Plenarvortragende - Institut für Theater

Abstracts
Christophe Collard (Brussel)
Ph.D.-project 2006-2009. Vrije Universiteit Brussel.
Christophe Collard (*1982) was born in Antwerp, Belgium, where he attended high school before moving
to the United States to study English and American History at East Central College, Missouri. In 2001 he
enrolled at the Free University of Brussels (Vrije Universiteit Brussel), where he received a B.A. in English
and German literature in 2003. Two years later, in July 2005, he received his M.A. in English literature with
a dissertation titled A Reconciliation of Opposites: Affliction in George Herbert’s English Poetry. In January
2006 he started working on a four year doctoral research project focusing on the media and genre crossings
in the work of David Mamet, supervised by Prof. Dr. Johan Callens.
Media and Genre Crossings in the Work of David Mamet
As a result of an artistic career spanning over three decades, David Mamet (*1947) today is considered
one of the American theatre’s most infl uential voices. Ever since the 1980s, he has equally ventured
into writing and directing movies. Less known, though, are his excursions into radio-dramaturgy and the
writing of novels.
Traditionally, most secondary work on Mamet has been limited either to a discussion of medium-specifi
c primary material, or to the discussion of his media transpositions, among which the interactions
between drama and fi lm have enjoyed by far the widest attention. Paradoxically, Mamet’s popular and
critical success in both the theatre as well as in the fi lm medium have led to a relatively one-sided
scholarly approach to his work often failing to acknowledge his work in other media, and – as a result
– the meta-artistic implications of the artist’s specifi c motives.
This Ph.D.-project, however, focuses in particular on the reciprocal play between the different genres
and media in which David Mamet has worked, in order both to obtain new insights in the author’s aesthetic
principles, as well as gaining a better understanding of the different media and genres involved.
The tension developing from this interaction is ultimately to result into a comprehensive yet user-friendly
and more generally applicable theoretical model providing with a re-defi nition of the traditional cultural
distinctions between the different media by exposing their arbitrary hierarchy as merely the direct result
of dynamic remediation.
To achieve the aforementioned objectives, special attention will be given to Mamet’s meta-artistic
works, medium-bound adaptations, and genre-exercises, as well as to a thorough selection of relevant
secondary and tertiary sources.
Kollegienhaus, Raum C / 13.10. / 17.45 – 18.15 Uhr
36 Theater & Medien