Theatre Theory Reader: Prague School Writings

by David Drozd (Editor)

Overview

The Theatre Theory Reader provides the first comprehensive and critical anthology of texts reflecting on the development of the theater theory of the Prague School—or Prague Linguistic Circle—beginning with early twentieth-century composer and aesthetician Otakar Zich. The majority of the thirty-eight texts date from the 1930s and early 1940s, the period when the Prague Linguistic Circle was most active as both a theoretical laboratory and a focal point for scholars, artists, and intellectuals. A substantial afterword places these writings in context, describing the emergence of the Prague School in an effort to promote a deeper understanding of its texts. Organized thematically and structurally rather than chronologically, the Theatre Theory Reader explores issues and themes in the study of the theater as an art form and as artistic practice. Just as the Prague School theorists viewed theory as a toolbox of approaches to theater analysis, this anthology should be considered a toolbox of analytic possibilities.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9788024646381
Publisher:	Karolinum Press
Publication date:	09/19/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	654
File size:	6 MB

About the Author

David Drozd is a senior assistant in the Department of Theatre Studies at Masaryk University and the Theatre Faculty of Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts, Czech Republic. Tomáš Kačer is assistant professor in the Department of English and American Studies and a researcher in the Department of Theatre Studies at Masaryk University. Don Sparling is director emeritus of Masaryk University’s Office for International Studies.

Table of Contents

Cover

Table of Contents

List of Figures

Acknowledgments

Introduction by David Drozd and Tomáš Kačer

Editors’ Choices and Guidelines

I. Theatre in General

Otakar Zich: Principles of Theoretical Dramaturgy

Jan Mukařovský: On the Current State of the Theory of Theatre

Jiří Veltruský: Structuralism and Theatre

II. Sign – Object – Action

Petr Bogatyrev: A Contribution to the Study of Theatrical Signs

Petr Bogatyrev: Theatrical Signs

Karel Brušák: Signs in the Chinese Theatre

Jindřich Honzl: The Mobility of the Theatrical Sign

Jiří Veltruský: People and Things in the Theatre

Jindřich Honzl: The Hierarchy of Theatrical Devices

III. Figures and Play

Petr Bogatyrev: Playing and the Theatre

Petr Bogatyrev: Chaplin and The Kid

Petr Bogatyrev: Chaplin, the Fake Count

Jan Mukařovský: An Attempt at a Structural Analysis of an Actor’s Figure (Chaplin in City Lights)

Jindřich Honzl: The Dramatic Character

IV. From Page to Stage

Jan Mukařovský: On Stage Dialogue

Jan Mukařovský: Stage Speech in the Avant-garde Theatre

Jan Mukařovský: Dialogue and Monologue

Jiří Veltruský: Dramatic Text as a Component of Theatre

V. Layers of Space

Jan Mukařovský: A Note on the Aesthetics of Film

E. F. Burian: The New Theatre Space

Jindřich Honzl: Spatial Concerns in Theatre

Karel Brušák: Imaginary Action Space in Drama

Miroslav Kouřil: Theatre Space and a Visual Artist’s Participation in Theatre

VI. Towards Structures of Modern Acting

Jiří Frejka: The Concept of Convention

Jiří Frejka: Example in Acting and the Stage as the Superstructure of Life

Jindřich Honzl: Defining Mimicry

Jindřich Honzl: Mimetic Sign and Mimetic Signal

Jiří Veltruský: A Contribution to the Semiotics of Acting

VII. Ethnographic Encroachments

Petr Bogatyrev: Folk Song from a Functional Point of View

Petr Bogatyrev: Clothing as Sign (The Functional and Structural Concept in Ethnography)

Petr Bogatyrev: Folk Theatre

Jiří Veltruský: Broadside Ballads and Dramas

Petr Bogatyrev: The Extra-aesthetic Function of Folk Theatre

Jindřich Honzl: Ritual and Theatre

VIII. Art – Media – Society

E. F. Burian: The Function of Photography and Film in the Theatre

E. F. Burian: The Stage Metaphor

Jiří Veltruský: Theatre in the Corridor (E. F. Burian’s Production of Alladine and Palomides)

