Race and Theatre: Thinking the Politically Unthought

This series of passionate and well-researched essays speaks to the situation of Black artists on the French stage, especially in prestigious government-subsidized theatres. Through documentation, historical analysis, close attention to productions, and witnessing by Black French-speaking artists, Chalaye uncovers and critiques the unacknowledged racialization (and racism) that have circumscribed the careers of Black actors. She ascribes responsibility for this frustrating and unjust situation in large part to the lingering impact of the colonial empire on the French imaginary, an imaginary that sees "otherness" in French people perceived as non-white. And she calls for a recognition of how "race" and racial tropes, including the use of blackface, have operated in French theatre. Ultimately, she advocates exploding the concept of "race", while, at the same time, creating a theatre that represents the multicultural country that France has become. A translator's introduction situates how "race" is understood, what "nation" means, and how "theatre" counts in France. This is contrasted to how these concepts operate in the Anglo-American sphere. The work thus invites readers to weigh the value of multiculturalism against the notion of the universal human, and also to query how identity takes shape through performance. Sylvie Chalaye has written or edited some 12 books and myriad articles on African and African-descended theatre. She helms a major conference on jazz aesthetics every year. She created an ongoing international research laboratory in 2007 that studies the work of African and African-descended artists. She was Chair of the Theatre Department at Paris III, where she has also launched a number of professional M.A. programs, as well as directing Ph.D. theses. She contributes regularly to Africultures, a journal she founded.