Shamefaced: Performing pedagogy, outing affect

This essay examines the performative role of shame in pedagogical process. It argues for a renewed attention to affect in the critical study of both performance and pedagogy, suggesting that shame, a quintessentially negative affect, makes tangible the contours of institutional and social power, while also revealing the corporeal and relational commitments to others that form the basis of both schooling and performance. Affect has the potential to shift the paradigm of subjectivity on which currently dominant theories of critical pedagogy and poststructuralist performance studies rest.