Theatre of Chaos: Beyond Absurdism, into Orderly Disorder

by William W. Demastes

• ISBN13: 9780521619868
• ISBN10: 0521619866
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-02-17
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

In this unique and invigorating study, chaos theory and quantum mechanics are employed as the basis for a clearer understanding of the often confusing contemporary theatre world. Examining numerous antecedents to contemporary thought on chaos and the cultural roots of the notion of chaos, links are provided to playwrights ranging from Shakespeare to Ibsen and Tom Stoppard to Sam Shepard. William Demastes investigates parallel developments across the arts and sciences: connections between the dramatic naturalism of the late nineteenth century and Newtonian thought, and theatre of the absurd and disorderly chaos theory. After centuries of isolation and increased specialisation, the author contends, it may once again be time to consider the 'arts' and 'sciences' not as two isolated enterprises but to acknowledge interrelations between them.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
Preface Awash in Chaos	xi
INTRODUCTION The New Science metaphor and modern Drama: A Brief History of Western Thought	1	(17)
Preliminary Thoughts on Contemporary Science	7	(4)
Where Science and Theatre Converge: A Sample and a Summary	11	(7)
1 Quantum Physics as Metaphor: Elliptical Beginnings of the New Paradigm	18	(37)
Philosophical Antecedents to Quantum Mechanical Conclusions	19	(4)
Theatrical Parallels	23	(3)
The Quantum Leap	26	(7)
Finding a Nexus: Quantum Physics and Contemporary Theatre	33	(6)
The New Science Metaphor	39	(2)
Stoppard's Hapgood: Double Agency and Quantum Personalities	41	(9)
Willy Loman's Quantum Personality, and Others	50	(5)
2 Chaos and Theatre: Sensitive Dependence on Initial Conditions	55	(49)
A Scientific Digression	64	(11)
The Chaos Model Applied: An Early Crack in the Chimney of Causality	75	(10)
Stoppard's Arcadia: Studying the Humanity of Chaos	85	(19)
3 Intuitive Intersections: American Drama Confronts Orderly Disorder	104	(35)
Rabe and Shepard Reconsidered	112	(16)
Marsha Norman's Conceptual Challenge in 'night, Mother	128	(11)
4 Theatre of Chaos, Past and Future	139	(27)
Shakespeare Our Contemporary: Revisiting Kott	140	(6)
The Clinamen, Plague, Cruelty, Alienation, and Chaos	146	(10)
Back to the Future: Tony Kushner's Angels in America	156	(6)
Theatre of Chaos and the End of Humanism	162	(1)
The Lingering Question of First Cause	163	(3)
CONCLUSION Chaos and Cultural Futures	166	(6)
Notes	172	(8)
Bibliography	180	(5)
Index	185