Introduction: Poetics and Politics of the Future: Reverberations and Continuations of Cultural Practices from Jewish/Israeli and German Perspectives

Abstract

This introduction outlines the ongoing research project (see title) jointly pursued by the theatre departments of Tel Aviv University and Freie Universität Berlin funded by the German-Israeli Foundation for Scientific Research and Development (GIF). The project pivots around two critical questions. First, how can we investigate and conceptualize the future as a theoretical category and temporal dimension with regard to performances? Second, what themes and tools can articulate the various directions for developing and negotiating political and poetic questions of identity, artistic creation, cultural transference and conceptions of the ‘other’ in and through performance in and for the future? The introduction delineates certain theoretical reflections that serve as a scaffold for meaningful investigations into the first question. The theories are tested by the following fourteen articles that analyse and reference a variety of performances and in this way highlight their particular future-oriented (indeed future-generating) qualities.