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Performing Citizenship. Social and Political Agency in Non-Professional Theatre Practice in Germany, France, Britain, Sweden and Switzerland (1780-1850)

Project description

DEENESFRITPL

How theatre shaped citizenship

Emerging during the Enlightenment and taking shape during the American and French Revolutions, amateur theatre played centre stage in the formation of the modern concept of citizenship. It was during this period that non-professional theatre offered huge educative possibilities for the acquisition of skills and competences deemed essential to becoming a ‘good citizen’. In this context, the EU-funded P-CITIZENS project will explore the cultural and political contexts that determined citizenship ideas and practices as well as theatre. Case studies focusing on France, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom will shed light on how amateur theatre gave rise to citizen practices. The findings will help researchers establish the role of non-professional theatre in the shaping of society.

Objective

Amateur theatre played a significant role in the formation of a modern concept of citizenship that emerged during the Enlightenment and took shape during the American and French Revolutions. Around the social activities enacted and texts performed a broad-based movement developed between 1780 and 1850 that, arguably, had more impact than professional theatre which has previously been the almost exclusive focus of theatre studies. In the period, non-professional theatre offered huge educative possibilities for the acquisition of skills and competences deemed essential to becoming a ‘good citizen’. For the first time, a historiographical research project will study European amateur theatre’s impact on social change.

Five different case studies will bring distinct cultural and political contexts into the picture that determined ideas and practices of citizenship as well as theatre: 1) late-absolutist rule in Germany, 2) revolutionary shifts in France, 3) parliamentary rule in Great Britain, 4) reformed monarchy in Sweden, and 5) a contested republic in Switzerland. The study of amateur theatre in these regions will reveal the development of their citizen practices in regard to accessibility and agency, aesthetic education, institutionalisation and professionalization.

Merging performance theory, cultural theory and institutional theory this project will connect the historical formation of citizenship to discourses on performativity and the building of identity through embodied practices. It will also help to foreground the role of non-professional theatre in the shaping of society.

The key objectives of this project are:

[1] to contribute to a historiographic shift by focusing on the ‘doing’ and performativity of theatre practices
[2] to examine how concepts of citizenship emerged around theatre in Germany, France, Britain, Sweden and Switzerland
[3] to analyse how non-professional theatre embraced and further developed concepts that helped to establish a citizen

Fields of science

Programme(s)

Topic(s)

Call for proposal

ERC-2020-ADG

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Funding Scheme

ERC-ADG - Advanced Grant

Coordinator

LUDWIG-MAXIMILIANS-UNIVERSITAET MUENCHEN
Net EU contribution
€ 1 905 500,00
Address
Geschwister scholl platz 1
80539 Muenchen
Germany

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Region
Bayern Oberbayern München, Kreisfreie Stadt
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Links
Other funding
€ 0,00

Beneficiaries (3)

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EC signature date 11 May 2021
Last update: 8 September 2022

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Permalink: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101019879

European Union, 2023