CRP from the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, which will hold a virtual conference 28/29 March 2025
Eighteenth-Century Heritage Repertoires and the Decolonizing Mandate [ID 142]
Co-Chairs: Caroline Gleason-Mercer, Northwestern University, caroline.gleasonmercier@northwestern.edu; and Keary Watts, k.watts@northwestern.edu
Weekend: March 28/29
Historical repertoires of the long eighteenth century (1650-1830), including those from theatre, opera, dance, material culture, and quotidian social practices, absorbed and enacted the profound contradictions of slavery, capitalism, imperialism, ethnic conflict, environmental change, and a host of other hegemonic discourses. Sometimes a “decolonizing” critique is already at the forefront of these historical repertoires, offering a critique of (or counter-position to) the values and consequences, human costs, and mores of multi-vectoral colonialism. For example, Handel’s Tamerlano (1719) challenges orientalist stereotypes of Sultanic despotism. And sometimes, a creative work’s engagement with “decolonizing” strategies occurs through contemporary intervention to recode elements for performance like Against the Grain Theatre’s 2020 production of Messiah/Complex. This panel seeks papers from scholars and theatre-makers that discuss reperforming eighteenth-century repertoires in the twenty-first century with an eye toward issues of decoloniality. How does performance reactivate eighteenth-century repertoires to signify through and against legacies of colonialism, serving to resonate with current injustices and foster subaltern perspectives in the twenty-first century? Accepted papers will also be invited to submit their work to an edited collection on decolonizing heritage repertoires.
Keywords: Culture/Globalization, Disability Studies, Global/World/Any Country, Music, Performance
Email Address: tcdavis@northwestern.edu