- Countering the Colonial Exhibition: Contemporary Performance in France Finburgh Delijani, Clare. 2023. Countering the Colonial Exhibition: Contemporary Performance in France. Modern Languages Open, ISSN 2052-5397
- Le « grin » de Fanon et le théâtre postcolonial en France Finburgh Delijani, Clare. 2023. Le « grin » de Fanon et le théâtre postcolonial en France. Théâtre/Public, 246, ISSN 0335-2927
- The Afterlives of Enslavement: Histories of Racial Injustice in Contemporary Black British Theatre Finburgh Delijani, Clare. 2022. The Afterlives of Enslavement: Histories of Racial Injustice in Contemporary Black British Theatre. Modern Drama, 65(4), pp. 471-498. ISSN 0026-7694
- “Nobody’s ever held the door open and invited women, Black people or disabled people in”: confronting discrimination in Marie NDiaye’s theater Finburgh Delijani, Clare. 2022. “Nobody’s ever held the door open and invited women, Black people or disabled people in”: confronting discrimination in Marie NDiaye’s theater. CFC Intersections, 1(1), pp. 43-58. ISSN 2752-552X
- The Ghosts of Slavery in Contemporary Theatre from the Francosphere Finburgh Delijani, Clare. 2022. The Ghosts of Slavery in Contemporary Theatre from the Francosphere. L'Esprit Créateur special issue, Replaying the Francophone Early Modern in the Twenty-First Century, 62(2), pp. 32-49. ISSN 0014-0767
- Portes fermées, possibilités ouvertes dans le théâtre de Marie NDiaye Finburgh Delijani, Clare. 2022. Portes fermées, possibilités ouvertes dans le théâtre de Marie NDiaye. Parages, 11, pp. 105-115. ISSN 2494-8268
- Abdelfattah Kilito, Archeologies: Twelve Miniatures, translated by Clare Finburgh Delijani and Marina Warner Kilito, Abdelfattah; Finburgh Delijani, Clare and Warner, Marina. 2021. Abdelfattah Kilito, Archeologies: Twelve Miniatures, translated by Clare Finburgh Delijani and Marina Warner. The White Review,
- Le Passage du milieu dans le théâtre britannique Finburgh Delijani, Clare. 2021. Le Passage du milieu dans le théâtre britannique. Théâtre/Public, 241, pp. 52-58. ISSN 0335-2927
- "Marie NDiaye, 'Lectrice plutôt que spectatrice', entretien réalisé par Clare Finburgh Delijani" Finburgh Delijani, Clare. 2021. "Marie NDiaye, 'Lectrice plutôt que spectatrice', entretien réalisé par Clare Finburgh Delijani". Théâtre/Public(239), pp. 4-18. ISSN 0335-2927
- The Anti-Monumental Cemetery: Ghosts in Jean Genet’s ‘Quatre heures à Chatila’ Finburgh Delijani, Clare. 2020. The Anti-Monumental Cemetery: Ghosts in Jean Genet’s ‘Quatre heures à Chatila’. French Studies, 74(4), pp. 587-604. ISSN 0016-1128
- In Memoriam: Christian Biet (1952-2020) Finburgh Delijani, Clare. 2020. In Memoriam: Christian Biet (1952-2020). Contemporary Theatre Review, 30(4), pp. 595-598. ISSN 1048-6801
- “‘Déborder le cadre’. L’Internationale situationniste, le théâtre et la performance” Finburgh Delijani, Clare. 2019. “‘Déborder le cadre’. L’Internationale situationniste, le théâtre et la performance”. Internationale situationniste, Théâtre, Performance, special issue, Théâtre/Public, 231, pp. 16-27. ISSN 0335-2927
- “Un metteur en scène, un théâtre, un continent, un monde. Thomas Ostermeier et la Schaubühne. Entretien réalisé par Clare Finburgh” Finburgh Delijani, Clare. 2019. “Un metteur en scène, un théâtre, un continent, un monde. Thomas Ostermeier et la Schaubühne. Entretien réalisé par Clare Finburgh”. Théâtre/Public, 230, pp. 4-23. ISSN 0335-2927
- “‘Ces portes entrouvertes qui filtrent le monde’. Graeme Miller : Entretien avec Clare Finburgh Delijani” Finburgh Delijani, Clare. 2019. “‘Ces portes entrouvertes qui filtrent le monde’. Graeme Miller : Entretien avec Clare Finburgh Delijani”. Internationale situationniste, Théâtre, Performance, special issue, Théâtre/Public, 231, pp. 82-92. ISSN 0335-2927
- “‘Élargir la part non médiocre de la vie’. La situation construite et le théâtre Contemporain” Finburgh Delijani, Clare. 2019. “‘Élargir la part non médiocre de la vie’. La situation construite et le théâtre Contemporain”. Internationale situationniste, Théâtre, Performance, special issue, Théâtre/Public, 230, pp. 46-56. ISSN 0335-2927
- ‘Violence without Violence’: Spectacle, War and Lola Arias’s MINEFIELD (CAMPO MINADO) Finburgh, Clare. 2017. ‘Violence without Violence’: Spectacle, War and Lola Arias’s MINEFIELD (CAMPO MINADO). Theatre Research International, 42(2), pp. 163-178. ISSN 0307-8833
- Théâtres de violence : Les nouvelles écritures théâtrales britanniques Finburgh, Clare. 2017. Théâtres de violence : Les nouvelles écritures théâtrales britanniques. Théâtre/Public, 223, pp. 31-64.
