Working Group Statement
Ever since Aristotle's Poetics in the West, and Natyashastra in what is now South Asia, philosophy has played a major role in relation to theatre,
both in explaining the phenomena associated with theatre and in influencing theatre practice and theory. Besides examining the often
overlooked historical links between philosophy and theatre in the works and plays of given thinkers like Hegel and Sartre, of particular interest
to the TaPRA Theatre, Performance and Philosophy working group will be the use of theatrical metaphors in philosophy and the notion of the "performative" and performance, from Austin's How To Do Things with Words to Derrida's "Signature, Event, Context". The radical transformations of philosophy undertaken by thinkers such as Nietzsche, Lyotard, Deleuze, Bataille, Debord, and Baudrillard offer philosophy itself as a theatre in which its poetic aspect is asserted as irreducible to any political or social agenda that may seek to define it. In examining the links between recent philosophical enquiry and theatre and performance this working group will explore the potential practical and theoretical implications of such a turn.
The TPP working group will meet annually at TaPRA conference and maintain a lively debate in between through an email list and research paper presentations at both Lincoln and Loughborough. An outlet for publications exists for appropriate titles, including conference proceedings, in the Rodopi series Consciousness, Literature and the Arts, for which TPP co-convenor Daniel Meyer-Dinkgräfe serves as general editor, as well as through the refereed web journal at http://blackboard.lincoln.ac.uk/bbcswebdav/users/dmeyerdinkgrafe/index.htm
Annual Conference: Call for Papers 2012
The Theatre, Performance and Philosophy Working Group has been meeting for seven years and has produced two books, with a third in production, based on work presented at the conference.
The co-convenors are delighted to issue a call for papers for the forthcoming conference at Kent in September on any topic relating theatre and / or performance to philosophy. We are particularly interested (but not only) in papers that address issues of aesthetics and politics in relation to philosophy and any working theories of performance or theatre historiography in relation to contemporary radical thought.
Please send 250 word (max) proposals with brief biography and resource needs to Dan Watt This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and Eve Katsouraki This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it by 27th April 2012. We will let you know by 10th May whether or not your paper has been accepted.
Interim Event 2012
Current Working Group Convenors
Dan Watt This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and Eve Katsouraki This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Past Working Group Convenors
Archive
Call for Papers 2011
The Theatre, Performance and Philosophy Working Group has been meeting for six years and has produced two books based on work presented at the conference.The co-convenors are delighted to issue a call for papers for the forthcoming conference at Kingston in September, on any topic relating theatre and / or performance to philosophy.
Please send 250 word (max) proposals with brief biography and resource needs to Daniel Meyer-Dinkgräfe [ This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ] by 3rd May 2011. We will let you know by 20th May whether or not your paper has been accepted.
We very much look forward to hearing from you.
