Olga Taxidou – författare

An interdisciplinary reference source of the critical, cultural and political practices associated with modernismMuch of the literary and cultural theory developed throughout the twentieth century relied on modernist texts and artefacts as both example and paradigm. This Dictionary collects, categorises and intersects literary, aesthetic, political and cultural terms that in one way or another came into being through the debates, conflicts, co-operations, experiments individual and collective that characterised modernism. In concise entries from international experts, it presents the terms, categories, concepts, tropes, movements, forged through the modernist upheavals (at once aesthetic and political), highlighting their genealogy, their modernist 'newness', and their historical longevity.Key FeaturesProvides new and authoritative definitions of the revolutionary art, thinking and intellectual culture which flourished in the opening decades of the last centuryDemonstrates the ways in which modernism reconceptualised and realigned all twentieth- century art forms while also formulating the critical and cultural languages of that centuryShows that modernism, in unique ways, already entailed its self-definition and articulated its own critique

An interdisciplinary reference source of the critical, cultural and political practices associated with modernismMuch of the literary and cultural theory developed throughout the twentieth century relied on modernist texts and artefacts as both example and paradigm. This Dictionary collects, categorises and intersects literary, aesthetic, political and cultural terms that in one way or another came into being through the debates, conflicts, co-operations, experiments – individual and collective – that characterised modernism. In concise entries from international experts, it presents the terms, categories, concepts, tropes, movements, forged through the modernist upheavals (at once aesthetic and political), highlighting their genealogy, their modernist ‘newness’, and their historical longevity.Key FeaturesProvides new and authoritative definitions of the revolutionary art, thinking and intellectual culture which flourished in the opening decades of the last centuryDemonstrates the ways in which modernism reconceptualised and realigned all twentieth- century art forms while also formulating the critical and cultural languages of that centuryShows that modernism, in unique ways, already entailed its self-definition and articulated its own critique

Post-war Cinema and Modernity explores the relationship between film and modernity in the second half of the twentieth century. It begins with essays analyzing new post-war forms of film narrative and responses to the filmic innovations of the 1960s and the question of modernism. Pasolini's landmark polemic on the cinema of poetry is a vital springboard for the later critiques of time and the image, subjectivities and their narrative transformation, and the topical question of film and postmodernity. A discussion of changes in film technology and cinematic perception extend to the questions of film documentary. Finally, there is a focus on cinematographers and their filmic collaboration. The second section, International Cinema, places filmmaking and filmmakers in a social and a national context. It brings together landmark essays which contextualize feature films historically, yet also highlight their aesthetic power and their wider cultural importance. Filmmakers discussed include Ozu, Welles, Bresson, Hitchcock, Godard, Egoyan, Fassbinder and Zhang Yimou.Contributors include: Nestor Almendros, Jacques Aumont, Andre Bazin, Noel Burch, Scott Bukatman, Michael Chapman, Rey Chow, Terry Comito, Timothy Corrigan, Angela Della Vacche, Gilles Deleuze, Peter Harcourt, Frederic Jameson, Bruce Kawin, Krzystof Kieslowski, Vassiliki Kolocotroni, Teresa de Lauretis, Colin MacCabe, Christian Metz, Tania Modleski, Laura Mulvey, Bill Nicholls, John Orr, David Pascoe, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Duncan Petrie, Donald Richie, Larry Salvato, Dennis Schaefer, Paul Schrader, Susan Sontag, Andrei Tarkovsky, J.P. Telotte, Paul Virilio, Peter Wollen, Ismail Xavier, Denise Youngblood.

