170301 VO Lecture: The History of Theatre (2024S)

Modernity and modernism. Theatre experiments in the early 20th century

While from the perspective of Western culture, modernity is summarily understood as an epoch since 1500 characterised by capitalism, industrialisation, secularisation and rationality, modernism usually refers to cultural tendencies in the transition from the 19th to the 20th century, in which political and social upheavals, technological innovation and aesthetic settings correlate. The terms modernity and modernism are the subject of controversial debates concerning the self-image of Western culture, which have become even more complex in a globalised world due to the views of the third millennium (modernity? postmodernity? have we never been modern?).

The lecture series focuses on theatre experiments of the early 20th century in order to question them with regard to their modernist tendencies and their positioning within modernity. Thematically, attention is thus drawn to the reclaiming of theatre as a festival, the redefinition of theatre as an art of symbolist, futurist, dadist, surrealist, etc. character, as well as the renegotiation of theatre as an art form. It also focuses on the question of renegotiating the boundaries between elitist and popular cultural theatre forms.