Bokken Ranga Pamuda : Gut feeling instinct and rhetoric of Sri Lankan actor learning

Abstract

The mental representation of learning as a dominant model of knowledge acquisition has been a long-standing formula for Western pedagogy. Within the sensation-idea-response model, the subject perceives the objects, conceptualizes ideas in the brain, and generates actions through the body. Thus, the relationship between perception and action is hierarchical as the action is secondary to the perception. This epistemological problem is the result of the disembodied mind propagated by the Cartesian tradition. It is no exception when it comes to the discourse of acting: this split has also affected the rhetoric of acting; the actor’s mind is regarded as the rational knower and the active mover of the body. However, some actors in Sri Lankan theatre often refer to the phrase ‘bokken ranga pāmu’ (act from the gut) as a metaphorical expression of how the actor should act truthfully. It further means that the good actor does not act from the heart nor the intellect but from the ‘gut instinct’ of the body. This metaphorical idea of gut replaces the disembodied rational thinking in the mind with something fleshy embedded in the ‘intestine’ of the actor’s body. In this paper, I want to show how a group of Sri Lankan actors challenge the idea of mental representation of learning by introducing a visceral origination of their knowing and the synergy of thoughts and imagination coupled with the lived body. Keywords: Mental representation, perception, action, gut instinct, embodiment

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