Multidirectional Theatre? Memory Studies Strategies and Creative Practices

In his book Multidirectional Memory: Remembering the Holocaust in the Era of Decolonization (2009, Polish edition: 2015), Michael Rothberg, an American literary and memory scholar (UCLA), proposes a distinction between two opposing models of memory. Multidirectional, meaning pluralistic, negotiable, full of references and borrowings, and therefore productive, and competitive, meaning based on the logic of a zero-sum “life-and-death struggle”.

The category of “multidirectional memory” has been used many times since: both in foreign and Polish historical, memory, sociological, cultural, and theater studies. Transplanted into various areas, transnational and transdisciplinary, this concept turned out to be useful not only in theoretical considerations but also in practical activities. Although it has been subject to polemics, reformulations, and additions, it has certainly inspired a critical rethinking of memory dominants, models, and practices.

That is exactly why the next webinar will be devoted to conscious activities on the border of art and memory – different, equally important, although seemingly competitive, or even mutually exclusive. Our guests will be Łukasz Chotkowski (playwright, director), Michał Zadara (director), and Michael Rubenfeld (playwright, actor, producer, co-founder, and co-director of FestivALT). Together, we will look for answers to the following questions: what role does the idea of “multidirectional”, dialogical, and inclusive memory play in their creative theatrical work? What effects–in their opinion–does it bring? Is it, after almost fifteen years, still relevant? And, last, but not least, why may it seem controversial?

Dr. Katarzyna Bojarska (SWPS), cultural studies scholar and Rothberg’s translator, will be listening to the conversation carefully, and will offer her commentary as a form of conclusion of the meeting.