Performing Exile, Performing Self: Drama, Theatre, Film (Studies in International Performance)

This book examines the life and art of those contemporary artists who by force or by choice find themselves on other shores. It argues that the exilic challenge enables the émigré artist to (re)establish new artistic devices, new laws and a new language of communication in both his everyday life and his artistic work. This book examines the life and art of those contemporary artists who by force or by choice find themselves on other shores. It argues that the exilic challenge enables the emigre artist to (re)establish new artistic devices, new laws and a new language of communication in both his everyday life and his artistic work. This book examines the life and art of those contemporary artists who, by force or by choice, find themselves on other shores; for whom the hardship of exile is both an existential ordeal and an opportunity to exercise their creative abilities, professional competence, and artistic resources. It argues that the exilic challenge enables the emigre artist to (re)establish new artistic devices, new laws and a new language of communication in both his/her everyday life and artistic work. It celebrates the creative propensity and artistic success that the state of exile can offer to an artist forced to deal with the typical exilic conditions of pain of displacement, nostalgia, and loss. The creative output and the fame of the artists selected for this study (Joseph Brodsky, Eugenio Barba, Wajdi Mouawad, Josef Nadj, Derek Walcott, and Atom Egoyan), present a variety of 'success stories' in exile that challenge the view of the exilic state as one of mourning, depression, disbelief, and constant suffering This book examines the life and art of those contemporary artists who, by force or by choice, find themselves on other shores; for whom the hardship of exile is both an existential ordeal and an opportunity to exercise their creative abilities, professional competence, and artistic resources. It argues that the exilic challenge enables the ̌migř artist to (re)establish new artistic devices, new laws and a new language of communication in both his/her everyday life and artistic work. It celebrates the creative propensity and artistic success that the state of exile can offer to an artist forced to deal with the typical exilic conditions of pain of displacement, nostalgia, and loss. The creative output and the fame of the artists selected for this study (Joseph Brodsky, Eugenio Barba, Wajdi Mouawad, Josef Nadj, Derek Walcott, and Atom Egoyan), present a variety of 'success stories' in exile that challenge the view of the exilic state as one of mourning, depression, disbelief, and constant suffering Front Matter....Pages i-xi Introduction: On Theater and Exile: Toward a Definition of Exilic Theater as Performing Odyssey....Pages 1-34 Heteroglossia of a Castaway: On the Exilic Performative of Joseph Brodsky’s Poetry and Prose....Pages 35-72 Beyond the Postcolonial Dasein: On Derek Walcott’s Narratives of History and Exile....Pages 73-125 Performing Exilic Communitas: On Eugenio Barba’s Theater of a Floating Island....Pages 126-170 The Homebody/Kanjiža: On Josef Nadj’s Exilic Theater of Autobiography and Travelogue....Pages 171-212 To the Poetics of Exilic Adolescence: On Wajdi Mouawad’s Theater of Secondary Witness and Poetic Testimony....Pages 213-253 Framing the Ancestry: Performing Postmemory in Atom Egoyan’s Post-Exilic Cinema....Pages 254-292 Conclusion: On the Lessons of Exilic Theater, Performing Exile, Performing Self....Pages 293-302 Back Matter....Pages 303-350