Periodic Reporting for period 1 - ITACA (Intercultural Theatre And Cultural Appropriation)
Reporting period: 2020-10-01 to 2022-03-31
ITACA (Intercultural Theatre and Cultural Appropriation) intends to explore the complex phenomenon of cultural appropriation in contemporary theatre with the aim of setting up a form of theatre aesthetics.
Cultural appropriation is defined as the improper adoption of features (history, symbols, ideas, know-how) of a people, or society, by members of another and usually more historically dominant group.
Relevant cases that occurred in the context of Quebec theatre have recently attracted international attention, and show how sensitive the Canadian society is to the problem.
Holding to the belief that theatre is an ideal philosophical tool useful to explore the relationship between identity and otherness, ITACA proposes analysing that relationship which is found in our post-colonial, globalized society. Additionally, by taking this exploration one step further by analysing how Europe perceives this relationship compared to North America. The project studies this complex phenomenon from the disciplinary point of view of theatre aesthetics, open to a multidisciplinary approach including theatre practice, political science, and new media.
The issue of cultural appropriation is an urgent theme that needs to be clarified with respect to the phenomenon of “Identity Politics” (the tendency for people of a particular religion, race, social background, etc., to form exclusive political alliances, moving away from traditional broad-based party politics). Could it be that the cultural appropriation really is a harmless, peaceful exchange of cultural expressions? Or, on the contrary, it is offensive? What measures and practices should be taken to tackle cultural appropriation?
To achieve its objective ITACA foresees a research and training project between Canada and Italy combining Quebec theatre to examples of Italian intercultural theatre, and investigating aesthetic and ethical issues arising when a dominant culture represents a marginalised one.
Cultural appropriation is defined as the improper adoption of features (history, symbols, ideas, know-how) of a people, or society, by members of another and usually more historically dominant group.
Relevant cases that occurred in the context of Quebec theatre have recently attracted international attention, and show how sensitive the Canadian society is to the problem.
Holding to the belief that theatre is an ideal philosophical tool useful to explore the relationship between identity and otherness, ITACA proposes analysing that relationship which is found in our post-colonial, globalized society. Additionally, by taking this exploration one step further by analysing how Europe perceives this relationship compared to North America. The project studies this complex phenomenon from the disciplinary point of view of theatre aesthetics, open to a multidisciplinary approach including theatre practice, political science, and new media.
The issue of cultural appropriation is an urgent theme that needs to be clarified with respect to the phenomenon of “Identity Politics” (the tendency for people of a particular religion, race, social background, etc., to form exclusive political alliances, moving away from traditional broad-based party politics). Could it be that the cultural appropriation really is a harmless, peaceful exchange of cultural expressions? Or, on the contrary, it is offensive? What measures and practices should be taken to tackle cultural appropriation?
To achieve its objective ITACA foresees a research and training project between Canada and Italy combining Quebec theatre to examples of Italian intercultural theatre, and investigating aesthetic and ethical issues arising when a dominant culture represents a marginalised one.
Work performed during the fellowship was ascribed to research activities, management activities, training and supervision activities, communication and dissemination activities, which are here summarized with results and outputs. The MSCA Research Fellow, based at the UMIL host institution, started the outgoing phase of the research at the UQAM in teleworking for the first 9 months because of the pandemic, but continued in presence in Montréal from July to December 31 2021.
First research activities concerned acquiring and transferring interdisciplinary knowledge within research groups based at the UQAM. Research areas involved were: philosophy of politics, history, sociology, media studies, cultural studies, theatre and performance studies. An activity of networking with other institutions from Montréal (other Universities, theatrical societies and associations) was set up from the outset, as well as a study of scientific literature relevant to the topic, with the creation of an updated bibliography. Once in Montréal, networking was further strengthened, and the participation of the researcher in cultural activities was expanded further by the physical attendance at shows, performances, festivals and events.
Management activities were continuously developed, working on legal, contractual financial and administrative management between the UMIL and the UQAM.
Training activities were developed from the beginning of the research at the UMIL by attending courses on Open Science and European Funding. Supervision activities were planned at the UQAM, with the organisation of seminars for students, artists and researchers on project themes planned at the EST-UQAM between January and April 2022.
Communication and dissemination activities included: networking with scholars from the UQAM and different institutions and universities; the publication of the first article on the subject; the dissemination of the project to the Italian theatre community; the dissemination to large public and schools with participation at the European Researchers' Night 2021 edition organized by the UMIL; a series of audio and video interviews with Canadian/Quebecois artists based in Montréal; the organisation of seminars with artists planned at the EST-UQAM between February and April 2022; the organisation of an international study day with scholars and artists planned at the EST-UQAM on March 2022.
First research activities concerned acquiring and transferring interdisciplinary knowledge within research groups based at the UQAM. Research areas involved were: philosophy of politics, history, sociology, media studies, cultural studies, theatre and performance studies. An activity of networking with other institutions from Montréal (other Universities, theatrical societies and associations) was set up from the outset, as well as a study of scientific literature relevant to the topic, with the creation of an updated bibliography. Once in Montréal, networking was further strengthened, and the participation of the researcher in cultural activities was expanded further by the physical attendance at shows, performances, festivals and events.
