Inventing the Past, Re-Writing the Present

The History and Memory on Contemporary Lithuanian Theatre Stage

Authors

  • Jurgita Staniškytė Vytautas Magnus University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7146/nts.v31i2.120121

Keywords:

Autobiography, History, Lithuanian theatre, Memory, Representation

Abstract

In recent years an increasing number of performances on the Baltic theatre stage attempt to escape the dominant understanding of “performing history” as a repetition or reinforcement of the monumental representations of the historical past or as a (re)production of “mythistory” (Joseph Mali). Lithuanian creators of performances about history increasingly choose hybrid approaches of representation, merging memorialization and critique, imagination and fact, documents and speculative inventions as forms of engagement with the past. This playful re-imagination of the historical past serves as a creative laboratory, where audience ability to recognize and/or resist historical manipulations as well as to embrace plural and polyphonic nature of memory are tested. In some cases, however, Lithuanian theatre creators are interested in “truthful” or “authentic” representations of personal memories, rather than a performative investigation of
mechanisms of production of the “reality effect” in historiography and their impact on audience perception. This article examines the ways in which historical events are represented on the contemporary Lithuanian theatre stage and, at the same time, addresses the larger issues around the implications of particular theatrical
stagings of the past on the current understanding of the subject of history.

Author Biography

Jurgita Staniškytė, Vytautas Magnus University

Jurgita Staniškytė (dr.) heads the Faculty of Arts and is a Professor of Theatre Studies Department at Vytautas Magnus University (Lithuania). She has published numerous scientific and critical articles on contemporary Lithuanian theatre in the context of the processes of Baltic stage art, performative aspects of post-soviet Lithuanian culture, creative communication and audience development. She serves as the Board member of HERA (Humanities in the European Research Area) and the Governing Board member of EU Joint Programming Initiative (JPI) on Cultural Heritage and Global Change. She was recently elected to the position of chairman of the Board of “Kaunas the European Capital of Culture 2022”. She has published four monographs.

References

Assmann, Aleida. 2010. Re-framing Memory. Between Individual and Collective Forms of Constructing the Past. In Karin Tilmans, et al. (eds.) Performing the Past: Memory, History, and Identity in Modern Europe. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 35-50.

Balodis, Jānis. 2015. „Meninė fikcija, tikresnė už istoriją“. Menufaktura. http://www.menufaktura.lt/?m=55337&s=66450#gsc.tab=0 (31.06.2018).

Carlson, Marvin. 2001. The Haunted Stage—Theatre as a Memory Machine. Michigan: University of Michigan Press.

Chanfrault-Duchet, Marie-Francoise. 1991. “Narrative Structures, Social Models and Symbolic Representations in the Life Story.” In S.B. Gluck, D. Patal (eds.). Women’s Words: The Feminist Practice of Oral History. London: Routledge, 77−92.

Cubitt, Geoffrey. 2007. History and Memory. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

DeGroot, Jerome. 2009. Consuming History: Historians and Heritage in Contemporary Popular Culture. London and New York: Routledge.

Deleuze, Gilles. 2008. Proust and Signs. London: Continuum.

Ekin, Paul John. 2008. Living Autobiographically. Cornell: Cornell University Press.

Erll, Astrid; Rigney, Ann. 2009. Introduction: Cultural Memory and its Dynamics. In Astrid Erll, Ann Rigney (eds.). Mediation, Remediation, and the Dynamics of Cultural Memory. Berlin: De Gruyter, 1-14.

Halbwachs, Maurice. 1992. On Collective Memory. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Heddon, Deidre. 2008. Autobiography and Performance. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Hutcheon, Linda. 1998. A Poetics of Postmodernism. New York and London: Routledge.

Karremann, Isabel. 2015. The Drama of Memory in Shakespeare’s History Plays, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Le Roy, Frederik; Stalpaert, Christel; Verdoodt, Sofie. 2011. “Introduction to Performing Cultural Trauma in Theatre and Film.” Arcadia: International Journal of Literary Studies, 45:2, 249-263.

Mitchell, Kate. 2010. History and Cultural Memory in Neo-Victorian Fiction. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

O’Brien, Tim. 2014. “How to Tell a True War Story.” In Sebastian Faulkes, Jörg Hensgen (eds.) War Stories, London: Vintage Books, 309-315.

Postlewait, Thomas. 1989. “Autobiography and Theatre History.” In Thomas Postlewait, Bruce A. McConachie (eds.). Interpreting the Theatrical Past: Essays in the Historiography of Performance. Iowa: University of Iowa Press, 248-272.

Rokem, Freddie. 2000. Performing History. Theatrical Representation of the Past in Contemporary Theatre. Iowa: University of Iowa Press.

Silis, Valteris. 2015. „Teatras neturėtų teisti”. Menufaktura: http://www.menufaktura.lt/?m=1052&s=66405#gsc.tab=0 (31.06.2018).

Winter, Jay. 2010. “The Performance of the Past: Memory, History, Identity.” In Karin Tilmans, et al. (eds.). Performing the Past: Memory, History, and Identity in Modern Europe. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 11-34.

Downloads

Published

2020-05-18

How to Cite

Staniškytė, J. (2020). Inventing the Past, Re-Writing the Present: The History and Memory on Contemporary Lithuanian Theatre Stage. Nordic Theatre Studies, 31(2), 61–72. https://doi.org/10.7146/nts.v31i2.120121

Issue

Section

Articles thematic section