The Art of Theatre in Nineteenth-Century America: George L. Fox, Pantomime and Artaud

This article argues that, through specific stagings orchestrated in the pantomimist’s art, George Lafayette Fox demonstrates a consciousness of staging and of theatricality that presages the blatant theatricalities of twentieth-century theatre and theatre theory. The Theatre and Its Double is essential to assessing theatre’s response to theatricality, specifically in its awareness of non-verbal strategies. My discussion of pantomime founds itself on a critical engagement with the concept of a total theatre, of gestures, physicality, movement and the performance of a theatrical ‘language’ beyond words. I argue that the theatrical language of Fox’s pantomime exhibits dramatic dimensions that appealed to the edgy rebellious urges of their audiences, the performances of the white-face clown articulating an awareness of cultural anxieties, responding to and participating in the formation of the social response to political agenda and debate. Pantomime, with its glory in excess, its incipient display of anti-establishmentarianism, its fluidity and emphasis on show, contributed to the development of American theatre as a dynamic form. Providing a concrete space with its ‘concrete language, intended for the senses and independent of speech,’ (Artaud, p.37), Fox’s gestural theatre can shed additional light on theoretical approaches to mime

Sobre alguns aspectes històrics de la medicina a l'Aveyron

Es fa un estudi detallat d’alguns aspectes de la medicina al departament actual de l’Aveyron. Record de les personalitats mèdiques més importants: J. Alibert, J. Benoit, P. Chirac, U. Hémard, A. Souques. També metges destacats a la vida local, principalment política: Barsalou a Millau, Bonnefous a Rodez. Explicació de fets puntuals: Víctor, nen selvatge de l’Aveyron; l’amnèsic de Rodez; estada d’Antonin Artaud al sanatori psiquiàtric de Rodez

The theatre and its screen double

This essay offers a close exploration of the live filming and sound production in the schaubühne berlin staging of strindberg's Fräulein Julie (directed by Katie Mitchell, shown on tour at the barbican, london, in 2012). It provides a series of theoretical and critical angles from which to discuss contemporary intermedia performance and audiovisual scenography. After a brief evocation of Artaud's writings in "theatre and cruelty" and on raw cinema, the essay builds on a historical understanding of Western theatre's evolving and hardly settled relationship to cinematography and moving-image technologies, as well as the "choreographic unconscious," as examined in contemporary dance and technology, before delving into an analysis of Mitchell's dramaturgy of real-time film construction and her use of the "camera-actor." A particular emphasis is placed on the question whether the live mediatization of realist drama, under Mitchell's direction, deliberately weakens the theatricality of the physical body and spoken language while proffering an extenuated, if uncritical/unpolitical modulation of digital prosthetics in a superbly crafted, seamless intermedial performance

La Pista 4’s Cadáveres: Radiophonics and the Argentinean Staging of Disappearance

Post-dictatorship Buenos Aires performance of disappearance has largely relied upon mimetic embodiment. One striking exception is La Pista 4’s late 1990s Cadáveres, based on six poems by Néstor Perlongher, performed in a wide range of venues, and described in the production handbill as “kind of a radiphonic piece; like one of those we’ll never hear on FM.” In seeking alternatives to representing the absent-yet-present bodies of the disappeared, the production revisited three cultural phenomena of Argentinean redemocratization: postpost- avant-garde poetry, the theatrical staging of disappearance, and FM radio. The result not only materially resituated the performance of disappearance but also constructively responded to the tyranny of the visual in contemporary cultural production. (J G-J, Article in English

Schizophrenia, social practices and cultural values: A conceptual introduction

Schizophrenia is usually described as a fragmentation of subjective experience and the impossibility to engage in meaningful cultural and intersubjective practices. Although the term schizophrenia is less than 100 years old, madness is generally believed to have accompanied mankind through its historical and cultural ontogeny. What does it mean to be “mad”? The failure to adopt social practices or to internalize cultural values of common sense? Despite the vast amount of literature and research, it seems that the study of schizophrenia and of the psychoses is suffering from a generic disintegration. In this introduction, we offer an historical overview of the variety of theories and approaches to schizophrenia. We also provide an overview of how the authors in this volume attempt an integrative account where training, practice, theory and research are considered as parts of a larger whole. This is a varied and pluralistic volume, and it is up to the readers to make use of different chapters according to their own needs

