The Director's Prism: E. T. A. Hoffmann and the Russian Theatrical Avant-Garde

Book
No Media

This item doesn’t have any media yet

The Director's Prism: E. T. A. Hoffmann and the Russian Theatrical Avant-Garde

2016 | Film & TV

The Director's Prism investigates how and why three of Russia's most innovative directors- Vsevelod Meyerhold, Alexander Tairov, and Sergei Eisenstein-used the fantastical tales of German Romantic writer E. T. A. Hoffmann to reinvent the rules of theatrical practice. Because the rise of the director and the Russian cult of Hoffmann closely coincided, Posner argues, many characteristics we associate with avant-garde theater-subjective perspective, breaking through the fourth wall, activating the spectator as a co-creator-become uniquely legible in the context of this engagement. Posner examines the artistic poetics of Meyerhold's grotesque, Tairov's mime-drama, and Eisenstein's theatrical attraction through production analyses, based on extensive archival research, that challenge the notion of theater as a mirror to life, instead viewing the director as a prism through whom life is refracted. A resource for scholars and practitioners alike, this groundbreaking study provides a fresh, provocative perspective on experimental theater, intercultural borrowings, and the nature of the creative process.



Published by Northwestern University Press

Edition Unknown
ISBN 9780810133556
Language N/A

Images And Data Courtesy Of: Northwestern University Press.
This content (including text, images, videos and other media) is published and used in accordance with Fair Use.