The Fallacies of the Standard Western Approach
The Standard Western Approach cannot be salvaged for world theatre history because it is predicated on three historiographic fallacies. First is the fallacy of the mainstream, which involves both ethnocentrism and presentism, and leads to the fallacious b
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Steve Tillis
The Challenge of World Theatre History “The present volume is an important landmark in Prof. Tillis’ tireless efforts to make the theatre history curriculum more inclusive. Through a series of eight enlightening chapters, Prof. Tillis introduces the reader to the problems with the Standard Western Approach to theatre history. We learn from these discussions that not only does this approach present a skewed historiography of understanding theatre but that it also limits the scope of our discipline. He subsequently inaugurates avenues that would allow one to circumvent these trappings and create curriculums that truly address the vast breadth of our discipline without resorting to essentialist tactics. Without pontificating Tillis introduces readers to the major historiographical forces to have impacted the evolution of performance and suggests that a truly global curriculum centers around those forces rather than arbitrary geographies and artificial temporal markers. The volume is a must-read for both emerging and established theatre historians, and theatre history teachers. I hope we will take inspiration from Prof. Tillis’ yeoman work and will continue to revise our curriculums to eventually teach a true history of World Theatre.” —Arnab Banerji, PhD, Asst. Prof. of Theatre History, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, USA “As the culture in general and theatre specifically has become increasingly globalized, the traditional Eurocentric and teleological orientation of Western theatre studies has become more and more untenable. In this groundbreaking new work, Steve Tillis impressively confronts this situation, explaining in detail the reasons why the traditional system is no longer satisfactory and presenting a variety of convincing strategies for developing the new global perspective for this discipline which the evolving new order demands.” —Marvin Carlson, Sidney E. Cohn Distinguished Professor of Theatre, Comparative Literature, and Middle Eastern Studies, Graduate Centre, CUNY, USA “Many of us teaching and working in theatre desire an approach that is more global—but lack the tools to really think about world theatre history. In this innovative, and accessible, study Tillis both informs readers about global theatre history and engages critical thinking about the very process of history-making. A must read for anyone teaching or making theatre. Inspirational and necessary!” —Jennifer Goodlander, Associate Professor, Department of Comparative Literature, Indiana University, USA
“This is a book that carefully considers the implications of current research and pedagogy in the problematic and problematically underdeveloped area of theatre studies and theatre history from around the world. Tillis’s careful delineation of terms and basic units of analysis provide a flexible but impeccably organized system in which and against which scholars and artists can develop strategies to conceptualize a wide array of theatrical practices. The welcome clarity of the writing makes this book as suitable for
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