Performance, Subjectivity, Cosmopolitanism

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-x

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2. Setting the Stage: Performing the Divided Self of a New Cosmopolitanism

   • Yana Meerzon

   Pages 1-32

3. Encounters in Language

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 33-33

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   2. Dramaturgies of the Self: Staging the Décalage of Vernacular Cosmopolitanism

      • Yana Meerzon

      Pages 35-74

   3. ‘Speaking in Tongues’: Staging Hospitality of (Non)Translation

      • Yana Meerzon

      Pages 75-113

4. Encounters in Body

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 115-115

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   2. Dramaturgies of the Body: Staging Stranger-Fetishism in a Cosmopolitan Solo Performance

      • Yana Meerzon

      Pages 117-154

   3. Staging Cosmoprolis: Constructing the Chorus Play

      • Yana Meerzon

      Pages 155-193

5. Encounters in Time, Space, and History

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 195-195

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   2. Dramaturgies of the Gaze: On the Intimate Realities of Cosmopolitanism

      • Yana Meerzon

      Pages 197-235

   3. Staging Affective Citizenship: Constructing Communities of Hope

      • Yana Meerzon

      Pages 237-274

   4. To Be a Cosmopolitan: Concluding Remarks

      • Yana Meerzon

      Pages 275-283

6. Back Matter

   Pages 285-290

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This book looks at the connection between contemporary theatre practices and cosmopolitanism, a philosophical condition of social behaviour based on our responsibility, respect, and healthy curiosity to the other. Advocating for cosmopolitanism has become a necessity in a world defined by global wars, mass migration, and rise of nationalism. Using empathy, affect, and telling personal stories of displacement through embodied encounter between the actor and their audience, performance arts can serve as a training ground for this social behavior. In the centre of this encounter is a new cosmopolitan: a person of divided origins and cultural heritage, someone who speaks many languages and claims different countries as their place of belonging. The book examines how European and North American theatres stage this divided subjectivity: both from within, the way we tell stories about ourselves to others, and from without, through the stories the others tell about us. 

• Capitalism
• Cosmopolitanism
• Subjectivity
• Mobility
• Migration
• Hypermodernity
• Individualism
• Self
• Exile
• Performance art
• Audience
• Affect

“Performance, Subjectivity, Cosmopolitanism, is not only timely but welcome in its attempt to analyse such phenomena in performing arts aesthetics. … As multicultural fatigue continues, many scholars, myself included, who remain interested in post- colonial intercultural, and plurilingual theatre performance will find renewed inspiration in to Meerzon’s insights and positionality. … Interdisciplinary scholars working across humanities, postcolonial studies, and interculturalism will certainly gain deeper insights … that characterize the interesting times we find ourselves in.” (Eury Colin Chang, Recherche littéraire – Literary Research, Vol. 37, 2021)

“Meerzon makes a remarkable contribution to theatre and performance studies, which inspires further research on the relationship among cosmopolitanism, theatre, and performance. … Meerzon’s book is one of a few monographs that lead the way for scholars of theatre and performance studies to explore performance’s potential and limits to challenge nations’ inhuman migration laws and practices from a cosmopolitan perspective.” (Hanife Schulte, Contemporary Theatre Review, September 17, 2021)

• University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada

  Yana Meerzon

Professor Yana Meerzon teaches for the Department of Theatre, University of Ottawa. Her research interests are in drama and performance theory, and theatre of migration and nationalism. Her book publications with Palgrave include Performing Exile – Performing Self: Drama, Theatre, Film (2012), Performance, Exile and ‘America’ (2009), History, Memory, Performance (2015); and Migration and Stereotypes in Performance and Culture (2020).

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