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Multilingualism and Postmigrant Theatre in Germany
- Modern Drama
- University of Toronto Press
- Volume 61, Number 3, Fall 2018
- pp. 328-351
- Article
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abstract:
Immigrants to Germany have fought for decades to be recognized in the country's artistic sphere. In the German theatre, there was no such recognition before the beginning of the twenty-first century, when the opening of the Ballhaus Naunynstraße and the coining of the term "postmigrant theatre" made multilingualism visible on stage as a practice of resistance and empowerment. This article focuses on how multilingualism has been used to mark theatrical space and empower artists of colour in the German theatre. By drawing a historical line from Feridun Zaimoğlu's Kanak Sprak to the postmigrant theatre of the Ballhaus Naunynstraße and then analysing the queer performance piece Frutas afrodisíacas and Mehdi Moradpour's Mumien: Ein Heimspiel, this article explores how multilingualism and the creolization of the German language have transformed the German theatre.