This book stems from the experience of a European double-degree programme:
Comparative Dramaturgy and Performance Research (CDPR). It was established in 2017 and developed as a collaboration between five universities: Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main, Oslo National Academy of the Arts, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Université Paris Nanterre, and Taideyliopisto — University of the Arts Helsinki. The volume brings together essays relevant to the emerging field of comparative dramaturgy, both as a situated research field and as a methodology.
Gestures of Attention: A Reader in Comparative Dramaturgy is the first comprehensive book on comparative dramaturgy. It approaches contemporary dramaturgy from various perspectives and practices. Just as the CDPR students travel among these five cities, this book invites readers to journey through Frankfurt, Brussels, Paris, Oslo, and Helsinki. Each city, each part of the book, named after these places, reflects aspects of the dramaturgical thinking shaped by its cultures and geography. The trajectory through these five cities presents a quest from theory through practice to artistic research and un-disciplining dramaturgy.
This rich volume (including nearly forty essays) is multicultural in its scope: featuring authors across fifteen countries and peoples (Australia, Belgium, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Greece, Guadeloupe, Hungary, Norway, Serbia, Slovenia, the UK, the USA, and the Sámi people), and it assembles important texts on contemporary dramaturgy in one book. It brings together modern classics (Hölderlin, Brecht) and landmark works by contemporary authors (Van Kerkhoven, Lehmann), along with newly commissioned essays that frame the perspectives of the five sections and raise relevant questions about the field. It also includes nine texts (by authors such as Anne-Françoise Benhamou, Bernard Dort, Olivier Neveux, Einar Schleef, and Ulla Ryum) that are published in English translation for the first time.
The publication is designed for any course that teaches dramaturgy in the context of contemporary theatre and performance, serving as a reference point or a point of departure for other ends. It also invites theatre practitioners and readers outside the academic sphere to engage with questions raised by comparative dramaturgy.