The failure of theatre studies as an international subject?

TDR/The Drama Review, 2011

Matters: Theatres in the Second Part of the 20th Century) by Valentina Valentini, represents a breakthrough in theatre studies and performance theory outside of the Anglo-Saxon world. Its publication in Italy can be compared to the innovative works of Patrice Pavis (Languages of the Stage, 1982), Marco de Marinis (Capire il teatro [To Understand Theatre], 1988), and Hans-Thies Lehmann (The Postdramatic Theatre, 1999), which each introduced a major change in European theatre studies. A renowned Italian theatre scholar and professor at La Sapienza University in Rome, Valentini modestly claims that her book is meant as a textbook for teachers and students of theatre and performance practice and theory. However, it is also accessible to nonspecialists, who might be unfamiliar with the "archaeology" of contemporary performing arts and their main aspects: its 200 pages are very well equipped with numerous footnotes, titles, and sources, and richly illustrated with photographs from various historical and contemporary performances. Some of these represent memorable moments in the history of theatre and performance, while others serve to illustrate the main hypothesis: the complex relations between different performance and artistic practices can only be examined and analyzed from a contemporary philosophical perspective which, in turn, can contribute to the development of the field of theatre studies. References

2004

The notion of theatricality has, in recent years, emerged as a key term in the fields of Theatre and Performance Studies. Unlike most writings dealing with theatricality, this thesis presents theatricality as a rubric for a particular discourse. Beginning with a casestudy of a theatre review, I read an anti-theatricalist bias in the writer's genre distinctions of "theatre" and "performance". I do not, however, test the truth of these claims; rather, by deploying Foucauldian discourse analysis, I interpret the review as a "statement" and analyse how the reviewer activates notions of "theatricality" and "performance" as objects created by an already existing discourse. Following this introduction, the body of thesis is divided into two parts. The first, "Mapping the Discursive Field", begins by surveying a body of literature in which a struggle for interpretive dominance between contesting stakeholders in the fields of Theatre and Performance Studies is fought. Using Samuel Weber's reframing of Derrida's analysis of interpretation of interpretation, in Chapter 2, I argue that the discourse of the field is marked by the struggle between "nostalgic" and "affirmative" interpretation, and that in the discourse that emerges, certain inconsistencies arise. The disciplines of Theatre, and later, Performance Studies in the twentieth century are characterised, as Alan Woods (1989) notes, by a fetishisation of avant-gardist practices. It is not surprising, therefore, that the values and concerns of the avant-garde emerge in the discourse of Theatre and CHAPTER 7: The 16th/17th Century Epistemology Of "Theatre" 205 7.1 The medieval sense of being 206

Modern Drama, 2006

2020

The objective to set up archives dedicated to collecting, collating, and researching performance practices in post-independence India, in order to rewrite colonial histories with a vision for the future, was a project initiated by the new state, then subsequently forgotten. However, this is an apt entry point to open up critical debates about how the post-colonial euphoria urged new scholarship and how, at the core of this, theatre and performance practices would be redefi ned. In tracing the history and politics of discourses around performativity and theatricality in the United States and Europe, Janelle Reinelt draws attention to the fact that the applications of the terms theatre and performance resonate with "local struggles" and enable "a challenge to these discourses in light of an increasingly urgent imperative to think and resituate performance theory in relation to our contemporary transnational situation" (2002 , 201). She argues that theatre and performance are not mere linguistic distinctions but are rooted in diff erent conceptual foundations with political implications. In post-colonial contexts, particularly in India, debates have focused on the dichotomy of theatre as a colonial import along with a wide range of heterogeneous local practices referred to as performance. Reviving, recovering, and archiving performances was therefore a much-anticipated and pedagogic post-colonial project of rewriting histories. As has become apparent, this was not merely in the realm of idealism, but ultimately had long-term implications for the discipline of theatre and performance studies in the Indian as well as other post-colonial contexts. Thus, in view of the colonial experience and its aftermath, the binary of theatre and performance collapsed into reductive categories layered with diff erent meanings than the ones prevalent in Western academies. This aff ected the course of the discipline in India and provoked crucial debates around secularism vis-à-vis communitarianism. Signifi cant in this context, I argue, was an intervention in the original binary perspectives, which often extended or changed meanings. The idea behind landmark debates is the hypothesis that while theatre histories can be researched and written, the study of performance practices cannot follow the critical historical method that is widely practised in the discipline. Instead, ethnography was seen as the means to research, archive, and write on performance practices. Meanwhile, theatre, which continued

Documenta

I am going to spend some time in this paper locating and critiquing conventional theatre criticism and writing in England, but I shall draw upon and quote much more freely from writings on new and experimental theatreindicating my belief that they show how a fruitful dialogue can be established between critique and practice.

The Cambridge Companion to Theatre History (Review). Edited by David Wiles and Christine Dymkowski. TDR 58.4/T224 (Winter 2014).

Anglia

This article draws from the contemporary French thinker François Laruelle to perform a ‘non-philosophical’ analysis of recent literature from the analytic or Anglo-American philosophy of theatre. Much of this literature, I argue, suffers from the problem of application, namely: non- or extra-theatrical assumptions are both brought to bear upon and remain unchallenged by the philosopher’s encounter with theatre – particularly in the form of assumptions as to the nature of philosophy or the role or position of philosophy with respect to other forms of thought, such as theatre and performance. Having sought to articulate some of the problems arising from the conception of the philosophy of theatre as a definitional project, the article then considers – via Laruelle – what kind of ‘stance’ a philosophy of theatre might need to occupy in order not to impose its thought on theatre but to be open to theatre’s thoughts.

Baleia na Rede, 2012

The article focuses on the possible relationships between cultural history and theater. In order to do so, it alludes to the different meanings that this art had in the West, especially from the point of view of the opposition between the dramatic text and the staging. A complex semiotic object, the theatrical phenomenon also encompasses the audience, which means that its historical narrative must encompass both sides of the scene. As a referral and exemplification of possible historiographical paths, three important titles by international playwrights, focused on questions of interpretive method, are examined: Marco