Chapter 1 Thinking of the Dead Through a Concept of Theatre (The Dead Class)

Abstract

This chapter, introduces thinking of the dead through a concept of theatre, with the particular example of Kantor’s production “The Dead Class” in mind. The ten separate sections address key words (such as metaphor, pathos, and seance) to reflect on Kantor’s example, locating it within the context of a minor tradition of twentieth-century art theatre—that “of death”, precisely. Read together with Warburg, Kantor is understood (within this comparative context) to offer but one example amongst others for such a way of conceiving the art of theatre in modernity. In the final section (“Elimination”), the relation between the theatre of death and contemporary bio-politics is addressed.