^ABSTRACT

^{The globalizing process and the emergence of critical perspectives in the humanities have brought to light how necessary it is to call into question the past knowledge that Western academic tradition has sedimented on the rest of the world. Indeed, the implementation of performance theory and other critical perspectives such as postcolonialism has led to a more comprehensive approach to precolonial performances in Africa. Nevertheless, quite little so far has been achieved to analyze and problematize the modalities through which the scholarly discourse in the fields of Theatre and Performance Studies, and of the historiography of the performing arts relates to those performances. I apply the Foucauldian approach to discourse analysis to deconstruct the narrative the Western academic tradition has developed and to problematize the impact entailed by its hegemonic position on precolonial African performances. I apply performance analysis on the dramaturgical structure of the Koteba, an Indigenous performance genre from the Bamana people of Mali to highlight the interplay between its artistic and performative features. One major finding in this move is the theorization of what I call the dramaturgy of the rings. This work highlights and problematizes the modalities through which the performative turn which occurred in the humanities in the 1990s epitomizes a paradigm shift in the fields of Theatre and Performance Studies. I suggest that and explain how the knowledge brought about by a new discourse would contribute to paving the way to an alternative genealogy of the performing arts, which would widen the research area of theatre studies and diversify artistic practices.}