Jan Mukařovský: On the Artistic Situation of the Contemporary Czech Theatre

Prague School Theatre Theory and Its Contexts (Afterword) by Pavel Drábek (with Martin Bernátek, Andrea Jochmanová and Eva Šlaisová)

The Prague Linguistic Circle and Its Mission

The Prague School at the Heart of the Avant-garde

The New Multicultural State of Czechoslovakia

Controversies and Ideologies Surrounding the Modern Czech Language

The Functional-Structural Method

The Role of Theatre in Czechoslovak Life

Artistic Experiments of the Czech Avant-garde

The Prague School and the Cinema

The Prague School and the Puppet Theatre

The Prague School, Folklore and Modern Ethnography

The Prague School’s Ethnographic Theory and the Theatre

The Prague Linguistic Circle and Formalism(s)

The Prague School and Husserl’s Phenomenology

The Prague School and Ingarden’s Aesthetics

Karl Bühler’s Language Theory

Prague School Theatre Theory and Otakar Zich

Hegelian and Marxist Dialectics

Conclusion

Further Reading

Biographies of Authors Presented in the Reader

Index

Editorial Reviews

“This is precisely the book I have been looking out for ever since working on my book, Das Drama, and discovering from a few specimens the incisive usefulness and importance of the Prague School theatre semiotics. There is everything one could possibly wish for in this monumental Theatre Theory Reader: all the now canonical texts and many others presented for the first time in English, arranged in a systematic order which fully renders the sense of the scope and development of Czech theatre semiotics, and all of them in highly competent translations aware of the terminological complexities at stake and supported by helpful annotations. With such a rich harvest garnered, this anthology of Prague School writings is bound to become nationally as well as internationally a prime work of reference and give them a new lease on life in the twenty-first century.”

— Manfred Pfister, author of "The Theory and Analysis of Drama"

“Modern theater theory, no matter what its orientation, can trace its roots back to the structuralist and semiotic explorations of the Prague School in the early twentieth century. This comprehensive and informed overview is therefore most welcome in understanding the course and development of that theoretical tradition. It is not, however, of purely historical interest, important as that is. Whether they use the terminology of the Prague School or evoke the names of its contributors, analysts of theater and performance today still find the strategies and articulations of those pioneers of ongoing relevance. This collection thus provides an important double service, providing contemporary theater scholars with a clearer idea of where they have come from and an inspiration for where they may be going.”

— Marvin Carlson, author of "Theatre: A Very Short Introduction"

“I think it is a great idea not to group the articles according to the different authors but rather to use a system that covers as many aspects of theater as possible. This way, it becomes quite clear that the so-called Prague or Czech structuralists and semioticians were able to apply their theories when discussing most diverging questions related to theatre. The choice of texts is excellent. It points out that these theories are not outdated, that they do not only have historical value and are interesting not only with regard to the history of ideas. Rather, it becomes evident that they are highly relevant in the context of discussions led today.”

— Erika Fischer-Lichte, author of "The Routledge Introduction to Theatre and Performance Studies"

“The Prague School and Czech structuralism had a considerable impact on the development of semiotic studies and theater studies at large in the 1960s and ’70s. But this has been quickly forgotten and with the rise of poststructuralism and deconstruction in the ’80s and ’90s, they were not only neglected, but also unjustly disregarded. . . . This is why the Theatre Theory Reader is a very welcome book which comes at the right moment, when postmodernism, poststructuralism, and postdramatic theatre seem to have lost their momentum, as if the requirements of today’s quest for a new way of living and of making business had become so strong that we must go back to the basics. Structuralism and a critique of ideology are now back, at least as a sign to not give up thinking and theorizing in a world which has become self-centered and mad. The afterword by Pavel Drábek, Martin Bernátek, Andrea Jochmanová and Eva Šlaisová is a sort of book within the book, as it neatly puts in perspective all the important names and theories of the Prague School. It does this in a very user-friendly manner, where complex theories are summarized in a clear, yet precise, introduction. This makes the reading of the different chapters easier and immediately connected to our contemporary way of thinking.”

— Patrice Pavis, author of "Contemporary Mise en Scene: Staging Theatre Today"

From the Publisher