Canoniseringsprocessen in de hedendaagse theaterkritiek. Een frequentie-analyse van de ‘Vlaamse golf’ in het podiumtijdschrift Etcetera

Samenvatting

I propose an investigation of the processes of canonization that are at work in contemporary theatre criticism. My case study concerns the first 25 years of the Flemish performing arts magazine Etcetera, which were recently fully digitized (1983-2008). By charting the frequencies with which certain directors are mentioned, I examine how much attention the critics give to the directors of the established municipal theatres in Flanders, and how much to young & upcoming directors, who operated mostly independently. In this particular corpus, it is remarkable how little attention is given to the established directors. By contrast, directors who can be said to belong to experimental, ‘postdramatic theatre’ (Hans- Thies Lehmann) such as Jan Fabre, Jan Lauwers or Ivo Van Hove, do receive far more mention in the magazine’s pages. In this way, Etcetera has actively contributed to the canonization of a new generation of directors.