Abstract:

As a contribution to Theatre Journal’s 75th anniversary issue, this article poses questions and reflections about the inclusion of the more-than-human in theatre and performance studies. Surveying shifts in the field across the past few decades, the essay engages with the complex valences of the terms “human,” “nonhuman,” and “animal” to argue for greater intersectional, interdisciplinary, and intercultural thinking through performance. The essay argues that as climate and environmental concerns have become a matter of global urgency, nonhuman futures might be a way forward by weighing different and “multi-optic”— to use Claire Jean Kim’s term—approaches to both human and nonhuman problems. Examining how the emergence of the more-than-human in theatre studies continues to intersect with feminist, critical race, eco-, and cultural scholarship, the essay also draws upon the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and how the concept of “infection” might also problematize binaristic thinking about these complex terms. The essay leaves readers with images of Deke Weaver and company’s performance work, The Unreliable Bestiary, in which many nonhuman futures coalesce.

摘要：

作为《戏剧杂志》75 周年纪念版的投稿，本文提出了关于将超越人类纳入戏剧和表演研究的问题和思考。本文回顾了过去几十年该领域的变化，探讨了“人类”、“非人类”和“动物”等术语的复杂价态，主张通过表演进行更大的交叉、跨学科和跨文化思考。这篇文章认为，随着气候和环境问题已成为全球紧迫问题，非人类未来可能是通过权衡解决人类和非人类问题的不同和“多光学”（用克莱尔·吉恩·金（Claire Jean Kim）的术语）方法来解决问题的一条出路。本文探讨了戏剧研究中超人现象的出现如何继续与女权主义、批判种族、生态和文化奖学金相交叉，本文还借鉴了 COVID-19 大流行的影响以及“感染”的概念如何”也可能会对这些复杂术语的二元思维提出问题。这篇文章给读者留下了德克·韦弗和公司表演作品《不可靠的动物寓言》的形象，其中融合了许多非人类的未来。