Efkes foarstelle: haadsprekker Marguérite Corporaal (CFH2025)

Op tongersdeitemiddei 13 novimber is prof dr. Marguérite Corporaal útnûge. Marguérite Corporaal groeide op yn Frjentsjer (Frjentsjer) en is heechlearaar Ierske literatuer yn transnasjonale konteksten oan de Radboud Universiteit yn Nederlân. Se wie haadûndersiker fan Relocated Remembrance: The Great Famine in Irish (Diaspora) Fiction, 1847-1921, dêr't se in Starting Grant Consolidators foar krige fan de Europeeske Onderzoeksraad (2010–15). 

Corporaal ûntfong in NWO-VICI-subsydzje foar har projekt Redefining the Region (2019-24), dat de transnasjonale diminsjes fan lokale kleur yn de lange njoggentjinde iuw ûndersiket. Dêrneist is Corporaal haadûndersiker fan Heritages of Hunger, dat finansiere wurdt as ûnderdiel fan it NWA-programma fan de Nederlânske Onderzoeksraad NWO (2019-24). Fan 2016 oant 2019 late se it Gate Theatre Research Network, finansierd troch NWO, yn gearwurking mei de Karelsuniversiteit yn Praag en de Universiteit fan Galway yn Ierlân.

Lêzing

De titel fan Corporaals lêzing is 'The Frisian Tryater and the Dublin Gate: Cosmopolitan Theatres, Minority Languages and Identity Construction'.

The Frisian Tryater and the Dublin Gate: Cosmopolitan Theatres, Minority Languages and Identity Construction

The Dublin Gate Theatre, founded in 1928, has been acknowledged as a cosmopolitan theatre that simultaneously helped to construct and cement Irish identities, as well as promote the use of Irish. Scholarship by, amongst others, Ruud van den Beuken, David Clare and Nicola Morris has demonstrated that from the start the Gate engaged with international poetics, repertoire and dramaturgy and targeted international audiences. Theatres elsewhere in Europe play(ed) similar roles in combining international repertoire with plays which staged national or regional pasts or issues. One such theatre which, like the Gate, furthermore invested in emancipating marginal identities and promoting a minority language is the Frisian Tryater.

Officially established in 1965 in Leeuwarden— cultural capital of Europe in 2018— Tryater has played a prominent role in shaping regional identities through engagements with international repertoire as well as in providing a platform to plays in the Frisian language, following the so-called “kneppelfreed” campaign (1951) which stimulated Frisian as a cultural language.

The history of this Frisian theatre group goes back to the foundation of the Fryske Toanielstifting in 1965, which acquired the name Tryater in 1969. Tryater became highly successful in the 1970s under the leadership of Pyt van der Zee, and in 1985, when Thom van der Goot was artistic director, the theatre attained national recognition. Before the outbreak of COVID-19, Tryater would stage over 500 performances per year, in Frisian and other languages, at its main venue in Leeuwarden, local venues and schools in Friesland as well as abroad.

This keynote will discuss Tryater in comparison to the Dublin Gate Theatre in three respects: their language politics, their adaptations of international plays, and their staging of marginalised identities. Since their early histories, the Gate and Tryater have shared a concern with the promotion of indigenous languages which was moreover combined with a cosmopolitan outlook. Both theatres would bring translations of internationally renowned drama into an indigenous, minority language to the stage. Just like Tryater, which from the onset gave a stage to new, local playwrights, the Gate significantly furthered the careers of a hitherto unknown generation of dramatists such as Denis Johnston, Davis Sears, Robert Collis and Mary Manning. Furthermore, both in the past and present, The Gate and Tryater have produced original plays which subvert issues of identity formation in contexts of globalisation. Examples are Nancy Harris’s The Red Shoes (2018) and Hummus & Haring’s community art project Eritreatown (2018).

Mear oer Corporaal en de lêzing is te finen op de sprekkerspagina fan de kongreswebsite.

Yn it koart

Wat: Conference on Frisian Humanities 
Wêr: Oranje Hotel, Ljouwert/Leeuwarden
Wannear: 12-14 novimber 2025
Organisaasje: Fryske Akademy, Mercator Europeesk Kennissintrum foar Meartaligens en Taallearen, it Lektoraat Meartaligens en Geletterdheid fan de NHL Stenden Hegeskoalle, de ôfdieling Frisian Studies fan de Universiteit Grins en de ôfdieling Language, Technology and Culture fan UG/Campus Fryslân.
Folsleine programma: download (pdf)
Gearfettingeboek: download (pdf)
Registraasje: fia de website.