UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Stagecraft: Pedagogy, Culture and Performance in Senegalese Theater A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in French and Francophone Studies by Brian Dennis Quinn 2015 © Copyright by Brian Dennis Quinn 2015 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Stagecraft: Pedagogy, Culture and Performance in Senegalese Theater by Brian Dennis Quinn Doctor of Philosophy in French and Francophone Studies University of California, Los Angeles, 2015 Professor Dominic R. Thomas, Chair This dissertation adopts an interdisciplinary approach to ask why in Senegal, home of president-poet Léopold Sédar Senghor and host to two World Black Arts Festivals, theater appears so drastically reduced from the heights of what critics consider the "Golden Age" of Culture of the 1960s and 70s. In fact, theatrical production within this country has become something of a blind spot in the fields of Literary and Performance Studies, since textual analyses and performance fieldwork both prove essential to understanding how theatrical practice is conceived, produced and transmitted within this West African country and former colony. From a contemporary perspective, written texts for stage production, especially published ones, are scant and rarely come to performance, a fact that has called many to declare the apparent death of theatrical practices in Senegal. However, research on the ground reveals that the very term theater takes on a rather different meaning within this country, generally ii encompassing a more popular, community-based approach and often displaying an unreserved and conscious embrace of non-textual, collective and at times seemingly plagiaristic approaches to drama. Here we will explore archival material and oral histories, using performance fieldwork and textual analysis to discover how artists and performers have come to craft the Senegalese stage - official and otherwise - as it exists today. This will include a discussion of the influence of pedagogical discourses and disputing models of Culture in Senegalese theater, as well as how these are circumvented through performance. This work focuses on pivotal places and events in the crafting of the Senegalese stage, with chapters on pedagogical reform and performance at the Ecole William Ponty; Léopold Sédar Senghor and André Malraux's complementary views and uses of Culture and the staging of these through the theater of the 1966 Festival Mondial des Arts Nègres in Dakar, as read against the 1969 Festival Panafricain d'Alger; as well as contemporary efforts to craft a subversive and activist form of theater operating along global and transnational networks. iii The dissertation of Brian Dennis Quinn is approved. Andrew Apter Alain Michel Mabanckou Allen Fraleigh Roberts Dominic R. Thomas, Committee Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2015 iv To Loretta Owen, for giving me the travel bug, and to my parents, for those first travel funds. v Table of Contents Abstract..........................................................................................................................................ii List of figures...............................................................................................................................vii Acknowledgements.....................................................................................................................viii Vita..................................................................................................................................................x Introduction Setting the Stage: Emerging Performance Spaces in the Postcolony..............................................1 Chapter 1 Language, Distinction and Lessons of Things: Pedagogy at the William Ponty School...............33 Chapter 2 Commemoration and Les arts du temps at the William Ponty School..........................................71 Chapter 3 The Crafting of Culture: From Civilizing Mission to Rayonnement Culturel.............................109 Chapter 4 Defining Culture in the Political Sphere: Theater at FESMAN '66 and Panaf' '69.....................145 Chapter 5 What of the "Popular" in Contemporary Senegalese Theater?....................................................180 Conclusion..................................................................................................................................203 Works Cited...............................................................................................................................208 vi List of Figures Figure 1: Entrance to the University of the African Future……………..………………..77 Figure 2: The University's Virtual Library….......................……………….…………….77 Figure 3: The abandoned amphitheater of the former Ponty School………..…....………79 Figure 4: Panel indicating the roadway to the Université du Futur Africain construction site……………………….…………...............................................................................…79 Figure 5: Model cover for Traits d'Union…......................……………………….……..119 Figure 6: Cover chosen by editorial committee of Traits d'Union…......…………….....119 Figure 7: From a youth Nawetaan performance in the Yoff neighborhood…….....….…141 vii Acknowledgments I would like to acknowledge the following institutions, whose financial and/or logistical support has made this research possible: the Mellon Foundation, through 2 year-long graduate fellowships; UCLA's Center for European and Eurasian Studies, which provided a Dissertation Research Fellowship; the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris, which hosted me during one year- long residency; the Foreign Language Area Studies (FLAS) program, which provided a summer grant for Wolof studies; the UCLA Humanities Division for a Lenart Travel Fellowship; the Fulbright IIE program for a 9-month award to fund research in Dakar; and the UCLA Graduate Division, which provided a Dissertation Year Fellowship. I would also like to express my deepest gratitude to the Department of French and Francophone Studies at UCLA for its moral and intellectual support from coursework to filing. Successive Directors of Graduate Studies Zrinka Stahuljak, Andrea Loselle and Sara Melzer provided critical support at various points of my research pursuits, as did Kimberly Jansma and department Chair, Malina Stefanovska. In the process of completing this project, I had the good fortune of working closely with each of my committee members. Andrew Apter provided counsel and inspiration through his teaching, scholarship and encouragement, while Alain Mabanckou offered a vital insider's perspective on questions of literary production both in and out of Francophone Africa. Numerous trajectories taken through the course of the project were made possible or were wholly inspired by the scholarship and generosity of mentor and friend Allen Roberts, whose work with spouse Polly Roberts were an immeasurable source of support. Finally, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Committee Chair, Dominic Thomas, whose contribution to my research and career pursuits goes far beyond the work presented in these pages. The most cherished outcome of this project has been the friendships and affiliations viii formed during my research trips to Senegal. The first of these is with Ousmane Guèye, whose intelligence and skill have already guided the work of several American scholars working on Senegalese culture and society. Equally cherished are the friendships forged with the Kàddu Yaraax theater company, and especially with cultural luminaries Mouhamadou Diol, Leyti Kane and Abdoulaye Karel Dieng. Other research advice and support was provided by the idyllic West African Research Center and its Director, Ousmane Sène, as well as the Archives Nationales de Dakar. For their kind participation and generous contributions to this research, I would like to thank Mamadou Diop, Ousmane Diakhaté, Assane Seck, Oumar Ndao, Mocodou M'bengue, Seïba Traoré, Moustapha Mbaye and Magette Thiam, as well as Malick Guèye of the current Sebiponty site, whose friendship and collaboration provided some of the project's most jovial memories and laughs. Also a haven of tranquility and good will was the maison de la Zone A and its community of scholars and friends. I would also like to acknowledge the contributions of Alassane Pape Sow, Wolof instructor at UC-Berkeley, and research collaborator Ferdinand De Jong, who, along with David Murphy, invited me to participate in a study day at the University of Stirling that proved particularly fruitful to my project. On a personal note, I would like to thank my family, especially parents Dennis and Nancy Quinn and brother Timothy for their seemingly limitless love and support. Also central to my well being were hearty laughs with Christopher Seehase and Nathaniel Armstrong, long chats with Duncan Yoon, Howard Padwa and Timothy Haehn, lunch with Tom Narins, and the tranquil guesthouse of Peter and Olivia Narins, who put a roof over my head at two particularly precarious moments, as did dear cousin Meredith Nishida and her beautiful family. Lastly, a loving acknowledgement to travel companion and fellow dissertator Rita Valente, who in a short time has opened by eyes to many new horizons. ix VITA EDUCATION PhD candidate French and Francophone Studies, University of California, Los Angeles Expected Spring 2015 MA French Cultural Studies, Columbia University, 2002 BA Anthropology and French, Fordham University, 2001 PUBLICATIONS "Ruines D'Utopies: