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In 2001, a music theatre production exploring Islam s early history from a female perspective was shut down before it reached the stage. The cancellation of A sha and the Women of Madina by Rotterdam s Independent Theatre (O.T.) generated a media storm as speculations about censorship mounted. To unravel this performative non-event, this dissertation consolidates cultural analysis, discourse analysis and actor-network theory in an interdisciplinary approach. The cancellation exposed the theatre as an arena of conflict where issues of multiculturalism and freedom of speech collided well before the major events of 9/11 and the murders of Pim Fortuyn and Theo van Gogh.
List of contents
1 A BEGINNING
1.1 Cancellation: the End of the Show
1.2 Introducing the Independent Theatre and Aïsha
1.3 Tools and Methodology
2 THE NON-EVENT AS DISCURSIVE VORTEX OF BEHAVIOUR: A THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
2.1 The Role of Theatre in the Social Network
2.2 The Actor-Network: Putting Effort in Society
2.3 Thick Description as an Analytical Tool
2.4 A Discursive Vortex of Behaviour?
3 ENTERING THE VORTEX: A THICK DESCRIPTION
3.1 Unravelling the Issues
3.2 Good Intentions: Complicating Multicultural Theatre
3.3 Authoring Events: Claiming the Void
3.4 The Beginning Or is It?
3.5 Defining Subject and Style
3.6 Questions of Authority
3.7 Representation Sans Frontières?
3.8 The Objections Arise
3.9 Crisis
3.10 The Decision
3.11 Mention of a Threat
3.12 From Cancellation to Censorship
3.13 Intermission: the Struggle Enters the Public Sphere
3.14 The Discussion Continues
3.15 Clarifications and More Miscommunication
3.16 Setting Things Right
3.17 Debates Instead of Theatre
3.18 Discourse as a Vortex of Behaviour
4 MULTICULTURAL THEATRE WITHIN THE MULTICULTURAL DRAMA
4.1 External Conditions for the Rise of Discourse
4.2 The Netherlands, a Multicultural Society
4.3 The Multicultural Drama
4.4 A Genealogy of the Multicultural Drama
4.5 Cultural Policy and Multiculturalism
4.6 The Cultural Aspirations of Rotterdam
4.7 A Society in Transit
5 FROM BUILDING BRIDGES TO DETONATING BOMBS: A DISCOURSE ANALYSIS
5.1 Controlling Discourse, Shaping Events
5.2 A Theatre of Restraint
5.3 Complicating Censorship
5.4 Scenarios and Roles in the Aïsha Case
5.5 The Role of Theatre in the Public Sphere
5.6 The Sensational Public Sphere
5.7 Theatre as a Sacred Space
5.8 To Conclude: Nothing is Ever Set in Stone
BIBLIOGRAPHY
About the author
After obtaining an MA in Arts and Culture at Maastricht University, Lonneke van Heugten completed the MA International Performance Research with distinction at the University of Amsterdam and the University of Warwick. In the theatre, she worked as producer, marketing manager and dramaturge. She is currently writing her PhD at the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis.
Report
On many levels, Lonneke van Heugten has written an extraordinary dissertation. (Prof. Dr. Kati Röttger, University of Amsterdam and Prof. Dr. Janelle Reinelt, University of Warwick)
