Gastvortrag von Prof. Rebecca Rovit (University of Kansas / Fullbright Fellow IFK Wien)

Gastvortrag von Prof. Rebecca Rovit (University of Kansas, Fulbright Fellow IFK Wien)
im Rahmen des TWM Forschungskolloquiums

"From the Rubble to Renewal. Theatre in Occupied Berlin and Vienna, 1945-48"


Zeit: Mittwoch, 30. November 2016, 12-14 Uhr

Ort: Institut für Theaterwissenschaft, Georgenstr. 11, Raum 109

Eine Veranstaltung des Centre for Global Theatre History

Prof. Rebecca Laughlin Rovit lehrt seit 2009 als Associate Professor am Department für Theater an der University of Kansas und verbringt ihr Forschungsjahr 2016/17 als Fulbright-IFK Senior Fellow in Wien. Ihre Forschungsschwerpunkte liegen im Bereich der modernen, europäischen Theatergeschichte sowie insbesondere auf dem deutschen Theater und der jüdischen Kulturtätigkeit während des Holocaust.

Abstract:
Cultural historians have not sufficiently analyzed how theatre directors and performers coordinated artistic endeavors in the years before Soviet and Western-Allied powers set parameters for cultural life in postwar Berlin. The re-emergent culture after 1945 arose from an artistic collaboration between German-language artists and military officers from four zones of foreign occupation. Evidence suggests that before a German defeat was inevitable, Soviet leaders and exiled artists planned a future cultural policy for Germany and Austria. Officers in the occupied zones recognized the political power of culture and subsidized theatre. Artists knew that the theatre could be a useful conduit to bring recent history to the public. What does this suggest about the theatre repertoire in Vienna, another city, defeated and managed by four world powers?
This lecture will explore the interplay of forces that defined the cultural heritage of the occupation in the early postwar years, while tapping into historiographical, national narratives of Germany and Austria.

Einschlägige Publikationen:
Rebecca Rovit, The Jewish Kulturbund Theatre Company in Nazi Berlin. University of Iowa Press, 2012.
Mit Alvin Goldfarb (Hg.): Theatrical Performance during the Holocaust: Texts, Documents, Memoirs. The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999.