Staging Difficult Pasts: Of Narratives, Objects and Public Memory

这个项目考察了剧院和博物馆如何通过他们的叙事和物品的舞台来塑造公众对艰难过去的记忆。该项目直接与研究伙伴和主要文化机构合作，由伦敦大学皇家霍洛威戏剧、戏剧和舞蹈系、明尼苏达大学皇家中央演讲和戏剧学院、克罗伊特卡、塔德乌什·坎特艺术文献中心（Kraków）、Lliure剧院（巴塞罗那）、ESMA博物馆和塞万提斯剧院（布宜诺斯艾利斯）、大屠杀研究所、伦敦犹太博物馆和帝国战争博物馆的大屠杀画廊。主要目的是：(i)分析“艰难的过去”的公众记忆如何在当代戏剧和博物馆实践中上演；（ii）绘制这些做法如何越来越多地跨机构传播的图表；（三）促进跨国合作和对话，以加强这些做法。通过实地考察（档案研究，对博物馆和剧院的研究访问，对策展人和戏剧制作人的采访），研讨会，公开演讲和国际研讨会，项目团队将专门分析阿根廷，立陶宛，波兰，西班牙和英国的跨国案例研究，这将广泛扩展对记忆和历史之间的区别和相互作用的研究，特别是通过戏剧和表演研究，视觉文化，博物馆和策展人研究，以及更广泛的记忆研究、历史、大屠杀研究、文化地理和现代语言研究。阿根廷、立陶宛、波兰和西班牙都对其艰难的过去进行了高度政治化和极端分裂的辩论，特别是与威权主义、法西斯主义和共产主义有关的辩论。剧院和博物馆一直是这些辩论的关键场所，塑造和扩大了公众的记忆。在过去的几十年里，通过在剧院和博物馆为现场观众表演，广泛尝试揭露或重新解释以前禁忌的历史叙事的公众记忆，已经引起了公众的关注。我们还选择了英国的项目合作伙伴来建立跨文化研究联系，这将扩大研究的范围和影响。上演艰难的过去，戏剧制作人创新了叙事形式，重新设计了戏剧和人工制品，而博物馆馆长越来越重视历史叙事的“上演”，而不是物品的展示，生产表演遭遇作为他们的主要对象。因此，该项目的重点将是通过叙事和对象来推进对艰难过去的舞台的跨国研究，以及剧院和博物馆之间的交叉点及其塑造全球记忆话语。讲习班、公开讲座和专题讨论会将汇集来自戏剧和表演研究、视觉文化、博物馆和策展人研究、历史、大屠杀研究、文化地理和现代语言的从业者和学者。通过研讨会，我们的目标是记录和分析领先的戏剧制作人和策展人采用的当前策略和目标。我们将邀请艺术家与自己文化领域以外的机构合作，促进跨国对话，并为跨文化领域的创新提供机会。我们邀请剧院和博物馆跨越其传统的学科界限，创造创新并制定服务于公共目标的战略。各种传播形式将有广泛的受众。其中包括跨学科编辑的收藏、研讨会、公开演讲、大学图书馆的学习材料、劳特利奇表演档案和大屠杀研究所、一个项目网站和灰色文献报告。

This project examines how theatres and museums are currently shaping public memory of difficult pasts through their staging of narratives and objects. Engaging directly with research partners and major cultural institutions, the project is a collaboration among the Department of Drama, Theatre and Dance at Royal Holloway, University of London, Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of Minnesota, Cricoteka, Centre for the Documentation of the Art of Tadeusz Kantor (Kraków), Teatre Lliure (Barcelona), ESMA Museum and Teatro Cervantes (Buenos Aires), Holocaust Research Institute, Jewish Museum London and Imperial War Museum's Holocaust Gallery. The primary aims are: (i) to analyse how public memory of 'difficult pasts' is being staged in contemporary theatre and museal practices; (ii) to chart how these practices are increasingly informed cross-institutionally; (iii) and to foster transnational collaboration and dialogue to enhance these practices. Through fieldwork (archival research, research visits to museums and theatres, interviews with curators and theatre makers), workshops, public talks, and an international symposium the project team will specifically analyse transnational case studies in Argentina, Lithuania, Poland, Spain and the UK, which will widely extend research on the distinctions and interactions between memory and history specifically through the lenses of theatre and performance studies, visual culture, and museum and curator studies and more broadly through memory studies, history, Holocaust studies, cultural geography and modern languages.Argentina, Lithuania, Poland and Spain all share highly politicized and extremely divisive debates over their difficult pasts, specifically in relation to authoritarianism, fascism and communism. Theatres and museums have been key sites for these debates, which shape and broaden public memory. Over the past few decades, widespread attempts to expose or reinterpret the public memory of formerly taboo historical narratives have come to public concern through their staging in theatres and museums for live audiences. We have also selected project partners in the UK to establish transcultural research links that will broaden the remit and impact of the research. Staging difficult pasts, theatre makers have innovated narrative forms and reframed theatrical and artefactual objects, while museum curators have increasingly privileged the 'staging' of historical narratives over the display of objects, producing performative encounters as their primary object. Thus, the project's focus will both advance transnational research on the staging of difficult pasts through narrative and object, and the key points of intersection between theatres and museums and their shaping global memory discourses. Workshops, public talks and the symposium will bring together practitioners and scholars from theatre and performance studies, visual culture, museum and curator studies, history, Holocaust studies, cultural geography and modern languages. Through workshops, we aim to document and analyse current strategies and aims employed by leading theatre makers and curators. Inviting artists to collaborate with institutions outside of their own cultural spheres, we will foster transnational dialogue and provide the opportunities for innovation across cultural sectors. We are inviting theatres and museums to work across their traditional disciplinary boundaries to generate innovation and develop strategies that serve their public aims. Forms of dissemination will have an extensive audience. These include interdisciplinary edited collections, workshops, public talks, learning materials for university libraries, the Routledge Performance Archive and the Holocaust Research Institute, and a project website, and grey literature reports.