Call for Papers

Brecht in / and Asia

13th Symposium of the International Brecht Society
19-23 May 2010
University of Hawai'i at Manoa, Honolulu

To reassess the complex interconnections between Brecht's work and
various Asian cultures at the beginning of the 21st century, the
International Brecht Society invites scholars and artists in theater,
performance, and other cultural fields as well as doctoral students to
an interdisciplinary symposium in Spring 2010 on the topic Brecht in /
and Asia.

Brecht was not the only Western modernist to turn to Asian theater and
thought for inspiration, but he was an especially astute observer of the
cultural encounter with this "other," which had such a significant
impact on his work. Conversely, Brecht's own theater and thought
returned to inspire new forms of political and aesthetic experiments in
many parts of Asia. With the dynamic, ongoing echoes of this mutual
relationship as point of departure, the symposium will provide a forum
to explore its multiple dimensions. This call for papers broadly
understands "Asia" to refer to the geo-political spaces of a "pluralized
Asia" as well as to the reach of Asian traditions into the cultures of
Europe, Africa, and the Americas. The organizational committee,
consisting of Eiichiro Hirata (Keio University, Tokyo), Hans-Thies
Lehmann (Goethe University, Frankfurt), Marc Silberman (University of
Wisconsin, Madison), Markus Wessendorf (University of Hawai'I at Manoa,
Honolulu), and Erdmut Wizisla (Bertolt Brecht Archive, Berlin), seeks
proposals for papers, posters, panels, and workshops in the following
four areas:

I. Asia's Brecht: Theater artists and ensembles throughout Asia refer to
Brecht as a major influence on their dramaturgies, aesthetics, and
theater pedagogies. Building on the experience of the IBS's 7th
Symposium in Hong Kong (1986, "Brecht in Asia and Africa"), we look back
at major advocates of Brecht in Asia, e.g., Korea Senda and Tatsuji
Iwabuchi in Japan, Huang Zuolin in China, and Rudraprasad Sengupta in
India, who were instrumental in popularizing Brecht in their respective
countries. How did they adapt Brecht to local circumstances and
performance traditions? Do Brecht's ideas shape the work of contemporary
directors and companies, for example the intercultural theater of Ong
Keng Sen (Singapore), the political theater of Crescent Moon Theater
(Thailand), the multicultural theater of the Golden Bough Performance
Society (Taiwan), the community theater of PETA (Philippines), and the
postmodern productions of Makoto Nakashima's Bird Theater Company
(Japan)? Which concepts, texts, and practices have they adapted and how
did local performers, audiences, and critics respond? What is the
current status of reception, translation, and research concerning Brecht
(and not just with regard to his theater texts and theories)?

II. Brecht's Asia: Brecht's engagement with different Asian cultures
challenges us to identify and consider their traces throughout his work,
and - as in the case with "Asia's Brecht" - to reconsider the impact on
current intercultural debates: reworkings of Japanese Nô plays,
reactions to China's politics in the 1950s, reflections on Chinese
acting, ideas on stage design and theater aesthetics, observations on
Chinese painting, adaptations of stylistic and poetological aspects of
Asian poetry, and borrowings from Asian philosophies. It may be
worthwhile to reinvestigate the contributions of Brecht's collaborators
to his adaptations from East Asian sources (for example, Hauptmann's
work on Zenchiku's Taniko for He Who Says Yes). Some refer to Brecht's
"Chinese attitude" and note that the gestus of his "Chinese poems" is
closer to the original texts than to the English translations on which
they are based. What were Brecht's contacts with or reactions to the
large community of Asian immigrants during his exile years in
California? There is textual material still to discover, for example the
recently reconstructed The Judith of Shimoda, adapted from Yuzo
Yamamoto's play, which will have its American premiere during the
Symposium. Furthermore, recent postcolonial and post-orientalist
approaches suggest critical reflection on Brecht's appropriations from
Asian cultures. How does knowledge of the marginalized and oppressed
inscribed in his work move transculturally, e.g., in German director
Fritz Bennewitz's stagings of Brecht in India, the Philippines,
Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka? How do Brechtian aesthetics cross boundaries
into Asian-American plays by the likes of Philip Kan Gotanda, Jessica
Hagedorn, David Henry Hwang, Naomi Iizuka and Young Jean Lee?

III. Asia beyond Brecht: Brecht's Epic Theater and his writings on
culture and politics spoke to the crises and ruptures of the 20th
century. In the new millennium conflicts in Islamic Asia seem to lend
themselves to Brechtian dramaturgies when playwrights address regional
political tensions in a global context. Examples include: the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict (various productions by the Palestinian
theater companies al-Balalin and al-Hakawati), autocratic regimes in the
region propped up by Western neocolonialism (The Al-Hamlet Summit by
Kuwaiti playwright/director Sulayman Al-Bassam), and the rise of
religiously motivated terrorism (Scorched by Lebanese-Canadian
playwright Wajdi Mouawad). How do Brecht's war plays compare to Western
plays about the American-led "War on Terror" in Islamic Asia, e.g.,
David Greig's The American Pilot, Mark Ravenhill's Shoot/Get
Treasure/Repeat: An Epic Cyle of Short Plays, or Judith Thompson's
Palace of the End? Can contemporary politics - with its complexities and
intricacies - appropriate and refunction Brecht's dialectical practice
for its own purposes?

IV. Brecht beyond Asia: The Asian references in Brecht's writings
present a rich source for comparative study, but there are also more
abstract and mediated modes of intercultural exchange that encompass
dramaturgical, structural, and linguistic strategies such as the use of
masks, reduction, fragmentation, and stylization. Brecht's thinking was
synthetic and his production practices were collaborative, with the
result that new ways of visualizing contemporary reality and
reconceptualizing the modern subject shaped texts and stagings that
continue to speak to readers and audiences all over the world. Can his
peculiar notion of the "dividuum" or "dividual" be related to different
concepts of human individuality and agency in Asian cultures? How do we
imagine a dialogue between different modes of thinking as envisioned in
the "Dialogue on Language with a Japanese Friend" by Martin Heidegger?
How does Brecht's well-documented love of the simple, concrete object on
stage and his appreciation more generally of the significance of objects
translate across cultural divides?

Since the primary conference language will be English, English-language
proposals will be preferred. However, presentations in German are also
welcome.

Please submit proposals for 20-minute presentations (250-350 words),
abstracts for the poster sessions (100-150 words), workshop descriptions
(100-150 words), or suggestions for panels (with three participants) by
July 1, 2009 to:

Dr. Markus Wessendorf
Dept. of Theatre and Dance
Fax: 001 808956-4234
University of Hawai'i at Manoa
1770 East-West Road
Honolulu, HI 96822 USA
Email: wessendohawaii.edu

Submissions by email are preferred, but hard copy and fax will also be
accepted. Presenters will be notified in late October 2009 about the
committee's selection of proposals, posters, and panels. The
organizational committee reserves the right to constitute the panels and
alter proposed themes or groups. Symposium participants are expected to
be, or become, members of the International Brecht Society. The regular
registration fee for the symposium is $120 ($90 for students and
retirees), if registered by February 2010, thereafter the conference fee
increases to $150 / $120. All participants are required to register. A
selection of symposium proceedings will be published in The Brecht
Yearbook (volume 36 / 2011).

The IBS plans to organize a cultural program during the conference,
including the first American production of Brecht's The Judith of
Shimoda (at the University of Hawai'I at Manoa) and a guest performance
of director Makoto Nakashima's Mother Courage and Her Children (by the
Bird Theater Company from Japan). More information on the cultural
program as well as other details of the symposium can be found on the
conference website: http://manoa.hawaii.edu/brecht2010. The IBS hopes to
attract financing and sponsors to partially subsidize participants'
travel. Please note, however, that participants will have to arrange
their own flight reservations and hotel accommodations.

http://manoa.hawaii.edu/brecht2010/

A German version of this Call for Papers can be found at:
http://manoa.hawaii.edu/brecht2010/callforpapers/deutschcall.html