Performative Inter-actions in African Theatre 1: Diaspora Representations and the Interweaving of Cultures

Product Description

This book is part of a three-volume book-set published under the general title of Performative Inter-Actions in African Theatre. Each of the three books in the set has a unique subtitle that works to better focus its content, and differentiates it from the other two volumes. The contributors' backgrounds and global spread adequately reflect the international focus of the three books that make up the collection. The contributions, in their various ways, demonstrate the many advances and ingenious solutions adopted by African theatre practitioners in tackling some of the challenges arising from the adverse colonial experience, as well as the "one-sided" advance of globalisation. The contributions attest to the thriving nature of African theatre and performance, which in the face of these challenges, has managed to retain its distinctiveness, while at the same time acknowledging, contesting, and appropriating influences from elsewhere into an aesthetic that is identifiably African. Consequently, the three books are presented as a comprehensive exploration of the current state of African theatre and performance, both on the continent and diaspora. Performative Inter-Actions in African Theatre 1: Diaspora Representations and the Interweaving of Cultures explores the idea that, in and from their various locations around the world, the plays of the African diaspora acknowledge and pay homage to the cultures of home, while simultaneously articulating a sense of their Africanness in their various inter-actions with their host cultures. Contributions in Diaspora Representations and the Interweaving of Cultures equally attest to the notion that the diaspora - as we see it - is not solely located outside of the African continent itself, but can be found in those performances in the continent that engage performatively with the West and other parts of the world in that process of articulating identity.

About the Author

Dr Kene Igweonu is Assistant Head of Department of Music and Performing Arts and Programme Director for Drama at Canterbury Christ Church University, UK. He is a member of the editorial boards of African Performance Review (APR) and South African Theatre Journal (SATJ). He is the founding convener, and currently co-convener of the African and Caribbean Theatre and Performance Working Group of the International Federation for Theatre Research (IFRT). His latest work is Trends in Twenty-First Century African Theatre and Performance (Rodopi, 2011). Professor Osita Okagbue is the founding President of the African Theatre Association (AfTA) and founding and current Editor of African Performance Review (APR). He is also an Associate Editor for Routledge's Theatres of the World Series. His published works include African Theatres and Performances (Routledge, 2007), Culture and Identity in African and Caribbean Theatre (Adonis and Abbey, 2009), and African Theatre: Diasporas (James Currey), co-edited with Christine Matzke. Professor Okagbue teaches in, and is Deputy Head of, the Department of Theatre and Performance at Goldsmiths, University of London, UK.