Resonance: Performative Representation Between Presence and Virtuality

The performative turn in representation studies (Rai and Reinelt 2015; Rai et al. 2021; Saward 2017; 2020; Petrovic Lotina and Aiolfi 2023) puts a crucial emphasis on various senses of embodiment, highlighting, for example, how representatives body forth the represented through clothing or physical attributes (Ostiguy et al. 2021; Peetz 2021), or how bodily co-presence plays a crucial role in collective identity formation and constituency-making (Butler 2015; Wall 2021; Illés and László 2024). While this approach usefully complements the notion of representation as claim-making (Saward 2010; Severs 2012; Guasti and Geissel 2019), the polyphony of the notion of ’embodiment’ raises some important theoretical issues. One is the relationship between presence-based and mediated performances and their different affective possibilities (the latter is also captured in affect theory’s differentiation between atmospheres and affects – Anderson 2014; Trigg 2022). While some authors in performance studies (Phelan 1993; Fischer-Lichte 2008) emphasized the unique transformative potential of presence-based forms, Auslander (2022), at least recently, has underlined the co-constitutive and complementary relationship between presence-based and mediated performances. Taking Auslander’s view as its point of departure, the paper aims to contribute to the theorization of the relationship between presence-based and social media performances in the process of political representation by applying the concept of resonance to the problem. Resonance, understood as a form of mediation between multiple entities that mutually transform each other, has been applied in various fields, ranging from social theory (Rosa 2019) through affect theory (Mühlhoff 2019) to social movement research (Gordillo 2011; Wall 2021). Beyond its obvious affinity with the notion of performative representation as a constitutive process forming both the represented and the representatives, the concept may help theory-building on two levels. First, in capturing the affective dynamics of performances, serving as an alternative to traditional views of affective contagion or mimesis (Mühlhoff 2019) and as a conceptual bridge between notions of affective alignment (Jakimow 2022) and affective transformation (Knops 2022; Nussbaum 2013). Second, it may also help us capture the relationship between different arenas of performative representation by capturing presence-events and social media not merely as „spaces of resonance” (Rosa 2019) but also as themselves resonating with each other: virtual performances extending the reach of live ones, the latter authenticating the former, and both designed increasingly with these purposes in mind (Auslander 2022). To illustrate the concept's usefulness empirically, the paper analyzes the rapid rise of Hungary’s new opposition leader, Péter Magyar. This case seems a proper choice since it features both mentioned senses of resonance: analysts usually argue that Magyar very effectively combines social media performances and the orchestration of huge mass events in creating his constituency while he deserting Hungary’s governing party Fidesz and winning over both supporters of government and opposition arguably involved a complex process of affective resonance. The paper aims to document these resonance processes by combining an analysis of the affective elements of his performances on Facebook (using claim-making and multimodal analysis) and a sensory ethnographic study of embodied interactions and atmospheres at his rallies.