Theatre and Human Rights after 1945: Things Unspeakable

by Mary Luckhurst (Editor), Emilie Morin (Editor)

Overview

This volume investigates the rise of human rights discourses manifested in the global spectrum of theatre and performance since 1945. Essays address topics such as disability, discrimination indigenous rights, torture, gender violence, genocide and elder abuse.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781137362292
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan UK
Publication date:	08/19/2015
Edition description:	1st ed. 2015
Pages:	254
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Ananda Breed, University of East London, UK Marvin Carlson, City University of New York, USA Cathy Caruth, Cornell University, USA Maryrose Casey, Monash University, Australia Michael M. Chemers, University of California, Santa Cruz, USA Catherine M. Cole, University of California, Berkeley, USA Emma Cox, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK Mark Fleishman, University of Cape Town, South Africa Mary Luckhurst, University of Melbourne, Australia Michael McAteer, Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Hungary Carol Martin, New York University, USA Emilie Morin, University of York, UK

Table of Contents

1.Introduction: Theatre and the Rise of Human Rights; Mary Luckhurst and Emilie Morin
Part I: COLONIAL LEGACIES AND THE UNSPEAKABLE
2.Unspeakable Tragedies: Censorship and the New Political Theatre of the Algerian War of Independence; Emilie Morin
3.Beyond Articulation: Brian Friel, Civil Rights, and the Northern Irish Conflict; Michael McAteer
Part II: UNSPEAKABILITY AND ETHNICITY
4.'Lapsing into Democracy': Magnet Theatre and the Drama of Unspeakability in the New South Africa; Mark Fleishman
5.The Great Australian Silence: Aboriginal Theatre and Human Rights; Maryrose Casey
Part III: RETURNING HISTORIES, LISTENING, AND TRAUMA
6.Disappearing History: Listening and Trauma in Ariel Dorfman's Death and the Maiden; Cathy Caruth
7.Hungry Ghosts and Inalienable Remains: Performing Rights of Repatriation; Emma Cox
8. Representing Genocide at Home: Ishi, Again; Catherine M. Cole
Part IV: THEATRES OF ADVOCACY AND WESTERN LIBERALISM
9.The Politics of Telling and Workers' Rights: The Case of Mike Daisey; Carol Martin
10.Gender-based Violence and Human Rights: Participatory Theatre in Post-Genocide Rwanda; Ananda Breed
11.Jalila Baccar and Tunisian Theatre: 'We Will Not Be Silent'; Marvin Carlson
Part V: MILITANCY AND CONTEMPORARY INVISIBILITIES
12.Defixio: Disability and the Speakable Legacy of John Belluso; Michael M. Chemers
13.Theatre and Elder Abuse; Mary Luckhurst
Select Bibliography
Index

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"This book defines vitally important new territory in thinking about the intersection of theatre, social engagement, and human rights. Nuanced readings of 20th and 21st-century performance practices investigate the unique role of theatre in relation to issues such as post-conflict violence, torture, elder abuse, political censorship, corporate labour practices, and disability. Cathy Caruth analyses the politics of listening and Catherine Cole writes magisterially on institutional ethics and the performance of genocide. This is a brilliant expose of the way performance can sometimes transcend and sometimes spectacularly fail in the wake of the famously unspeakable horrors of Auschwitz." - Yoni Prior, Deakin University, Australia

"This volume examines the critical and performative valency of 'unspeakability', by sensitively investigating its meanings within various historical and political contexts. Engaging with protest theatres in northern Africa, disability, indigenous rights, elderabuse, torture, sexual violence, and the ethical prools of repatriating human remains, it offers an impressively diverse set of agendas on human rights. Theatre and Human Rights interrogates the 'unspeakable' in ways that will resonate with everyone and for a long time to come." - Joanne Tompkins, University of Queensland, Australia

Editorial Reviews

Editors … have collected an impressive range of international perspectives on human rights and theatre. … What the volume as a whole achieves is an insistence on theatre’s roles in wider cultural (often global) contexts that are about testimony, the recognition of past injustices, mediation, advocacy, and potential catharsis. Contributors offer engaging accounts of examples from a range of places (and eras) in which performance speaks of and through human rights abuses at the level of institutions, states, and international collusion.” (Aylwyn Walsh, New Theatre Quarterly, Vol. 33 (1), February, 2017)

“I describe this book as vital to playwrights, artistic directors and serious artistic thinkers alike. … I learned much from this book and itwill assist my own work as a playwright. … I suggest that whether you are a theatre practitioner or an audience member, your stage experience will be improved by reading these essays. As I said at the outset, Mary Luckhurst and Emilie Morin have compiled and edited a vital series of essays.” (Hubert O’Hearn, San Diego Book Review, October, 2015)

From the Publisher