Post-war Cinema and Modernity explores the relationship between film and modernity in the second half of the twentieth century. It begins with essays analyzing new post-war forms of film narrative and responses to the filmic innovations of the 1960s and the question of modernism. Pasolini's landmark polemic on the cinema of poetry is a vital springboard for the later critiques of time and the image, subjectivities and their narrative transformation, and the topical question of film and postmodernity. A discussion of changes in film technology and cinematic perception extend to the questions of film documentary. Finally, there is a focus on cinematographers and their filmic collaboration. The second section, International Cinema, places filmmaking and filmmakers in a social and a national context. It brings together landmark essays which contextualize feature films historically, yet also highlight their aesthetic power and their wider cultural importance. Filmmakers discussed include Ozu, Welles, Bresson, Hitchcock, Godard, Egoyan, Fassbinder and Zhang Yimou.Contributors include: Nestor Almendros, Jacques Aumont, Andre Bazin, Noel Burch, Scott Bukatman, Michael Chapman, Rey Chow, Terry Comito, Timothy Corrigan, Angela Della Vacche, Gilles Deleuze, Peter Harcourt, Frederic Jameson, Bruce Kawin, Krzystof Kieslowski, Vassiliki Kolocotroni, Teresa de Lauretis, Colin MacCabe, Christian Metz, Tania Modleski, Laura Mulvey, Bill Nicholls, John Orr, David Pascoe, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Duncan Petrie, Donald Richie, Larry Salvato, Dennis Schaefer, Paul Schrader, Susan Sontag, Andrei Tarkovsky, J.P. Telotte, Paul Virilio, Peter Wollen, Ismail Xavier, Denise Youngblood.

Examines the centrality of Greek tragedy for modernist performanceExamines the centrality of Greek tragedy for modernist performanceAnalyses how Hellenism becomes a mode of theatricalityLooks at the interface between theatricality and performativityRevises the fraught relationships between tradition and innovation within modernism more generallyExamines modernist acting theories and the ways they engage with classical theories of actingExamines modernist theories of puppetry and how they re-write classical theories of puppetryReads the modernist encounter with Geek tragedy as a re-staging of the ancient quarrelProposes a modernist aesthetic of Greek tragedy based on Hellenism as theatricality, that radically revises the philosophical discourses of tragedy so central for the project modernity from German Idealism onwardsThis modernist approach to Greek tragedy is read as parallel to the development of Performance Studies and Reception Studies, contributing to a more experimental, open and democratic view of the classics and their contemporary relevanceThis book examines the ways the encounters between modernist theatre makers and Greek tragedy were constitutive in the modernist experiments in performance. Through a series of events / instances / poses that engage visual, literary and performing arts, the modernist love/hate relationship with classical Greek tragedy is read as contributing to a modernist notion of theatricality, one that follows a double motion, revising both our understanding of Greek tragedy and of modernism itself. Isadora Duncan, Edward Gordon Craig, T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, W. B. Yeats, H. D, and Bertolt Brecht and their various, sometimes successful sometimes failed experiments in creating a modernist aesthetic in performing, dancing, translating, designing Greek tragedies, sometimes for the stage and sometimes for the page, are presented as radical experiments in and gestures towards the autonomy of performance. In the process the artists of the theatre themselves the actor, the designer, the director, the playwright are reconfigured and given a lineage and genealogy, through this modernist revision of tragedy and the tragic not as as a philosophical or philological tradition, but as a performance practice.

This book examines the ways the encounters between modernist theatre makers and Greek tragedy were constitutive in the modernist experiments in performance. Through a series of events / instances / poses that engage visual, literary and performing arts, the modernist love/hate relationship with classical Greek tragedy is read as contributing to a modernist notion of theatricality, one that follows a double motion, revising both our understanding of Greek tragedy and of modernism itself. Isadora Duncan, Edward Gordon Craig, T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, W. B. Yeats, H. D, and Bertolt Brecht and their various, sometimes successful sometimes failed experiments in creating a modernist aesthetic in performing, dancing, translating, designing Greek tragedies, sometimes for the stage and sometimes for the page, are presented as radical experiments in and gestures towards the autonomy of performance. In the process the artists of the theatre themselves – the actor, the designer, the director, the playwright – are reconfigured and given a lineage and genealogy, through this modernist revision of tragedy and the tragic not as as a philosophical or philological tradition, but as a performance practice.

No study of modern theater is complete without a thorough understanding of the enormous influence of visionary genius Edward Gordon Craig. Born in England in 1872, Craig went on to become famous world-wide as an actor, manager, director, playwright, designer, and most importantly an author and theorist, whose books were translated into German, Russian, Japanese, Dutch, Hungarian, and Danish. Although an essential parallel to the European avant-garde, Craig was often read as "exceptional" and highly innovative in his native Britain, thus, The Mask not only appears as Craig's main cosmopolitan project but also at times functions as a surrogate stage for his experiments in theater practice. The book has a comprehensive chronology, extensive notes and a bibliography making it an essential text for undergraduates, postgraduates, actors, theatre professionals, designers, directors, researchers and writers in the fields of theatre studies (especially theater set and lighting) and theater history.