- Press, Patrols and Power: The British Army in Recent UK Theatre Finburgh, Clare. 2014. Press, Patrols and Power: The British Army in Recent UK Theatre. Double jeu - Figurations du pouvoir, pp. 45-55. ISSN 1762 -0597
- Derrière l’écran : La Guerre à la télévision sur la scène anglaise Finburgh, Clare. 2014. Derrière l’écran : La Guerre à la télévision sur la scène anglaise. Théâtre/Public, 212, pp. 99-108. ISSN 978-2-84260-660-2
- Theatre’s Other: Event and Testimony in British Verbatim Plays Finburgh, Clare. 2014. Theatre’s Other: Event and Testimony in British Verbatim Plays. Sillages critiques, 18, ISSN 1969-6302
- French Theatre ‘dans la merde’ Finburgh, Clare. 2012. French Theatre ‘dans la merde’. Contemporary Theatre Review, 22(2), p. 287. ISSN 1048-6801
- “‘Vérité’ ou ‘mensonge’ ? Le Théâtre politique en Grande-Bretagne post-11 septembre” Finburgh, Clare. 2011. “‘Vérité’ ou ‘mensonge’ ? Le Théâtre politique en Grande-Bretagne post-11 septembre”. Agôn (Special Issue),
- Internal and External Dramaturgies: The French Context Finburgh, Clare. 2010. Internal and External Dramaturgies: The French Context. Contemporary Theatre Review, 20(2), pp. 203-213. ISSN 1048-6801
- Women in Howard Barker’s Theatre: Object or Subject? Finburgh, Clare. 2008. Women in Howard Barker’s Theatre: Object or Subject? Études britanniques contemporaines, 35, pp. 127-139. ISSN 1168-4917
- Un monstre bariolé : Les Paravents de Jean Genet, mis en scène par Frédéric Fisbach Finburgh, Clare. 2007. Un monstre bariolé : Les Paravents de Jean Genet, mis en scène par Frédéric Fisbach. Alternatives théâtrales, 93(summer), pp. 24-27. ISSN 0774-4145
- Les Mille plateaux de Noëlle Renaude : Par les routes Finburgh, Clare. 2007. Les Mille plateaux de Noëlle Renaude : Par les routes. Théâtre/Public, 183, pp. 26-31. ISSN 0335-2927
- Voix/Voie/Vie: The Voice in Contemporary French Theater Finburgh, Clare. 2007. Voix/Voie/Vie: The Voice in Contemporary French Theater. Yale French Studies, 112, pp. 99-115. ISSN 0044-0078
- The Tragedy of Optimism: Kateb Yacine's Le cadavre encercle and Les ancetres redoublent de ferocite Finburgh, Clare. 2005. The Tragedy of Optimism: Kateb Yacine's Le cadavre encercle and Les ancetres redoublent de ferocite. Research in African Literatures, 36(1), pp. 115-129. ISSN 0034-5210
- Speech Without Acts: Politics and Speech-Act Theory in Genet's The Balcony Finburgh, Clare. 2004. Speech Without Acts: Politics and Speech-Act Theory in Genet's The Balcony. Paragraph, 27(2), pp. 113-129. ISSN 0264-8334
- Unveiling the Void: The Presence of Absence in the Scenography of Jean Genet's The Screens Finburgh, Clare. 2004. Unveiling the Void: The Presence of Absence in the Scenography of Jean Genet's The Screens. Theatre Journal, 56(2), pp. 205-224. ISSN 0192-2882
- Jean Genet and the Poetics of Palestinian Politics: Statecraft as Stagecraft in 'Quatre heures a Chatila' Finburgh, Clare. 2002. Jean Genet and the Poetics of Palestinian Politics: Statecraft as Stagecraft in 'Quatre heures a Chatila'. French Studies, 56(4), pp. 495-509. ISSN 0016-1128
- Facets of Artifice: Rhythms in the Theater of Jean Genet, and the Painting, Drawing and Sculpture of Alberto Giacometti Finburgh, Clare. 2002. Facets of Artifice: Rhythms in the Theater of Jean Genet, and the Painting, Drawing and Sculpture of Alberto Giacometti. French Forum, 27(3), pp. 73-98. ISSN 0098-9355
Clare Finburgh Delijani
Staff details
Goldsmiths Research Centres/Groups
I specialise in French, Francophone and UK theatre, examining how they engage with social, global and climate justice.
