Theatre, sacrifice, ritual
By: Erika Fischer-Lichte.
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2005
Place of publication: London; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 290
Subjects: Pageants; Theater
Description: "This innovative study of 20th century performative culture boldly examines the complexities of political theatre, propaganda and manipulation of the masses, and offers a revolutionary approach to the study of theatre and performance history. In offering both a performative and a semiotic analysis of such performances, Fischer-Lichte expertly demonstrates how theatre and ritual are fused in order to tackle the problem of community-building in societies characterized by loss of solidarity and disintegration, and exposes the provocative connection between the utopian visions of community they suggest, and the notion of sacrifice."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Electra's transgressions; title: Reconceptualizing theatre and ritual; title: Re-inventing a people's theatre : Max Reinhardt's Theatre of the five thousand; title: Re-inventing ritual : the Olympic Games; title: Times of revolution, times of festival : the Soviet mass spectacles, 1917-1920; title: Producing the Volk community : the Thingspiel Movement, 1933-36; title: Towards the rebirth of a nation : American Zionist pageants, 1932-1946; title: Bringing about a crisis; title: The Bacchae : dismembering the text; title: The rebirth of tragedy out of the chorus; title: Renouncing sacrifice.