1st Edition

Transcultural Theater

By Günther Heeg Copyright 2023
178 Pages 16 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

178 Pages 16 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

178 Pages 16 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

Transcultural Theater outlines the idea of a transcultural theater as enabling an approximation to and an interaction with the foreign and the alien. In consideration of the allure of fundamentalist and populist movements that promote the development and practices of xenophobia worldwide, this book makes a powerful plea for the art of theater as a medium of conviviality with (the)... Read more

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Part I: The Idea of Transcultural Theater

Chapter 1. In Becoming

Beyond Our Grasp

Theory, Experience, Idea

Theater-thinking

Writing Transcultural Theater

Brecht and Transcultural Theater

Chapter 2. The Topicality of Transcultural Theater

Time for Theater

Historical Constellation: Globalization and Fundamentalism

Chapter 3. Theatrical Imaginings

Globalization’s Theater of Images: The Situation Room

The Phantasmic Theater of Fundamentalism: PEGIDA

Chapter 4. Strangeness as the Site of Transcultural Theater

The Fascination with Faraway Strangeness: Artaud and Balinese Theater

Critique of Intercultural Theater

Reciprocal Exposure and the Appropriation of Cultural Traditions

Discovering Strangeness in Ownness

The Precarious Status of the Migrant

Chapter 5. Transit Existence

Turning Toward History: Reflecting Historically upon Cultural History

The Raft of the Medusa

Ghosts in Transit: Frank Castorf’s Dämonen

Brecht’s Migrant Writing

Part II: The World Space of Transcultural Theater

Chapter 6. The Theater of Becoming-World

Globalization and mondialisation

The Absence of Ground: The Groundless Motion of Transcultural Theater

"Theater can be the ship itself." Schiller: Seestücke [Sea Plays]

At the Back of Globalization

Chapter 7. The Ptolemaic Theater of the World

The Theology of the Ptolemaic Theater of the World

The Copernican Revolution

Chapter 8. The Theater of World Experience

World Experience as Theater Experience: Fatzer 2

Experiencing the World of Things: The Primacy of the Object and the Narcissistic Wound

Experiencing the World Transmedially: Situation Rooms

Experiencing the World in a Historical Echo Chamber

Part III: The Practice of Transcultural Theater

Chapter 9. The Turn to History

The Twofold Invocation of History

History as the Theater of Repetition

Chapter 10. The Rise and Fall of the Phantasm of National Culture

The Story of Origin of National Culture

The Symbolic Space and Body of the National Theater

The Spectral Return of the Past

Demolishing the Mausoleums of National Culture

Chapter 11. Repetition as the Action of Transcultural Theater

The Scene of Repetition: Brecht

Repetition and Border-crossing: Wolfram Höll’s Und dann

The Space-time of Repetition: Søren Kierkegaard’s Repetition

Theater of Repetition: Nature Theater of Oklahoma’s Life & Times

Chapter 12. Revolution in the Caribbean: The Practice of Transcultural Inflection

Chapter 13. The Gesture as the Actor of Transcultural Theater

The Gesture’s Movement between Times and Spaces

The Pathos of the Gesture between Life and Death

The Futurity of the Gesture: Franz Kafka’s Nature Theater of Oklahoma

Chapter 14. Transcultural Theater as a Powerhouse of Emotion

The Power of Emotions

Separating, Dividing, Affect

The Stage of Transcultural Opening

Index

Biography

Günther Heeg is Director of the Centre of Competence for Theater, Leipzig University, Germany.