Theatre Theories of the Polish Avant-gardes 1918-1939

Theatre theories of the Polish avant-gardes of the interwar period have so far been barely ignored in an international context. Despite the extremely different and oppositional aesthetic and political positions expressed in more than 100 texts and manifestos on theatre theory, these considerations have not received adequate attention outside of Poland. The proposed research project will close this gap on a theatre historiographical level and show the far- reaching theoretical impact with regard to gender, performative, temporality and nationalism studies. The diversity of the currents of the theatre avant-garde in Poland leads to the basic thesis: avant-garde is here to be seen as a plural term, namely as the avant-gardes. In this diversity of texts three hypothesis rise up: Political dimension: the search for a new theatre was linked to a new national theatre, so that the political identity plays a central role in the theatre theories. Historical narrative: this search was also connected with the question of historical legitimation. Thus different temporal dimensions meet, revealing highly diverse (historical and theoretical) conceptions. Gender deconstruction: the insult to humanity by WW I led not only to concepts of a homo novus, but also to an actor novus. The performers disappear as the normative image of a traditional value system. The resulting objectives break down these three topics in a differentiated way, and they will show the often unnoticed influence on posterity (e.g. Barba, Brook, Grotowski or Kantor). The methodological basis for the analysis and contextualisation of these texts is Rudolf Münz`s considerations on the concept of a theatricality structure (Theatralitätsgefüge). This is a further development of the model that uses the focus on theatre theories to elaborate fundamental relationships in order to enable a broad (theoretical and historical) contextualization. The project open up a view of a hitherto prevailing blind spot in theatre studies and close a research gap (with the possibility to provide new research material for the community). It also makes it possible to question the hegemony of the historical avant-gardes (which refer to France, Germany, Italy, Russia). The project shows a far-reaching influence of Polish theatre avant-gardes on representatives of the neo-avant-gardes. On a theoretical and methodological level, an innovative contribution to the analysis of theatre theories is also provided. Evelyn Annuß (Vienna) will act as the mentor of the project. And six central reseachers/institutions will support the project with their expertise (content, methodological and networking related): Malgorzata Geron (Torun), Katarzyna Kulakowska (HyPaTia/Warsaw), Elzbieta Wrotnowska-Gmyz (reclaimed avant-garde/Warsaw), Dariusz Kosinski (Cracow), Dorota Sajewska (Bochum) and Matthias Warstat (Berlin).