I am the recipient of a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship (2023-26) during which I am tracing a history of postcolonial theatre in France from the 1950s to today. My book (Liverpool University Press) looks back at histories of colonialism, better to understand identity, community and the postcolonial nation today.
Inspired by playwrights like Marguerite Duras, Kateb Yacine and Jean Genet, I came to Theatre Studies through Modern Languages. This initial passion has developed into a research area, and I have published widely on modern and contemporary performance, for example Jean Genet (2012), Contemporary French Theatre and Performance (2011), and Jean Genet: Performance and Politics (2006).
A specialist in postcolonial and European culture, I strive to broaden and internationalise the curriculum, to reflect performance traditions from around the world, and inspire students from all backgrounds to believe that they/you can shape the future of world theatre and thought.
Academic qualifications
- PhD French Studies, University College London
- Diplôme d’Études Avancées en Lettres Modernes, Université de Toulouse II
- Maîtrise en Lettres Modernes, Université de Toulouse II
- BA Hons. French and German, University of Manchester
Research interests
I am the holder of a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship (2023-6).
My current book (contracted with Liverpool University Press) examines how contemporary theatre in France and its overseas territories looks back at histories of colonialism in Africa, the Caribbean and South East Asia, better to understand identity, community and the postcolonial nation today.
I look at contemporary theatre-makers including Marine Bachelot Nguyen, Alexandra Badea, Rébecca Chaillon, Bintou Dembélé, Nasser Djemaï, Latifa Laâbissi, Caroline Guiela Nguyen, Léonora Miano and Dieudonné Niangouna, to illustrate how postcolonial arts can promote racial and social justice by viewing contemporary societies through the prism of colonial pasts.
I analyse how work by these theatre-makers, often performed by postcolonial subjects themselves, might enable audiences to recognize how racialised identities are constructed from language and images, and can be reshaped to foster new ways of understanding our postcolonial world.
Featured publications
2017:
Watching War on the Twenty-First Century Stage: Spectacles of Conflict
This is the first publication to examine how theatre in the UK has staged, debated and challenged how spectacle is weaponized in times of war.
2011:
With David Bradby, Jean Genet
The only study in English of Genet’s plays in production, this book presents an influential, controversial writer whose work prefigured many recent postmodern and post-colonial developments.
2015:
With Carl Lavery, Rethinking the Theatre of the Absurd: Ecology, the Environment and the Greening of the Modern Stage
A collection of essays that reconfigures absurdist theatre through the optics of ecology and environment.
2024:
A New History of Theatre in France
The first history of French theatre in over fifteen years, this collaborative history testifies to the central part theatre has played for over a thousand years in both French culture and the world.
2011:
With Carl Lavery and Maria Shevtsova, Jean Genet: Performance and Politics
The first book to explore the broad political significance of Genet's performance practice by focusing on his radical experiments, polemical subjects and formal innovations in theatre, film and dance.
Grants and awards
2018:
Reviewing Spectacle: The Pasts, Presents and Futures of the Situationist International in Performance
AHRC-funded team from the Universities of Paris-Nanterre and Glasgow, and artists from Belgium, France, the DRC and UK.
#FrenchTheatreSoWhite? A History of Postcolonial Theatre in France
Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship
Publications and research outputs
Article
- “La Puissance de la présence et de l’action me flingue toujours”, entretien avec Rébecca Chaillon réalisé par Clare Finburgh Delijani Finburgh Delijani, Clare. 2024. “La Puissance de la présence et de l’action me flingue toujours”, entretien avec Rébecca Chaillon réalisé par Clare Finburgh Delijani. Théâtre/Public, 252, pp. 4-18. ISSN 0335-2927
- "Olivia C. Harrison, Natives Against Nativism: Antiracism and Indigenous Critique in Postcolonial France" Finburgh Delijani, Clare. 2024. "Olivia C. Harrison, Natives Against Nativism: Antiracism and Indigenous Critique in Postcolonial France". H-France Forum, 19(4), ISSN 1557-7058
- "Latifa Laâbissi, 'J’ai besoin de faire feu de tout bois', entretien réalisé par Clare Finburgh Delijani" Finburgh Delijani, Clare. 2023. "Latifa Laâbissi, 'J’ai besoin de faire feu de tout bois', entretien réalisé par Clare Finburgh Delijani". Théâtre/Public, 249, pp. 4-18. ISSN 0335-2927
Book
- Spectres of Empire: Performing Postcoloniality in France (provisional title) Finburgh Delijani, Clare. 2027. Spectres of Empire: Performing Postcoloniality in France (provisional title). Liverpool: Liverpool University Press.
