gender Deception, Consent and Ethics. Journal of Criminal Law. 83 (4), pp. 258-271. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022018319834373

Samantha's Suffering: why sex machines should have rights too
Brooks, V. Forthcoming. Samantha's Suffering: why sex machines should have rights too. The Conversation.

Fucking (with) Academia: Ethics, Epistemology, Method
Brooks, V. 2018. Fucking (with) Academia: Ethics, Epistemology, Method . Ways of Knowing: Epistemology and Law. University of Westminster 31 May 2018

Under the fucking skin: a whore and her hotel room door
Brooks, V. 2018. Under the fucking skin: a whore and her hotel room door. Lo Squaderno - Explorations in Space and Society . 48, pp. 59-62.

Fucking Law (A New Methodological Movement)
Brooks, V. 2018. Fucking Law (A New Methodological Movement). Journal of Organizational Ethnography. 7 (1), pp. 31-43. https://doi.org/10.1108/JOE-09-2017-0043

Let’s talk about sex: deception, ethics and consent
Clayton Thompson, J. and Brooks, V. 2018. Let’s talk about sex: deception, ethics and consent. Socio-Legal Studies Association 2018. University of Bristol, UK 27 - 29 Mar 2018

Fucking Law: A Female Autoethnographer's Sex Research
Brooks, V. 2017. Fucking Law: A Female Autoethnographer's Sex Research . 4th European Geographies of Sexualities Conference. Barcelona 13 - 15 Sep 2017

Fucking Law (A New Methodological Movement)
Brooks, V. 2017. Fucking Law (A New Methodological Movement). 12th Annual Ethnography Symposium . University of Manchester 30 Aug - 01 Sep 2017

F#cking research ethics through radical method: autoethnography and the field of environmental law
Brooks, V. 2017. F#cking research ethics through radical method: autoethnography and the field of environmental law . in: Brooks, V. and Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos, Andreas (ed.) Research Methods in Environmental Law: A Handbook Gloucester, UK; Northampton, USA Edward Elgar. pp. 534-555

Ethics beyond immanence: rupturing law’s method through sex research
Brooks, V. 2016. Ethics beyond immanence: rupturing law’s method through sex research. PhD thesis University of Westminster Law https://doi.org/10.34737/9z8wv

Transgender Freedom and the Law: A Liberal-Poststructural Discussion on McNally
Clayton Thompson, J. and Brooks, V. 2014. Transgender Freedom and the Law: A Liberal-Poststructural Discussion on McNally. Critical Legal Conference. University of Sussex 06 Sep 2014

Sun, sea, sand and sex: the coastal sexuality of materially open legal subjects
Brooks, V. 2014. Sun, sea, sand and sex: the coastal sexuality of materially open legal subjects. 4th International Emotional Geographies Conference. University of Groningen, Netherlands 03 Jul 2013

Sex, law & posthuman encounters: an examination of sexual deviance at the coast
Brooks, V. 2014. Sex, law & posthuman encounters: an examination of sexual deviance at the coast. Democracy, rights and reason(s). University of Westminster 13 Feb 2014

No room for law in the folds of the soul: entangling and unraveling law and sexuality
Brooks, V. 2014. No room for law in the folds of the soul: entangling and unraveling law and sexuality. Creative Constraints. UCL 03 Nov 2014

Confronting law affectively: encounters of a Patpong sex tourist
Brooks, V. 2014. Confronting law affectively: encounters of a Patpong sex tourist. Law and Critique. 25 (3), pp. 289-309. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10978-014-9137-5

Permalink - https://westminsterresearch.westminster.ac.uk/item/8y8qy/interrupting-the-courtroom-organism-screaming-bodies-material-affects-and-the-theatre-of-cruelty


Share this

Usage statistics

179 total views
352 total downloads
These values cover views and downloads from WestminsterResearch and are for the period from September 2nd 2018, when this repository was created.