Dr. Dror Harari

I am a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Theatre Arts. My current research focusses on an historical and historiographic research into the origins and early development of Israeli action and performance art of the 1960s-70s. As of September 2014, this study has been funded by the Israel Science Foundation (ISF), and is titled: “Re-Visiting Meitzag: The Historiography of Un/Documented Israeli Performance Art of the 1960s-1970s”. I am also interested in self-representation and questions of subjectivity in performance art, currently looking into how Israeli discriminated subjectivities negotiate their social positioning within the matrix of the fabricated and privileged Israeli identity of the Sabra (native-born Israeli).

 

I hold an MA in Performance Studies from the Central School of Speech and Drama (1997) and a PhD in Theatre Studies from Tel Aviv University (2005).

Winner of a Dan David award for postdoctoral scholarship for the year 2005. Between 2007-2010, member of a collective research project jointly pursued by the Theatre Departments of Tel Aviv University and Freie Universität Berlin, and funded by the German-Israeli Foundation for Scientific Research and Development. Recipient of a research grant from the Israel Science Foundation (2014-2018).

 

My research interests include performance theory, performance art, the history and historiography of early Israeli action and performance art, autobiographical performance and postdramatic theatre

BOOKS

Self-Performance: Performance Art and the Representation of Self. Tel Aviv: Resling Publications, 2014. (Hebrew, 246 pp.)

 

CHAPTERS IN BOOKS

 “Dinner Dress – Tales about Dora: Tasting the Limits of Semioticity, Consuming Autobiography, Contesting Israeliness.” in Food and Theatre on the World Stage. Eds. Dorothy Chansky and Ann Folino White. New York: Routledge, 2016. Pp. 237-252.

 

“Inter-medialities: Modern and Postmodern,” in Inter-Art Journey: Exploring the Common Grounds of the Arts. Ed. Nurit Yaari. Eastbourne: Sussex Academic Press, 2015. Pp. 27-47.

 

“Mother Courage and Her (Tactical) Practice of Everyday War: An Alternative Reading in Six Parts,” in Bertolt Brecht: Performance and Philosophy. Eds. Gad Kaynar and Linda Ben-Zvi (Tel-Aviv: Assaph Books, Department of Theatre Studies, Tel Aviv University, 2005). Pp. 145-158.

 

 “The Zik of Desire,” in the Zik Group: Twenty Years of Work. Ed. Daphna Ben-Shaul. Jerusalem: Keter Publishers, 2005. Pp. 306-313 (Hebrew).

 

 

 

REFEREED ARTICLES

Harari, D. “What Remains? A Critical Historiography of 1960s–70s Israeli Lost Performance-Based Works,” Theatre Survey 61:3  (September 2020): 372-395.  https://doi.org/10.1017/S0040557420000289

 

 

Harari, D. and Kroul G. “Debating Natalism: Israeli One-Woman Shows on Experiencing Childlessness.”  NTQ (New Theatre Quarterly) XXXV: 2 (May 2019): 121-134.

 

“Everything is  Performance,” Theory and Criticism 50 (Winter 2018): 531-551 (Hebrew)

 

“From Object to Performance in Israeli Art: A  Historiography," TDR: The Drama Review 62:4  (Winter 2018): 41-63.

 

“Curator Yona Fischer and the Transition from Object to Performance in Israeli Art of the 1960s-1970s,” Text and Performance Quarterly 37:3-4, 2017: 220-238.

 

“Performing the Un-Chosen Israeli Body: Nataly Zukerman’s Haguf Ha’acher.” TDR (The Drama Review) 60:1 (Spring 2016): 157-164.

 

“Is the Artist Present? Live (and Conscious) Art at a Borderline.” Performance Research 21:1 (February 2016): 12-17.

 

“Hopeless Activities: Performative Transplantations, Identity, and Utopia in Pinchas Cohen Gan’s Early Work.” Theory and Criticism 45 (Winter 2015): 57-89 (Hebrew)

 

“Artificial, Animal, Machinal: Body, Desire, and Intimacy in Modernist and Postmodernist Theatre.” NTQ (New Theatre Quarterly) 29:4 (November 2013): 311-320.

 

“The Historiography of Undocumented Israeli Performance Art.” Theatre Annual 65 (2012): 35-50.

 

“Laotang: Intimate Encounters.” TDR: The Drama Review 55:2 (Summer 2011): 137-149.

 

“Performing Homage: Towards a New Order of Parody.” Assaph – Studies in the Theatre 24 (2010): 17-34.

 

“Breath and the Tradition of 1960's New Realism: Between Theatre and Art.” Samuel Beckett Today/Aujourd'hui 22 (2010): 423-433.

 

“Risk in Performance: Facing the Future.” Theatre Research International 34:2 (2009): 173-179.

 

“The Origins of Performance Art in Israel in the 1960s.” Zmanim, A Historical Review 99 (2007): 74-83. (Hebrew).

 

“The Death of Müllière; or How Does a Swan-Song Sound Like?” Assaph – Studies in the Theatre 14 (1998): 139-145.

 

EDITING

Associate Editor. Assaph – Studies in the Theatre, No. 22-23 (2008).

Associate Editor. Assaph – Studies in the Theatre, No. 24 (2010).

 

OTHER PUBLICATIONS

“When the Actor is Lacking a Screw: Body-Machine Relationships in Twentieth-Century Theatre and Performance,” Maakaf: Online Magazine for Dance, Theatre and Performance. Published online: 12 September 2014. (Hebrew) http://maakaf.co.il/%D7%A2%D7%91/madorim/2013-06-30-05-59-31

 

with Yerushalmi D., Ben-Shaul D., “Tel Zik,” Block, No.4, Occasional Cities (Spring 2007): 27-32 (Hebrew).

 

“Biting: a Response to Jaws, a Piece by Ariel Ashbel,” Teatron - An Israeli Quarterly for Contemporary Theatre, No. 18 (2006): 45-48 (Hebrew).

 

“Orlan, or, Living as a Work of Art,” Teatron - An Israeli Quarterly for Contemporary Theatre, No. 16 (2005): 40-43 (Hebrew).

 

“From the Music-Drama to Muzik, From Wagner to Zik,” Teatron - An Israeli Quarterly for Contemporary Theatre (February 2004): 4-7 (Hebrew).

 

“'If I Can Help I do So': Augusto Boal and His Fight Against Oppression,” Teatron - An Israeli Quarterly for Contemporary Theatre (September 2001): 44-48 (Hebrew).

 

“Who Are You Mrs. Baker?” Teatron - An Israeli Quarterly for Contemporary Theatre (January 2001): 62-67 (Hebrew).