Doctoral Student: Claudius Baisch
Supervision: Prof. Dr. Beate Hochholdinger-Reiterer
Project: History of Theatre Studies – Swiss/Austrian Networks and Contexts
The narrative of the development of theater studies from German language and literature studies and its establishment in Germany by the "founding fathers" Max Herrmann, Carl Niessen and Arthur Kutscher is still virulent in the history of the discipline today. The doctoral project aims to expand the history of German-language theater studies to include previously unrecognized fields of early theater research in Switzerland and Austria at the beginning of the 20th century. A look at the beginnings and precursors of a not yet institutionalized theater studies shows the complexity of the approaches of scientific engagement with theater.
With a critically scrutinizing and reflective historical-philosophical approach, the motives and methods, purposes and objectives of specialist historiography are examined. By means of individual in-depth analysis, a panorama of early theater research is to be shown, which – beyond known narratives – spreads out at the scenes of the university, well-networked independent scholars and scientific societies. A particular focus of the investigation is on forgotten and repressed scholars and networks of early theater research in Switzerland and Austria.
