Crisis of Representation - Representations of Crises: Questioning Authorities on the Early Modern Stage

1. This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

2. CRISIS OF REPRESENTATION - REPRESENTATIONS OF CRISES: QUESTIONING AUTHORITIES ON THE EARLY MODERN STAGE Introduction to SEMINAR n°1 Andreas MAHLER / Martin PROCHÁZKA

3. Welcome to the seminar on “Crisis of Representation—Representations of Crises: Questioning Authorities on the Early Modern Stage” held by Martin Procházka from Prague and Andreas Mahler from Berlin. The following slides are meant to guide you through a brainstorming with regard to the topic of the seminar. Please take your time with each slide and think about what you would answer.

4. What’s a crisis?

5. What’s a crisis? Think about how you would describe a crisis.

6. What’s a crisis? Think about how you would describe a crisis. What would be the opposite to a crisis?

7. What’s a crisis? Think about how you would describe a crisis. What would be the opposite to a crisis? Think about different types of crisis.

8. Try to think of examples for different types of crisis (today and in the past).

9. Try to think of examples for different types of crisis (today and in the past): • medical

10. Try to think of examples for different types of crisis (today and in the past): • medical • personal

11. Try to think of examples for different types of crisis (today and in the past): • medical • personal • economic

12. Try to think of examples for different types of crisis (today and in the past): • medical • personal • economic • political

13. Try to think of examples for different types of crisis (today and in the past): • medical • personal • economic • political • state crisis

14. Try to think of examples for different types of crisis (today and in the past): • medical • personal • economic • political • state crisis • ecological

15. Try to think of an example for a crisis of representation.

16. Try to think of an example for a crisis of representation. Perhaps you couldn’t. This raises the question: What is representation?

17. Literally, one might say that a representation is a presenting again of something (an object, a fact, an event, an idea) elsewhere.

18. Literally, one might say that a representation is a presenting again of something (an object, a fact, an event, an idea) elsewhere. Try to think of examples for representations.

19. Describe the following examples as representations.

20. Describe the following examples as representations. • a photograph

21. Describe the following examples as representations. • a photograph • a recording

22. Describe the following examples as representations. • a photograph • a recording • a historical novel

23. Describe the following examples as representations. • a photograph • a recording • a historical novel • a play

24. Describe the following examples as representations. • a photograph • a recording • a historical novel • a play • a queen

25. Describe the following examples as representations. • a photograph • a recording • a historical novel • a play • a queen • a parliament

26. Describe the following examples as representations. • a photograph • a recording • a historical novel • a play • a queen • a parliament • a president

27. Now, try to think again about examples for crises of representation.

28. What do you think causes such crises?

29. What do you think causes such crises? • in terms of the media in use?

30. What do you think causes such crises? • in terms of the media in use? • in terms of the used ‘material’?

31. What do you think causes such crises? • in terms of the media in use? • in terms of the used ‘material’? • in terms of a common belief in some ‘authority’?

32. Given that the seminar is about history plays, where would you see the connection to the idea of a crisis of representation?

33. Given that the seminar is about history plays, where would you see the connection to the idea of a crisis of representation? To what type of representation?

34. Given that the seminar is about history plays, where would you see the connection to the idea of a crisis of representation? To what type of representation? Where (and when) is there a crisis of political representation?

35. Given that the seminar is about history plays, where would you see the connection to the idea of a crisis of representation? To what type of representation? Where (and when) is there a crisis of political representation? Who is to blame?

36. These are the central questions of our seminar.

37. These are the central questions of our seminar. The plays we read show, or represent, crises of representation and, in doing so, negotiate what it is to be an ‘authority’ and what it means to lose that authority.

38. Please read the four history plays that we have selected (Richard II, 1,2 Henry IV, Richard III) with these central questions in mind and try to think of the following points:

39. Please read the four history plays that we have selected (Richard II, 1,2 Henry IV, Richard III) with these central questions in mind and try to think of the following points: • why history plays?

40. Please read the four history plays that we have selected (Richard II, 1,2 Henry IV, Richard III) with these central questions in mind and try to think of the following points: • why history plays? • who is an authority in the 1590s?

41. Please read the four history plays that we have selected (Richard II, 1,2 Henry IV, Richard III) with these central questions in mind and try to think of the following points: • why history plays? • who is an authority in the 1590s? • what kind of crisis is represented?

42. Please read the four history plays that we have selected (Richard II, 1,2 Henry IV, Richard III) with these central questions in mind and try to think of the following points: • why history plays? • who is an authority in the 1590s? • what kind of crisis is represented? • where is the crisis of representation?

43. Please read the four history plays that we have selected (Richard II, 1,2 Henry IV, Richard III) with these central questions in mind and try to think of the following points: • why history plays? • who is an authority in the 1590s? • what kind of crisis is represented? • where is the crisis of representation? • what is negotiated historically?

44. Please read the four history plays that we have selected (Richard II, 1,2 Henry IV, Richard III) with these central questions in mind and try to think of the following points: • why history plays? • who is an authority in the 1590s? • what kind of crisis is represented? • where is the crisis of representation? • what is negotiated historically? • how does this translate into problems of today?

45. Thank you for thinking with us along these lines. We hope that you have had some fun in brainstorming into the main issues and questions of what we want to do in our seminar. The two of us are very much looking forward to discussing with you problems of authority, representation, and crisis in the early modern period and today.

46. Thank you for thinking with us along these lines. We hope that you have had some fun in brainstorming into the main issues and questions of what we want to do in our seminar. The two of us are very much looking forward to discussing with you problems of authority, representation, and crisis in the early modern period and today. See you in Szeged!

47. New Faces Partnership