Theater of Trans-lation. Dynamics and Constellations of Translating and Degrading in Theater and Performance of the 21st Century

• Applicants: Professor Dr. Lars Koch; Dr. Julia Prager
• Subject Area: German Literary and Cultural Studies (Modern German Literature) ; Theatre and Media Studies
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 496351395

The project investigates the representation, performance and reflection of invective (degrading, insulting) dynamics of contemporary theatrical forms and their institutional environments in the German-speaking area from a transdisciplinarily expanded literary and theater studies perspec-tive. It is thus located in the current field of research on "invectivity" and pursues the overarch-ing goal of analyzing theater as a resonance space or field of evocation of invective processes, in which invective constellations of interaction can be grasped affectively, perceptively, and reflex-ively. Specifically, transformations of theatrical invectivity in the 21st century are examined, which result from the mediatization of theater and its increasing (socio-)cultural diversity. From the perspective of translocality and transculturality, the theater as a locally situated and medial-ly dissociated area of translation of social conflict situations (e.g. migration, generation, inequali-ty, technicization) comes into focus. The working hypothesis is that there is a connection be-tween dynamics of medial, spatio-temporal, cultural, linguistic or discursive translations and those of degradation. This connection is dealt with in three work areas (A, B, C): A is dedicated to its theoretical specification in the tension field between medial-aesthetic and cultural-political processes and thus connects the two other work areas, which explore the conceptual assumption of degrading translation processes in analyses of current theater forms (B) and insti-tutional politics (C) and question them with regard to their interfaces. While the theatrical ne-gotiation of invectivity has been investigated in previous research with regard to the visualiza-tion of marginalized positions as well as on the basis of invective gaze regimes and located in the register of the visual, the project also sets itself the task of analytically highlighting the aspects of voice and intelligibility operating in the register of the acoustic-auditive. On the one hand, this is connected - in a literal sense - to the investigation of theatrical dynamics of appropriation and dislocation, exposure and shameful affectation in the spectrum of other languages, voices and sounds (e.g. speaking with accent, dialect, sociolect or "jargon"). On the other hand, art- and cultural-political practices of the "unintelligible" (such as the theaters' refusal to discuss with the "New Right" and vice versa, or controversies about "Cancel Culture") come into focus. Insights into the invective potential of translation as appropriation are expected, but also into the in-conclusiveness of invective processes that becomes obvious in translationally as well as transcul-turally operating translation events.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants