Clara Escoda is Senior Lecturer in English Literature, Drama and Theatre in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures and English Studies, University of Barcelona, where she holds the post of Coordinator of the Literatures in English area.
Clara holds a PhD in contemporary British theatre from the University of Barcelona (2011; cum laude and Extraordinary Prize) and an MA in the Humanities with a concentration on African American literature from Hood College (USA, 2004). In recognition of her research trajectory, the Catalan research agency AQU has granted her two six-year research periods (2006-2017). Her research interests revolve around contemporary British playwriting and its intersection with feminism and care in the context of neoliberalism. She has published on the plays of Alice Birch, Martin Crimp and Kae Tempest. Her monograph Martin Crimp’s Theatre: Collapse as Resistance to Late Capitalism was published in 2013 by De Gruyter.
She has published articles, book chapters and reviews in renowned forums, such as Cambridge University Press, De Gruyter and Palgrave Macmillan, and the theatre journals Contemporary Theatre Review, New Theatre Quarterly and Performing Ethos: An International Journal of Ethics in Theatre and Performance. With Clare Wallace, Enric Monforte and José Ramón Prado-Pérez, she co-edited Crisis, Representation and Resilience: Perspectives on Contemporary British Theatre (Bloomsbury, 2022), and with Vicky Angelaki and Elisabeth Angel-Pérez she is co-editing a volume on Martin Crimp’s theatre which has received a positive response from Liverpool University Press’s Playwriting and the Contemporary: Critical Collaborations Series.
Clara is Principal Investigator of the Research Project “Affect, Gender and Care in Contemporary British Theatre”, funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (PID2021-126448NA-I00). As PI, she organized a study study day on care in/and twenty-first century British theatre, held at the University of Barcelona in February 2023, and is currently organizing an international symposium on care in/and twenty-first century British playwriting to be held at the University of Barcelona in November 2023. She forms part of the Research Network “Anglophone Literatures in the Twenty-First Century: Transnational Spaces (LEAP21+)” (RED2022-134586-T, 2023-2025), with Isabel Carrera Suárez (U. of Oviedo) as Principal Investigator, and has been co-researcher on four research projects: “The Representation of Politics and the Politics of Representation in Post-1990 British Drama and Theatre”, funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (FFI2009-07598); “Representations of Precariousness in Contemporary British Theatre”, funded by the Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst (DAAD; Projekt-ID 57049392, 2014); “Ethical Issues in Contemporary British Theatre since 1989: Globalization, Theatricality, Spectatorship” (FFI2012- 31842) and “British Theatre in the Twenty-First Century: Crisis, Affect, Community” (FFI2016-75443), both funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness.
Contemporary British Theatre
(forthcoming): “‘What Use to Me is a Rusty Spike?’: Gender Performativity and Fluidity of Desire in Martin Crimp’s When We Have Sufficiently Tortured Each Other (2018)”, Martin Crimp: The Writer and the Work. Eds. Vicky Angelaki, Elisabeth Angel-Perez and Clara Escoda. Liverpool: Liverpool UP.
(forthcoming): co-editor with Vicky Angelaki and Elisabeth Angel-Perez, Martin Crimp: The Writer and the Work. Liverpool: Liverpool UP.
(forthcoming): “Gender and the Body in Alice Birch’s Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again: A Twenty-First Century Feminist Manifesto”. Cambridge Companion to British Playwriting since 1945. Eds. Vicky Angelaki and Dan Rebellato. Cambridge: Cambridge UP.
2022: co-editor with Clare Wallace, Enric Monforte and José Ramón Prado-Pérez, Crisis, Representation and Resilience: Perspectives on Contemporary British Theatre. London: Bloomsbury (Methuen Drama). https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/crisis-representation-and-resilience-9781350180857/
2021: “Affects and the Development of Political Subjectivity: From Resilience to Agency in Kae Tempest’s Wasted”, Affects in 21st-Century British Theatre: Exploring Feeling on Page and Stage. Eds. Mireia Aragay, Cristina Delgado-García and Martin Middeke. London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 257-74.
2020: “Neoliberalismo y postfeminismo en Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again. de Alice Birch: Un manifiesto feminista para el siglo XXI”, Nerter 32-33, pp. 32-41.
