(2021) Expressionist Acting - Paroxysmal Emotions at Play on the Late 18th-Century French Stage (original) (raw)

Hysteria in French Modern Theater Paper

Jean-Paul Sartre’s No Exit, and Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot both demonstrate the occurrence of hysteria and how it can be related to the human condition. Hysteria is often defined as the state of mania and uncontrollable emotions. It is associated with somnambulism and a numerous amount of bizarre behaviors. Hysteria is evoked in these two plays from a feeling of being trapped with a lack of clear motivation, which drives the progression of the action in these works. Through a closer psychoanalytical approach of these plays with regards to the research of Freud and Pierre Janet, the conditions of these characters becomes more comprehensible. The methodology of the research focuses more so on the psychological symptoms and effects, rather than the physical dimensions that can also be summoned from hysteria. As theater is an interactive and ephemeral art form, the production context in which it is performed is highly important to the experience and even the meanings that can be taken from the show. Traditionally, these French plays profit from themes of hysteria to respond to the changes in society caused by the World Wars. With such a large cultural response to the traumatic events, a reaction plays a vital role in absurd theater. Its use of hysteria as a motif to reflect the general public’s mental state and sense of understanding explains a wide amount of content in the absurd works of No Exit and Waiting for Godot. Overall, this phenomenon can be easily tied to the troubled views associated with the nature of humanity during this time period.

6 Pierre Nicole, Jean-Baptiste Dubos, and the Psychological Experience of Theatrical Performance in Early Modern France

Dramatic Experience, 2017

Opening Spaces for the Reading Audience: Fernando de Rojas's Celestina (1499/1502) and Niccolò Machiavelli's Mandragola (1518) 13 Sven Thorsten Kilian 2 Why Do Men Go Blind in the Theatre? Gender Riddles and Fools' Play in the Italian Renaissance Comedy Gl'Ingannati (1532) 35 Katja Gvozdeva 3 The Accademia degli Alterati and the Invention of a New Form of Dramatic Experience: Myth, Allegory, and Theory in Jacopo Peri's and Ottavio Rinuccini's Euridice (1600) 77 Déborah Blocker 4 Il favore degli dei (1690): Meta-Opera and Metamorphoses at the Farnese Court 118 Wendy Heller 5 Entertainment for Melancholics: The Public and the Public Stage in Carlo Gozzi's L'Amore delle tre melarance 140 2013 within the framework of the European Research Council Advanced Grant Project entitled Early Modern European Drama and the Cultural Net (DramaNet) at the Freie Universität Berlin that brought together experts on Eastern and Western early modern drama. The creative process that produced this book has been a wonderful experience of transnational scholarly collaboration. We would like to express our gratitude for the opportunity to work with excellent specialists of early modern drama in Germany and abroad, and we wish to thank all our contributors for making the effort to write, rewrite, and correct their texts, patiently waiting for the final published result. We would also like to thank the institutions and individuals who supported us throughout the organisation of the conference that inspired this volume and during the compilation of the collection itself. First, Professor Joachim Küpper, whose theoretical concepts shaped the DramaNet project, and thus the present volume. Second, the European Research Council, without whose financial support neither conference nor volume production would have been possible. Third, all DramaNet members who participated in this project at its different stages and in its various aspects, both conceptual and organisational, above all project coordinators Konstanze Ameer and Agnes Kloocke. Gratitude is also due the general editor of Drama and Theatre in Early Modern Europe, Jan Bloemendal, for his willingness to include this volume in his series, and for the care he has taken in the publication of this volume. Finally, we would like to express our thanks to Amyrose McCue Gill of TextFormations for her professional competence, enthusiasm, wise critical remarks and suggestions, and for her valuable help with the pre-production editing of the essays in this collection. List of Illustrations and Tables Illustrations 1 Emblem of the Accademia degli Intronati. Frontispiece. First edition of Gl'Ingannati (1537): https://archive.org/stream/ glingannaticonil00newb#page/n23/mode/2up 42 2 Potta da Modena, by Master of the Metopes (twelfth century). Modena, Cathedral Lapidary Museum. Photo courtesy I. Sailko 64 3 Modena coats of arms, Sala del Fuoco, Palazzo Comunale. CC BY-SA 3.0 65 4 Emblem of the Accademia degli Intronati (1533). Drawing.

