Voicing Our Concerns: Attempts at Decentring German Theatre and Performance Studies

Anika Marschall; Azadeh Sharifi; Ann-Christine Simke; Lisa Skwirblies

doi:10.33303/gpsv5n1-2a110

Authors

Anika Marschall Utrecht University https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4189-1925
Azadeh Sharifi University of Toronto
Ann-Christine Simke University of the West of Scotland
Lisa Skwirblies University of Amsterdam/University of Munich

Abstract

The field of German Theatre and Performance Studies shows a lack of engagement with colonial history and questions of race. Its overwhelming whiteness manifests itself in a persistent ignorance of a decades-long tradition of works produced by women of colour, feminists, and Black, Indigenous and People of Colour (BIPOC) researchers and activists who have actively worked on decentring the discipline from a German-speaking context. This article, a critical conversation between four German theatre scholars, sets out to clarify what it means to decentre GTPS from a Western-centric focus and proposes some methodological solutions to achieve this goal. Through reflecting on our own educational experiences and the sharing of anecdotes from the classroom, we conclude that decentring means more than adding to the reading list, rather it entails a visceral, continuous unlearning of racist attitudes and methodologies and requires a careful positioning of teachers, students and researchers alike.

Author Biographies

Anika Marschall, Utrecht University

Anika Marschall (PhD) is an Assistant Professor in Media and Culture at Utrecht University. In her research, she has investigated vexed relations between theatre, migration and human rights, questions of racialisation, performance and institutional critique.

Azadeh Sharifi, University of Toronto

Azadeh Sharifi (PhD) is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Germanic Languages & Literatures at the University of Toronto. Her work engages with (post)colonial and (post)migrant Theatre history, performances by artists of color and the intersections of race, class and gender in contemporary European performances.

Ann-Christine Simke, University of the West of Scotland

Ann-Christine Simke (PhD) is a Lecturer in Performance at the University of the West of Scotland. Her research focuses on dramaturgy past and present and intersectional and decolonial theatre practice and critique.

Lisa Skwirblies, University of Amsterdam/University of Munich

Lisa Skwirblies (PhD) is a Visiting Assistant Professor in Theatre Studies at the University of Amsterdam and a Postdoc Researcher at the University of Munich. Her research interests are theatre history, postcolonial and decolonial critique, and dramaturgy.

References

Ahmed, Sara. “The Nonperformativity of Antiracism.” Meridians. Vol. 7, No. 1, 2006, 104–126. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2979/MER.2006.7.1.104

Ahmed, Sara. The Feminist Killjoy Blog. https://feministkilljoys.com/

Aikins, Muna AnNisa, Teresa Bremberger, Joshua Kwesi Aikins, Daniel Gyamerah, and Deniz Yıldırım-Caliman. Afrozensus 2020: Perspektiven, Anti-Schwarze Rassismuserfahrungen und Engagement Schwarzer, afrikanischer und afrodiasporischer Menschen in Deutschland. Each One Teach One (EOTO), 2021. https://afrozensus.de/reports/2020/.

Arora, Swati. “A Manifesto to Decentre Theatre and Performance Studies.” Studies in Theatre and Performance. Vol. 41, No. 1, 2021, 12–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/14682761.2021.1881730 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14682761.2021.1881730

Ayivi, Simone Dede. “Schwarzes Wissen, weiße Sehgewohnheit.” Theaterwissenschaft postkolonial/dekolonial, Edited by Azadeh Sharifi/Lisa Skwirblies, Transcript Verlag, 2022, 89–94. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783839455531-006 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783839455531-006

Bala, Sruti. “Decolonising Theatre and Performance Studies: Tales from the classroom.” Tijdschrift voor Genderstudies. Vol. 20, No. 3, 2017, 333–345. https://doi.org/10.5117/TVGN2017.3.BALA DOI: https://doi.org/10.5117/TVGN2017.3.BALA

Balme, Christopher, Erika Fischer-Lichte, and Stephan Grätzel, eds. Theater als Paradigma der Moderne. Francke Verlag, 2003.

Brauneck, Manfred. Die Deutschen und ihr Theater. Kleine Geschichte der ʻmoralischen Anstaltʼ – oder: ist das Theater überfordert? Transcript, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783839438541 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783839438541

Castro Varela, María do Mar, and Nikita Dhawan. Postkoloniale Theorie. Eine kritische Einführung. Transcript Verlag, 2005. https://doi.org/10.14361/9783839403372 DOI: https://doi.org/10.14361/9783839403372

Eggers, Maureen Maisha, Grada Kilomba, Peggy Piesche, and Susan Arndt, eds. Mythen, Masken und Subjekte. Kritische Weißseinsforschung in Deutschland. Unrast, 2005.

