Disability and Postdramatic Theater

Schmidt, Yvonne (2018). Disability and Postdramatic Theater Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies, 12(2), pp. 203-219. Liverpool University Press 10.3828/jlcds.2018.15

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The article explores the interweaving of theater with and by disabled artists with so-called postdramatic theater practices. It elaborates points of connection between the postdramatic concept and disability aesthetics through an analysis of work by and with disabled artists (such as Theater Thikwa and Monster Truck or Rimini Protokoll). Building on the work of Tobin Siebers, the argument is that a disability aesthetic can be described within the framework of the postdramatic. The popularity of disabled performers in postdramatic works can be examined from a disability studies perspective, in which one can criticize the reduction of disability into a “pure” form, without considering the social, historical, and political aspects of it. Postdramatic forms, however, seem to open up new opportunities for disabled performers because they broaden the aesthetic spectrum away from what Carrie Sandahl calls a “tyranny of the neutral,” shifting a traditionally rigid concept of acting to a broader aesthetical spectrum of performance, including different sensorial, cognitive, and physical states.

Item Type:	Journal Article (Original Article)
Division/Institute:	Bern Academy of the Arts Bern Academy of the Arts > Institute Practices and Theories in the Arts
Name:	Schmidt, Yvonne
Subjects:	N Fine Arts > NX Arts in general
ISSN:	1757-6458
Publisher:	Liverpool University Press
Language:	English
Submitter:	Yvonne Schmidt
Date Deposited:	28 Feb 2022 14:55
Last Modified:	28 Feb 2022 14:55
Publisher DOI:	10.3828/jlcds.2018.15
Related URLs:	Publisher
URI:	https://arbor.bfh.ch/id/eprint/15772