2018: “‘Her Heart knows my Heart for a brief Moment’: Mediated Affect and Utopian Impulse in Many Moons (2011) by Alice Birch”. Performing Ethos: An International Journal of Ethics in Theatre and Performance 8.1, pp. 19-34.
2018: “‘Deeper than that’: Hegemonic Emotional Experiences and Affective Dissidences in Martin Crimp’s In the Republic of Happiness (2012)”. Nexus 2018. 2, pp. 45-56.
2018: “Divergent Subjects: Disrupting the Inherited Lifelines of Global Capitalism in Alice Birch’s Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again (2014)”. Proceedings of the International Conference Theatre as Value-Based Discourse – Slovak Theatre and Contemporary European Theatre Culture. Ed. Elena Knopová. Bratislava: VEDA, Slovak Academy of Sciences, pp. 36-51.
2018: review of Twenty-First Century Drama: What Happens Now (eds. Siân Adiseshiah and Louise LePage, 2016), New Theatre Quarterly 34.3, p. 300.
2017: “Ethics, Precariousness and the ‘Inclination’ to the Other in debbie tucker green’s dirty butterfly, Laura Wade’s Posh and Martin Crimp’s In the Republic of Happiness”, Of Precariousness: Vulnerabilitie
2014: with Mireia Aragay and Enric Monforte, “Martin Crimp at Sala Beckett, Barcelona”, Contemporary Theatre Review 24: 3, pp. 376-87.
2014: “Violence, Testimony and Ethics in Martin Crimp’s The Country and The City”, Ethical Speculations in Contemporary British Theatre. Eds. Mireia Aragay and Enric Monforte. Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 25-41.
2013: Martin Crimp’s Theatre: Collapse as Resistance to Late Capitalist Society. Berlin and Boston: De Gruyter.
2012: review of Hamlet y el actor: En busca del personaje (Artezblai, 2011), Anagnorisis: Revista de investigación teatral5, pp. 134-41.
2012: “The Politics of Re-reading / Re-writing in Contemporary British Theatre”, a paper given at the XXXV Conference of the Spanish Association of Angloamerican Studies (AEDEAN). Published in: At a Time of Crisis: English and American Studies in Spain. Eds. Sara Martín Alegre, Melissa Moyer, Elisabet Pladevell and Susagna Tubau. Barcelona: Departament de Filologia Anglesa i de Germanística, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, pp. 238-44. E-book.
2012: with Mireia Aragay, “Postdramatism, Ethics and the Role of Light in Martin Crimp’s/James Macdonald’s Fewer Emergencies (2005)”, New Theatre Quarterly 28: 2, pp. 133-42.
2011: review of Theatre and Feeling (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), Platform: Journal of Theatre and Performing Arts 6: 1, pp. 115-20.
2010: “A Textual Analysis of Martin Crimp’s Adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull: The Importance of Testimony and Relationship”. Platform: Journal of Theatre and Performing Arts 10: 1, pp. 54-70.
2010: “‘In-Yer-Face Theatre’ and the ‘Society of Spectacle’: The Violence of Progress in Martin Crimp’s The Treatment”, Annals of the University of Craiova. Eds: Dieter Wessels and Felicia Burdescu. Craiova: Editura Universitaria, pp. 116-31.
2009: bibliographical entry on “Martin Crimp’s Attempts on Her Life”, Literary Encyclopedia. Ed. Robert Clark, East Anglia (Norwich), http://www.litencyc.com
2008: “Short Circuits of Desire: Language and Power in Martin Crimp’s Attempts on her Life (1997)”, A Body that Could Never Rest: Relaciones entre cuerpo y cultura en las tradiciones anglófonas 2. Eds. Félix Ernesto Chávez and Diego Falconi. Barcelona: UOC, pp. 173-88.
2007: “‘head green water to sing’: Minimalism and Indeterminacy in Martin Crimp’s Attempts on her Life (1997)”, Drama and/after Postmodernism. Eds. Christoph Henke and Martin Middeke. Trier: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag, pp. 149-63.
2007: “Short Circuits of Desire: Language and Power in Martin Crimp’s Attempts on her Life (1997)”, Ariel: A Review of International English Literature 3-4, 36, pp. 103-26.
