August 13, 2020
Dear Colleagues,
Please see below the call for papers for an anthology on “Decolonizing Dramaturgy” forthcoming from the Routledge Focus on Dramaturgy series.
Please contact Prof. Taiwo Afolabi directly with your proposals and questions.
Feel free to share this CFP with others who might be interested.
***Routledge Dramaturgy Series
Decolonizing Dramaturgy in Contemporary Theatre
Taiwo Afolabi, Ph.D. (Editor)
Dramaturgy is not peculiar to western performance tradition. Different theatre traditions have ways in which dramaturgical practices and processes are performed. Regardless of the cultural context and creative content, the dramaturgical process requires thorough inquiry, robust research, and unbiased exploration of various intercultural and various aspects of people, history, and community existence. For instance, the dramaturgical process- the telling, adapting, staging, and performing of stories- in many indigenous cultures across different continents require an inquiry into the cosmological and cultural practices depending on the content and the era. It can also entail investigating ethical and aesthetics details including but not limited to origins of stories, oral tradition, myth, songs, and costume, etc., and even obtaining permission from appropriate authorities before staging. While dramaturgical discourse has received more attention within the western performance tradition particularly Europe and North America (Turner and Behrndt 2008), there is a need to critically investigate dramaturgy from a different perspective.
This volume is positioned within decolonization discourse and postcolonial approaches to unsettle centres of powers and capture unconventional narratives, experiences, and realities. The current systemic turns precipitated by the global protest for racial equity and social justice challenges us to rethink not necessarily what we do but how we do what we do. We are faced with the reality of bringing voices on the margin to the centre; amplify hidden stories, identities, and experiences. The sensitivity and sensibility of the present times demand a theoretical turn to challenge dominant ideas and practices and refocus on telling stories of/from the subaltern. This moment of reckoning, rethinking, and reconsideration does not exclude dramaturgy, the art and science of dramatic composition and representation of the main elements of drama on stage. Dramaturges can examine ethical and critical issues around power, privilege, representation, and positionality in their processes without compromising the aesthetics of the art form. As a sociological art and act, dramaturgy involves identifying and employing semiotics and theatrical metaphors to explore issues of identity formation and reformation (Romanska 2014; Goffman 1997). It also serves as a model for agency, awareness, and engagement especially in how institutions and power shape creative processes and stage re/presentation. Thus, this volume aims to explore the intersection between decolonization and dramaturgy. Offers historical developments and contemporary practices of dramaturgy in theatre traditions that are on the margin.
This call invites essays drawn from diverse performance cultures and traditions to case study indigenous dramaturgical practices and examine ways in which such practices can foster a decolonized approach to dramaturgy in contemporary theatre. Since the objective of this volume is to challenge dominant dramaturgical discourses, acknowledge alternative dramaturgical processes and amplify such dramaturgical forms, contributions will focus on the following sub-themes as well as any related subthemes:
· dramaturgy at the margin
· Afro-centric dramaturgical practices
· dramaturgies in/of Africa
· Indigenous dramaturgies
· dramaturgies in/of Indigenous cultures
· ethics and dramaturgy
· politics of representation and staging in contemporary theatre
· Sociology and dramaturgy
· New historicity and dramaturgy
Academics and practitioners whose work are situated within decolonization discourse and postcolonial approaches preferably from Africa, South East Asia, South America, Australia, and Canada are welcome to contribute.
Instructions for contributors: Contributors should submit an abstract of 250-300 words to the editor at the email address below by 30th September 2020. Full paper should be between 3500-4000 (max) words including references. Receipt of manuscripts will be acknowledged. Full papers of accepted abstracts must reach the editor on or before 30th December 2020. All submissions and correspondences should be forwarded to the Editor:
Taiwo Afolabi, PhD Assistant Professor Faculty of MAP University of Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada Taiwo.Afolabi@uregina.ca