f Hearing silence in Dylan Tighe’s Record: Madness, autobiographical performance and the ethical encounter

This article addresses the possibility of an ethical encounter in autobiographical performance concerning madness. Using previous work on autobiographical performance and the ethical thought of Emmanuel Levinas, it specifically analyses Dylan Tighe’s RECORD, an autobiographical work detailing Tighe’s experience with Ireland’s psychiatric system. It interrogates the relationship between the political and ethical in terms of madness. It argues against the notion that an ethical encounter develops automatically through the presence of the performer. Instead, it suggests such an encounter is inculcated through the particular aesthetic and political structure of the performance. The article analyses how RECORD uses and positions multiple forms of silence against one another to achieve such an effect. It notes how through the silence of RECORD, aesthetic interpretation of Tighe becomes ethically loaded.