Worldmaking: Race, Performance, and the Work of Creativity
In this bold, innovative work, Dorinne Kondo theorizes the racialized structures of inequality that pervade theater and the arts. Grounded in twenty years of fieldwork as dramaturg and playwright, Kondo mobilizes critical race studies, affect theory, psychoanalysis, and dramatic writing to trenchantly analyze theater's work of creativity as theory: acting, writing, dramaturgy. Race-making occurs backstage in the creative process and through economic forces, institutional hierarchies, hiring practices, ideologies of artistic transcendence, and aesthetic form. For audiences, the arts produce racial affect--structurally over-determined ways affect can enhance or diminish life. Upending genre through scholarly interpretation, vivid vignettes, and Kondo's original play, Worldmaking journeys from an initial romance with theater that is shattered by encounters with racism, toward what Kondo calls reparative creativity in the work of minoritarian artists Anna Deavere Smith, David Henry Hwang, and the author herself. Worldmaking performs the potential for the arts to remake worlds, from theater worlds to psychic worlds to worldmaking visions for social transformation.
UPDATES
One of Worldmaking’s key concepts—reparative creativity–has been recognized among theatre scholars and artists as the theme of 2022’s national conference of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education.
Worldmaking is the subject of a 2022 Syndicate Symposium curated by Megan Moodie and featuring essays/creative work by Moodie, Lana Lin, Julietta Singh, Broderick D.V. Chow, Christen Smith, and Kondo’s responses.
REVIEWS
"Dorinne Kondo's work recalls us to the indispensable power of creative art and action during times when prospects for persistence are closing for so many. Brave, passionate, and always incisive, Kondo's work paves the way for those who seek to know the link between art and politics for our time." — Judith Butler
"Dorinne Kondo's penetrating and insightful book should be required reading for any theater artist who is serious about confronting racism. She brilliantly reminds us of the power of the theater, and of the real responsibility that comes with that power." — Oskar Eustis, Artistic Director of The Public Theater
“Worldmaking is a stunning contribution to discussions of racial representation, affect, ethnography, and practice-led research in our post-racial world. Working to “defamiliarize” American theatre for artists and scholars, the book re-evaluates the dichotomies of theory/practice, artistic passion/compensation, and resistance/complicity that are firmly ingrained in our thinking about the arts. The rigor with which Kondo encourages us to reassess artistic practices and scholarly inquiry, however, never verges on harsh criticism. Instead, it is with stirring generosity that she opens up avenues for further inquiry and redress.” — Modern Drama