Click here for a PDF version
The field of performance studies, with its receptivity to non-Western practices and general inclination towards experimental forms, has now inspired several generations of scholarship on how performance practices travel across cultural and political borders. However, the global migration of theatre and performance is also evident within the reception and production of theory itself. One need only think of the extraordinary travels of Aristotle's Poetics through ancient and early modern Europe and Arabia and of the Sanskrit Natyasastra through pre-modern Asia to recognize the role syncretism (synthesis of disparate cultural elements) and “glocality” (interpenetration of global and local) has played in the history of dramatic theory. While some recent anthologizers (e.g. Sidnell, Brandt) still present dramatic theory as a strictly European discourse, others (e.g. Gerould, Bial) modestly hint at global or glocal frameworks. A handful of major theories (Soyinka, Thiong’o, Boal) have circulated widely, and a growing body of studies (e.g. Balme, Fei, Dharwadker) recognizes theory itself as a fundamental site of glocal negotiation.
For this special section of the Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism, we invite essays of 20-25 manuscript pages, exclusive of notes, examining writings produced within glocal or syncretic contexts outside Europe and the United States. These theories may be recent or historical, and need not necessarily be produced within an explicitly theoretical discourse (e.g. theoretical formulations produced within religious, literary, philosophical or other discourses). They may have been shaped through reception of Euro-American dramatic theory, e.g., local versions of Western dramatic aesthetics. They may attempt to recover or modernize pre-colonial aesthetics, or make radical statements seeking to move beyond both Western and local traditions. We seek articulations and treatments of articulations that take the form of theory, rather than of performance, whose intent is to lay out paths for future practice or new understandings of prior models.
Areas of possible concern might include:
Inquiries may be directed to guest editor Evan Winet at evanwinet@gmail.com. To submit a manuscript, please send an electronic copy as a Word attachment (including mailing address, email, and phone number in cover message). Manuscripts may also be sent (with personal information indicated above) by mail to:
Evan Darwin Winet, Guest Editor
c/o Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism
Department of English
The University of Kansas
Wescoe Hall, Room 3107
1445 Jayhawk Blvd.
Lawrence, KS 66045
Email: evanwinet@gmail.com
All manuscripts must be received by October 15, 2008 to receive full consideration.
