The Memory Marketplace

"This is an important contribution that pushes the existing scholarship further in a number of fields."-Lisa Fitzpatrick, University of Ulster "A brilliant contribution to knowledge and a really enjoyable, accessible, and thought-provoking read."-Anna Reading, King's College "Emilie Pine's The Memory Marketplaceis that remarkable and rare thing: a compelling, rigorously-researched academic book that is also beautifully written. Its analysis of performance modes representing trauma, abuse and violence - from 'docu-verbatim' theatre and autoperformance to site-specific performance - traces complex lines of enquiry about the idea of witnessing, the role of affect, and the types and exchanges of labor in the 'memory marketplace.' This work is a major contribution not only to memory studies and to Irish theatre studies, but also functions as an exemplar of the ways in which transnational literary studies can illuminate broad themes while tending to distinctions across cultures, spaces and times."-Oona Frawley, editor of Memory Ireland series "Emilie Pine's important new book expands our understanding of the public performance of painful stories, suggesting that they exist in a 'memory marketplace' that has to be considered in economic as well as cultural terms. Drawing on examples from Irish and international theatre, the study challenges the reader to fully appreciate the relationship between witnessing and consuming in contemporary performance. In doing so, it offers exciting perspectives on major theatre-makers (including Yael Farber, Samuel Beckett, Anna Deavere Smith, and Ariel Dorfman), important Irish theatre companies (such as Anu Productions, Kabosh, and the Abbey Theatre), and much more. Scholars of Irish drama, documentary theatre, and memory studies will find Pine's work inspiring and provocative in equal measure-just as general readers will be deeply stimulated by its relevance to many contemporary debates, notably the #metoo movement."-Patrick Lonergan, National University of Ireland, Galway

Emilie Pine is Associate Professor of Modern Drama at University College Dublin. She is author of The Politics of Irish Memory: Performing Remembrance in Contemporary Irish Culture and Notes to Self, a collection of personal essays.

Introduction: The Market for Pain 1. Tell them that you saw us: Witnessing Docu-Verbatim Memory 2. The Witness as Commodity: Autoperforming Memory 3. The Commissioned Witness, Theatre and Truth 4. The immaterial labour of listening: Presence, absence, failure and the commodification of the witness 5. Consumers or witnesses?: site-specific performance Conclusion: Activism in the Marketplace