The Travelling of Dramatic Texts and Memory Patterns
The Case of Estonian Memory Theatre
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7146/nts.v32i2.124347Keywords:
Transnational/transcultural/travelling memory, memory narratives and practices, memory forms/patterns, Estonian memory theatre, Rein Saluri, Merle KarusooAbstract
The article discusses Estonian memory theatre in the 1970s–90s and at the beginning of the twenty-first century in the framework of transnational/transcultural influences. Dwelling on Jeanette R. Malkin’s definition of memory theatre as a theatre that both imitates the flow of memories and initiates the process of remembrance, and relying on the concepts of transnational and transcultural memory, I analyze the dramatic texts of Estonian playwrights Rein Saluri and Madis Kõiv, likewise the works of female stage director Merle Karusoo. I focus on the phenomenon of travelling memory, introduced by scholar of literature and culture, Astrid Erll, and engage a comparative approach to the texts and stage interpretations. Through the media of texts and mnemonic forms in motion and on the basis of particular case studies, I examine how stories/narratives, memory patterns, and mnemonic practices have crossed cultural borderlines and been performed on different (Estonian, Finnish, Estonian-Russian, Austrian) stages, and how they have primarily launched hidden or blurred memories.
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