Querying Difference in Theatre History
Editor: Scott Magelssen and Ann Haugo
Date Of Publication: Oct 2007
Isbn13: 9781847183033
Isbn: 1-84718-303-4
Terms such as race, ethnicity, otherness, and pluralism are becoming increasingly problematic as we grapple with issues of identity in the “post-multicultural” discursive landscape of the twenty-first century. Querying Difference in Theatre History comprises sixteen scholarly case studies in which authors tease out the limitations of contemporary discourse concerning ideas of difference in theatre history today. The essays then incorporate new approaches, theories, and critical vocabulary for dealing with such issues. Unlike other works that address similar subjects, this volume arranges essays by mode of inquiry rather than by “kind of difference.” It offers essays that are complex and rigorous, yet accessible and pleasurable—ideal for use in graduate- and upper-division undergraduate theatre and performance classrooms.

While “difference” may immediately conjure issues of race, ethnicity, gender, and/or sexuality, this volume also includes essays that examine differences more broadly construed: nationalisms, economic gradations, and so forth. Particular topics in this volume range from intersections of class-based and sex-based politics in theatrical performances during the French Revolution, constructions of blackness and whiteness in turn-of-the-century American brothel dramas, “fantasy heritage,” examinations of immigrant, exile, and refugee dramatic characters vis-à-vis notions of diasporic space, to the political and methodological dilemmas raised when dealing with an individual or event that is “repugnant” or “despicable” to the historian (e.g., anti-gay funeral protests).

Scott Magelssen teaches theatre history at Bowling Green State University. His articles appear in Theatre History Studies, New Theatre Quarterly, Visual Communication, National Identities, The Journal of Religion and Theatre, TDR, Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism, Performance Research, Theatre Annual, Theatre Survey, Theatre Journal and Theatre Topics. He is the author of Living History Museums: Undoing History Through Performance (Scarecrow Press, 2007).

An Assistant Professor of Theatre at Illinois State University, Ann Haugo has published on indigenous theatre in The Color of Theatre: A Critical Sourcebook in Race and Performance, American Indian Theatre: A Reader, The Cambridge Companion to Native American Literature, and the Blackwell Companion to Twentieth-Century American Drama, and various periodicals.

“For skeptics who dismiss identity and difference as solely contemporary concerns, this volume demonstrates the ongoing political and analytical vitality of thinking through differences by offering case studies across history and geography. These essays address both familiar and new objects from refreshing perspectives, and persuade readers of the importance of maintaining difference as a critical term in our scholarly and performance vocabularies. The assembled scholars also use historiography to stage conversations with practice and to create new genealogies through which to consider theatrical themes, styles, and values. Their ideas deepen our understandings of the place of identity and performance in social history.”

Jill Dolan, Zachary T. Scott Family Chair in Drama at the University of Texas at Austin

“How do we perform difference? How do we understand difference in performance? Such questions have become increasingly compelling and complex with the spread of globalization and continuous expansions in international cultural traffic. Querying Difference in Theatre History provocatively addresses these questions not so much by looking at the present, but by looking back and examining what the processes of and moments in theatre history might add to this discussion of difference. This engaging critical anthology is notably diverse, crossing various geographic and historical periods, including a wide range of topics in performance from interculturalism to decolonialism and on to indigeneity. This volume offers a series of approaches to otherness that in their differences demonstrate how identity is always in flux and that cultural identities inevitably depend on positioning oneself in relation to an other. What the essays contained in this collection suggest is that querying difference needs to be a necessary politics and practice in theatre history studies. For students and scholars working in theatre historiography, this is a useful and thought provoking book.”

Harry J. Elam, Jr., Olive H. Palmer Professor in the Humanities Chair, Department of Drama Stanford University

“For those of us who care about the future of the theatrical past, Querying Difference will open up fresh perspectives and new horizons of thought. Largely the work of younger scholars, the collection offers a variety of critical and methodological approaches to problems of “difference” – itself variably defined—across an array of case studies drawn from theatre history and performance studies. There is something in the brevity, wit, and conversational tone of each essay that makes them ideal for classroom use – it’s like having available sixteen visiting scholars to help present new ideas, provoke discussion, and inspire further work.”

Tamara Underiner, Associate Professor of Theatre and Film at Arizona State University

“Magelssen and Haugo achieve in one anthology what a three volume series might do, for their assembly of essays is so varied yet so collectively resonant. The assortment of topics and theoretical approaches in this book all contribute to a rich and complicated conversation about theatre history and the construction of difference. I found myself marking essays for my undergraduate students to read, and simultaneously making notes regarding my own research, so diverse were the theories and subjects scrupulously undertaken here by some of the best young thinkers in the field of theatre and performance studies. Indeed, Querying Difference in Theatre History reveals through sixteen essays--arranged methodologically--a provocative, sensitive, and often witty investigation of theatre, historiography, and the performance of difference.”

Elizabeth Reitz Mullenix, Chair of Theatre at Miami University in Ohio

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