The Cambridge Introduction to Theatre Historiography
Part of Cambridge Introductions to Literature
- Author: Thomas Postlewait, University of Washington
- Date Published: April 2009
- availability: Available
- format: Hardback
- isbn: 9780521495707
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This Introduction - an indispensable 'how to' guide for students and teachers alike - investigates the methods and aims of historical study in the performing arts, from archival research to historical writing. Beginning with case studies on Shakespearean theatre and avant-garde theatre, this study examines fundamental procedures and problems in documentary history and cultural history. It demonstrates how historians not only construct various kinds of performance events but also place them in relation to the historical agents, the political and social conditions, artistic traditions, audience responses, and historical periods. Drawing upon scholarship in classics, literary studies, art history, performance studies, and general history, Postlewait shows how to ask appropriate historical questions, construct evidence, use plays as historical documents, eliminate faulty sources, challenge unreliable witnesses, and develop historical arguments and narratives. The book concludes with a survey of the 'twelve cruxes' of research, analysis, and writing in theatre history.
Read more- An indispensable guide for the training of students in the methods of historical thinking and inquiry
- Case studies allow the reader to relate the theory to specific examples and scenarios
- The principles laid out in the book are also highly relevant to the historical research procedures of related fields, including dance studies, opera history, musicology and literary history
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×Product details
- Date Published: April 2009
- format: Hardback
- isbn: 9780521495707
- length: 360 pages
- dimensions: 234 x 152 x 20 mm
- weight: 0.69kg
- contains: 18 b/w illus.
- availability: Available
Table of Contents
Introduction: on some preliminary matters
Part I. Documentary History vs Cultural History: Two Case Studies:
1. Documentary histories: the case of Shakespeare's Globe theatre
2. Cultural histories: the case of Alfred Jarry's Ubu Roi
Part II. Historical vs Theatrical Events:
3. The historical event
4. The theatrical event
Part III. Placing Events within their Contexts:
5. The criteria for periodization in theatre history: definitive categories for events
6. The idea of the 'political' in our histories of theatre: causal contexts for events
Part IV. Summing Up:
7. The theatrical event and its conditions: a primer with twelve cruxes.Instructors have used or reviewed this title for the following courses
- Development of Drama ll
- Directing: Realism
- Early Theatre History and Literature
- Historiography of the Actress
- History of Theatre in Performance
- Introduction to Drama
- Introduction to Poetry and Drama
- Introduction to Theatre Historiography
- Modern British Theatre
- Performance Historiography
- Professional Practices in Dramaturgy
- Restoration Theatre and Its Discontents
- Seminar in Theatre: Greek & Roman Drama (Graduate level)
- Studies in English and American Literature (graduate level course)
- Theatre Historiography
- Theatre History
- Theatre History I, ll, llI
- U.S. Theatre and Performance
- World Theatre History
- World Theatre ll
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