Avant-garde East and West: A comparison of prewar German and Japanese avant-garde art and performance

This dissertation, prepared toward completion of a PhD in Theatre and Performance Studies at the University of Pittsburgh, is an interdisciplinary comparison of early twentieth century avant-garde performance in Germany and Japan. The movements that will be considered include Expressionism, Futurism, Dada, Surrealism, Constructivism, agit-prop and proletarian theatre, cabaret performance; and the Japanese movements Action, Mavo, Sanka, Shingeki, and the Proletarian Theatre Movement. Framing this comparison are historical and contemporary discourses that posit the centrality of the historical avant-garde in the development of twentieth century art and theatre. The period to be covered ranges from the turn of the twentieth century through World War II---an era in which the proliferation, assimilation, and ultimately, the elimination of avant-garde art and performance transpired in both countries. Representative texts, designs, and performances illuminate the similarities and differences in regard to the intention, production and reception of German and Japanese avant-garde artists, writers, and theatre practitioners. Aesthetic considerations are derived from historical and contemporary critical and theoretical discourses, and address such phenomena as the relationship of the avant-garde to the institutions of art and theatre, the avant-garde's reaction to aesthetic autonomy, and transformations in the aesthetic sphere effected by avant-gardist discourse and praxes in both nations. The sociopolitical coordinates of the avant-garde project also figure prominently, specifically, the "national" characteristics of discrete movements, as well as transformations in the reception of art and performance in the first half of the twentieth century in both nations, including arts policies adopted under National Socialism and the Japanese military-bureaucracy in the decade prior to World War 11. The methodology adopted in this dissertation crosses disciplinary boundaries, drawing upon Western and Japanese scholarship in the fields of art history and aesthetics, theatre history and performance studies, critical theory, and social scientific approaches to art and culture.