The Postdramatic Theatre of Hans-Thies Lehmann: Origin and Revision of the Term

Abstract

  After the publication of the book Postdramatisches Theater in 1999 by Hans-Thies Lehmann, the category of “post-dramatic” is almost unavoidable in contemporary theatre research, both European and international. That is why we were interested in a revision through the history of the term, both in light of the readings it has had in recent years, and in terms of its origin. After 1999, Lehmann reformulates and makes explicit certain aspects that he developed in his research, based, in part, on the work of the German Gerda Poschmann (1997) and that of the Polish-German Andrzej Wirth (1980, 1987). We rescued the proposals of these two authors, as they contribute to think about the category today, mediating almost twenty years of discussions, and we will also quote more recent research such as the works of Claire Swyzen and Kurt Vanhoutte in Belgium, Óscar Cornago in Spain, Bruno Tackels (Belgium-France) and Beatriz Trastoy, in Argentina.