Performance as counter-memory: Latvian theatre makers' reflections on national history

Abstract

The article introduces the topic of Latvian documentary theatre of the second decade of the twenty-first century using Michael Foucault's concept of counter-memory. The article analyses a series of performances by artists of the Latvian post-Soviet and post-memory generation dealing with history and memory discourses and highlights the main strategies of use of countermemory discourses in the creation of national, cultural, and individual identities; emphasizing memory as a construct and highlighting strategies of its creation and maintenance; emphasizing the oppressive nature of dominant-discourses; a disassociation with the past and memory, both cultural and individual.