Staging Blackness: Representations of Race in German-Speaking Drama and Theater (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780472076246)

Staging Blackness provides a multifaceted look at how Blackness has been staged in Germany from the eighteenth century, the birth of German national theater, until the present. In recent years, the German stage has been at the forefront of discussions about race, from cases of blackface to fights for better representation within the professional community. These debates frequently invoke larger discussions about the politics of race in German theater and their origins and beyond.

Written by scholars and theater professionals with a wide variety of historical and theoretical expertise, the chapters seek to explore the connections between the German discourse on national theater and emerging ideas about race, analyze how dramaturges deal with older representations of Blackness in current productions, and discuss the contributions Black German playwrights and dramaturges have made to this discourse. Historians question how these plays were staged in their time, while cultural studies scholars contemplate how to interpret the function of race in these plays and how they can continue to be staged today.

Author: Priscilla Dionne Layne
ISBN-10: 0472076248
ISBN-13: 9780472076246
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
Language: English
Published: 05/16/2024
Pages: 342
Format: Hardcover