German expressionist theatre : the actor and the stage / David F. Kuhns.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kuhns, David F., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Theater--Germany--History--20th century.

Theater.

Experimental theater--Germany--History--20th century.

Experimental theater.

German drama--20th century--History and criticism.

German drama.

Acting.

Expressionism in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (x, 311 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 1997.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

German Expressionist Theatre: The Actor and the Stage considers the powerfully stylized, anti-realistic styles of acting on the German Expressionist stage from 1916 to 1921. It relates this striking departure from the dominant European acting tradition of realism to the specific cultural crises that enveloped the German nation during the course of its involvement in World War I. This book describes three distinct Expressionist acting styles, all of which in their own ways attempted to show how symbolic stage performance could be a powerful rhetorical resource for a culture struggling to come to terms with the crises of historical change. The examination of Expressionist script and actor memoirs allows for an unprecedented focus on description and analysis of acting itself.

Contents:

Abstraction and empathy: the philosophical background in the socio-economic foreground

The poetics of Expressionist performance: contemporary models and sources

Schrei ecstatic performance

An "Expressionist solution to the problem of theatre": Geist abstraction in performance

Late Expressionist performance in Berlin: the emblematic mode

Concluding observations.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Includes bibliographical references (pages 293-298) and index.

ISBN:

0-511-58564-0

0-511-00570-9