Other
2016: “Shakespeare i el cinema” , “‘To be or not to be…’ 400 anys amb William Shakespeare”, http://crai.ub.edu/ca/coneix-el-crai/biblioteques/biblioteca-lletres/tobeornottobe, curated by Esther Acereda (CRAI, University of Barcelona), Gabriel Tomàs (CRAI, University of Barcelona), Clara Escoda and Enric Monforte.
2012: review of Baroque Allegory Comedia: The Transfiguration of Tragedy in Seventeenth-Century Spain (Kassel: Reichenberg, 2012), Anagnorisis: Revista de investigación teatral 6, pp. 134-40.
2012: with Mireia Aragay, Enric Monforte, Verónica Rodríguez and María Isabel Seguro, Formative Learning and Assessment Tools for British Theatre Courses within the English Studies Degree. Barcelona: Dipòsit Digital de la Universitat de Barcelona. http://hdl.handle.net/2445/32184
2007: “‘I Carve Myself into My Hands’: The Body Experienced from Within in Ana Mendieta’s Work and in Migdalia Cruz’s Miriam’s Flowers”, Hispanic Review 3, 75, pp. 289-311.
2006: “Julie Taymor’s Titus (1999): Framing Violence and Activating Responsibility”, Atlantis 2, 28, pp. 57-70.
2005: “The Relationship Between Community and Subjectivity in Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower”, Extrapolation 3, 46, pp. 351-9.
2005: “Strategies of Subversion: The Deconstruction of Madness in Eva’s Man, Corregidora and Beloved”, Atlantis 1, 27, pp. 29-38.
Contemporary British Theatre
2020: “Affects and the Development of Political Subjectivity: From Resilience to Agency in Kae Tempest’s Wasted (2011)”, paper presented at the conference “The New Wave of British Women Playwrights: Experimenting with Forms”, Sorbonne University, Paris, 11-12 December [online].
2018: member of the scientific committee of “Crossing Borders: Contemporary Anglophone Theatre in Europe”, 40th International Conference of Recherches sur les Arts Dramatiques Anglophones Contemporains (RADAC), co-organised by Université Paris 13, Université Lyon 2, Université Grenoble-Alpes and RADAC, Paris, 11-12 October.
2017: “Divergent Subjects: Disrupting the Inherited Lifelines of Global Capitalism in Alice Birch’s Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again (2014)”, keynote lecture presented at the conference “Theatre as a Value-based Discourse: Slovak Theatre and Contemporary European Theatre Culture”, University of Bratislava, 5-6 October.
2016: “‘Her Heart Knows My Heart for a Brief Moment’: Affect Mediation and Utopian Impulse in Many Moons(2011), by Alice Birch”, paper presented at the conference “British Theatre in the 21st Century: New Texts, New Stages, New Identities, New Worlds”, co-organised by Paris-Sorbonne University, Royal Holloway (University of London) and Sorbonne-Nouvelle University, Université Paris-Sorbonne, París, 13-15 October.
2016: “Radical Poetics: Ethics, Dispossession and Affective Dissidences in Martin Crimp’s In the Republic of Happiness (2012)”, paper presented at 4th International Conference “What Happens Now: 21st Century Writing in English”, University of Lincoln, 27-30 June.
2016: “‘Deeper than That’: Hegemonic Emotional Experiences and Affective Dissidences in Martin Crimp’s In the Republic of Happiness (2012)”, paper presented at “Residuos emocionales: Regímenes y disidencias afectivas en el mundo moderno”, a conference organised by Centre Dona i Literatura, Universitat de Barcelona, and CCCB, Barcelona, 15-16 March.
2015: member of the organizing committee, “Theatre and Spectatorship”, 24th Annual Conference of the German Society for Contemporary Theatre and Drama in English (CDE), University of Barcelona, 4-7 June.
2014: “Ethics, Precariousness and the ‘Inclination’ to the Other in debbie tucker green’s dirty butterfly, Laura Wade’s Posh and Martin Crimp’s In the Republic of Happiness”, paper presented at “Theatre and Stratification”, International Federation for Theatre Research Conference (IFTR/ FIRT), University of Warwick, 28 July-1 August.
2013: “Witnessing, Spectatorship and Ethics in Martin Crimp’s The Country”, paper presented at the international conference “The Viewing of Politics and the Politics of Viewing: Theatre Challenges in the Age of Globalized Communities”, Aristotle University (Thessaloniki), 18-21 April.
