Enter the Ghosts of Europe: Haunting and Contemporary Theatre

Abstract:Ever since the beginnings of theatre, the stage has been a 'haunted' site, populated by spectres of many kinds. Unlike most publications on this subject, this paper explores haunting not as a meta-theatrical concept or as a historiographic metaphor, but as a phenomenon of subalternity, violence and trauma. It, furthermore, discusses haunting as the incursion of someone (or something) that has been excluded from the collective consciousness and/or the socio-political life of a community or a collective sphere, namely a certain construction called 'Europe'. By analysing three contemporary theatre productions from Austria/Germany, Denmark and Germany/Cameroon as to how they allow certain 'ghosts' of Europe entry into the theatrical event and thus translate instances of haunting into the aesthetic realm, this paper aims both to fill an academic void and to suggest a decidedly pan- and trans-European perspective.