Remembering Forbidden Memories: Community Theatre and the Politics of Memory

TitleRemembering Forbidden Memories: Community Theatre and the Politics of Memory
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2006
AuthorsShulamith Lev-Aladgem
JournalSocial Identities
Volume12
Issue3
Pagination269-283
ISSN13504630
Abstract

This article demonstrates how community theatre enables marginalized groups to re-member their forbidden memories and thus re-form their blocked cultural histories. I focus here on the Mizrahi group (Jews originating from Arab countries) in Israel and the way it appropriates community theatre as a tactic to articulate its own memories and history. In order to introduce community theatre as a particular alternative mnemonic practice within marginalized communities I present here together three alternative remembering systems: countermemory, community of memory, and performing history and show their connection to community theatre. I then analyse three community theatre productions which present community theatre as a popular form of performing history through which the Mizrahi actors produced a countermemory that contributed to the consolidation of their community into a community of memory.

URLhttps://libproxy.cc.stonybrook.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=sih&AN=21097703&site=ehost-live&scope=site
DOI10.1080/13504630600744112
Short TitleRemembering Forbidden Memories