Aragorn Quinn
UW-System Fellow (2022-2023)
Associate Professor, Foreign Languages and Literature, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
The conventional definition of theater involves live performances with copresent performers and audience. However, this foundational assumption has been challenged in recent years by scholars in Performance Studies. This talk explores performances in Japan from the mid-Showa Period (1925-1989) that prefigured contemporary debates in Performance Studies about the relationship between liveness and mediation. Over a half-century ago, influential figures who are now regarded as central pillars of Modern Japanese Theater utilized film, radio, and other technologies to tell stories that, through both content and mode, questioned the centrality of the body in performance. This paper examines the works of Senda Koreya, Murayama Tomoyoshi, and Terayama Shuji to propose a way beyond the liveness/mediation dichotomy.
Aragorn Quinn is an Associate Professor of Japanese Performance at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. His work focuses on Japanese political theater in the period between the Meiji Restoration and WWII.
*Events currently open only to 2022-23 fellows due to space concerns; please contact IRH at info@irh.wisc.edu to be added to a cancellation list for in-person events.*