Staging National Abjection: Theatre and Politics in Turkey and Its Diasporas

Project Information

STAGING-ABJECTION

Grant agreement ID: 852216

DOI

10.3030/852216

EC signature date 20 April 2020

Start date 1 May 2020

End date 30 November 2026

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)

Total cost

€ 1 429 460,00

EU contribution

€ 1 429 460,00

Coordinated by

UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI MILANO
Italy

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - STAGING-ABJECTION (Staging National Abjection: Theatre and Politics in Turkey and Its Diasporas)

Reporting period: 2021-11-01 to 2023-05-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Nation-building processes comprise not only of creating a collectivity but also of defining its borders through abjection (i.e. the construction of a national self through rejection of the undesirable Others). STAGING-ABJECTION adopts “national abjection” as a lens to examine how theatre has served the construction of the Turkish nation and its Others, and how minoritarian subjects in Turkey and its diasporas have used theatre to negotiate the politics of belonging. As it demonstrates the relationship between artistic performance and the everyday performance of citizenship, our interdisciplinary research brings a vital new perspective on the political tensions that define Turkey and its growing diasporas today. With its diverse scholarly outputs and public outreach efforts, our project seeks to put Turkey on the map of European and global theatre studies scholarship while enhancing the visibility of theatre makers in Turkey and its connected geographies.

To provide a theoretically-informed and empirically-grounded account of the role of theatre in the processes of national abjection, STAGING-ABJECTION employs a rigorous transdisciplinary theoretical and methodological framework. The project covers the period from the rise of European-style theatre in the Ottoman Empire in the mid-nineteenth century to contemporary productions in Turkey and its diasporas. We initially planned to focus on five distinct yet interconnected subprojects selected for their social and scholarly significance: theatre productions involving Armenians after 1915; queer theatre and opera; Islamic theatre; Jewish theatre; and Alevi theatre. The project has expanded to cover Kurdish and Greek theatre as well. To analyze both historical and contemporary case studies, we combine diverse ethnographic research methods with archival research in public repositories as well as private and personal archives. The analytical potential of our innovative methodological framework has recently been recognized by a major grant.

Our study of topics that are of paramount importance for social and historical justice makes STAGING-ABJECTION relevant for the broader public. The project’s insights on the Ottoman Empire and contemporary Turkey will shed new light on cultural policy and the politics of belonging in post-imperial contexts as well as in competitive authoritarian regimes, which are currently in the ascendant globally.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Since our project started in May 2020, we have faced several challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the devastating impact of the economic crisis and the broader political environment on Turkey’s research ecosystem. Nevertheless, our comprehensive risk management plan enabled us to enjoy a very productive research period.

Our research team has published two peer-reviewed articles and one book chapter. We have also completed five articles on topics ranging from the politics of solidarity in Alevi theatre to feminist epistemology in Turkish Jewish experimental drama as well as a dossier on Ottoman and Turkish theatre historiography, forthcoming in leading peer-reviewed journals. Several additional articles by members of our team are currently under review.

We have delivered sixty-six presentations at international conferences and workshops as well as four invited lectures. We organized fourteen webinars and two panels at the University of Chicago and the 2021 Annual Convention of the Modern Language Association. Our team members have contributed to three international advanced training programs for early career researchers and participated in nine advanced international summer and winter schools and seminars. With the Theatre Foundation of Turkey, we are currently co-organizing a symposium on Jewish Theatre in Turkey, which will take place in May 2023. We have also maintained an active public outreach program.

The excellence of our research has been recognized by a number of accolades, including the Science Academy, Turkey's Young Scientist Award (BAGEP), the American Society for Theatre Research’s (ASTR) José Esteban Muñoz First-Time Presentation Award, Sabancı University Gender and Women's Studies Center of Excellence’s Şirin Tekeli Research Award, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) Short Term Research Grant, Austrian Agency for Education and Internationalisation’s (OeAD) Ernst Mach Grant Worldwide, Kadir Has University’s InIDEA Innovative Creative Projects Grant, and three ERASMUS+ grants as well as travel grants and bursaries from the International Federation for Theatre Research (IFTR), the Theatre and Performance Research Association (TaPRA), the Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE), and the Democracy and Diversity Summer Institute (The New School).

Recently, we have received two major grants. A 330,000 Euro ERC Attractiveness Grant from the Cariplo Foundation will allow us to test the project's insights in the context of Turkey's minoritarian diasporas in Lombardy, Italy. A 1,000,000 Euro Young Researchers Grant from the Italian Ministry of Education, Universities and Research will enable us to further develop STAGING-ABJECTION's methodological innovations and create an infrastructure that will sustain the project's impact beyond its lifetime.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

STAGING-ABJECTION is the first comprehensive critical research project on Turkey’s minoritarian theatre cultures. Most theatre subcultures, texts, and productions we study have been ignored in the literature. Theatre ethnographies on Turkey are very limited and our methodological intervention fundamentally advances the literature. Our critical approach to archival research in minoritarian contexts has methodological innovation potential beyond our case studies.

In employing the theoretical framework of “national abjection,” our objective is not to construct a master narrative about minoritarian theatre practices in Turkey. While testing the relevance of this concept in new contexts, we also explore the complex connections, conflicts, and intersections within and across Turkey’s theatre cultures and the communities that create them. Our interdisciplinary approach to Turkey’s minoritarian theatre cultures has enabled critical interventions in the current theoretical and methodological trends in theatre and performance studies, such as decolonial and postmigrant frameworks and the common conceptions of utopia in the field. Our study of the ethics and politics of theatre historiography inspires fundamental questions about the development of theatre in the Ottoman Empire and Turkey.

In addition to making a vital contribution to the scholarship on the history and politics of theatre, our work also demonstrates the complex tensions that characterize the politics of belonging in Turkey and its connected geographies. Dr. Rüstem Ertuğ Altınay’s essay on the queer ultranationalist and eugenicist medical doctor and politician Rıza Nur’s archive, for instance, is not only the first study of queer opera but also the first publication on the attempts to use the opera for dissident political projects in Turkey. Even more importantly, the essay challenges the romantic associations of queer politics with progressive goals. Perhaps most importantly, this essay and our broader research has demonstrated the limits that define the study of utopian performances, and suggested how we can further explore the analytical potentials of utopianism in theatre and performance studies.

From a youth theatre performance at a Viennese mosque, which led to a major controversy in 2018

Children staging General Kâzım Karabekir's Birlik Kuvvettir [There is Power in Unity], early 1920s

Pioneering Islamic theatre maker Abdullah Kars staging Ashâb-ı Kehf [The Seven Sleepers], 1970s

Istanbul Municipal Theatre's 2011 production of Hagop Baronian's Şark Dişçisi [The Oriental Dentist]