Deconstructing Turning Points. A postscript on the canonization of the avant-garde 1900

Authors

  • Willmar Sauter Department of Culture and Aesthetics, Stockholm University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7146/nts.v29i1.103315

Keywords:

Historiography, periodization, modernism, avant-garde, development, archive, sources, Postlewait, Derrida

Abstract

Deconstructing Turning Points is an attempt to understand why and how the period around the turn of the nineteenth century has been described as a “breakthrough of modern theatre”. Texts by Gösta M. Bergman, Christopher Innes and Erika Fischer-Lichte about this period are examined in order to see how these authors construct periodization. Leaning towards Thomas Postlewait’s concept of periods and Jacques Derrida’s deconstructive approach to discourse, the article points out some paradigmatic assumptions in the discussed texts. The three authors are not compared – writing in different languages and for different purposes – but some of the underlying paradigms become visible, namely their relation to historical development and their view of theatre as the work of the director. As an alternative, the article turns to archival possibilities. New concepts of what an archive is and can do, as Derrida sees them, open up for a living and challenging relation to archival sources, not just as evidence of prefabricated hypotheses, but as inspiring traces of the past.

Author Biography

Willmar Sauter, Department of Culture and Aesthetics, Stockholm University

Willmar Sauter is professor emeritus of Theatre Studies at Stockholm University. He has written about theatre history from the Bronze Age to digital performance. His latest book in this field is The Theatre of Drottningholm – Then and Now (2014, with David Wiles). Based on empirical audience and reception studies (Teaterögon 1986, Shylock 2010, with Yael Feiler) he has developed a holistic concept of theatre, published in The Theatrical Event (2000) and Eventness (2008). He has served the International Federation for Theatre Research (IFTR) as president and Stockholm University as Dean. He is presently participating in various historical projects and working groups.

References

Bergman, Gösta M. 1966. Den moderna teaterns genombrott 1890-1925. Stockholm: Bonniers.

Brockett, Oscar & Franlin J. Hildy. 2003. History of the Theatre. 9th edition. Boston et al.: Allyn and Bacon.

Changing Perspectives. Seventy years of Theatre Studies at Stockholm University. 2016. Lena Hammergren et al. (eds). Stockholm: Stuts.

Darwin, Charles. 1859. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. London: The Royal Academy.

Derrida, Jacques. 1978. Writing and Difference. Translated by Alan Bass. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Derrida, Jacques. 1981. ’Positions. Interview with Jean-Louis Houdebine and Guy Scarpetta’. Positions, Translated and annotated by Alan Bass. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Derrida, Jacques. 1995. ‘Archive Fever. A Freudian Impression.’ Diacritics, vol.25, No 2 (Summer 1995), 9-63.

Fischer-Lichte, Erika (ed.) 1995. TheaterAvantgarde. Tübingen & Basel: Francke Verlag.

Gascoign, Bamber. 1968. World Theatre. London: Marble Arch House.

Gillian, Perry & Francis Frascina & Charles Harrison. 1993. Primitivism, Cubism, Abstraction. The Early Twentieth Century. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Goldberg, RoseLee. 1979. Performance Art. From Futurism to the Present. London: Thames & Hudson.

Innes, Christopher. 1993. Avant Garde Theater 1892-1992. London & New York: Routledge.

Postlewait, Thomas. 2009. The Cambridge Introduction to Theatre Historiography. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Sauter, Willmar. 2010. “Cyclic Perseverance and Linear Mobility of Theatrical Events.” In Carlotte M. Cunning & Thomas Postlewait (eds.), Representing the Past. Essays in Performance Historiography. Iowa: University of Iowa Press.

Schramm, Helmar. 1996. Karneval des Denkens. Theatralität im Spiegel philosophischer Texte des 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts. Berlin: Akademie der Künste.

Stanley, Liz. 2016. ”The Other Archives and Beyond”. In N. Moore, A. Salter & M. Tamboukou (eds.). The Archive Project: Archival Research in the Social Sciences. London: Routledge.

Theatre Histories. An Introduction. 2010. Phillip B. Zarrilli, et al. (eds). 2nd edition. Oxon: Routledge. Wickham, Glynne. 1985. A History of the Theatre. Phaidon: Oxford.

Turning Points and Continuity

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Published

2018-01-27

How to Cite

Sauter, W. (2018). Deconstructing Turning Points. A postscript on the canonization of the avant-garde 1900. Nordic Theatre Studies, 29(1), 162–180. https://doi.org/10.7146/nts.v29i1.103315

Issue

Vol. 29 No. 1 (2017): Turning Points and Continuity. Reformulating Questions to the Archives

Section

Articles thematic section

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