Abstract
This chapter extends the discussion about the politics of pedagogy articulated in the previous chapter with an analysis of student productions of Heiner Müller’s The Hamletmachine and Elfriede Jelinek’s the Princess Plays. As much of a critique of totalitarianism as it is of capitalism, Hamletmachine demands that its actors and audience engage with Cold War history and politics. Drawing on archival videos documenting the production’s rehearsal process, I provide a self-reflexive autoethnographical account of what I have always considered my most successful attempt to teach postdramatic theatre. The chapter juxtaposes The Hamletmachine with a case study of a more recent, and perhaps less successful, student production of Elfriede Jelinek’s Princess Plays, with a particular emphasis on the students’ experience of creating a dramatic context for a postdramatic text.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
Aggiss, Liz, and Billy Cowie. 2006. Anarchic Dance. London and New York: Routledge.
Badiou, Alain. 2015. In Praise of Theatre. Translated by Andrew Bielski. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Bahun-Radunović, Sanja. 2008. History in Postmodern Theater: Heiner Müller, Caryl Churchill, and Suzan-Lori Parks. Comparative Literature Studies 45 (4): 446–470.
Barnett, David. 2016. Heiner Müller’s The Hamletmachine. London and New York: Routledge.
Berg, Maggie, and Barbara K. Seeber. 2016. The Slow Professor: Challenging the Culture of Speed in the Academy. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Bogad, L.M. 2016. Tactical Performance: The Theory and Practice of Serious Play. London and New York: Routledge.
Croggon, Alison. 2011. Review of The Princess Dramas by Elfriede Jelinek, directed by André Bastian. Theatre Notes. http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com.au/2011/06/review-princess-dramas.html
D’Cruz, Glenn. 2011. Teaching/Directing 4.48 Psychosis. Australasian Drama Studies 57: 99–114.
———. 2016. ACP280 Unit Guide. Melbourne: Deakin University.
Foucault, Michel. 1978. The History of Sexuality, Volume 1. Translated by Robert Hurley. New York: Pantheon Books.
———. 1981. The Order of Discourse. In Untying the Text: A Post-Structuralist Reader, ed. Robert Young and trans. Ian McLeod, 48–78. Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Jelinek, Elfriede. 2006. Princess Plays. Translated by Gitta Honegger. Theatre 36 (2): 39–65.
Kane, Sarah. 2001. 4.48 Psychosis. In Sarah Kane: Complete Plays. London: Methuen.
Lehmann, Hans-Thies. 2006. Postdramatic Theatre. Translated and with an introduction by Karen Jürs-Munby. London and New York: Routledge.
Müller, Heiner. 2001a. Conversation in Brecht’s Tower. Dialogue. In A Heiner Müller Reader. Plays, Poetry, Prose, ed. and trans. Carl Weber, 217–232. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
———. 2001b. The Hamletmachine. Translated by Dennis Redmond. http://members.efn.org/~dredmond/Hamletmachine.PDF
Nicholson, Helen. 2011. Theatre, Education and Performance. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Rancière, Jacques. 1991. The Ignorant Schoolmaster: Five Lessons in Intellectual Emancipation. Translated and with an introduction by Kristin Ross. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
———. 2009. The Emancipated Spectator. Translated by Gregory Elliot. London: Verso.
Rosefeldt, Julian. 2016. Manifesto (Exhibition Catalogue). London: Koenig Books.
Spieler, Richard. 2016. Manifesto Catalogue. London: Koenig Books.
Wangh, Stephen. 2013. The Heart of Teaching. London and New York: Routledge.
Wark, McKenzie. 2011. The Beach Beneath the Street: The Everyday Life and Glorious Times of the Situationist International. London and New York: Verso.
Zurbrugg, Nicholas. 1988. Post-Modernism and the Multi-Media Sensibility: Heiner Müller’s Hamletmachine and the Art of Robert Wilson. Modern Drama 31 (3, Fall): 439–453.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
D’Cruz, G. (2018). Teaching History and (Gender) Politics: The Hamletmachine and the Princess Plays. In: Teaching Postdramatic Theatre. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71685-5_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71685-5_6
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-71684-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-71685-5
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)