Loren Kruger is a South African writer, editor, and translator resident in Chicago.[2]
Education
Loren Kruger holds a BA in English and Mathematics from the University of Cape Town (UCT) and a PhD in Comparative Literature from Cornell University, and completed independent study at the Institut d'études théâtrales at the University of Paris III and the Institut für Theaterwissenschaft at the Free University of Berlin. She works on literature, theatre and other performing arts in several languages, including Afrikaans, French, German, Spanish, and Zulu, among others
Career
After teaching briefly at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa (1980) and as a teaching assistant at Cornell University, Loren Kruger held appointments in comparative literature, theatre and performance studies,with affiliations in cinema and media studies, African studies and urban studies at the University of Chicago from 1986 to 2024.[1] She was the editor of Theatre Journal from 1996 to 1999, and served as contributing editor for Theatre Research International in 2002 and 2003. She is an active member of the International Federation of Theatre Research, the International Brecht Society, and the Modern Language Association.
Books
Kruger's first book, The National Stage: Theatre and Cultural Legitimation in England, France, and America was published by the University of Chicago Press in 1992 and has been cited by scholars working on theatre in Asia, Africa and the Americas, as well as on the theory and practice of theatre and performance globally.
Post-Imperial Brecht: Politics and Performance, South and East published by the Cambridge University Press in 2004 won the Scaglione Prize for Comparative Literary Study from the Modern Language Association. [2][3][4][5] It examines Bertolt Brecht through a post-imperial rather than the more common postcolonial lens to show as yet unexplored connections between that Brecht's resonance in the global South, especially South Africa, and his dissident engagement eastward with the Soviet empire and its impact on his chosen home after returning from exile in the U.S., the German Democratic Republic, or East Germany.[6]
Imagining the Edgy City: Writing, Performing and Building Johannesburg, published by Oxford University Press in 2013, introduced the term "edgy city" to describe both Johannesburg's development in odd-shaped districts fueled by speculation rather than planning, and city-dwellers' sense of being on edge in response to the city's turbulent past, present and uncertain future. The book also challenged a-historical assumptions about apartheid in the city by brown and black people in inner districts even after they were officially banished to townships[7][8][9][10].
Kruger's work on theatre in South Africa, The Drama of South Africa (1999), and the revised and updated Century of South African Theatre (2019), [11][12][13], published by Bloomsbury-Methuen in 2019, is the most historically comprehensive study of this topic.[14][3]
Her article on adaptations of classical tragedy on anti-apartheid and postapartheid South African stages and their relevance for the theory and practice of tragedy more generally, "On the Tragedy of the Commoner," won the Philadelphia Constantinidis Prize from the Comparative Drama Association.[15][16]
Translations
Beyond the Internationale: Revolutionary Writing by Eugene Pottier,[17] a selection of songs by the author of the Internationale and includes translations of adaptions of his most famous song in languages from Afrikaans to Zulu, via German, Spanish, and Yiddish among others, and
the translation and edition of German and English manuscripts of the autobiography of Leontine Sagan, the director of the film Mädchen in Uniform.[18][19] published as Lights and Shadows: the Autobiography of Leontine Sagan by Wits University Press in Johannesburg.
The Institutions of Art, essays by the literary historians Peter Bürger and Christa Bürger, translated from German and published by the University of Nebraska Press
Theatre and the Crossroads of Culture by Patrice Pavis, translated from French and published by Routledge Press.