Management activities were continuously developed, working on legal, contractual financial and administrative management between the UMIL and the UQAM.
Training activities were developed from the beginning of the research at the UMIL by attending courses on Open Science and European Funding. Supervision activities were planned at the UQAM, with the organisation of seminars for students, artists and researchers on project themes planned at the EST-UQAM between January and April 2022.
Communication and dissemination activities included: networking with scholars from the UQAM and different institutions and universities; the publication of the first article on the subject; the dissemination of the project to the Italian theatre community; the dissemination to large public and schools with participation at the European Researchers' Night 2021 edition organized by the UMIL; a series of audio and video interviews with Canadian/Quebecois artists based in Montréal; the organisation of seminars with artists planned at the EST-UQAM between February and April 2022; the organisation of an international study day with scholars and artists planned at the EST-UQAM on March 2022.
In the submitted project the phenomenon of cultural appropriation is linked to Identity Politics. In a deeper phase of the research it is important to take into consideration if cultural appropriation is ascribable to that of Identity Politics, in its most ideological forms, or how far removed it is. It is crucial to contextualize the origin of this term in the political and cultural context of Canada in the early 1980s. Here cultural appropriation is indistinguishable from the issue of colonial oppression perpetrated against Native Americans, both the physical and cultural genocide against first inhabitants of North America.
Quebec, the province on which the research focuses by studying cases of cultural appropriation in theatre, has claimed a national identity that is problematically related to this phenomenon. Quebec’s nationalistic francophone self-determination is based on its self-understanding of been an oppressed minority against English-speaking people. But today there is an awareness that this nationalistic self-determination - especially developed an expended trough the arts, and in particular theatre, in the 1970s and 1980s -, has been at the expense of other cultural minorities (both black and indigenous peoples), who have suffered the imposition of linguistic and national boundaries, and have been relegated to invisibility.
This aspect distinguishes Quebec from the rest of Canada and makes it a unique place to study the phenomenon of cultural appropriation, in relation to the difference between the political agenda of Quebec’s interculturalism and Canadian multiculturalism.
The methodological perspective to be adopted to study this phenomenon, from an aesthetic and a social and political point of view, is what is offered by Performance Studies.
Traditional theatre studies do not provide an adequate understanding of the phenomenon, as they are still linked to a mimetic paradigm of representation, which runs through twentieth-century theatre. This paradigm seems to find its fulfilment at the end of the millennium with the full expression of performative practices that affirm presence and consider action as embodiment of self-representation, revealing social and political dynamics.
Presence and representation imply two different ways of posing the relationship between identity and otherness, and identity and difference, which are all at the heart of theatrical art. The paradigm of presence, of 'self-exposure', linked to the expression of a minority consciousness, rejects the representation which implies a universal, decontextualised, hierarchically dominant worldview. The self-exposure that presence claims, rejecting the delegation implied by representation, is based on the questioning of traditional practices of character interpretation, i. e. putting oneself in the place of the other, which in theatre are based on this worldview.
The Quebec artistic context is an ideal laboratory and model for studying the aesthetics and ethics issues raised by a politically intercultural and multicultural perspective.
Quebec, the province on which the research focuses by studying cases of cultural appropriation in theatre, has claimed a national identity that is problematically related to this phenomenon. Quebec’s nationalistic francophone self-determination is based on its self-understanding of been an oppressed minority against English-speaking people. But today there is an awareness that this nationalistic self-determination - especially developed an expended trough the arts, and in particular theatre, in the 1970s and 1980s -, has been at the expense of other cultural minorities (both black and indigenous peoples), who have suffered the imposition of linguistic and national boundaries, and have been relegated to invisibility.
This aspect distinguishes Quebec from the rest of Canada and makes it a unique place to study the phenomenon of cultural appropriation, in relation to the difference between the political agenda of Quebec’s interculturalism and Canadian multiculturalism.
The methodological perspective to be adopted to study this phenomenon, from an aesthetic and a social and political point of view, is what is offered by Performance Studies.
Traditional theatre studies do not provide an adequate understanding of the phenomenon, as they are still linked to a mimetic paradigm of representation, which runs through twentieth-century theatre. This paradigm seems to find its fulfilment at the end of the millennium with the full expression of performative practices that affirm presence and consider action as embodiment of self-representation, revealing social and political dynamics.
Presence and representation imply two different ways of posing the relationship between identity and otherness, and identity and difference, which are all at the heart of theatrical art. The paradigm of presence, of 'self-exposure', linked to the expression of a minority consciousness, rejects the representation which implies a universal, decontextualised, hierarchically dominant worldview. The self-exposure that presence claims, rejecting the delegation implied by representation, is based on the questioning of traditional practices of character interpretation, i. e. putting oneself in the place of the other, which in theatre are based on this worldview.
The Quebec artistic context is an ideal laboratory and model for studying the aesthetics and ethics issues raised by a politically intercultural and multicultural perspective.