Entangled Performance Histories: New Approaches to Theater Historiography

Entangled Performance Histories is the first book-length study that applies the concept of "entangled histories" as a new paradigm in the field of theater and performance historiography.

"Entangled histories" denotes the interconnectedness of multiple histories that cannot be addressed within national frameworks. The concept refers to interconnected pasts, in which historical processes of contact and exchange between performance cultures affected all involved. Presenting case studies from across the world―spanning Africa, the Arab-speaking world, Asia, the Americas and Europe―the book’s contributors systematically expand, exemplify and examine the concept of "entangled histories," thus introducing various innovative concepts, theories and methodologies for investigating reciprocally consequential processes of interweaving performance cultures from the past. Bringing together examples of entanglements in theater and performance histories from a broad variety of geographical and historical backgrounds, the book’s contributions build together a broad basis for a possible and necessary paradigmatic shift in the field of theater and performance historiography.

Ideal for researchers and students of history, theater, performance, drama and dance, this volume opens novel perspectives on the possibilities and challenges of investigating the entangled histories of theater and performance cultures on a global scale.

Erika Fischer-Lichte is Director of the International Research Center “Interweaving Performance Cultures” at Freie Universität Berlin.

Małgorzata Sugiera is a Full-time Professor at the Jagiellonian University in Cracow, Poland, and Head of the Department for Performativity Studies.

Torsten Jost is a Researcher and academic coordinator at the Cluster of Excellence Temporal Communities: Doing Literature in a Global Perspective at Freie Universität Berlin.

Holger Hartung is a theater and dance scholar from Berlin, who works at the Hanns Eisler School of Music, Berlin, where he oversees digital transformation.

Omid Soltani is a Researcher at the International Research Center "Interweaving Performance Cultures" of Freie Universität Berlin.