Description
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewWhile the arguments put forward in Performing Trauma in Central Africa are impressive, the methodological and ethical commitments that buttress the text are even more so. Edmondson's research for the book spans well over a
decade and encompasses a rich variety of ethnographic and archival investigations on three continents.
* Modern Drama *
Edmondson's publication provokes a crucial debate on the humanitarian efforts of performance, particularly in geographic regions of trauma.
* TDR: The Drama Review *
Edmondson's book is an outstanding addition to the literature on theatre and performance in situations of conflict and post-conflict. It will be an indispensable work for students, academics and activists concerned with the role of the arts in war-affected communities and within the humanitarian sector more broadly.
* New Theatre Quarterly *
Edmondson deploys her knowledge of the region and her capacity for critical participation to illuminate both the power and the limits of memory
* Theatre Journal *
[T]his important volume [is] particularly valuable as an honest and accurate critique of art for social change. . . . Essential.
* Choice *
The author's transparency calls attention to the burden of empire she both carries and casts off whenever possible . . . Edmondson's writing is both trauma-suspect and trauma-informed.
* Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
List of Acronyms
Introduction
1. Competitive Memory in the Great Lakes: Touring Genocide
2. Marketing Trauma and the Theatre of War in Northern Uganda
3. Trauma, Inc. in Postgenocide Rwanda
4. Repetition, Rupture, and Ruined: Narratives from the Congo
5. Gifted by Trauma: The Branding of Post-Conflict Northern Uganda
6. Confessions of a Failed Theatre Activist
Afterword: Faustin Linyekula and the Labors of Hope
Bibliography
Index
