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[Guillermo L. Verdecchia]

SITING THE OTHER :
MARGINAL IDENTITIES IN AUSTRALIAN AND CANADIAN DRAMA


A Collection of Essays
Edited by Marc Maufort


As prominent examples of settler-invader colonies of the former British
Empire, Australia and Canada have often been studied side by side, by
literary critics and historians alike ( a fuller account of the convergences
and divergences between the two countries can be found in Diana Brydon and
Helen Tiffin’s Decolonising Fictions ). Both in English Canada and
Australia, drama has registered an unprecedented growth in the last decades
and has achieved international recognition. More particularly, English
Canada and Australia have witnessed the emergence of new marginal voices in
theatre and drama in the last two decades or so. In strikingly similar
parallel developments, the drama of the two countries has become
multicultural, thus mirroring the setup of the societies from which it
emanates. This collection will therefore seek to assess the position
occupied by the "other" in contemporary English Canadian and Australian
drama. Needless to say, both the differences and the similarities between
the multicultural drama of the two countries will be examined. In this
context, the concept of "other" will comprise issues of race, gender and/or
sexual identities, thus making room for various contemporary forms of
marginal identities. As the provisional title makes clear, the guiding
metaphor is a spatial one: it suggests the complex web of positionings
occupied by ever-evolving marginal groups. The boundaries between the
various forms of marginalities and the "mainstream" are in themselves
unfixed and unstable, in constant need of re-assessment. Ideally, the
collection will throw light on the process through which marginal identities
generate (or fail to) innovative theatrical and dramatic forms, departing
radically from traditional naturalistic models.


Essays can deal with individual or groups of playwrights in Australia and
English Canada. They can explore representations of ethnicity ( particularly
in the works of Canadian First Nations playwrights, Asian Canadian
dramatists, Hispanic Canadian playwrights ; works by ethnic minorities in
Australian drama—both Asian and European in descent---and Australian
aboriginal drama—this list is of course not exhaustive ) ; articles could
also focus on gender issues (particularly in the works of women playwrights)
and sexual identities (particularly in lesbian and/or gay drama). Essays on
representations of these marginalized communities in mainstream English
Canadian and Australian drama will also be considered. Articles on
multiculturalism and theatrical practice are also sought, as are articles
considering the above-mentioned issues from a theoretical vantage point.
Essays need not focus simultaneously on Canadian and Australian drama : a
comparative perspective will be provided in the introductory and concluding
essays by the editor.




        For further inquiries, please contact Marc Maufort, Université Libre de
Bruxelles, Langues et littératures germaniques CP 175, 50, av. F.D.
Roosevelt, 1050 BRUXELLES, BELGIUM ; FAX : 32-2-650-24-50 ; E-Mail :
mmaufort at ulb.ac.be.

        Marc Maufort is Associate Professor of English at the Université Libre de
Bruxelles, Belgium, where he teaches English, American and postcolonial
drama. He is the author of Songs of American Experience : the Vision of
O’Neill and Melville ( 1990 ) and the editor or co-editor of Eugene O’Neill
and the Emergence of American Drama ( 1989 ), Staging Difference : Cultural
Pluralism in American Theatre and Drama ( 1995 ), The Guises of Canadian
Diversity ( 1995 ), Voices of Power ( 1997 ), Union in Partition ( 1997 )
and Interpreting Minority ( 1998 ). His articles on American and Canadian
drama have appeared in various European and American journals.


SITING THE OTHER : MARGINAL IDENTITIES IN AUSTRALIAN AND CANADIAN DRAMA

Edited by Marc Maufort

A PRELIMINARY TABLE OF CONTENTS


I. The Canadian -Australian Axis

Marc Maufort : " Siting the Other : a Cross-cultural Perspective"

Joanne Tompkins : " Multicultural Theatre in Australia and Canada : One Big
Happy Family ?"

Marc Maufort : " Forging an ‘Aboriginal Realism’ : First Nations Playwriting
in Canada and Australia ."

Gerry Turcotte : " ‘Collaborating with Ghosts’ : Dispossession in The Book
of Jessica and the Mudrooroo/Mueller Project".

II. Marginality in Canadian Theatre and Drama

Robert Appleford : "  ‘For Only Through Your Eyes Am I Remembered’ :
Subverting the Audience’s Gaze in Native Canadian Theatre"

Albert-Reiner Glaap : " Drew Hayden Taylor’s Dramatic Career"

Rick Knowles : " Monique Mojica’s ‘Princes Pocahontas and the Blue Spots’"

Ann Wilson : " Ian Ross’ ‘Joe from Winnipeg’"

Natalie Rewa : " Cultural Specificity and Scenographic Design "

Ann Nothof : " Canadian Iconoclasty : Fracturing the Mosaic"

Robert Nunn : " Crackwalking : Judith Thompson’s Marginal Characters."

Robert Wallace : " Gendering Desire : Re/viewing John Herbert’s ‘Fortune and
Men’s Eyes’"

Reid Gilbert : " Audience as Colonial Power in George F. Walker’s ‘Suburban
Motel’ Plays"

Alan Filewod : " Lorena Gale’s Angelique and African Canadian drama"

III. Marginality in Australian Theatre and Drama

Tom Burvill : " Urban Theatre Projects : Re-Siting Marginal Communities in
Outer Western Sydney."

Paul Makeham : " The Work of the Brisbane-based ‘Visual Theatre’ Company Brink"

Peta Tait : " Queer Circus Bodies in the Dark and Razorbaby : Australia’s
Unnatural Postmodern Physical Theatre"

Jacqueline Lo :"Gender and Race in Recent Performance Work by
Asian-Australian Women."

Peter Fitzpatrick : " Multiculturalism in Contemporary Australian Theatre"

Mairrose Casey : "Siting Themselves : Indigenous Australian Playwrights in
the 1990s"

Helen Thomson : " Solo Women Aboriginal Performers in Contemporary
Australian Theatre"

Helen Grehan : " ‘Implacement’ and Belonging : Dramatising White Women’s
Stories in ‘Tiger Country’"

Susan Pfisterer : " History and Mystery and Suffragettes on the Australian
Stage"

Bruce Parr : " Nick Enright’s Queer Theatre"

IV. The Artists Speak

Brief statements by several Canadian and Australian playwrights.

Marc Maufort
Associate Professor
English Department
CP 175
Université Libre de Bruxelles
50, av. F.D. Roosevelt
1050 BRUXELLES/BELGIUM
Tel: ++32-2-426-04-37
Fax: ++32-2-650-24-50