We are seeking essays that explore the diverse manifestations of the far right from a global perspective.

CFP

Edited volume, Theater and Performance of the Global Far-Right

 

Far-right movements, political parties and activists have expanded in recent times. Far-right governments are ruling in Argentina, India, Italy, Hungary, and the USA, and show alarming popular support in Austria, Brazil, Chile, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, and the UK. Their global agenda poses a serious threat to democracy. Their policies are accelerating global warming, curtailing women’s and LGBTQ+ rights, and creating a xenophobic environment that targets immigration. In the twentieth century, fascist movements were cultural phenomena before they turned into political movements (Sternhell 1994). As in previous times, the global far right resorts to specific forms of performance and to the aestheticization of politics to persuade the masses and build its project. The global far right fuels the culture wars that help to develop opinion frameworks. They take the form of demonstrations, political rallies, and staged performances that are disseminated in social media. Far-right movements globally have resorted to performative protests that can be easily amplified in media and social media.

As theater and performance studies scholars have demonstrated, far-right movements conceal their agenda to wipe out democracy through performance (Grobe 2022, Claycomb 2022). However, the effects of the far right in theater and performance are broad, diverse, have extended in time and should never be considered “neutral acts” (Delgado, Kobialka, and Lease 2024). Meanwhile, the bulk of theatre research does not engage with these topics for reasons that range from a lack of aesthetic affinity to the fear of reprisal. This edited volume seeks to explore the diverse manifestations of the far right from a global perspective. We look forward to scholarly contributions that study the far-right in theater and performance with a national, international or comparative perspective.

Possible topics for submission are:

●      Theory of far-right theater

●      Political demonstrations

●      Theater and historical fascisms

●      Aesthetic transformations from traditionalism to the far right

●      Collaborationism and theatre

●      Far-right politics as performance

●      Conservative aesthetics and theater

●      Social media and far right

●      Intermediality and far-right spectacle

●      Censorship

●      Religious heterodoxy and protectionism

●      Fake news, conspiracy theories and performance

●      Parody and reappropriation

 

We are seeking essays that cover one or more of these topics for a volume co-edited by Professor David Rodríguez-Solás (University of Massachusetts Amherst) and Professor Andrés Kalawski Isla (P. Universidad Católica de Chile). We anticipate that it will be part of a new IFTR book series to be published by Methuen, an imprint of Bloomsbury, co-edited by Joanne Tompkins (University of Queensland) and Oscar T. Serquiña (University of the Philippines Diliman).   

 

Please submit a 300 word abstract and a short professional bio by September 15, 2025,  to both co-editors dsolas@umass.edu and andres.kalawski@gmail.com.