Intermediality and politics in theatre and performance

This dissertation applies the concepts of intermediality and politics to five performances by Rimini Protokoll, Christoph Schlingensief, and Igneous, and analyzes the implications that emerge on both a significational and a theoretical level. Based on the specific mediality involved, it argues that intermediality is a process of negotiation between the medial constituents and the recognition of an inherent contingency of medial boundaries and signification. It proposes that the contingency of this process points to an inherent, 'multistable,' and multidirectional 'politicity,' which stems from the relationship between a unique human being and his or her medial environment, including and affecting also the distribution of roles and functions of perceiver and performer. The term 'politicity' indicates the potential for 'politics' rather than implying any concrete 'political' action or ideology, and expands the post-foundational approach by a media-theoretical component that acknowledges the way in which perception takes place in an environment of independent-yet-connected medial relations and orders. Confronted with the 'discontinuity' of the intermedial environment, perception becomes a conscious activity, revealing and addressing principles of separation and performativity, as well as its own conditions. Of particular importance to my analysis are Hannah Arendt and Jacques Rancière, whose approaches are shown to complement rather than contradict each other; reflections by Marshall McLuhan and Sybille Krämer that provide the media-theoretical foundation; and Kati Röttger's approach to theatre as an intermedial realm.