2013: with Mireia Aragay and Enric Monforte, “Martin Crimp at Sala Beckett, Barcelona”, paper presented (by invitation) at “Dealing with Martin Crimp”, a conference organised by Royal Holloway, University of London, and the University of Birmingham, held at Royal Court Theatre, London, 12 January 2013.
2012: “’Empire, Resistance, and the Creation of Borderlands in Moira Buffini’s Welcome to Thebes (2010)”, paper given at the international conference “The Border, an Unavoidable Concept? International Conference on the Border and its Relationship to the Performing Arts in Europe”, organised by Grup de Recerca en les Arts Escèniques (GRAE), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 1-3 March.
2011: participation in the round table “The Politics of Rereading/Rewriting in Contemporary British Theatre” with a paper on Martin Crimp and Moira Buffini, XXXV International Conference of the Spanish Association of Angloamerican Studies (AEDEAN), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 17 November.
2010: “Attempts on her Life and Face to the Wall: Postdramatism, the ‘Society of Spectacle’, and Crimp’s Vignettes of Collapse”, paper presented at the conference “Contemporary British Theatre: Towards a New Canon”, School of English, Birmingham City University, 16 October.
2009: “‘In-Yer-Face Theatre’ and the ‘Society of Spectacle’: The Violence of ‘Progress’ in Martin Crimp’s The Treatment (1993)”, paper presented at 8th International Conference Language, Literature and Cultural Policies: from Evolution to Involution, University of Craiova, Rumania, 3 October. Co-organised with the Department of English Studies of Rhur University, Bochum, Germany.
2008: participation in the round table “The Politics of Contemporary British Theatre”, XXXII International Conference of the Spanish Association of Angloamerican Studies (AEDEAN), Universitat de les Illes Balears, 14 November.
2007: “‘The Stage, a Skull’: Scenic Poetry and the Role of Light in Martin Crimp’s Fewer Emergencies (2005)”, paper presented at XXXI International Conference of the Spanish Association of Angloamerican Studies (AEDEAN), University of A Coruña, 16 November. Published in: Proceedings of the XXXI International Conference of AEDEAN. Ed. María Jesús Lorenzo Modia. A Coruña: Universidade da Coruña, pp. 461-74.
2007: “Short Circuits of Desire: Language and Power in Martin Crimp’s Attempts on her Life (1997)”, paper presented at “First International Conference Body and Textuality. Telling Bodies: Practices, Discourses, Looks”, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 27 March.
2006: “‘head green water to sing’: Minimalism and Indeterminacy in Martin Crimp’s Attempts on her Life (1997)”, paper presented at “Drama and/after Postmodernism”, 15th Annual Conference of the German Society for Contemporary Theatre and Drama in English (CDE), University of Augsburg, Germany, 26 May.
Contemporary British Theatre
2023: with Verónica Rodríguez, “Care Openings”, paper presented at the symposium on “Care and/in Twenty-First Century British Theatre” within the project “Gender, Affect and Care in Twenty-First Century British Theatre”, organised by the Contemporary British Theatre Barcelona research group, Universitat de Barcelona, Facultat de Filologia i Comunicació, 16-17 November.
2023: coordination and organisation of the symposium on “Care and/in Twenty-First Century British Theatre” within the project “Gender, Affect and Care in Twenty-First Century British Theatre”, organised by the Contemporary British Theatre Barcelona research group, Universitat de Barcelona, Facultat de Filologia i Comunicació, 16-17 November.
2023: organisation of and participation in the study day on care in/and twenty-first century British theatre within the project “Gender, Affect and Care in Twenty-First Century British Theatre”, organised by the Contemporary British Theatre Barcelona research group, Universitat de Barcelona, Facultat de Filologia i Comunicació, 24 February.
2019: attendance at the workshop “Com pot la forma teatral representar/reaccionar davant un món globalitzat? I ho hauria de fer?” led by Ella Hickson, Obrador d’Estiu, Sala Beckett, Barcelona, 11-13 July.
2019: participation in the symposium on crisis within the project “British Theatre in the Twenty-First Century: Crisis, Affect, Community”, organized by the Contemporary British Theatre Barcelona research group, Universitat de Barcelona, Facultat de Filologia i Comunicació, 11-12 April.
