Overview

Since its emergence in the 1920s, Iraqi-Kurdish theatre was used as a tool of national identity building and modernisation. It promoted literacy, education and women’s rights and became one of the most visible forms of Kurdish cultural nationalism by exploring folklore, myths, legends and local history and by celebrating heroes of the past. As time went on, by staging anti-feudalist and anti-monarchist plays, theatre became engaged in representing and legitimising the wider political movement in Iraq that ultimately led to the overthrow of the monarchy in 1958. Between 1975-1991, even under strict censorship during the Baath rule, Kurdish theatre continued to promote Kurdish nationalism and resistance through the use of Kurdish folk culture and literature. This book is based on dramatic texts from the period, interviews with Kurdish theatre artists, Kurdish theatre histories, historical documents, and journalistic accounts. It illustrates the ways in which theatre participated in the Kurdish national struggle and how it responded to political changes in different historical periods. It is the first book dedicated to Kurdish theatre and complements the latest research that examines theatre in its wider socio-political context.

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9780755638550

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This is a well-written and, given the recent independence referendum in Kurdistan, a timely study of nationalist expression in Kurdish theatre in Iraq. * Stephen Elliot Wilmer, Professor Emeritus, Trinity College Dublin, and author of Theatre, Society and the Nation: Staging American Identities (2002) and Performing Statelessness in Europe (2018). *

Author Information

Mari R. Rostami is Associate Member at Centre for Research on Language and Culture Contact. She is a graduate of the University of Exeter where she obtained her Master’s and PhD degrees in Kurdish Studies. She also holds an MA in English literature from the University of Tehran and a BA in English from Razi University.

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