Abstract:
The mental representation of learning as a dominant model of knowledge acquisition has
been a long-standing formula for Western pedagogy. Within the sensation-idea-response
model, the subject perceives the objects, conceptualizes ideas in the brain, and generates
actions through the body. Thus, the relationship between perception and action is
hierarchical as the action is secondary to the perception. This epistemological problem is the
result of the disembodied mind propagated by the Cartesian tradition. It is no exception when
it comes to the discourse of acting: this split has also affected the rhetoric of acting; the actor’s
mind is regarded as the rational knower and the active mover of the body. However, some
actors in Sri Lankan theatre often refer to the phrase ‘bokken ranga pāmu’ (act from the gut)
as a metaphorical expression of how the actor should act truthfully. It further means that the
good actor does not act from the heart nor the intellect but from the ‘gut instinct’ of the body.
This metaphorical idea of gut replaces the disembodied rational thinking in the mind with
something fleshy embedded in the ‘intestine’ of the actor’s body. In this paper, I want to show
how a group of Sri Lankan actors challenge the idea of mental representation of learning by
introducing a visceral origination of their knowing and the synergy of thoughts and
imagination coupled with the lived body.
