Staging Slavery by Adams, Sarah J.; Gibbs, Jenna M.; Sutherland, Wendy;

Short description:

This international analysis of theatrical case studies illustrates the ways that theater was an arena both of protest and, simultaneously, racist and imperialist exploitations of the colonized and enslaved body.

Long description:

This international analysis of theatrical case studies illustrates the ways that theater was an arena both of protest and, simultaneously, racist and imperialist exploitations of the colonized and enslaved body.

By bringing together performances and discussions of theater culture from various colonial powers and orbits—ranging from Denmark and France to Great Britain and Brazil—this book explores the ways that slavery and hierarchical notions of "race" and "civilization" manifested around the world. At the same time, against the backdrop of colonial violence, the theater was a space that also facilitated reformist protest and served as evidence of the agency of Black people in revolt. Staging Slavery considers the implications of both white-penned productions of race and slavery performed by white actors in blackface makeup and Black counter-theater performances and productions that resisted racist structures, on and off the stage.

With unique geographical perspectives, this volume is a useful resource for undergraduates, graduates, and researchers in the history of theater, nationalism and imperialism, race and slavery, and literature.

Table of Contents:

Introduction: Framing the Stage: Structures of Race, Imperial Oppression, and Performances of Blackness, 1770-1850  Part 1: Slavery, Revolt, and Abolitionism  1. Slavery, Abolition, and Civic Education in French Boulevard Theater during the French Revolution  2. The Legitimacy of Resistance in Dutch Abolitionist Theater  3. The Politics of Truth-Telling: Black Resistance and the Transatlantic World in Nesselrode’s Drama Adaptation of the Ziméo-Plot Zamor und Zoraide, 1778  4. "Our Turn Next": Slavery and Freedom on French and American Stages, 1789-1799  Part 2: Race, Nation, and Empire  5. Staging Slavery "at Home": Race and Homosocial Economies in Ernst Lorenz Rathlef’s Die Mohrinn zu Hamburg, 1775  6. Performing The Revenge in Sydney: Blackface and Blackness in an Abolitionist Empire  7. The Representation of Stage "Blackness" in Theodor Körner’s Toni, 1812  8. "O pity the Black Man, he is Slave in Foreign Country": Danish Performances of Colonialism and Slavery, 1793-1848  Part 3: Black Agency, Performance, and Counter-Theater  9. Slavery as Part of the Scene: The Presence of Black and Mestizo Actors and Actresses at the Late Eighteenth-Century Vila Rica Opera House  10. Counter-Voices in the Tropics: Theater and Vernacular Performance in Rio de Janeiro  11. Protesting Slavery, Asserting Freedom, and Defying Racism: The African Grove Theatre in New York, 1821-1824  12. Epilogue: Staging Slavery, Re-Centering, and Re-Spotlighting Blackened People