Hysteria as a Strategy of Representation in the Art of FranceIn the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century

Коммуникации. Медиа. Дизайн., 2021

This article will consider the process of turning the disease called hysteria into a socio-cultural phenomenon and the strategy of representation in the second half of the XIXth century. It can be concluded that the verification of symptoms and phases of hysteria by artistic means coincides with Foucault's concept of the process of aestheticizing the disease. The use of the artistic iconography of hysteria, which sharpened the problems of the binary opposition of health and disease and the relationship between doctor and patient, becomes a tempting way of veiled representation of various discourses of the second half of the XIXth century: political, social and others. The intertexts of hysterical contractures can be traced in the artworks. Analyzing and comparing these artworks with the iconography of hysteria formed in the hospital, it is possible to trace the processes of changes in the representation of the human body in art under the influence of new medical discoveries. It seems relevant to continue the research of hysteria in the field of visuality, because there is still no full-fledged study of the penetration of hysteria into the sphere of art.

Theory of Acting. From Antiquity to the Eighteenth Century

2014

The first history of acting theory in the West, from antiquity to the eighteenth century when the specific characteristics of the actor’s art were established. An account of the long cultural journey to understanding every aspect behind an actor’s on-stage transformation. Summary: ACTING THEORY IN THE ANCIENT WORLD Divine Possession. Alteration and Contagion. Development of Dramatic Forms. Acting as a Specialized Activity. Emotional Tension and Frenzy. Persistence of “Ion’s” Doctrine. Moderation and Self-Control. The Emergence of the Character. The New Form of Emotional Involvement. The Actor’s Art and the Orator’s. The Use of Emotion. Emotion and Expression. The Techniques of Identification. Control and Perfection of Expression. Possibility of an Anti-Emotional Theory. FROM THE CHURCH FATHERS TO THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY Theatre as a Source of Irrational Impulses. The Condemnation of Christian Authors. The New Image of Acting. The Humanist Ennobling of Theatre. Humanist Experiments and Court Performances. Professional Actors and the Commedia all’Improvviso. The Revival of Religious Opposition and the Actor’s New Status. THE EARLY ITALIAN TREATISES AND THE THEORETICAL ACTING MODEL The Academicians Establish the First Rules of Acting. Giraldi Cintio’s “Discorsi”. Angelo Ingegneri. Stage Characters as Reality Perfected. Leone de’ Sommi’s “Dialoghi” and Theory Based on Stage Experience. The Writings of Pier Maria Cecchini. The Theoretical Model of Acting. Flaminio Scala and the Decline of the Early Treatises. THE WORLD OF ORATORY. PERRUCCI, GRIMAREST AND GILDON The Theatre Controversy. The Horizons of Oratory. Recitation: the Mysterious Difference. The New Treatises. Andrea Perrucci, Recitation, Oratory and “Commedia all’Improvviso”. Experience, Rules and the Insufficiency of “Actio”. Grimarest. Gildon. THE BIRTH OF EMOTIONALISM The Dramaturgic Function of Recitation. Natural Recitation. The Beginnings of Emotionalism. Luigi Riccoboni. Acting by Improvisation. First Formulation of the Emotionalist Theory. Criticism of Riccoboni. Reform of the Code and Franz Lang’s Treatise. Jean-Baptiste Du Bos. THE CRITIQUE OF ACTING AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF EMOTIONALISM. D’AIGUEBERRE, CIBBER, AARON HILL AND RÉMOND DE SAINTE-ALBINE D’Aigueberre and the Founding of the Critique of Acting. Cibber’s Autobiography and Garrick’s and Foote’s Essays. Aaron Hill. Rémond de Sainte-Albine’s Treatise. The Functions of Technique. The Problems of Emotionalism. ANTIEMOTIONALISM. ANTOINE-FRANÇOIS RICCOBONI, LESSING, DIDEROT English Versions of “Le Comédien”. Antoine-François Riccoboni’s “L’art du Théâtre”. Lessing’s project. Sticotti and Diderot. Artistic Creation. The “Paradoxe” and Its Reasoning. The Characteristics of Sensibility. Real Life-Theatre Difference. Actors and Characters. The Problems of the “Paradoxe”. THE END OF CENTURY DEBATE. ENGEL, BOSWELL AND TOURON The Late Eighteenth Century: a Profusion of Treatises. The Work of the Author, the Creation of the Actor. Performing the Part. Study, Observation and Imitation. The Function of Sentiment. Engel’s Treatise. Boswell and the Levels of Interiority. Touron. Epilogue.