Impact
Loren Kruger's research has introduced and developed key terms in the fields of theatre and performance studies, global south studies, comparative literature, and urban studies, among other fields
The National Stage: Theatre and Cultural Legitimation in England, France, and America (1992) introduced the twin concepts of "cultural legitimation" and "theatrical nationhood" to explain the aspirational role played by theatre institutions in the creation of national publics. Many national theatres, such as those emerging in German-speaking states and other polities resisting German influence in Central Europe, predated and helped to facilitate the establishment of nation states.[20][21] Even those countries whose status as nation states predates their national theatres dramatize conflicts over citizenship and the class of national publics on these stages.[22] These twin concepts of cultural legitimation and theatrical nationhood have been cited in the work of other researchers on theatre and performance in England,[23][24][25][26] France,[27][28][29] and the United States,[30][31] the regions covered by The National Stage, and by those researching performing arts in neighboring polities Scotland[32] and Ireland,[33][34][35] farther afield in Europe,[36][37][38] Africa,[39][40] Asia,[41][42][43][44] and the Americas,[45][46][47] and those doing comparative and general study of performance beyond the nation state,[48][49] including topical themes such as performance and public sphere,[50][51][52] or the global south.[53] Kruger's more recent article on "the national stage and the naturalized house" in Europe extends the analysis of aspirational nationhood to the "naturalization," the creation and legitimation of disparate publics as national,[54] and has been cited by researchers on theatre elswhere in Europe.[55][56]
Post-Imperial Brecht: Politics and Performance, East and South (2004) won the Scaglione Prize for Comparative Literary Study, Modern Language Association, 2005,[15] for highlightingthe importance for comparative literary study beyond the narrow study of Brecht of giving due attention to links between the historically communist (or second) world and the global south (or third) world, as well as critical analysis of Soviet as well as US imperialism during the Cold War, critique that post-imperial in its comparative range rather than the typically binary opposition in postcolonial thought between mostly Anglo-American imperial realms and their former colonies.[57] The book has been cited by researchers on Bertolt Brecht[58][59][60] on the contemporary legacy of East Germany,[61] German experimental music,[62] and racialization in German theatre,[63] as well as topics further afield, such as Shakespeare,[64] the dictator novel in the global south,[65] and cinema and architecture, [66]
Imagining the Edgy City: Writing, Performing, and Building Johannesburg (2013) introduced the concept of the edgy city--as distinct from the edge city or exurb settlement beyond the suburb--to describe both the physical geography of speculative urban development and the nervous reactions of citizens to urban turbulence and dangers real or imagined. This concept has been picked up by city planners as well as cultural researchers in Johannesburg and other cities in South Africa,[67][68][69][70][71] and elsewhere across Africa,[72][73][74] and by urbanists in the global south[75][76] and around the world,[77][78] including in researchers contributing to the Palgrave Encyclopedia of Urban Literary Studies and other reference texts.[79]
Kruger's books and articles on theatre and related performing arts in South Africa, especially The Drama of South Africa (1999) and A Century of South African Theatre (2019) have been cited mostly by researchers working on theatre[80][81][82][83] in that country, and its neighbor Zimbabwe,[84] but its influence extends to research on film,[85] music,[86] radio,[87] history,[88] politics,[89][90] and health policy[91] as well. Kruger's revision of the concept of the public sphere to include virtual, anticipated or counter-publics excluded from the public realm by authoritarian states such as apartheid South Africa has influenced writers working on Britain,[92] Europe,[93] North America,[94][95] the African diaspora,[96] as well as those investigating performance and migration [97]and the global south.[98] Kruger's subsequent articles extend the analysis of theatrical nationhood and public sphere to networked connections between South Africa[99] and African America,[100][4] to highlight links between Black Americans and others in the African diaspora to Africa, and have been cited by researchers working elsewhere in the global south.[101][102][103]
Lights and Shadows: the Autobiography of Leontine Sagan. Edited from Sagan's English and German manuscripts with an introduction by Loren Kruger. Johannesburg: Wits University Press, 1996
^Sagan, Leontime (1996). Kruger, Loren (ed.). Lights and Shadows: The Autobiography of Leontine Sagan. Johannesburg: Wits University Press. pp. vii–viii. ISBN9781868142880.
^Sagan, Leontine (2010). Eckhardt, Michael (ed.). Leontine Sagan, Licht und Schatten. Schauspielerin und Regisseurin auf vier Kontinenten [Lights and Shadows: The Autobiography of Leontine Sagan--the title of the original English-language edition by Loren Kruger] (in German). Berlin: Hentrich & Hentrich. ISBN978-3-941450-12-7.. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help)
^National Theatre in Northern and Eastern Europe. Cambridge University Press. 1991.
