University of Cambridge

Department Member, Social Anthropology

Thesis Title: "Radical Subjectivity" and the "Ensemble": Interpersonal Association and Dissociation at the Theater an der Ruhr (Undergraduate Dissertation, 2012)

About

Theatre is both an actual place and a potential assembly, bound to the social practices of its socio-political framework, but also challenging or mocking its conventions. It provides for a space within which actors depict and audiences debate the various subject positions possible in society as well as the potential for their critique. The idea that theatre is intrinsically embedded in, and in dialogue with, society and politics is key to the argument in this dissertation. The field research on which this work is based was conducted at the Theater an der Ruhr (TaR) in the city of Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany between June and October 2011. By way of an ethnographic case study of several perspectives on the TaR, this dissertation describes and analyses the role of theatre in formulating alternative intellectual, social, and political visions. I draw out several specific views on how theatre constitutes forms of social belonging, encourages ethical aspirations, works with individual and collective aesthetic ideas, and implements political action. I use concepts suggested by the theatre itself to analyse the ways actors, directors, assistants, and the public can use theatre to contribute to new understandings of, and help create, critical spaces for the contemplation of subjectivity, belonging, and political discourse on what constitutes a good actor, person, or political agent. In their own terms, the ‘ensemble’ is perceived to be an association between people, based on, but not restricted to, actors. It describes an association of people, which questions notions of homogeneity and is intricately tied to a second concept they engage with: ‘radical subjectivity’. The TaR’s organisation and its practice suggests that theatre can enable, provide, and experiment with alternative ways of problematizing, critiquing, and enacting subjectivity — not understood merely as states of mind, but as modi, positions and potentialities of becoming-persons in response to specific sociopolitical environments. This dissertation takes inspiration from network theorists, particularly Bruno Latour, to argue that ethnographic description can do more than comment, but can challenge and rework philosophical concepts, such as those of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. This study suggests that the conceptual imagination of theatre in the intellectual context of postwar Germany is uniquely positioned between performance art, political activism, and forms of social association. Through the prism of theoretical reflection, reflexive action, and embodied performance at the socially engaged Theater an der Ruhr, this ethnographical piece hopes to contribute new stimuli about rethinking the ethical, the political, and the intersubjective at the intersection of performance art, philosophy, and anthropology.


www.theater-an-der-ruhr.de