Activist theatre and the agitprop legacy*

Forfattere

  • Matthias Warstat

Resumé

Political theatre today seems to be dominated once again by activist approaches that want to have a direct impact on political conflicts with a clear agenda. When it comes to interpreting this new liaison of theatre and activism, it seems nearly unavoidable to look back at the historical avant-gardes around 1930. With the contemporary situation as a starting point, this article analyses the agitprop tradition focusing on the German example. It discusses to what extent one can speak of an agitprop legacy in Germany despite the dissolution of the agitprop groups under the Nazi regime; when and in what this legacy becomes recognisable and how today’s activist theatre groups refer to the models, problems and crises of the historical agitprop troupes.

Forfatterbiografi

Matthias Warstat

Matthias Warstat is professor of Theatre Studies, Freie Universität, Berlin. He is PI of several collective research projects, including a current project on tensions in contemporary political theatre as part of a special research program on interventionist art funded by the German Research Foundation. He has published extensively on performative forms of political manifestation and celebration in the 20th century.

Referencer

Diezel, Peter (ed.). 1993.“Wenn wir zu spielen - scheinen”, Frankfurt Am Main: Peter Lang

Durus. 1931. ‘Schlusswort’, in: Arbeiterbühne und Film 18, issue 5 in Hoffmann and Hoffmann-Ostwald (ed.) 1997. Deutsches Arbeitertheater 1918 - 1933, vol. 2, 2nd expanded edition, Berlin.

Durus. 1931a. ‘Agitproptruppen spielen’ (Report on the 1931 ATBD Reich Troops Conference), in: Die Rote Fahne no. 86, 14 April 1931, feuilleton supplement

Groys, Boris. 2016. In the flow. London/New York: Verso

Groys, Boris. 2018. ‘Cosmisch werden’ in: Groys, Boris and Vidokle, Anton (ed.), Kosmismus, Berlin, pp. 12 - 31.

Hoffmann, Ludwig and Hoffmann-Ostwald, Daniel (ed.). 1972. Deutsches Arbeitertheater 1918 - 1933, vol. 2, 2nd expanded edition, Berlin

Kant, Immanuel. 2018. Kritik der Urteilskraft, Werkausgabe vol. 10, 23rd ed., Berlin

Moos, Siegfried. 1931. ‘März. Die politische Lage und die Situation im ATBD’ (first appeared in Arbeiterbühne und Film 18 (1931), issue 3), in Hoffmann and Hoffmann-Ostwald (ed.). 1972. Deutsches Arbeitertheater, vol. 2, pp. 292 – 297.

Ngai, Sianne. 2012. Our Aesthetic Categories. Zany, Cute, Interesting, Cambridge, MA/London

Pfaller, Robert. 2008. Ästhetik der Interpassivität, Philo Fine Arts, Hamburg.

‘Resolution des 12. ATBD-Bundestages, Mai 1932 in Chemnitz’, in Diezel, Peter (ed.). 1993. “Wenn wir zu spielen - scheinen”, Peter Lang, pp. 326 – 330.

Schliesser, Elli. 1931. ‘Rückblick und Ausblick’ (first appeared in: Das Rote Sprachrohr 3 (1931), issue 1, unpaginated), in Hoffmann/Hoffmann-Ostwald (ed.). 1972. Deutsches Arbeitertheater, vol. 2, pp. 282 - 287,

Schliesser, Elli. 1930. ‘Kritische Durchsicht der eingegangenen Manuskripte’, (first appeared in: Das Rote Sprachchor 2 (1930), issue 10, unpaginated), in Diezel, Peter (ed.). 1993. “Wenn wir zu spielen – scheinen”. Studien und Dokumente zum Internationalen Revolutionären Theaterbund, Bern et al., pp. 297 f.

Warstat, Matthias. 2005. Theatrale Gemeinschaften. Zur Festkultur der Arbeiterbewegung 1918-33, Tübingen/Basel

Wolf, Friedrich. 1933. ‘Schöpferische Probleme des Agitproptheaters. Vor der Kurzszene zum Bühnenstück.

Eine Studie’ (1933), in Wolf, Friedrich. 1957 Aufsätze über Theater, Berlin, pp. 12 – 54.

Downloads

Publiceret

2023-03-27

Citation/Eksport

Warstat, M. (2023). Activist theatre and the agitprop legacy*. Peripeti, 20(38), 66–75. Hentet fra https://tidsskrift.dk/peripeti/article/view/136784

Nummer

Årg. 20 Nr. 38 (2023): The 1930s today – Political and aesthetic legacies

Sektion

Collaborative resistance

Licens

Copyright Peripeti og forfatterne - Artiklerne er tilgængelige for direkte links.