Book contents
- The Cambridge Companion to Literature and the Anthropocene
- The Cambridge Companion to Literature and the Anthropocene
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Chronology
- Introduction
- Prologue Earth, Anthropocene, Literary Form
- Part I Anthropocene Forms
- Chapter 3 Poetry
- Chapter 4 The Novel
- Chapter 5 Popular Fiction
- Chapter 6 The Essay
- Chapter 7 Theatre and Performance
- Chapter 8 Interspecies Design
- Chapter 9 Digital Games
- Part II Anthropocene Themes
- Further Reading
- Index
- Cambridge Companions To …
Chapter 7 - Theatre and Performance
from Part I - Anthropocene Forms
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 July 2021
- The Cambridge Companion to Literature and the Anthropocene
- The Cambridge Companion to Literature and the Anthropocene
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Chronology
- Introduction
- Prologue Earth, Anthropocene, Literary Form
- Part I Anthropocene Forms
- Chapter 3 Poetry
- Chapter 4 The Novel
- Chapter 5 Popular Fiction
- Chapter 6 The Essay
- Chapter 7 Theatre and Performance
- Chapter 8 Interspecies Design
- Chapter 9 Digital Games
- Part II Anthropocene Themes
- Further Reading
- Index
- Cambridge Companions To …
Summary
The recent renewed reflection on the role of catastrophe in literature and culture has received special attention from scholars in the environmental humanities. In particular, the connection between catastrophe and violence came into focus more prominently in an effort to understand how catastrophes have been framed rhetorically and culturally. This chapter shows how the theatre functions as a laboratory for exploring the Anthropocene by way of a reading of a German Expressionist play that focuses on the connection among catastrophe, violence and the negotiation of environmental risks. It also considers how these consequences and risk assessments might be perceived from a culturally decentred position by focusing on a unique conversation that took place in the 1990s between the German tradition of political theatre and its redaction by an Aboriginal Australian playwright, suggesting the continued need for a post-colonial critique of the concept of the Anthropocene.
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- The Cambridge Companion to Literature and the Anthropocene , pp. 132 - 146Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021