170497 UE Theater and Fascism in the Americas (2025S)

Contents:
Ever since the 2008 financial crisis we have been experiencing changes to the political landscapes around the world that have led to political theory reinvestigating the concept of fascism. In this class, we will concern ourselves with the diagnosis of contemporary fascism from the point of view of the theory of theatre. More to the point, we will inquire about the relation of fascist politics and theater in present-day US and Brazil.
To this end, we will ask ourselves what kind of knowledges we can generate by conceiving of the movements around Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro as being fascist, and how their political actions can be better understood by way of employing concepts from theatre and concepts to do with theatricality more broadly speaking. We will try to test what the knowledges of theatre and theatricality (such as the knowledge of the carnivalesque) can contribute to enlightening the logics and dynamics of contemporary fascist (anti-)politics.
Additionally, we will take a closer look at a selection of theatre productions, performances, and activist interventions that aim to resist or critically position themselves vis-à-vis the fascist tendencies in the US and Brazil. In particular, we will seek to analyse the artistic means and forms that have been applied in response to fascist politics.
Overall, our aim will be to address the problem of contemporary fascism with respect to the theatricality of politics as well as the politics of theatre.

Aims:
Attending this class will
1) introduce you to a selection of new theories about fascism which form part of a vital debate from contemporary political theory;
2) allow you to rehearse how to use concepts and arguments from the theory of theatre as epistemological tools for the analysis of political subject matters;
3) let you analyse selected theatre projects that address the contemporary fascisms in the Americas (and the US and Brazil more concretely), which will help you train in performance analysis, especially regarding political problems;
4) enable you to learn how to synthesise approaches from the theory of theatre and questions from political theory.

Methods:
We will read new theories of fascism, among them texts by Alberto Toscano and Marcia Tiburi, as well as a number of texts from 20th century political theory that are relevant for the current debate about fascism (Adorno and selected positions from the black radical tradition). We will also read specific analyses of the movements connected to Trump and Bolsonaro: Nancy Isenberg’s reading of the January 6 capitol riots and Vladimir Safatle on Brazil having become a „suicidal state“ during the time of the Covid-pandemic.
The selected texts will be discussed not least with respect to the theatrical and aesthetic elements such as the carnivalesque and the ridiculous as being critical to fascist political. Historical contexts concerning class, race, and coloniality will also be reflected upon.
Additionally, we will watch and analyse artistic and activist positions from the US and Brazil, among them Crackhead Barney’s street performances, Nature Theater of Oklahoma’s No President (2018) and I am a Macaw (2023) by Rivane Neuenschwander and Mariana Lacerda. We will also concern ourselves with the political appropriation of performance and the strategic political abuse of performance makers as in the case of Wagner Schwartz.

We will proceed by way of discussions in smaller groups as well as in one big group, close readings of text materials and analysis of key moments from chosen performances, and student presentations/podcast episodes, respectively.