
Performing Unification
History and Nation in German Theater after 1989
Matt Cornish(Author)
The University of Michigan Press
Published on 21. August 2017
Book
Hardback
264 pages
978-0-472-13045-0 (ISBN)
Description
Since the moment after the fall of the Berlin Wall, important German theater artists have created plays and productions about unification. Some have challenged how German history is written, while others opposed the very act of storytelling. Performing Unification examines how directors, playwrights, and theater groups including Heiner Mueller, Frank Castorf, and Rimini Protokoll have represented and misrepresented the past, confronting their nation's history and collective identity. Matt Cornish surveys German-language history plays from the Baroque period through the documentary theater movement of the 1960s to show how German identity has always been contested, then turns to performances of unification after 1989. Cornish argues that theater, in its structures and its live gestures, on pages, stages, and streets, helps us to understand the past and its effect on us, our relationships with others in our communities, and our futures. Engaging with theater theory from Aristotle through Bertolt Brecht and Hans-Thies Lehmann's "postdramatic" theater, and with theories of history from Hegel to Walter Benjamin and Hayden White, Performing Unification demonstrates that historiography and dramaturgy are intertwined.
Reviews / Votes
This important study not only sheds significant new light on the modern German stage, but has implications for the relationship between theatre and contemporary society around the world."" - Marvin Carlson, CUNY Graduate CenterMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
Ann Arbor
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
15 illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
ISBN-13
978-0-472-13045-0 (9780472130450)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Matt Cornish is Assistant Professor of Theater History at Ohio University.