Postdramatic Theatre and the Political: International Perspectives on Contemporary Performance

Description

Is postdramatic theatre political and if so how? How does it relate to Brecht's ideas of political theatre, for example? How can we account for the relationship between aesthetics and politics in new forms of theatre, playwriting, and performance? The chapters in this book discuss crucial aspects of the issues raised by the postdramatic turn in theatre in the late twentieth and early twenty-first century: the status of the audience and modes of spectatorship in postdramatic theatre; the political claims of postdramatic theatre; postdramatic theatre's ongoing relationship with the dramatic tradition; its dialectical qualities, or its eschewing of the dialectic; questions of representation and the real in theatre; the role of bodies, perception, appearance and theatricality in postdramatic theatre; as well as subjectivity and agency in postdramatic theatre, dance and performance. Offering analyses of a wide range of international performance examples, scholars in this volume engage with Hans-Thies Lehmann's theoretical positions both affirmatively and critically, relating them to other approaches by thinkers ranging from early theorists such as Brecht, Adorno and Benjamin, to contemporary thinkers such as Fischer-Lichte, Ranciere and others

Dr Jerome Carroll is lecturer in German Studies at the University of Nottingham, UK. Steven Giles is Professor Emeritus of German Studies and Critical Theory at the University of Nottingham, UK. He has contributed to Brecht on Art and Politics (Methuen Drama, 2003) as well as authoring books on Modern European Drama and Critical Theory. Dr Karen Jurs-Munby is a lecturer in Theatre Studies at the University of Lancaster, UK. She translated and wrote a critical introduction for Hans-Thies Lehmann's Postdramatic Theatre (2006).

In this collection, various case studies ground a series of arguments ascribing political force - variously conceived - to experimental theatre. As a whole, the book offers an important rejoinder to claims about postdrama's political apathy. -- Julia Jarcho, New York University * Modern Drama * The first of many such projects ... there is some fascinating work in development here. * Platform * This is a timely text, given that the politics of aesthetics has become an increasingly vital issue to contemporary theatre scholars and practitioners alike. ... The essays gathered here succeed in bearing vivid witness to the diversity of contemporary postdramatic practices. -- Ryan Anthony Hatch * PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art * This is a timely text, given that the politics of aesthetics has become an increasingly vital issue to contemporary theatre scholars and practitioners alike. ... The essays gathered here succeed in bearing vivid witness to the diversity of contemporary postdramatic practices, and a few of them stand out as genuinely incisive case studies. * PAJ: Performing Arts Journal *