Method acting and its discontents : on American psycho-drama / Shonni Enelow.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Enelow, Shonni.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Method acting--Psychological aspects.

Method acting.

Method acting--Political aspects.

American drama--20th century.

American drama.

Psychological aspects.

Physical Description:

ix, 158 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Evanston, Illinois : Northwestern University Press, [2015]

Summary:

Method Acting and Its Discontents: On American Psycho-Drama provides a new understanding of a crucial chapter in American theater history. Enelow's consideration of the broader cultural climate of the late 1950s and early 1960s, specifically the debates within psychology and psychoanalysis, the period's racial and sexual politics, and the rise of mass media, gives us a nuanced, complex picture of Lee Strasberg and the Actors Studio and contemporaneous works of drama. Combining cultural analysis, dramaturgical criticism, and performance theory, Enelow shows how Method acting's contradictions reveal powerful tensions inside midcentury notions of individual and collective identity. Book jacket.

Contents:

Part One: Psycho-methods: "She's crazy"

"Pathological hypnotism," hysterical methods

The case of Suddenly last summer

Part Two: Political methods: State servant

The method and the means: James Baldwin at the Actors Studio

Blues and the Blacks: acting at the close of humanism

Part Three: Methods and scripts: "come on Alice, stop acting!" Scriptedness and the radical method.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 141-149) and index.

ISBN:

9780810131408

0810131404

9780810131415

0810131412

9780810131835

0810131838

OCLC:

898158763