Call for Papers for 2008 Conference: Populism and Marginality
For TaPRA 2008 we invite contributions that respond in any way to the working group’s statement above. However, we are particularly keen to organise our discussions around ideas of populism and marginality. This is a deliberately wide frame to enable us to consider questions of representation, address, participation, advocacy and recognition. Notions of ‘the popular’ and ‘the people’ are notoriously vague but extremely powerful. They underpin a wide range of assumptions about political organisation and representation, and form a context for the analysis of the production and consumption of culture and the arts. From the guarantee of the right to ‘high quality arts experiences’, to the offering of five portions of art per week for school children, UK state bodies posit a direct correlation between social cohesion, social good and cultural activity which seem to extend beyond engagement in mass and popular culture. How do theatre and performance interact with the popular? Is there a need to develop and enhance popular taste, or must artists and academics learn to find the political in the popular? What does it mean for performance to serve a community in this political context? How can we conceptualise and analyse this relationship between artist and citizen, and what are the political implications of this analysis? How do ideas of consumerism and choice enter this relationship? What is the relationship between the vernacular, the folk and the popular?
We invite papers and proposals for panel discussions that engage with theatre and performance artists in their attempts to engage with constituencies of any sort, from the most elite to the most ubiquitous, from the commercially successful, to the politically disenfranchised. We also look for contributions that will critique and analyse the problematic framing of the popular and the marginal. We see issues of advocacy and inclusion as hugely influential in the analysis of this area and encourage contributors who work in this field to question their approach and practice: what are the problems/limitations of 'acting' the 'advocate'? Is it possible to advocate for others without problematic relations of power being involved? What does it mean to speak for others who are unwilling/unable to speak for themselves? Where do we get our knowledge of other perspectives, and how do we analyse the dynamics of power at play in this field?
Please send a brief (250 word) proposal and a brief biographical statement by Monday the 5th of May to Nadine Holdsworth (
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) and Colette Conroy (
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).
NB. At TaPRA 2008 the Performance, Identity, Community working group will be offering at least one shared panel with the Applied Theatre and Performance working group to explore areas of intersection and convergence.
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