Theater/Theory/Theatre: The Major Critical Texts from Aristotle and Zeami to Soyinka and Havel

by Gerould, Daniel

• ISBN13: 9781557835277
• ISBN10: 1557835276
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-11-01
• Publisher: Hal Leonard

Summary

Available for the First Time in Paperback! From Aristotle's Poetics to Vaclav Havel, the debate about the nature and function of theatre has been marked by controversy. Daniel Gerould's landmark work, Theatre/Theory/Theatre, collects history's most influential Eastern and Western dramatic theorists - poets, playwrights, directors and philosophers - whose ideas about theatre continue to shape its future. In complete texts and choice excerpts spanning centuries, we see an ongoing dialogue and exchange of ideas between actors and directors like Craig and Meyerhold, and writers such as Nietzsche and Yeats. Each of Gerould's introductory essays shows fascinating insight into both the life and the theory of the author. From Horace to Soyinka, Corneille to Brecht, this is an indispensable compendium of the greatest dramatic theory ever written.

Author Biography

Daniel Gerould is the Lucille Lortel Distinguished Professor of Theatre and Comparative Literature at the City University of New York. He has translated the plays of Witkiewicz and written books and articles about twentieth century avant--garde theatre. He is the author of Guillotine: Its Legend and Lore and editor of Slavic and East European Performances and of the Polish and Eastern European Theatre Archives for Harwood.

Table of Contents

Foreword
Introduction: The Politics of Theatre Theory	11	(32)
Daniel Gerould
Aristotle: The Poetics (4th c. B.C.)	43	(25)
Ingram Bywater
Horace: The Art of Poetry (1st c. B.C.)	68	(16)
John Conington
Bharata: Natyasastra (1st c. A.D.?)	84	(12)
Adya Rangacharya
Zeami: On the Art of the No Drama (15th c.)	96	(12)
J. Thomas Rimer
Yamazaki Masakazu
Lodovico Castelvetro: The Poetics of Aristotle (1570)	108	(9)
Allan H. Gilbert
Philip Sidney: The Defense of Poesy (1583), selections	117	(11)
Giambattista Guarini: The Compendium of Tragicomic Poetry (1599)	128	(7)
Allan H. Gilbert
Felix Lope de Vega: The New Art of Writing Plays (1609)	135	(11)
Marvin Carlson
Francois Hedelin, abbe d'Aubignac: The Whole Art of the Stage (1657) anonymous translation (1684), selections	146	(7)
Pierre Corneille: Of the Three Unities of Action, Time, and Place (1660)	153	(15)
Donald Schier
John Dryden: An Essay of Dramatic Poesy (1668), selections	168	(11)
Li Yu: Casual Expressions of Idle Feelings (1671)	179	(10)
Faye C. Fei
William H. Sun
Denis Diderot: Conversations on The Natural Son (1757)	189	(13)
Derek Coltman
The Paradox of Acting (1773-8)	198	(4)
Walter Herries Pollock
Jean-Jacques Rousseau: An Epistle to Mr. d'Alembert (1758) anonymous translation (1767), selections	202	(17)
Samuel Johnson: Preface to Shakespeare (1765), selections	219	(17)
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing: Hamburg Dramaturgy (1767-9)	236	(12)
Helen Zimmern
Friedrich Schiller: The Stage as a Moral Institution (1784) anonymous translation, complete	248	(14)
On the Use of the Chorus in Tragedy (1803)	255	(7)
Charles E. Passage
Mme de Stael: Of The Dramatic Art (1810) anonymous translation (1871), selections	262	(6)
August Wilhelm Schlegel: Lectures on Dramatic Art (1809-11)	268	(8)
John Black
Johann Wolfgang Goethe: Shakespeare Once Again (1815)	276	(12)
Ellen von Nardroff
Ernest H. von Nardroffe
Arthur Schopenbauer: The World as Will and Idea (1819/1844)	288	(10)
R. B. Haldane
J. Kemp
Victor Hugo: Preface to Cromwell (1827)	298	(16)
Barry V. Daniels
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel: The Philosophy of Fine Art (1835)	314	(13)
F. P. B. Osmaston
Adam Mickiewicz: Slavic Drama (1843)	327	(9)
Daniel Gerould
Friedrich Nietzsche: The Birth of Tragedy (1872)	336	(15)
Clifton P. Fadiman
Emile Zola: Preface to Therese Raquin (1873)	351	(17)
Kathleen Boutall
Naturalism in the Theatre (1881)	358	(10)
Jane House
August Strindberg: Preface to Miss Julie (1888)	368	(13)
Harry G. Carlson
Maurice Maeterlinck: The Tragical in Daily Life (1896)	381	(9)
Alfred Sutro
Gordon Craig: The Actor and the Ubermarionette (1907), selections	390	(9)
William Butler Yeats: The Tragic Theatre (1910), complete	399	(7)
Vsevolod Meyerhold: The Fairground Booth (1912)	406	(13)
Edward Braun
Filippo Marinetti: The Variety Theatre (1913)	419	(8)
R. W. Flint
Bernard Shaw: Tolstoy: Tragedian or Comedian? (1921), selections	427	(6)
Antonin Artaud: The Theater and Its Double (1938)	433	(11)
Mary Caroline Richards
Bertolt Brecht: The Modern Theatre is the Epic Theatre (1930) Alienation Effects in Chinese Acting (1935)	444	(18)
John Willett
Augusto Boal: Theater of the Oppressed (1974)	462	(12)
Charles A.
Maria-Odilia Leal McBride
Wole Soyinka: Drama and the African World-view (1976), selections	474	(9)
Vaclav Havel: Writing for the Stage (1986)	483	(8)
Paul Wilson
Bibliography	491	(1)
Acknowledgments	492