El-Tayeb, Fatima. “‘We are Germans, We are Whites, and We Want to Stay White!’ African Germans and Citizenship in the early 20th Century*.” Colors 1800/1900/2000: Signs of Ethnic Difference, Edited by Birgit Tautz, Brill, 2004, 185–205. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004334427_010 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004334427_010

Fischer-Lichte, Erika. Ästhetik des Performativen. Suhrkamp, 2004.

hooks, bell. Teaching to Transgress. Education as the Practice of Freedom. Routledge, 1994. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3366/para.1994.17.3.270

Kelly, Natasha A. Afrokultur. ‘der Raum zwischen gestern und morgen’. Unrast, 2016.

Khanna, Neetu. The Visceral Logics of Decolonization. Duke University Press, 2000.

Kilomba, Grada. Plantation Memories. Episodes of Everyday Racism - Kurzgeschichten in englischer Sprache. Unrast, 2018.

Lehmann, Hans-Thies. Postdramatisches Theater. Verlag der Autoren, 1999.

Lei, Daphne P. “Playful Yellowness: Rescuing Interculturalism from Millenial Orientalism.” Interculturalism and Performance Now. New Directions, Edited by Charlotte McIvor and Jason King, Palgrave Macmillan, 2019, 235–256. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02704-9_10 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02704-9_10

Liepsch, Elisa, Julian Warner, and Mathias Pees, eds. Allianzen: Kritische Praxis an weißen Institutionen. Transcript Verlag, 2018. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783839443408

Lorde, Audre. Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches. Crossing Press, 1984.

Marschall, Anika. “Intersectional Listening: How Migrant Womxn Take Up Sonic Space.” Things I Am Not: Interventions, Edited by Szabolcs Musca, New Tides Platform, 2021, 10–17.

Marx, Peter W. Ein theatralisches Zeitalter. Bürgerliche Selbstinszenierung um 1900. Francke Verlag, 2008.

Menakem, Resmaa. My Grandmother’s Hands. Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies. Central Recovery Press, 2017.

Moosavi, Leon. “The Decolonial Bandwagon and the Dangers of Intellectual Decolonisation.” International Review of Sociology. Vol. 30, No. 2, 2020, 332–354. https://doi.org/10.1080/03906701.2020.1776919 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/03906701.2020.1776919

Oguntoye, Katharina, May Opitz/Ayim, and Dagmar Schultz, eds. Farbe Bekennen: Afro-Deutsche Frauen auf den Spuren ihrer Geschichte. University of Massachusetts Press, 1992 [1986].

Reznikova, Olga. “Russländischer Kolonialismus? Zur Kritik des westlichen antiimperialistischen Weltbilds.” After Europe. Beiträge zur dekolonialen Kritik, Edited by Julian Warner, Verbrecher Verlag, 2021, 45–66.

Saha, Anamik. “The Politics of Race in Cultural Distribution: Addressing Inequalities in British Asian Theatre.” Cultural Sociology. Vol. 11, No. 3, 2017, 302-317. https://doi.org/10.1177/1749975517708899 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1749975517708899

Sharifi, Azadeh. “‘Wir wollten ein Zeichen setzen’: Performance and Protest by Minorities in German Theatre.” Performance Paradigm. Vol. 14, 2018, 45–63. https://www.performanceparadigm.net/index.php/journal/article/view/212.

Simke, Ann-Christine. “‘Doing the Work’. Experiences of a White Early Career Researcher and Assistant Lecturer in the UK Higher Education Sector.” Theaterwissenschaft postkolonial/dekolonial, Edited by Lisa Skwirblies and Azadeh Sharifi, Transcript Verlag, 2022, 109–126. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783839455531-009 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783839455531-009

Skwirblies, Lisa, and Azadeh Sharifi, eds. Theaterwissenschaft postkolonial/dekolonial. Transcript Verlag, 2022.

Skwirblies, Lisa. “Colonial Theatricality.” Oxford Handbook of Politics and Performance, Edited by Shirin M. Rai, Milija Gluhovic, Silvija Jestrovic, et al., Oxford University Press, 2021, 27–43. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190863456.013.31 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190863456.013.31

Sonenstein, Brian, and Kim Wilson. “Hope is a Discipline. Mariame Kaba in Conversation with Brian Sonnenstein and Kim Wilson.” Toward Freedom. 2020. https://towardfreedom.org/story/archives/activism/hope-is-a-discipline/

Spivak, Gayatri C. Outside in the Teaching Machine. Routledge, 1993.

Steyerl, Hito, and Encarnación Gutiérrez Rodriguez. Spricht die Subalterne deutsch? Migration und postkoloniale Kritik. Unrast, 2003.