*CFP* "PANDEMICS, THEATRE AND PERFORMANCE: PERSPECTIVES AND POSSIBILITIES", EDITED BOOK

The Covid-19 outbreak has affected lives globally. To check the spread, most countries had to go for a lockdown severely affecting businesses, economy and everyday life. As a part of this, theatres were closed down, from the West End or the Broadway to smaller theatres across the world. The outbreak of Covid-19 has struck at roots of live performing arts like theatre and folk performances, worldwide. The performing artist has been worst hit by the global pandemic. What has been the impact of Covid-19 on theatre and performance? Has this been entirely a narrative of hopelessness? How far can theatre survive and perform online? How have folk/popular performances been struck? What has been the role of the State? What are the ways beyond for theatre and performance? These are some of the numerous questions that the book seeks to critically address at this moment of crisis.           

One of the ways of responding to the present crisis has been to revisit the earlier pandemics and seek lessons from history. In theatre and performance however, there has been little academic work in this regard although the plague has been ‘theatrical’ in its sweep, from Boccacio’s understanding of it as a ‘spectacle’ to the visionary metaphors of Artaud. For Camus and Karel Capek, the plague’s theatricality was linked to resistance to fascism. Playwrights and theatre artists across time and space have variously responded to the politics and metaphors of pandemics. The proposed volume seeks to bring together cutting edge research on such varied interconnections between theatre, performance and pandemics as a means to look forward amidst the crisis of Covid-19.            

Original and unpublished research articles are invited (but not restricted to) the following areas:

• The Medieval plague and Spectacle
• Renaissance drama and the Plague
• Staging Plague
• Puritans, Playhouses and Plague
• Antonin Artaud and the Plague
• Albert Camus and the Plague
• Karel Capek and the Plague
• Pandemic and the Theatre of the Absurd
• Performing AIDS
• Covid 19 and Theatre/Dance/Performance
• The Politics of Performance in Digital Platforms
• Theatre, Pedagogy and online teaching
• Performing arts resources and digital archives
• Digital Humanities and Performance
• The impact of Covid-19 on folk/popular performances of India
• The Theatre building and Space/Place

Submission Guidelines:

Articles should strictly follow MLA 8th Edition style guidelines.

The full papers should be accompanied by an abstract within 300 words, a maximum of four keywords, and a brief bio note of the author within 100 words.

The full papers should be approximately 3,000 to 6,000 words in length, including notes and bibliography.

The abstract, keywords, bio-note and other credentials should be sent in a separate MS-Word file. 

Please send the full papers within 15th August, 2020 to the editor at samipendra@yahoo.com    

For general queries and submissions, feel free to get in touch with the editor:

Dr Samipendra Banerjee

Assistant Professor of English, University of Gour Banga

PO: Mokdompur, PIN—732103

Malda, West Bengal, India

samipendra@yahoo.com

samipendra@yahoo.com