Naslov
Performing National Identity: The Clash of Social Memory and Trauma in German Documentary Theatre

Autori
Bregović, Monika

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Radovi u zbornicima skupova, cjeloviti rad (in extenso), znanstveni

Izvornik
Spaces of Identity in the Performing Sphere / Petlevski, Sibila ; Pavlić, Goran - Zagreb : Fraktura ; Akademija dramske umjetnosti Sveučilišta u Zagrebu, 2011, 217-231

ISBN
978-953-266-311-2

Skup
Spaces of Identity in the Performing Sphere

Mjesto i datum
Zagreb, Hrvatska, 11.02.2010. - 14.02.2010

Vrsta sudjelovanja
Predavanje

Vrsta recenzije
Domaća recenzija

Ključne riječi
German documentary theatre ; national identity ; social memory ; trauma ; Peter Weiss ; Rolf Hochhuth

Sažetak
After Zero Hour, both German states excluded their Nazi past from social memory to forge a new national identity and state. War and the Holocaust slowly fought its way back into public spaces of memory in the 60s, once the economic and political equilibrium was restored. The German documentary theatre played a crucial role in the process: aiming to subvert historical grand narratives, dramatists worked with documents which store “alternative memory” (Burke). Fighting amnesia meant reaching for documents such as Holocaust survivor testimonies, which encompass their traumatic memories. Based on examples from the key works of documentary theatre (Der Stellvertreter by Rolf Hochhuth and Die Ermittlung by Peter Weiss), and drawing on theories of social memory (Burke, Assman, Nora) and trauma (Caruth, Laub, LaCapra), this paper seeks to describe the dialectics of social and alternative (individual, traumatic) memory that can be detected both on the national level, and in the documentary plays themselves. Working with documents which entail alternative versions of the past, the documentary theatre subverted the discourse once needed to support national identity, which is a non- essential, performative construct. The second part of the presentation elucidates the relationship that the plays establish with the historical context they emerged in, and the way the past is brought up to comment on some contemporary issues. The “obscenity” of literary and theatrical representation of Holocaust (Lanzmann, Caruth, LaCapra) raises some ethical issues as well.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Znanost o umjetnosti

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