BOAL’S RECEPTION IN INDIA: Dialogism of Jana Sanskriti’s Theatre of the Oppressed

Authors

  • Shubhra Ghoshal
  • Nirban Manna

Keywords:

Bakhtin, Boal, Dialogic Aesthetics, Jana Sanskriti, Social Transformation, TTheatre of the Oppressed

Abstract

Augusto Boal, the Brazilian theatre personality develops the concept of Theatre of the Oppressed (TO) as a dialogic praxis that uses performance as a participatory space in developing collective strategies to bring about social transformation. This paper explores the interactive aesthetics of TO in the Indian context as applied and amplified by Jana Sanskriti (JS). Using the methods of qualitative research with theoretical and comparative referential axis of dynamic synergetic experience, the paper examines dialogic dimensions achieved by JS during the various phases of its theatrical process towards subverting ‘monologue’ and propagating ‘dialogue’. The pragmatics of JS is investigated to foreground that Mikhail Bakhtin’s theory of ‘dialogism’ attains an empirical expression in the modus operandi of TO, and a dialogic culture is capable of achieving synergetic dimensions leading to sustainable development in the society.

Author Biographies

Shubhra Ghoshal

Shubhra Ghoshal is a research scholar at the department of Humanities and Social Sciences in IIT (ISM), Dhanbad, India. Her interest areas include Performance studies, English drama, Indian literature and literary theory. 

 

Nirban Manna

Dr Nirban Manna is Assistant Professor at Department of Humanities & Social Sciences, IIT (ISM), Dhanbad. His areas of specialization include Indian Theatre, Performance Studies and Translation Studies. As a bilingual translator and scholar, he translated few Bengali plays including Bratya Basu’s Winkle Twinkle, and Black Hole, Partha Chaterjee’s National Playlet and Tripti Mitra’s Sacrifice.

References

Kirby Michael, Futurist Performance, New York: E. P. Dutton, 1971, 23.

Boal Augusto, “To Dynamize the Audience: Interview with Augusto Boal”, Canadian Theatre Review (1986), 47.

Mikhail Mikhailovich Bakhtin, Problems of Dostoevsky’s Poetics, trans. and ed., Caryl Emerson, Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press, 1993.

Frances Babbage, Augusto Boal, New York: Routledge Performance Practitioners, 2004, 38.

Sanjoy Ganguly, Jana Sanskriti: Forum Theatre and Democracy in India, New York: Routledge, 2010, 18.

Sanjoy Ganguly, Where WE Stand: Five Plays from the Repertoire of Jana Sanskriti, trans., Dia Mohan Dacosta, Kolkata: CAMP, 2009, 16.

Ganguly, Jana Sanskriti: Forum Theatre and Democracy in India, 26.

Gautam Bose, Playing for Change, Jana Sanskriti, 2010. DVD

ima Ganguly, “Either You Do This Work Out of Love, or Not at All” in Scripting Power: Jana Sanskriti On and Offstage, ed., Dia Da Costa, Kolkata: CAMP, 2012, 33-45, 45.

Bourdieu Pierre and L. J. D. Wacquant, An Invitation to Reflexive Sociology, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992, 18.

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Published

2017-06-29

How to Cite

Ghoshal, S. ., & Manna, N. (2017). BOAL’S RECEPTION IN INDIA: Dialogism of Jana Sanskriti’s Theatre of the Oppressed. Journal of Dharma, 42(2), 201–218. Retrieved from https://dvkjournals.in/index.php/jd/article/view/243

Issue

Vol. 42 No. 2 (2017): Journal of Dharma

Section

Articles