Contemporary Afro-German Theater
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University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Doctoral Dissertations Dissertations and Theses July 2017 The Drama of Race: Contemporary Afro-German Theater Jamele Watkins University of Massachusetts Amherst Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_2 Part of the German Language and Literature Commons, Other Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons, Performance Studies Commons, and the Race, Ethnicity and Post-Colonial Studies Commons Recommended Citation Watkins, Jamele, "The Drama of Race: Contemporary Afro-German Theater" (2017). Doctoral Dissertations. 985. https://doi.org/10.7275/10006407.0 https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_2/985 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Dissertations and Theses at ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE DRAMA OF RACE: CONTEMPORARY AFRO-GERMAN THEATER A Dissertation Presented by JAMELE WATKINS Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts Amherst in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY May 2017 German and Scandinavian Studies © Copyright by Jamele Watkins 2017 All Rights Reserved. THE DRAMA OF RACE: CONTEMPORARY AFRO-GERMAN THEATER A Dissertation Presented by JAMELE WATKINS Approved as to style and content by: ______________________________________ Sara Lennox, Chair ______________________________________ Sky Arndt-Briggs, Member ______________________________________ Sara Jackson, Member ______________________________________ TreaAndrea Russworm, Outside Member ______________________________________ Andrew Donson, Program Director German and Scandinavian Studies ______________________________________ William Moebius, Department Chair Languages, Literatures, and Cultures DEDICATION For Kennedy. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I do this work indeed “on the backs of my ancestors.” I come from a line of strong Black women, and I like to imagine them with me during this entire project. So, first and foremost thank you Minnie, Ducky, Nanae, Juanita, and Prudence. I am thankful for the love and encouragement I received from my grandparents, who pushed me to do my very best. I’d like to thank my parents for their blind support. Finally, I’d like to thank my sister, who is a constant inspiration to me. I can’t wait to see where life takes you. I am thankful for my committee, who very patiently examined multiple drafts in various stages of disarray. Sara Lennox, thank you for your incredibly useful feedback and your thoughtful questions. Sky, thank you for not only helping me organize this document, but also for your help with the prospectus. I never would have made it to this stage without your help. Sara Jackson, thank you for jumping into my project with both feet. In your first years here, I appreciate the time you have devoted to me. Finally, thank you, TreaAndrea Russworm for your help with brainstorming, vision casting, and most of all, thank you for your emotional labor over the years. I would like to thank my partner, Doug Rappin, for his tireless encouragement, annoying enthusiasm, and faith in me, when I had none myself. Thank you for putting up with me even when I was a little prickly. Thank you to the UMass Graduate School for the Research Grant and the Summer Diversity Award; Coalition of Women in German for the Zantop Award; and UMass German and Scandinavian Studies Program for supporting my travel to Berlin, Hamburg, and Nuremberg. This financial support allowed me to watch the plays featured in my v dissertation and interview Black German theater practitioners. The continued contact allowed me to answer some lingering questions I had. It is also important to thank the theater practitioners involved in this project. They took the time to meet with me and very patiently answered my questions: Lara-Sophie Milagro, Leander Graf, Dela Dabulamanzi, Sebastian Fleary, Philipp Khabo Köpsell, Amina Eisner, and Elizabeth Blonzen. I would further like to thank the actors who tolerated me during my visits: Jonathan Aikins, Genifer Habbasch, Sithembile Menck, and Felix Franken. I would additionally like to thank the Wiggies who have encouraged me and aided me in this process: Maria Stehle, Allie Hill, Florence Feiereisen, and Elizabeth Bridges. I would also like to thank my sister scholars, who are a constant inspiration to me. I am in awe of you and eternally grateful for your willingness to help me, often with very short notice: Tiffany Florvil, Michelle Eley, Sonya Donaldson, Kimberly Juanita Brown, Priscilla Layne, Vanessa Plumly, Barbara Krauthamer, and Rachel Mordecai. Thank you also to Writing Center graduate students for their emotional support and explanations of the English language: Rebecca, Josh, Lisha, and Jenny. To my dear friends who really looked out for me during this process: Neelofer Qadir, Amanda Jorgenson, April Huffines, Dasha Bottan, Marwa Amer, Katrin Bahr, Emily McLean, and Sally Olson, I love you, and thank you for carrying me. Finally, I don’t know how I would have made it through this year without Dr. Mamta Dadlani. My success (and the success of many PoC graduate students) is a reflection of her and her work. Mamta, you are the real MVP. vi ABSTRACT THE DRAMA OF RACE: CONTEMPORARY AFRO-GERMAN THEATER MAY 2017 JAMELE C. WATKINS, B.A., UNIVERSITY OF NEVADA LAS VEGAS Ph.D., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Directed by: Professor Sara Lennox The first investigation of Afro-German theater, “The Drama of Race,” argues that Afro- German theater empowers as Black actors take ownership of a German stage, a white German space. My dissertation highlights four crucial Afro-German plays: real life: Germany (2008), Heimat, bittersüße Heimat [Home, bittersweet Home] (2010), Also by Mail (2013), and Mais in Deutschland und anderen Galaxien [Corn in Germany and Other Galaxies] (2015). In Chapter I, I discuss the cultural conditions in which Afro-German theater emerged—after an established literary corpus by Afro-German authors. Chapter II introduces the first Afro-German play and its improvisational methods as empowering for the teenage actors instead of an audience. I analyze the usage of Augusto Boal’s educational theater and the inclusion of African diasporic authors like bell hooks and Sojourner Truth. My analysis in Chapter III builds on the usage of “diasporic iconography” (Jacqueline Nassy Brown) to describe the Alltag [daily life] of many Black people in Germany and redefine traditional notions of Heimat [home]. Chapter IV reflects on a two- act family drama that utilizes the African diaspora to make allusions to literature, politics, and mythology. Chapter V examines a mother-son relationship. East Germany imprisons the mother who desires individuality in the communist state, and the Afro-East German son vii fails to establish meaningful relationships but is able to reconcile the mother-son relationship in outer space. Afro-German theater forges connections across boundaries to the diaspora, pushes national boundaries to put them into question, and creates a space for Black Germans in German society. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............................................................................................v ABSTRACT .....................................................................................................................vii CHAPTER I. SETTING THE STAGE ..............................................................................................1 A. Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 1 B. Black German Theater ................................................................................................................ 6 1. Missing from German Theater ................................................................................................ 6 2. Black Germans in History ....................................................................................................... 7 3. Afro-German Theater Roots Are in Black German Literature .............................................. 10 4. Importance of Recovering Black German History ................................................................ 15 5. The Role of Identity ............................................................................................................... 17 6. Black German Plays .............................................................................................................. 20 C. Diaspora .................................................................................................................................... 21 1. Afro-Germans within the African Diaspora .......................................................................... 24 2. Complicated Diasporas .......................................................................................................... 26 3. Microaggressions ................................................................................................................... 27 D. Intertextuality and Diaspora ...................................................................................................... 29 E. Theater Scholarship ..................................................................................................................