Between Blood, Wine, Doritos and Liberal Muslims: Performing Ethnic Identities in Mogadishu and Pax Islamica

Abstract

The construction of ethnic identity forms the central subject of this thesis. Public perception often dictates that ethnicity in the sense of cultural identity is birth-related. Within the field of constructivist thinking however, ethnic identity is viewed as a malleable factor: though natural components provide the basic ingredients for ethnicity, ethnic identity is really constructed through human intervention. Using this line of thinking, the thesis focuses on the creation of ethnic identity in one specific social and public setting, the theatre. A theoretical framework focusing on constructivist ideas about ethnic identity provides analytical tools, amongst which the notions of boundary making, reification and violent imaginaries, to analyse two present-day case studies. The case studies, two Dutch plays closely related to topics of ethnic identity, are analysed: the Dutch version of Mogadishu and Pax Islamica I: Zoeken naar Mohammed.