Empire of ecstasy : Nudity and movement in German body culture, 1910-1935 / Karl Toepfer.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Toepfer, Karl Eric, 1948- author.

Contributor:

American Council of Learned Societies.

Series:

Weimar and now ; 13.

Weimar and Now: German Cultural Criticism Series ; Volume 13

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Physical education and training--Germany--History--20th century.

Physical education and training.

Dance--Germany--History--20th century.

Dance.

Nudism--Sociological aspects--Germany--History--20th century.

Nudism.

Nudity in dance--Germany--History--20th century.

Nudity in dance.

Body image--Germany.

Body image.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xvii, 422 p., [48] p. of plates ) ill. ;

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Berkeley, California : University of California Press, [1997]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Empire of Ecstasy offers a novel interpretation of the explosion of German body culture between the two wars—nudism and nude dancing, gymnastics and dance training, dance photography and criticism, and diverse genres of performance from solo dancing to mass movement choirs. Karl Toepfer presents this dynamic subject as a vital and historically unique construction of "modern identity." The modern body, radiating freedom and power, appeared to Weimar artists and intelligentsia to be the source of a transgressive energy, as well as the sign and manifestation of powerful, mysterious "inner" conditions. Toepfer shows how this view of the modern body sought to extend the aesthetic experience beyond the boundaries imposed by rationalized life and to transcend these limits in search of ecstasy. With the help of much unpublished or long-forgotten archival material (including many little-known photographs), he investigates the process of constructing an "empire" of appropriative impulses toward ecstasy. Toepfer presents the work of such well-known figures as Rudolf Laban, Mary Wigman, and Oskar Schlemmer, along with less-known but equally fascinating body culture practitioners. His book is certain to become required reading for historians of dance, body culture, and modernism.

Contents:

Figure One

Early Nackttanz

Nacktkultur

Feminist Nacktkultur

Erotic Nacktkultur

Nacktballett

Schools of Bodily Expressivity

Solo Dancing

Pair Dancing

Group Dancing

Theatre Dancing

Mass Dancing

Music and Movement

Dance Criticism

Dance as Image

Ecstasy and Modernity

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (pages 387-409) and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 28. Okt 2020)

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780520918276

0520918274

9780585299853

0585299854

OCLC:

1202625742