Studies in contemporary theater texts (2001-2021)

• Applicant: Dr. Hannah Elisa von Sass
• Subject Area: German Literary and Cultural Studies (Modern German Literature)
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 499583773

This network will bring together formerly separate endeavors in literature studies, theatre studies and more practically oriented programs in (creative) writing to thematize and theorize on contributions of contemporary drama. Point of departure are the methodically controlled ways of dealing with recently developed theatre texts that had been, so far, scientifically marginalized. This is highly relevant because of dramatic literature implying the writing process for stages and, ultimately, for the theatre visit, i.e. a kind of literature that had been continually developed in the mutual relation with post-dramatic theatre during the last two decades. It is, therefore, envisaged to amplify, with transdisciplinary ambition, the awareness for theatre texts as a currently vitally debated form of literature and praxis in science as well as in artistic discourses. Priority is given (1) to investigating the plurality of linguistic strategies and formats in contemporary drama. In that course, the focus will be on the rise of writing procedures that are establishing collective forms of speaking on the one hand and, on the other, on the increase of collectively organized text production. Moreover (2), reflecting on scientific vocabularies applied in pertinent analysis and theory will be encouraged and advanced. In a further step (3), changing conditions of publishing formats will be explicitly addressed and, thus, specified in a praxeological regard. By means of these three research priorities – that are not isolated from each other but unfold a concise field of inquiry – new impulses for theatre text research, that are really up-to-date, are able to be formulated. This will be elaborated by intensifying the analytic exchange and by making progress in the research of contemporary drama in integrating different disciplines and approaches.

• DFG Programme: Scientific Networks