Tyrol or Not Tyrol: Theatre as History in Südtirol/Alto Adige

239 Pages·2012·1.253 MB·English

by  Nóra de Buiteléir

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On 19 June 1992 Austria and Italy declared the official resolution of the South y
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Tyrol question – the dispute that had dominated relations between the two o
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countries since the end of the First World War. While this bilingual province o Tyrol or Not Tyrol
r
is today held up as a triumph of minority rights protection and a model for N
post-conflict societies across the world, the story of the South Tyrol since its o
t Theatre as History in Südtirol/Alto Adige
amalgamation into the Italian state in 1919 has been a complex and often T
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turbulent one. o
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h
This book investigates the political role of the theatre in reflecting, shaping e
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and subverting patterns of cultural identity among the German-speaking t
r
e
South Tyrolese. Taking as its starting point the representation of history in a

a
series of ambitious theatrical productions from the 1970s to the present, this s

H
study offers close readings of texts and performances and an examination of
i
s
the belated development of professional theatre in the province. The role of to
r
theatre is analysed in terms of the broader historical and sociocultural factors y

i
at play in the shaping of South Tyrolese identity. n

S
ü
d
ti Nóra de Buiteléir
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o
l
/
A
l
t
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A C I S
d
i
g
e Cultural Identity Studies
Nóra de Buiteléir is a postdoctoral research fellow in the School of Languages,
Literatures and Cultural Studies, Trinity College Dublin, funded by the Irish CIS
Research Council.
P
e
te
r
L
ISBN 978-3-0343-0731-4 a
n
g
Peter Lang
www.peterlang.com
N
ó
r
a

d
e

B
u
i
t
e
l
é
i
r

T
On 19 June 1992 Austria and Italy declared the official resolution of the South y
r
Tyrol question – the dispute that had dominated relations between the two o
l

countries since the end of the First World War. While this bilingual province o Tyrol or Not Tyrol
r
is today held up as a triumph of minority rights protection and a model for N
post-conflict societies across the world, the story of the South Tyrol since its o
t Theatre as History in Südtirol/Alto Adige
amalgamation into the Italian state in 1919 has been a complex and often T
y
r
turbulent one. o
l
:
T
h
This book investigates the political role of the theatre in reflecting, shaping e
a
and subverting patterns of cultural identity among the German-speaking t
r
e
South Tyrolese. Taking as its starting point the representation of history in a

a
series of ambitious theatrical productions from the 1970s to the present, this s

H
study offers close readings of texts and performances and an examination of
i
s
the belated development of professional theatre in the province. The role of to
r
theatre is analysed in terms of the broader historical and sociocultural factors y

i
at play in the shaping of South Tyrolese identity. n

S
ü
d
ti Nóra de Buiteléir
r
o
l
/
A
l
t
o

A C I S
d
i
g
e Cultural Identity Studies
Nóra de Buiteléir is a postdoctoral research fellow in the School of Languages,
Literatures and Cultural Studies, Trinity College Dublin, funded by the Irish CIS
Research Council.
P
e
te
r
L
ISBN 978-3-0343-0731-4 a
n
g
Peter Lang
www.peterlang.com
Tyrol or Not Tyrol
Cultural Identity Studies
Volume 25
Edited by
Helen Chambers
PETER LANG
Oxford • Bern • Berlin • Bruxelles • Frankfurt am Main • New York • Wien
Nóra de Buiteléir
Tyrol or Not Tyrol
Theatre as History in Südtirol/Alto Adige
PETER LANG
Oxford • Bern • Berlin • Bruxelles • Frankfurt am Main • New York • Wien
Bibliographic information published by Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek.
Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche National-
bibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available on the Internet at
http://dnb.d-nb.de.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2012951853
ISSN 1661-3252
ISBN 978-3-0343-0731-4 (print)
ISBN 978-3-0353-0421-3 (eBook)
© Peter Lang AG, International Academic Publishers, Bern 2013
Hochfeldstrasse 32, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland
[email protected], www.peterlang.com, www.peterlang.net
All rights reserved.
All parts of this publication are protected by copyright.
Any utilisation outside the strict limits of the copyright law, without the permission
of the publisher, is forbidden and liable to prosecution.
This applies in particular to reproductions, translations, microfilming, and storage
and processing in electronic retrieval systems.
Printed in Germany
Contents
Acknowledgements vii
A Note on Language ix
Abbreviations xi
Introduction 1
Chapter 1
Setting Out the Story:
Establishing a Historiography for South Tyrolese Theatre 13
Chapter 2
Recasting the Hero: Gaismair’s Peasants Take to the Stage 25
Chapter 3
Staging the National Trauma:
Dramatic Representations of the 1939 Option 49
Chapter 4
Remade, Refilmed, Restaged, Retold:
Ezra und Luis oder die Erstbesteigung des Ulmer Münsters 105
Chapter 5
In the Shadow of the Siegesplatz:
Shared Histories from Der Saubohnenprozess to La Scommessa 131
vi
Chapter 6
Andreas Hofer Rides Again 179
Conclusion 199
Politics and Theatre in the South Tyrol: A Chronology 203
Bibliography 207
Index 217
Acknowledgements
This book started life as a doctoral project when I was a Lady Gregory
Research Fellow at the National University of Ireland, Galway. I wish to
express gratitude to NUI Galway for providing financial support, and espe-
cially to my supervisor, Hans-Walter Schmidt-Hannisa, for his feedback
and encouragement.
I am grateful to the staf f of the Südtiroler Theaterverband, the Tessmann-
Bibliothek in Bozen, the Leopold-Franzens-Universitätsbibliothek in
Innsbruck, the British Library and the National Library of Ireland.
I am particularly indebted to Fabian Kametz, Hermann Staf f ler, Toni
Bernhart, Rudi Ladurner and the other writers and directors without whose
assistance I might never have been able to track down the unpublished
materials upon which much of this study is based.
I am very grateful to Georg Grote, Barbara Siller and Steve Wilmer
for their enthusiasm and invaluable suggestions. A special thanks to Helen
Chambers for her help and patience.
Above all thanks to my family, and to Francesco for somehow manag-
ing to put up with it all.