The nervous stage : nineteenth-century neuroscience and the birth of modern theatre / Matthew Wilson Smith.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Smith, Matthew Wilson, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Neurosciences and the arts.

Drama--19th century--History and criticism.

Drama.

Drama--20th century--History and criticism.

Physical Description:

1 online resource : illustrations (black and white)

Other Title:

Nervous Stage

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Oxford University Press, 2017.

Summary:

19th-century investigations into the nervous system produced discoveries that changed ways of thinking far beyond the scientific community. Scientists began to conceive of the subject not principally as soul, mind, or even brain, but instead as a complex of organically interacting mechanisms, many of them operating more or less autonomously and unconsciously. Meanwhile, theatrical works of the time by Shelley, Wagner, Dickens, Buchner, Zola, and Strindberg, sought to play directly on the nerves of the spectators, comprising a coherent genre Matthew Wilson Smith has dubbed the 'theatres of sensation.' 'The Nervous Stage' examines the relations between theatrical practices and the scientific study of the nervous system, arguing that to a degree, modern theatre emerged out of the interaction between these two apparently disparate fields.

Contents:

The emptying of gesture: neurology and the British romantic stage

From gestures to nerves: Woyzeck and the Barbel fish

The nervous system: melodrama, railway trauma, and systemic risk

The inner drama of the body: Wagner's neural aesthetics

Theatre's revenge: Charcot and the Grand Guignol

The prison-house of nerves: Zola and Strindberg

Conclusion: nervous hermeneutics and the theatre of cruelty.

Notes:

Previous edition issued in print: 2017.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from home page (viewed on October 17, 2017).

ISBN:

0-19-064410-9

0-19-064411-7