What is the relation between laughter and thought? How does suffering bring about understanding? Do some philosophies have a comic rather than a tragic vision? The contemporary fascination with how performance and philosophy overlap begs an appeal to genre studies. Tragedy and comedy can function as exemplary sites on which the tensions between theatre, philosophy and performance are played out. Bringing together performers and scholars from the fields of philosophy, literature and theater, this symposium will investigate how contrasting genres inform the relation between performance and philosophy.

Argument

What is the relation between laughter and thought? How does suffering bring about understanding? Do some philosophies have a comic rather than a tragic vision? The contemporary fascination with how performance and philosophy overlap begs an appeal to genre studies. Tragedy and comedy can function as exemplary sites on which the tensions between theatre, philosophy and performance are played out.

Bringing together performers and scholars from the fields of philosophy, literature and theater, this symposium will investigate how contrasting genres inform the relation between performance and philosophy.

Join our round-table discussions, in-depth seminar sessions and keynote lectures and take part in the lively debate about philosophy’s reliance upon specific dramatic techniques. By thinking the productive clash between generic structure and performative flow, we seek to trace the future of genre in its philosophical dimension in a post-dramatic, post-disciplinary world.

Program

Wednesday, December, 2014

• 18:00 Informal Welcome Drinks
• 19:30 Optional Performance

Thursday, December 4, 2014

9:00-9:30 : Registration and Coffee

09:30-10:30

• Welcome, Joachim Küpper (DHC) and Christoph Holzhey (ICI)
• Does Performance Philosophy necessarily pose the question of genre? – Ramona Mosse, Maïté Marciano, Anna Street

10:30-12:00: Seminar Session I: Suffering / Laughter

• Seminar 1: Comedy and Performance Philosophy
• Seminar 2: Tragedy and Performance Philosophy

12:00-14:00: Lunch Break / Catered lunch for Participants

14:00-15:30: Seminar Session II: Violence / Ethics

• Seminar 1: Comedy and Performance Philosophy 
• Seminar 2: Tragedy and Performance Philosophy

15:30-16:00: Coffee break.

16:00-17:30: Panel Discussion 1: How do tragedy and comedy make/unmake the world?

• Rupert Glasgow,
• Joachim Küpper,
• John Morreall,
• Jennifer Wallace

17:30-18:00: Coffee break.

18:00-19:30: Keynote 1: Hans-Thies Lehmann: Theatre – Tragedy - Thought

20:30: Symposium Dinner

Friday, December 5, 2014

10:00-12:00: Seminar Session III: Universal/Particular

Seminar 1: Comedy and Performance Philosophy

Seminar 2: Tragedy and Performance Philosophy

12:00-14:00 Lunch / Catered lunch for Participants

14:00-15:30 Keynote 2: Erika Fischer-Lichte

15:30 -16:00 Coffee Break

16:00-17:30 Panel Discussion II: How do comedy and tragedy perform philosophical thought?

Moderated by Alice Lagaay

• Russell Ford,
• Nikolaus Müller-Schöll,
• Freddie Rokem,
• Stephen Wilmer

17:30-18:00 Coffee Break

18:00-20:15 Keynote 3: Simon Critchley – Comic versus Tragic Catharsis (including closing discussion)

20:15-21:15 Closing reception and drinks.

Keynote speakers

• Simon Critchley, The New School
• Erika Fischer Lichte, Free University Berlin
• Hans-Thies Lehmann, Goethe University Frankfurt/Main

Panelists

• Russell Ford, Elmhurst College
• John Morreall, College of William and Mary
• Jennifer Wallace, Cambridge University
• Rupert Glasgow, Independent Scholar
• Nikolaus Müller-Schöll, Goethe University Frankfurt/Main
• Stephen Wilmer, Trinity College Dublin
• Joachim Küpper, Free University Berlin
• Freddie Rokem, University of Tel Aviv

Organization

• Ramona Mosse
• Anna Street
• Maïté Marciano

founding members of the Performance Philosophy Working Group

Registration

Attendance is free and open to all. The symposium will be held in English. Please visit the website for more details and a complete list of participants: http://www.tragedycomedy.com/