How can the wordless play of pantomime be translated into writing? Nina Tolksdorf's virtual exhibition Literary Pantomime is dedicated to the multifarious ways in which mimes have been written down – from basic stage directions via libretti to colourful and intricately illustrated manuscripts. While the history of miming goes back to antiquity at least, the literary genre is a comparatively recent phenomenon that reached its peak at the beginning of the twentieth century, when both canonical and lesser-known authors were spellbound by the 'silent art'. Offering exciting insights into this hybrid text form, the online exhibition invites you to explore the highly diverse possibilities of expression at the nexus of language and movement.

 

Nina Tolksdorf is an Associated Researcher at EXC 2020, where she pursues a project entitled Writing of the Wordless. Literary Pantomime around 1900. Having obtained her PhD from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore with a dissertation on performativity and the rhetoric of probity in Nietzsche, Kleist, Kafka and Lasker-Schüler, she held a position as postdoctoral researcher at EXC 2020 and the Friedrich Schlegel Graduate School of Literary Studies between 2018 and 2021.

Have a look at the exhibition on the website of the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin.

As part of the Cluster's Berlin Partner Network, the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin has been a long-standing collaboration partner through various activities and events.