2019: attendance at the research seminar “The Drama of Ideas: Beckett and the Question of Philosophy” given by Martin Puchner (U. Harvard), co-organized by Grup de Recerca en Estudis Literaris Globals (GlobaLS), U. Oberta de Catalunya, and Contemporary British Theatre Barcelona, Universitat de Barcelona, Facultat de Filologia i Comunicació, 5 April.
2018: chair of panel “Feminist Readings”, “Crossing Borders: Contemporary Anglophone Theatre in Europe”, 40th International Conference of Recherches sur les Arts Dramatiques Anglophones Contemporains (RADAC), organised by Université Paris 13, Université Lyon 2, Université Grenoble-Alpes and RADAC, Paris, 11-12 October.
2018: participation in the study day on crisis within the project “British Theatre in the Twenty-First Century: Crisis, Affect, Community”, organized by the Contemporary British Theatre Barcelona research group, Universitat de Barcelona, Facultat de Filologia, 12 April.
2017: participation in the study day on affect within the project “British Theatre in the Twenty-First Century: Crisis, Affect, Community”, organized by the Contemporary British Theatre Barcelona research group, Universitat de Barcelona, Facultat de Filologia, 24 March.
2017: attendance at the symposium “Theatre, Drama and Youth”, Lille University, Lille, 2-3 February.
2016: participation in the study day on happiness organized by the Contemporary British Theatre Barcelona research group, Universitat de Barcelona, Facultat de Filologia, 12 May.
2016: attendance at the symposium “Sarah Kane Explored: Staging the Unstageable”, National Theatre, London, 11 March.
2015: “Postmodern or Satiric? From The Treatment (1993) to Fewer Emergencies (2005) by Martin Crimp”, guest lecture for the postgraduate unit “Literatura, ètica i globalització” within the official MA Programme “Construcció i Representació d’Identitats Culturals”, Universitat de Barcelona, Departament de Filologia Anglesa i Alemanya, 29 October.
2014: “Ethics, Precariousness and the ‘Inclination’ to the Other in debbie tucker green’s dirty butterfly, Laura Wade’s Posh and Martin Crimp’s In the Republic of Happiness”, guest lecture for graduate course “Literatura, ètica i globalització” within the official Masters Programme “Construcció i Representació d’Identitats Culturals”, Universitat de Barcelona, Departament de Filologia Anglesa i Alemanya, 26 November.
2014: “Ethics, Precariousness and the ‘Inclination’ to the Other in debbie tucker green’s dirty butterfly, Laura Wade’s Posh and Martin Crimp’s In the Republic of Happiness”, a paper presented within the “Second Augsburg-Barcelona Seminar” organized by the research project “Darstellungen des Prekären im britishen Gegenwartstheater” (“Representations of the Precarious in Contemporary British Theatre”), funded by the DAAD (Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst – German Academic Exchange Service; Projekt-ID: 57049392),University of Barcelona, 17 September.
2013: “Ethics, Precariousness and the ‘Inclination’ to the Other in debbie tucker green’s dirty butterfly, Laura Wade’s Posh and Martin Crimp’s In the Republic of Happiness”, paper delivered at the seminar “Ethics, Precariousness and Contemporary (British) Theatre”, organized by Universitat de Barcelona, Departament de Filologia Anglesa i Alemanya, 28 October.
2012: guest lecture on Martin Crimp’s Attempts on her Life for graduate course “Literatura i Escena: Construcció d’Identitats des del Royal Court Theatre” within the official Masters Programme “Construcció i Representació d’Identitats Culturals”, Universitat de Barcelona, Departament de Filologia Anglesa i Alemanya, 5 December.
2011: guest lecture on Martin Crimp’s Attempts on her Life for graduate course “Literatura i Escena: Construcció d’Identitats des del Royal Court Theatre” within the official Masters Programme “Construcció i Representació d’Identitats Culturals”, Universitat de Barcelona, Departament de Filologia Anglesa i Alemanya, 9 November.
Contemporary British Theatre
2023: Albert Méndez Panadés, “Neoliberalism, Class, Subjectivity: A Sociological Perspective on Post-Recession British Theatre” (supervised; tutored by Mireia Aragay).