Costume in performance : materiality, culture, and the body / Donatella Barbieri ; with a contribution from Melissa Trimingham.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Barbieri, Donatella, author.

Trimingham, Melissa, 1955- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Costume--History.

Costume.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (265 pages) : illustrations (some color), photographs

Distribution:

London, England : Bloomsbury Publishing, 2020

Place of Publication:

London, England : Bloomsbury Academic, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2020.

Summary:

"This beautifully illustrated book conveys the centrality of costume to live performance. Finding associations between contemporary practices and historical manifestations, costume is explored in six thematic chapters, examining the transformative ritual of costuming; choruses as reflective of society; the grotesque, transgressive costume; the female sublime as emancipation; costume as sculptural art in motion; and the here-and-now as history. Viewing the material costume as a crucial aspect in the preparation, presentation and reception of live performance, the book brings together costumed performances through history. These range from ancient Greece to modern experimental productions, from medieval theatre to modernist dance, from the 'fashion plays' to contemporary Shakespeare, marking developments in both culture and performance. Revealing the relationship between dress, the body and human existence, and acknowledging a global as well as an Anglo and Eurocentric perspective, this book shows costume's ability to cross both geographical and disciplinary borders. Through it, we come to question the extent to which the material costume actually co-authors the performance itself, speaking of embodied histories, states of being and never-before imagined futures, which come to life in the temporary space of the performance. With a contribution by Melissa Trimingham, University of Kent, UK"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

The first costume: ritual and reinvention

Costuming choruses: spectacle and the social landscape on stage

The grotesque costume: the comical and conflicted 'other' body

The flight off the pedestal

Agency and empathy: artists touch the body / Melissa Trimingham

A different performativity: society, culture and history on stage.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Print version record.

ISBN:

9781474236874

1474236871

9781474285353

147428535X

9781474236898

1474236898

9781474236881

147423688X

OCLC:

1201426761