^Kruger, Loren (2008). Wilmer, S.E. (ed.). National Theatres in a Changing Europe: "The National Stage and the Nationalized House in Modern Europe. New York: Palgrave-Macmillan. pp. 34–48. ISBN9780230521094.
^Kruger, Loren (1992). The National Stage: Theatre and Cultural Legitimation in England, France, and America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. pp. 1–30.
^Davis, Tracy C. (2000). The Economics of the British Stage. Cambridge UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN9780521036856.
^Zaroulia, Marilena, ed. (2015). Performances of Capitalism: Inside/Outside Europe. Palgrave-Macmillan. ISBN9781349568550.
^Remschardt, Ralf, ed. (2023). Routledge Companion to Contemporary European Theatre. Routledge.
^Edmondsomn, Laura (2007). Performance and Politics in Tanzania: The Nation on Stage. Indiana University Press. ISBN9780253219121.
^Shipley, Jesse (2015). Trickster Theatre: The Poetics of Freedom in Urban Africa. Bloomington IN: Indiana University Press. ISBN9780253016539.
^Dharwadker, Aparna (2005). Theatres of Independence: Drama, Theory, and Urban Performance in India since 1947. University of Iowa Press. ISBN0877459614.
^Liu, Siyuan (2013). Performing Hybridity in Colonial-Modern China. New York: Palgrave-Macmillan. ISBN9781349455041.
^Kano, Ayako (2001). Acting like a woman in modern Japan: Theatre, Gender, and Nationalism. Palgrave-Macmillan. ISBN9781137040503.
^Bodden, Michael (2010). Resistance on the National Stage: Theatre and Politics in late New Order Indonesia. Ohio University Press. ISBN9780896802759.
^Ybarra, Patricia; McConachie, Bruce (2024). Theatre Histories: Nationalism in Theatre in Europe and the Americas (4th ed.). New York: Routleddge. ISBN9781003185185.
^Townsend, Sarah (2018). The Unfinished Art of Theatre: Avantgarde Intellectuals in Mexico and Brazil. Northwestern University Press. ISBN9780810137400.
^Westlake, EJ (2005). Our land is made of courage and glory: Nationalist Performance in Nicaragua and Guatemala. Southern Illinois University Press. ISBN0809326256.
^Bennett, Susan (2013). Performing Nostalgia: Shifting Shakespeare and the Contemporary Past. London: Routledge. ISBN9781315003085.
^Rai, Shirin, ed. (2021). Oxford handbook of Theatre and Performance. Oxford University Press. ISBN9780190863456.
^Balme, Christopher (2014). Theatrical Public Sphere. Cambridge University Press. ISBN9781107006836.
^Korneeva, Tatiana (2010). Dramaturgy of the Spectator: Italian Theatre and the Public Sphere. University of Toronto Press. ISBN9781487505356.
^Leonhardt, Nic (2024). Developing Theatre in the Global South. University College London. ISBN9781800085756.
^Kruger, Loren (2008). Wilmer, S.E. (ed.). National Theatre in Changing Europe: The National Stage and the Nationalized House. Palgrave-Macmillan. pp. 34–48. ISBN9780230521094.
^Koski, Pirrko (2022). FInland's National Theatre. Routledge. ISBN9781003047667.
^Cox, Emma. Economics of Atonement in the European Museum. In Pereforming Capitalism, 211-31
^Kruger, Loren (2004). Post-Imperial Brecht: Politics and Performance, East and South. Cambridge University Press. pp. 1–15, 376–787. ISBN0521817080.
^Brevemann, Martin (2021). Brecht and Tragedy. Cambridge University Press. ISBN9781108779210.
^Calico, Joy (2019). Brecht at the Opera. University of California Press. ISBN9780520254824.
^Ehrlig, John, ed. (2018). The GDR TODAY. Peter Lang. ISBN9781787070721.
^Blixa Bargeld and Einstürzende Neubauten: German Experimental Music. Routledge. 2016. ISBN9781315569543.
^Layne, Priscilla; Stewaryt, Lizzie (2021). Palgrave Handbook of Theatre and Race: Racialization in Contemporary German Theatre. Palgrave-Macmillan. pp. 39–60.
