Post-Colonial Drama: Theory, Practice, Politics

by Gilbert,Helen

• ISBN13: 9780415090247
• ISBN10: 0415090245
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 1996-06-26
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Post-Colonial Dramais the first full-length study to examine how performance practices intersect with and develop an understanding of post-colonial theories. Addressing the specific ways that performance has been instrumental in resisting the continuing effects of imperialism, this study considers how post-colonial theatre can be seen as a reaction against colonial enterprises. Gilbert and Tompkins discuss a variety of plays from Australia, Africa, Canada, New Zealand, the Caribbean and other former colonial regions. Critiquing anthropological interpretations of drama, they call for a culturally specific approach to the analysis of plays from other cultures.Post-Colonial Dramacombines a rich intersection of post-colonial and performance theories with close attention to the play texts themselves.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations	vii
Acknowledgements	viii
Introduction: Re-Acting (To) Empire	1	(14)
Re-Citing the Classics: Canonical Counter-Discourse	15	(38)
Counter-discourse and the canon	15	(4)
Shakespeare's legacy	19	(6)
Replaying The Tempest	25	(11)
Crusoe and Friday	36	(2)
Classical Greek influences	38	(5)
Reworking Christian myths	43	(4)
Replacing the canon	47	(6)
Traditional Enactments: Ritual and Carnival	53	(53)
Ritual	55	(11)
Ritual-centred plays	66	(6)
Ritual elements/ritual contexts	72	(6)
Carnival	78	(5)
Carnival logics	83	(5)
Carnival plays	88	(18)
Post-Colonial Histories	106	(58)
Fracturing colonialist history	110	(8)
Women's histories	118	(8)
Story-telling	126	(11)
Time span	137	(8)
Spatial histories	145	(11)
Theatre spaces	156	(8)
The Languages of Resistance	164	(39)
Indigenous languages and translation	168	(8)
Indigenised languages	176	(8)
Creole and Pidgin	184	(5)
Silence	189	(4)
Song and music	193	(10)
Body Politics	203	(53)
Race	206	(6)
Gender	212	(9)
Derogated bodies	221	(10)
Metamorphic bodies	231	(6)
Dancing bodies	237	(7)
Framed bodies	244	(12)
Neo-Imperialisms	256	(38)
Internal colonialism	260	(8)
Regional neo-imperialism	268	(8)
Global neo-imperialism	276	(10)
Tourism	286	(8)
A Provisional Conclusion	294	(4)
Bibliography	298	(37)
Index	335