Theatre, History, and National Identities (review)

The social pressure to define art and artists by national identity is a political legacy of post-1848 Romanticism. Tracing national theatre history is, in turn, problematic because it depends on the determination of national identity. Theatre, History, and National Identities is a compilation of eleven essays dealing with the origin and consequences of creating theatre in the historical context of four modern nations—Finland, Ireland, Israel, and the United States. The book grew out of a summer symposium initiated in 1995 by Pirkko Koski, Professor of Theatre Research at the University of Helsinki. The essays reflect the diverse concerns of the scholars, ranging from the evolution of national theatre movements in Finland, Ireland, and Israel to theories of national theatre historiography, aesthetics, ideology, to the very nature of national identity/identification representations. Authorial approaches vary. Some trace the evolution of theatrical institutions, others analyze specific productions, still others deal with the thematic content of plays, and others yet with individual actors, playwrights, or impresarios who have contributed to national theatre development. All examine how language, social discourse, and common signifiers delimit theatre history in terms of a national context.

The essays, all with detailed scholarly endnotes, fall into three distinct segments. A foreword and introduction on the history and membership of the symposia summarize the book's rationale. Brief biographies of the contributors, a detailed index, and a Tabula Gratulatoria honoring Professor Koski conclude the book. The first section, "Creating Theatre, Creating the Nation" has three essays that address the historical contribution of theatrical institutions to the making of Finnish, Irish, and Israeli nationhood. Part 2, "Interrogating National Discourse," examines how social and political paradigms of nationalism have contributed to, distorted, or put into question the whole enterprise of national theatre formation. The last section "Borders of National Identity" raises questions regarding the ability of theatre: a) to contribute to "identity formation" in the "New" Europe; b) to expand the concept of national identity to include, in the United States for example, the minority point of view of Chicano/a experience; and c) to maintain the institutional status quo of performance in a world dominated by global media.

In the first essay, "German Romanticism and Its Influence on Finnish and Irish Theatre," S. E. Wilmer traces the notion of cultural nationalism to the German Romantics Friedrich Klopstock and Johann Gottfried von Herder. Their ideas about the organic primacy of a native "folk" culture with a distinct past and indigenous language gained currency in the evolving nation states of Europe toward the latter part of the nineteenth century. Intellectuals in countries under the cultural and political hegemony of empires (Ireland under England, Finland under Sweden and Russia) adopted these ideas. Their research and, in some cases, invention of ancient histories and heroes helped in formulating distinct national histories based on shared symbols and myths, bound by a common language. Theatre as a "collective creation" with "collective intentions," the author quotes Stephen Greenblatt, "was seen as a public forum in which the audience could scrutinize and evaluate political rhetoric and assess the validity of representations of national identity" (16).

Two other essays in the first part deal with strategies to define a cultural national identity through theatre. Hanna Suutela describes how from 1872 to 1883 the independent Finnish Theatre Company became an instrument in the political debate on nationalism in Finland. Freddie Rokem examines how avant-garde Israeli theatre has plumbed the Bible in its "search for a classical tradition" (95). He analyzes the following productions as examples: Hanoch Levin's The Queen of the Tub (1970) and The Torments of Job (1981), Gilead Evron's Jehu (1992), and Rina Yerushalmi's Bible Project (1996/1998).

The middle segment contains five strong essays. Bruce McConachie fundamentally questions the enterprise of creating "Paradigms for Writing National Theatre History." He asserts that social ritual is the root for defining national cultural...