›A Delicate Task‹. Theatres of Diplomacy in Austria
This project investigates the historical entanglements of theatre and diplomacy in the Austro-Hungarian Empire from the mid-18th century to the early 20th century as reflected through the medium of theatre. Bridging the fields of Austrian literature and New Diplomatic Studies, this project combines philological inquiry into dramatic texts (including Grillparzer and Hofmannsthal) with archival research into the culture and ideology of the diplomatic corps, examining parallel processes of rationalization and bureaucratization within the institutions of Austrian theatre and diplomacy alongside periodic invocations of pre-modern and early modern diplomatic practices. Related theories of early modern drama and diplomacy from figures diverse as Metternich and Walter Benjamin, Calderón and Carl Schmitt emerge and return in-and out-of-sync with the modernization of diplomacy in Austria and the political crises of the 20th century.
Raymond Blankenhorn is a doctoral candidate in the Department of German at New York University, where his research focuses on drama and political philosophy. He is particularly interested in the German reception of Greek literature and the evolution of the comic stage in modern Europe. Raymond holds a BA in Classics from Oxford University.