Introduction: Theatre and Language

Abstract

The theme "Theatre and Language" opens to many directions, as this present issue of Nordic Theatre Studies proves. The choice of the theme was motivated by what we see as the importance of successful communication in increasingly multicultural and globalizing societies: we are facing an urgent need of understanding each other across cultural borders and manners. Now, one and half years after releasing the call for papers, this demand seems all the more important, and even overwhelming. We have not only witnessed violent conflicts causing the worst refugee crisis since the Second World War; we have also experienced the effects of "post-truth" politics and populism, making use of social media bubbles in order to turn lies into facts. It is as if we had lost our ability to talk and listen to other people in decent, fair-minded ways.Hannah Arendt writes in her book The Human Condition that speech makes humans into political beings, who "can experience meaningfulness only because they can talk with and make sense to each other and to themselves." 1 In order to create a common table, around which we can peacefully solve our conflicts and make the differing viewpoints comprehensible, we need language.