^Lin, Erika (2012). Shakespeare and the Materiality of Performance. Palgrave-Macmillan. ISBN978-1-349-43355-1.
^Armillas-Tiseyra, Magali (2019). The Dictator Novel. Northwestern University press. ISBN9780810140400.
^Kroek, Richard (2012). Cine-scapes: Cinematic Spaces in Architecture and Cities. Routledge. ISBN9780203721186.
^Harrison, Philip; Götz, Graeme; Todes, Alison (2014). Changing Space, Changing City: Johannesburg After Apartheid. Wits University Press. ISBN9781868147656.
^Halligey, Alex (2020). Participatory Theatre and the Urban Everyday in South Africa. Routledge. ISBN9780367342364.
^De Kock, Leon (2014). Losing the Plot: Crime, Reality and Fiction in Postapartheid Writing. Wits University Press. ISBN9781868149643.
^Samuelson, Meg (2021). Claiming the City in South African Literature. Routledge. ISBN9781003174189.
^Parker, Alexandra (2016). Urban Film and Everyday Practice. Springer.
^Iheka, Cajetan (2021). African Ecomedia: Network Forms, Planetary politics. Duke University Press. ISBN9781478013815.
^Skinner, Ryan (2012). Bamako Sounds: Afropolitical Ethics of Malian Music. Minneapolis MN: Quadrant. ISBN9781452944418.
^Matatu, Addams (2021). Crisis Urbanism and Postcolonial African Cities in Post-Millennial Cinema. Routledge. ISBN9781003122098.
^Krueger, Anton (2010). Experiments in Freedom. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars. ISBN1443814253.
^Lewis, Megan (2016). Performing Whitely in the Postcolony. University of Iowa Press. ISBN9781609384470.
^Castelyn, Sarahleigh (2022). Contemporary Dance in South Africa: The Toyi-toying Body. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars. ISBN1527589242.
^Sizemore-Barber, April (2020). Prismatic Performance: Queer South Africa and the Fragmentation of the Rainbow Nation. University of Michigan Press. ISBN9780472126989.
^Ravengai, Samuel (2024). Routledge Handbook of African Theatre and Performance: History of Decolonized African Aesthetics. Routledge. ISBN9781003176060.
^Maingard, Jacqueline (2013). South African National Cinema. Routledge. ISBN9780203354513.
^Erlmann, Veit (2022). The Lion's Share: Remaking South African Copyright. Duke University Press. ISBN9781478016328.
^Gunner, Liz (2019). Radio Soundings: South Africa and the Black Modern. Cambridge University Press. ISBN9781108470643.
^Peterson, Bhekizizwe (2000). Monarchs, Missionaries and African Intellectuals. Wits University Press. ISBN9781868143283.
^Gready, Paul (2010). The Era of Transitional Justice. Routledge. ISBN9780203841938.
^Rai, Shirin, ed. (2014). Democracy in Practice: Ceremony and Ritual in Parliament. Palgrave-Macmillan. ISBN9781349472444.
^Low, Katherine (2020). Applied Theatre and Sexual Health Communication. Springer.
^Bartie, Angela, ed. (2020). Restaging the Past: Historical Pageants, Culture and Society in Modern Britain. UCL Press. ISBN9781787354050.
^Balme, Christopher B (2014). The Theatrical Public Sphere. Cambridge University Presd. ISBN9781107006836.
^Westlake, EJ (2017). World Theatre: the basics. Routledge. ISBN9781315734729.
^Hoxworth, Kellen (2024). Trans-Oceanic Blackface. Northwestern University Press. ISBN9780810147072.
^Meerson, Yana, ed. (2023). Palgrave Handbook on Theatre and Migration. Palgrave-Macmillan.
^Boon, Richard, ed. (2004). Theatre and Empowerment. Cambridge. ISBN9780521817295.
^Kruger, Loren (2020). Knowles, Ric (ed.). Cambridge Companion to International Festivals: National Arts Festival in Grahamstown: Culture, Economics and Race. Cambridgew Univerrsity Press. pp. 178–97. ISBN9781108442398.