Theory of Knowledge - Course Companion for Students Marija Uzunova Dang Arvin Singh Uzunov Dang

III. Methods and tools
The rst thing to nuance here, is the term
[Dinesh]:
While much of my work has occurred in active
‘conict’.
zones (like Kashmir), I’m also curious about the
war
of theatre in conicts that are
potential/limitations
easy to classify as ‘war’: the conicts surrounding
less
in the United States, for example, where a
incarceration
situation exists—although one is less likely to
‘war-like’
the US a ‘war zone’.
call
these contexts of conict, I often go in as an outsider:
In
I’m of a dierent gender, nationality, ethnicity,
because
social condition from that which is being experienced
or
the folks I work with. I say this because this
by
a constant critical engagement
‘outsider-ness’—and
the politics and ethics of that identity—have led to
with
Practically, this means that all my works
[Dinesh]:
an explicit character called ‘The Outsider’: a
contain
who emerges at dierent points in whatever
character
write/create in response to the conict in question; a
I
who problematises the work, while also being
character
of it; a character who is semi-autobiographical,
part
also speaking to observed dynamics between
while
and ‘guest’.
‘host’
in a piece called Chronicles from Kashmir that was
So
over six years with a theatre company in
developed
Kashmir, there are two ‘Guides’ who take the
Srinagar,
on their journey through the world of the
audience
One of these ‘Guides’ is Kashmiri; the
performance.
is non-Kashmiri. And a central emphasis in the
other
is how these two characters engage with
performance
other, while they attempt to present dierent
each
I’m borrowing the term from Primo Levi’s The
[Dinesh]:
and the Saved where he speaks to the ‘gray
Drowned
Jews who had to become complicit within the Nazi
of
to protect themselves and their families.
establishment
Levi nuances his use of the term a lot more, but
Now
stuck with me was the ‘gray zone’ as being an area
what
which the links between ‘victim’ and ‘perpetrator’
in
harder to dene … where someone/
become
experience contains within it both qualities of
some
and ‘perpetration’. Where simplistic binaries
‘victimhood’
approaching a conict therefore, one of the rst
When
that I embark on is a ‘conict mapping’ of sorts.
things
process in which I try to understand the ‘gray zones’
A
lie between/within mainstream depictions of that
that
never ignoring the reality that some
conict—while
are more powerful than others; some voices are
voices
10
Voices: Interview with Nandita Dinesh
[Interviewer]: In your work making theatre in
contexts of conict, is there a particular ‘method’ or
‘methodology’ that you’ve found to be particularly
useful?
between ‘good’ and ‘evil’ are impossible … .
more visible than others.
[Interviewer]: How do you dramatize ‘gray zones’
while also not simplistically saying that ‘everyone is a
victim’?
being the primary tool that I use when
autoethnography
theatre about/with/for/in conicted contexts.
creating
this autoethnographic approach means, for me, is
What
constant [re]negotiation (in the processes of research,
a
and performance) of my own positioning—with
creation,
its biases and limitations.
all
[Interviewer]: What does this look like? Practically?
[Dinesh]: That is a question that I constantly deal with …
[Interviewer]: And how do you deal with that question?
One way I’ve been attempting to integrate
[Dinesh]:
complexity in my work is through particular
this
aesthetic choices.
perspectives from Kashmir to the audience.
[Interviewer]: You’ve often used the term ‘gray zones’
to frame your work. Could you unpack that for us?
zones’ of the Holocaust as being in the experiences
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