When performance studies meet discourse theory

Despite its versatility as a methodological tool, discourse analysis suffers from a logocentric bias, a tendency to primarily focus on text while ignoring the non-textual components of discourse. Although poststructural approaches to discourse analysis like Discourse Theory (DT) have developed an understanding of discourse going beyond language, there are few practical methodological tools for scholars from these traditions to engage with these non-textual elements. This article fills that gap by providing an original qualitative methodological tool, the Political Performance Analysis Protocol (PPAP) which adapts one of the signature methods of Performance Studies to political performances. It does so by describing the four constitutive elements of political performances — background symbols and foreground scripts, actor, audience and mise-en-scène — and empirically illustrating them through the case of Greta Thunberg’s “How dare you?” performance at a United Nations to show the PPAP’s relevance as a tool complementing other forms of discourse analysis.