Radical theatricality : jongleuresque performance on the early Spanish stage / Bruce R. Burningham.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Burningham, Bruce R., 1964-

Series:

Purdue studies in Romance literatures ; v. 39.

Purdue studies in romance literatures ; v. 39

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Theater--Spain--History.

Theater.

Street theater.

History.

Spain.

Minstrels--Spain--History.

Minstrels.

Street theater--Spain--History.

Physical Description:

xii, 260 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

West Lafayette, Ind. : Purdue University Press, [2007]

Summary:

Taking as its point of departure the debate over the existence of a medieval Hispanic theatrical tradition, Radical Theatricality argues that the search for extant medieval play scripts depends on a definition of theater more literary than performative. This literary definition-largely established by the myth of Thespis's "invention" of Western theater in his dialogic interaction with his dithyrambic chorus-pushes aside evidence of Spain's medieval performance traditions because this evidence is considered either intangible or "undramatic" (that is, monologic). The emphasis on written, dialogue-based texts has left researchers unprepared to deal with the clowns, mimes, acrobats, jugglers, troubadours, and singers that, in one way or another, have continued to perform their arts from well before the fall of Rome up through the present day. By focusing on the dialogic relationship that exists in performance between performer and spectator-rather than on the kind of literary dialogue between characters that is traditionally associated with drama-Radical Theatricality diachronically examines the performative poetics of the jongleuresque tradition (broadly defined to encompass such disparate performers as ancient Greek rhapsodes and contemporary Nobel Laureate Dario Fo) and synchronically traces that tradition's performative impact on the Spanish theater of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Contents:

Chapter 1 Reinventing Thespis 13

Chapter 2 Singers of Tales on Simple Stages 50

Chapter 3 Picaresque Actors and Their Theater 90

Chapter 4 "Corralling" the Jongleuresque 132

Chapter 5 Playwrights and the Actorly Text 171.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 231-246) and index.

ISBN:

1557534411

9781557534415

OCLC:

71004157