- Watching War on the Twenty-First Century Stage: Spectacles of Conflict Finburgh Delijani, Clare. 2017. Watching War on the Twenty-First Century Stage: Spectacles of Conflict. London: Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN 9781472598660
- Jean Genet Finburgh, Clare and Bradby, David. 2012. Jean Genet. Routledge. ISBN 9780415375061
Book Section
- 'Are you sick, yet? / Are you disgusted, yet?': Watching torture in Dennis Kelly's works Finburgh Delijani, Clare. 2025. 'Are you sick, yet? / Are you disgusted, yet?': Watching torture in Dennis Kelly's works. In: Jacqueline Bolton and Nicholas Holden, eds. Beautiful Doom: The Work of Dennis Kelly on Stage and in Television. Manchester: Manchester University Press, pp. 73-89. ISBN 9781526145222
- ‘A knotted primitive unity’. Negritude and Theatre as Ecological Rite Finburgh Delijani, Clare. 2025. ‘A knotted primitive unity’. Negritude and Theatre as Ecological Rite. In: Carl Lavery, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Theatre and Ecology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- In the Ruins of Tragedy: Action, Inactivity and Ecology in the Césaires’ Theatre and Thought Finburgh Delijani, Clare. 2025. In the Ruins of Tragedy: Action, Inactivity and Ecology in the Césaires’ Theatre and Thought. In: Ezra Baudou and Anne-Violaine Houcke, eds. Poetics, Politics and the Ruin in Cinema and Theatre since 1945. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Edited Book
- A New History of Theatre in France Finburgh Delijani, Clare, ed. 2024. A New History of Theatre in France. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781108908566
- The Great Stage Directors, volume 6: Littlewood, Planchon, Strehler Finburgh, Clare and Boenisch, Peter, eds. 2018. The Great Stage Directors, volume 6: Littlewood, Planchon, Strehler. London: Bloomsbury Methuen. ISBN 9781474254168
- Rethinking the Theatre of the Absurd: Ecology, the Environment and the Greening of the Modern Stage Lavery, Carl and Finburgh, Clare, eds. 2015. Rethinking the Theatre of the Absurd: Ecology, the Environment and the Greening of the Modern Stage. London: Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN 9781472513205
Edited Journal
- Face au passé colonial Finburgh Delijani, Clare, ed. 2023. Face au passé colonial, Théâtre/Public, 246. 0335-2927
- Internationale situationniste. Théâtre, Performance Biet, Christian; De Simone, Cristina and Finburgh Delijani, Clare, eds. 2019. Internationale situationniste. Théâtre, Performance, Théâtre/Public, 231. 0335-2927
- Migration Finburgh, Clare, ed. 2014. Migration, Comparative Critical Studies, 11(2-3). 1744-1854
Media engagements
2021:
Adapting Molière: Free Thinking, BBC Radio 3
Liz Lochead, Clare Finburgh-Delijani and Suzanne Jones join Anne McElvoy to look at adaptations and translations of France's great comic dramatist Molière, born in January 1622.
Conferences and talks
2022:
‘Hear the Bones Sing’: Postcolonial Ghost Plays.
Hosted by the Goldsmiths Centre for Comparative Literature.
2021:
The Theatre of Marie Ndiaye – Closed Doors and Openings.
Hosted by the Dramatikkens hus, Oslo, Norway.
2021:
Ghosts: From The Persians to Wajdi Mouawad’s The Blood of Promises.
Hosted by the University of Oxford, Archive for the Performance of Greek and Roman Drama.
2024:
A Conversation with Marie NDiaye
The Peter Noble Lecture, University College London
2019:
In conversation with Dennis Kelly.
An interview with the world-famous playwright Dennis Kelly, who studied at Goldsmiths.
Professional Experience
I am on the editorial committee for one of France’s leading theatre journals, Théâtre/Public.
I have translated several plays from French into English and I worked as a dramaturg for productions of British plays in France, and French works in the UK.