Performance, Space, Utopia Cities of War, Cities of Exile

by Jestrovic, Silvija

• ISBN13: 9780230292666
• ISBN10: 0230292666
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-12-24
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

The war in the Balkans that took place between 1991-1995 forms the context of this book. It has been variously viewed as ethnic strife, religious conflict, or civil war but seldom has it been described as a war against cities. Belgrade and Sarajevo offer a fascinating comparative case study, not only because the two cities belong to the same historical narrative of the breakdown of Yugoslavia, but because of the ways in which their various performances both complement and contradict one another. This book examines how performance and theatricality became modes of being and acting in the city, even strategies of physical and ethical survival; yet so often it is exile, both as marginalisation within and exodus from the city, that emerges as the defining consequence of living in Sarajevo or Belgrade in the 1990s.

Author Biography

SILVIJA JESTROVIC was born in Belgrade and lived in Toronto. She is Associate Professor at University of Warwick, UK. Her previous books include Theatre of Estrangement: Theory, Practice, Ideology (U of Toronto Press, 2006) and the edited collection (with Yana Meerzon) Performance, Exile, 'America' (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009). She has also written for stage and radio.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Series Preface
Acknowledgements
Cities of War, Cities of Exile: Introduction
PART I: BELGRADE - THE CITY OF SPECTACLE
City-as-Action
At the Confluence of Utopia and Seduction
Epilogue: Endemic Geopathologies
Part II: SARAJEVO: IMAGINARIES AND EMBODIMENTS
Waiting for Godot: Sarajevo and its Interpretations
City-as-Body
Theatricality vs. Bare Life
Theatre as Ideal City
PART III: CITY OF EXILE
In the Comfort of Non-Place
Bibliography
Index