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Expert discussion

Meet the Expert: Continuity, Convergence, Conversion: Refugee Narratives in Contemporary Theater

The interrelationship between media, performing and visual arts have been widely discussed in the fields of both literary and theatre studies.  The focus of this research project points at the question of how forced migration is represented in contemporary drama and is embodied as a means of displacement on stage.  This entails a mutual, experimental exploration of the specific possibilities of textuality and performativity and their respective media apparatuses.  
The Sapienza University has a long tradition of theatre studies and competence in the re-search concerning the Performing Arts. Since the 1970s already, ‘Theatre made in Italy’ has had a major influence on visual dramatics for European post-dramatic theatre, which has enabled new varieties of visual dramaturgy to emerge in Germany.  In her studies Professor Valentini traces the new types of relationships both between theatre and contemporary real-ity and actors and the characters they play and examines the new roles demanded of both producers and audiences in the creation of theatrical art. She argues that theatre nowadays has become a privileged space within the panorama of contemporary art and aesthetic re-flection.  
In her presentation Prof. Valentini dwelled on how the use of videos on stage expands the possibilities of theatre and its forms of expression. This raised the question of which function is attributed to the videos and other documentary material in relation to the fictional events shown on stage.The viewing and analysis of RUMORE DI ACQUE (IT: 2010, R: Marco Marti-nelli) and of PORTO PALO. NOMI SU TOMBE SENZA CORPI (IT: 2006, R: Giorgio Barberio Corsetti) as well as the following discussion dealt with the question of how these selected examples point to the mediality of narration and thus also how forced migration can be nar-rated at all. The tendency to avoid linear narration and the tendency for sudden shifts be-tween different media elements reveals how well-suited hybrid narration is for generating sensitivity for the subject of forced migration.

26. Mai 2016
Venue: Dipartimento di Storia dell'Arte e Spettacolo, University Rome

Institut für deutsche Sprache und Literatur II, Universität zu Köln in Cooperation with the Dipartimento di Storia dell'Artee Spettacolo, Sapienza Università di Roma with support of Competence Area IV "Cultures and Societies in Transition", University of Cologne