Migration has defined human activity for millennia, illustrated by the fact that it constitutes the basis of many foundational texts: the Sanskrit Ramayana, the Old Testament, Homer’s Odyssey, the Aeniad, Icelandic sagas. In Poetics of Relation (1990), Martinican philosopher and poet Édouard Glissant distinguishes between "root identity," and "relation identity." While root identity is founded on plantedness in the past, claims to legitimacy, and entitlement to the possession of land, relation identity places emphasis on contact and circulation between cultures: "network of relation." In her presentation, Finburgh Delijani will demonstrate the centrality to contemporary theatre of the theme of migration. Exiles, immigrants, and refugees featuring across the plays examined by Finburgh Delijani show how belonging, legitimacy, and identity are uprooted via the often violent severance of migration. Concurrently, they illustrate how the trauma that characters suffer – which cannot be underestimated – is counterbalanced by the relational, transnational, cosmopolitan citizens they are able to become. With particular emphasis on women characters, Finburgh Delijani demonstrates how Glissant's notion of relation enables an appreciation of how theatre is promoting an understanding of the twentieth- and twenty-first-century worlds of mass migration, as post-national, transnational and fluid.

Hosted by the Einaudi Center as part of its inequalities, identities, and justice and migrations global research priorities, this event is co-sponsored by Migrations: A Global Grand Challenge.

Speaker

Clare Finburgh Delijani (Goldsmiths, University of London) is the recipient of a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship (2023-26) and Professor in the Department of Theatre and Performance at Goldsmiths, University of London. She has edited many books and articles on theatre from the UK, France, and the French-speaking world. She is currently writing Spectres of Empire: Performing Coloniality in France (contracted with Liverpool University Press) on theatre that addresses France's colonial past, and postcolonial present.Moderator

Eleanor Paynter (Einaudi Center)Respondents

Sabine Haenni (Performing & Media Arts, A&S)Natalie Melas (Comparative Literature, A&S)Imane Terhmina (Romance Studies, A&S)