Christopher Martin, Ph.D.
Writer + Content Creator

THR xxx - Performing Power and Individualism on American and German Stages

Proposed Course

Performing Power and Individualism on American and German Stages takes an intersectional, interdisciplinary, and intertextual approach to whiteness, critical race theory, and transnationalism. In light of the intertwined history of the United States and Germany for over 200 years, this course sets out to examine the contemporary moment in light of this history. This course will apply theory to theatre texts, performances, audio-visual materials, and other writings. This course consists of six modules that attempt to examine how whiteness works to remain a non-racialized subject position in order to protect and reify expectations of white privilege. Since whiteness uses “the other” in order to define itself, this course will rely and lean upon non-white voices to mark whiteness. Because whiteness persists in the contemporary, this course will identify and examine strategies for marking, unmasking, and undermining whiteness.



Module 3 - 21st Century American and German Performance

In this module, we read "Alexander Weheliye's "After Man" and Faedra Chatard Carpenter "Coloring Whiteness" as we searched for "the real" in order to resist and disrupt whiteness. These works helped us identify tropes associated with whiteness as we search for notions of "the real" and what it means to be human. As you respond to this prompt, How do plays like Verrücktes Blut, Neighbors, and Sweat seek to dismantle notions of whiteness and explore what lies underneath "race". 

Christopher MartinComment