The Art of Theater (New Directions in Aesthetics)

Contents......Page 9
Prologue......Page 13
Part I:The Basics......Page 19
1.1 The backstory:1850s to 1950s......Page 21
1.2 The decisive in . uences:Brecht,Artaud,Grotowski......Page 24
1.3 The decisive years:1961 to 1985......Page 26
1.4 The final threads:absorption of new practices into the profession and the academy......Page 31
2.1 Theatrical performance as radically independent of literature......Page 41
2.2 Theatrical performance as a form of art......Page 52
3.1 Idealized cases that help focus on features needing analysis......Page 59
3.2 Three general facts about theatrical performances and the constraints they impose on any successful account of theatrical performances......Page 68
4 Theatrical Enactment:The Guiding Intuitions......Page 76
4.2 The crucial concept:“attending to another ”......Page 77
4.4 Audience responses:willing suspension of disbelief, acquired beliefs,or acquired abilities?......Page 80
4.5 Relativizing the account by narrowing its scope to narrative performances......Page 82
Part II:The Independence of Theatrical Performance......Page 89
5 Basic Theatrical Understanding......Page 91
5.1 Minimal general success conditions for basic theatrical understanding......Page 92
5.2 Physical and affective responses of audiences as non-discursive evidence of understanding......Page 93
5.3 The success conditions for basic theatrical understanding met by moment-to-moment apprehension of performances......Page 96
5.4 “Immediate objects,” “developed objects,” and “cogency ”......Page 97
5.5 Objects of understanding having complex structures......Page 101
5.6 Generalizing beyond plays......Page 102
5.7 The problem of “cognitive uniformity ”......Page 105
6.1 The “feature-salience ” model of spectator convergence on the same characteristics......Page 109
6.2 What it is to respond to a feature as salient for some characteristics or a set of facts......Page 111
6.3 A thin common knowledge requirement......Page 114
6.4 A plausibly thickened common knowledge requirement......Page 116
6.5 The feature-salience model,“reader-response theory,” and “intentionalism ”......Page 118
6.6 Generalizing the salience mechanism to encompass non-narrative performances......Page 120
6.7 Some important benefits of the feature-salience model: double-focus,slippage,“performer power,” “character power,” and t......Page 121
6.8 The feature-salience model and explaining how basic theatrical understanding occurs......Page 126
7 What Audiences See......Page 132
7.1 Identifying characters,events,and other objects in narrative performances......Page 134
7.2 Re-identification of characters and other objects in narrative performances......Page 137
7.3 The special nature of theatrical (uses of )space: performances and performance space......Page 139
7.4 Cross-performance re-identification......Page 141
7.5 Identifying and re-identifying objects in non-narrative performances......Page 143
7.6 Added benefits of the demonstrative and recognition- based approach to identification and re-identification......Page 145
7.7 Theatrical performance as a fully independent practice......Page 146
Part III:The Art of Theatrical Performance......Page 153
8 Deeper Theatrical Understanding......Page 155
8.1 General success conditions for deeper theatrical understanding......Page 156
8.2 More precise success conditions:two kinds of deeper understanding......Page 157
8.3 Some puzzles about the relation between understanding what is performed and understanding how it is performed......Page 161
8.4 Deeper theatrical understanding and full appreciation of a theatrical performance......Page 164
9 What Performers Do......Page 166
9.1 What performers do and what audiences can know......Page 167
9.2 The features of performers and choices that performers make......Page 170
9.3 Theatrical conventions as sequences of features having specific “weight ”......Page 173
9.4 What is involved in reference to theatrical styles......Page 175
9.5 More about styles,as produced and as grasped......Page 177
9.6 Grasp of theatrical style and deeper theatrical understanding......Page 180
10 Interpretive Grasp of Theatrical Performances......Page 185
10.1 Success conditions for interpreting what is performed and interpreting how it is performed......Page 187
10.2 Eschewing theories of “work meaning ”......Page 189
10.3 Interpretation and significance......Page 193
10.4 Interpreting performers......Page 195
11 Full Appreciation of a Theatrical Performance......Page 199
11.1 The case of the Culturally Lethargic Company......Page 200
11.2 Broader implications of the CLC problem......Page 202
11.3 The “imputationalist ” solution......Page 204
11.4 Solving the CLC problem without resorting to imputationalism......Page 205
11.5 Full appreciation of a theatrical performance and the detection of theatrical failures......Page 211
Epilogue......Page 217
A.The idea of a tradition and tradition-defining constraints......Page 219
B.Constraints derived from origins in written texts......Page 222
C.What really constrains performances in the text-based tradition......Page 225
D.The myth of “Of ”......Page 228
Glossary......Page 232
Index......Page 240