Die längsten Titel der Filmgeschichte : eine Liste

Eine Suche nach den längsten Titeln der Filmgeschichte erweist sich als recht mühsame Sammeltätigkeit. Ohne Hinweise von Freunden wäre vieles hier nicht genannt worden. Dank gilt Caroline Amann, Britta Hartmann, Tobias Sunderdiek, Bodo Traber und Hans J. Wulff. Es sei an alle Leser die Bitte ausgesprochen, fehlende Titel an uns weiterzumelden

Billy Elliot The Musical: visual representations of working-class masculinity and the all-singing, all-dancing bo[d]y

According to Cynthia Weber, ‘[d]ance is commonly thought of as liberating, transformative, empowering, transgressive, and even as dangerous’. Yet ballet as a masculine activity still remains a suspect phenomenon. This paper will challenge this claim in relation to Billy Elliot the Musical and its critical reception. The transformation of the visual representation of the human body on stage (from an ephemeral existence to a timeless work of art) will be discussed and analysed vis-a-vis the text and sub-texts of Stephen Daldry’s direction and Peter Darling’s choreography. The dynamics of working-class masculinity will be contextualised within the framework of the family, the older female, the community, the self and the act of dancing itself

Reviews of recent publications

Culture and Theory Conley, Verena Andermatt, ed. Rethinking Technologies by Laurence M. Porter Leitch, Vincent B. Cultural Criticism, Literary Theory, Poststructuralism by Merry M. Pawlowski French Studies Bersani, Leo and Ulysse Dutoit. Arts of Impoverishment: Beckett, Rothko, Resnais by Thomas Trezise Boldt-Irons, Leslie Anne. On Bataille: Critical Essays by Walter A. Strauss Deleuze, Gilles. Negotiations. Trans. Martin Joughin by Charles J. Stivale Fisher, Dominique D. Staging of Language and Language(s) of the Stage: Mallarmé\u27s poëme critique and Artaud\u27s poetry-minus-text by Maryse Fauvel Goodall, Jane. Artaud and the Gnostic Drama by Claudine G. Fisher Lydon, Mary. Skirting the Issue: Essays in Literary Theory by Carol J. Murphy German Studies Barnouw, Dagmar. Critical Realism: History, Photography, and the Work of Siegfried Kracauer by Florence Martin Pfandl-Buchegger, Ingrid. David Lodge als Literaturkritiker, Theoretiker and Romanautor by Charles A. Grair Samuels, Clarise. Holocaust Visions: Surrealism and Existentialism in the Poetry of Paul Celan by Francis Michael Sharp Stefan, Verena. Shedding and Literally Dreaming. Shedding. Trans. Johanna Steigleder Moore and Beth E. Weckmueller; Literally Dreaming. Trans. Johanna Albert and Tobe Levin; Euphoria and Cacophony. Trans. and Afterword Tobe Levin by Miriam Frank Stern, J.P. The Dear Purchase: A Theme in German Modernism by Theodore Ziolkowski Russian Studies Berry, Ellen E. and Anesa Miller-Pogacer, eds. Re-Entering the Sign: Articulating New Russian Culture by Rolf Hellebust Erlich, Victor. Modernism and Revolution: Russian Literature in Transition by Henry Elbaum Hohne, Karen and Helen Wussow, eds. A Dialogue of Voices: Feminist Literary Theory and Bakhtin by Laura Beraha Masing-Delic, Irene. Abolishing Death: A Salvation Myth of Russian Twentieth-Century Literature by Rolf Hellebust Paperno, Irina and Joan Delaney Grossman, eds. Creating Life: The Aesthetic Utopia of Russian Modernism by Constantin V. Ponomareff Spanish Studies Cardenal, Ernesto. The Doubtful Strait. Trans. John Lyons by Juan Carlos Galeano Garcia Marquez, Gabriel. Of Love and Other Demons by John Cussen Lindstrom, Naomi. Twentieth-Century Spanish American Fiction by Norma Helsper Meyer, Doris, Ed. Reinterpreting the Spanish American Essay: Women Writers of the 19th and 20th Centuries by Judy Maloof and Fernando Unzueta Nantell, Judith. The Poetry of Francisco Brines: The Deconstructive Effects of Languages by Anita M. Hart Taylor, Diana and Juan Villegas, Eds. Negotiating Performance: Gender, Sexuality, & Theatricality in Latin America by Anne M. Paser