Performing Philemon: A rhetoric of accommodation or of crypto-revolution?

Paper by Marlon Winedt Nov 21, 2022

The joint session of Performance Criticism of the Bible and Other Ancient Texts (PC-BOAT) and Rhetoric and Early Christianity at the 2022 SBL Annual Meeting.

The letter of Philemon can be analyzed from different rhetorical perspectives. There are important points of contention: the nature of the relationship between Onesimus and Philemon, Paul and Onesimus and the latter's position as to the Christian faith. This paper intends to give some performance clues to the text of Philemon based on two particular rhetorical perspectives of the text, informed by an Afro-Caribbean theological perspective where notions of creole identity and emancipation play an important role. Semantic, rhetorical, and “spatial” units for performance will be illustrated. The presentation will be accompanied by a live performance of parts of the letter, showing alternate performance choices based on these two different rhetorical perspectives.

Watch the paper and performance: