Theatre, Performance, Foucault!
TaPRA Theatre, Performance, and Philosophy working group interim event – a one-day symposium

4th July 2015 – King’s College London

Michel Foucault was not only one of the most controversial and provocative thinkers of the 20th Century, he was also one of its most inventive and penetrating researchers: his work restlessly innovating new methodological openings around which other thinkers would forge entirely new disciplinary fields. Notoriously hard to pin down, his work evades easy categorisation – indeed, who was Foucault? – poststructuralist philosopher, historian of ‘systems of thought’, ‘radical journalist’ – Foucault seems to have been all of these things, and so much more. It is perhaps for this reason that his work retains its currency for us. Fundamentally, what makes Foucault’s work compelling comes down to the question that he repeatedly asked – a question that remains just as vital and urgent today: ‘what are we at the present time?’

It is with this question in mind that the Theatre, Performance and Philosophy Working Group of the Theatre and Performance Research Association (TaPRA) is delighted to host a one-day symposium entitled: “Theatre, Performance, Foucault!” as its interim event. If Foucault was fond of employing theatre as a metaphor in his work, in this symposium we wish to take that metaphor literally: how does Foucault’s work help us to understand contemporary and/or historical problems in theatre and performance today?

The symposium will consist of curated round-tables, twenty-minute papers and ten-minute provocations. If you would like to contribute a paper or provocation to the symposium, please submit a max. 200-word abstract and brief biography by 23rd May to Tony Fisher (tony.fisher@cssd.ac.uk), Kélina Gotman (kelina.gotman@kcl.ac.uk), and Eve Katsouraki (e.katsouraki@uel.ac.uk). We will get back to you with a response by 31st May.

Papers and provocations may address any aspects of Foucault’s thinking and/or Foucauldian approaches to theatre and performance, including the following:

– Theatre, performance and biopolitics

– Theatre, performance and state power

– Theatre, performance and ethics

– Theatre, performance and genealogy

– Performance and discipline(s)

– Theatre, Foucault & the non-human life / animal rights

– Performance, Foucault & ecology

– Theatre and the social sciences

– Theatre, performance and archaeology

– Theatre, performance and the history of ‘madness’

– Theatre, performance and the history of sexuality

– Theatre, performance and discourse

– Performance, Foucault & his heirs

Please note: You need to be an existing member of TaPRA to present or attend. If you are not, you can become a member at the cost of £10. Registrations will open by the end of May and you can register via Eventbrite (details to follow).

For more information, please visit http://www.tapra.org.