Overview

The Antitheatrical Prejudice The Player's Passion: Studies in the Science of Acting and Cities of the Dead: Circum-Atlantic Performance.

Full Product Details

9781555541682

Table of Contents

Reviews

"""At a time when theatricality has been supercharged by social media, Jonas Barish’s classic is a good reminder that the opposite, the anti-theatrical prejudice, must be treated with equal skepticism."" —Martin Puchner, author of Stage Fright: Modernism, Anti-Theatricality and Drama; Culture: The Story of Us, from Cave Art to K-Pop; The Written World: The Power of Stories to Shape People, History, Civilization. Reviews from the first edition: “In undertaking to chronicle and discuss the range of anti-theatrical prejudice sincefirst there was a theatre to provoke such feeling Jonas Barish has shouldered a burden that might have broken many a good man; he has performed it not only with scholarly fullness but with a concision and wit that make delightful reading.”—University of Toronto Quarterly “Fixes on a fascinating intellectual puzzle: the ambivalence which mankind has felt toward the theater…The greatest virtue of Jonas Barish’s book is that he displays through case studies the historical sweep and depth of the ambivalence…The intensity of the various attacks is astonishing. Barish’s case studies the historical sweep and depth of the ambivalence…The intensity of the various attacks is astonishing. Barish’s case studies are gripping…Its historical richness furthers discussion in a fascinating but neglected area — the philosophy of theater.”— Journal of Aesthetics and Art “Explains, among other valuable functions, why theater has traditionally been a threatening source of disquiet to those concerned with social and political behavior. With impeccable scholarship and learning, Professor Barish traces the ancient distrust of plays and players from its earliest appearance in Plato…until it enters the theater itself, in the purifying fires of Artuad, Grotowski, and Handke…A most valuable book providing important insights into the way we think about the stage.”— New Republic “The usefulness of the professor’s book lies in his classification of objections to the theater. By way of these objections, he shows clearly the ways in which morality caries according to the culture from which it comes and makes this truism seem new by staging it, so to speak, instead of confining it to the prose.”— New York Review of Books"

Reviews from the first edition: “In undertaking to chronicle and discuss the range of anti-theatrical prejudice sincefirst there was a theatre to provoke such feeling Jonas Barish has shouldered a burden that might have broken many a good man; he has performed it not only with scholarly fullness but with a concision and wit that make delightful reading.”—University of Toronto Quarterly “Fixes on a fascinating intellectual puzzle: the ambivalence which mankind has felt toward the theater…The greatest virtue of Jonas Barish’s book is that he displays through case studies the historical sweep and depth of the ambivalence…The intensity of the various attacks is astonishing. Barish’s case studies the historical sweep and depth of the ambivalence…The intensity of the various attacks is astonishing. Barish’s case studies are gripping…Its historical richness furthers discussion in a fascinating but neglected area — the philosophy of theater.”— Journal of Aesthetics and Art “Explains, among other valuable functions, why theater has traditionally been a threatening source of disquiet to those concerned with social and political behavior. With impeccable scholarship and learning, Professor Barish traces the ancient distrust of plays and players from its earliest appearance in Plato…until it enters the theater itself, in the purifying fires of Artuad, Grotowski, and Handke…A most valuable book providing important insights into the way we think about the stage.”— New Republic “The usefulness of the professor’s book lies in his classification of objections to the theater. By way of these objections, he shows clearly the ways in which morality caries according to the culture from which it comes and makes this truism seem new by staging it, so to speak, instead of confining it to the prose.”— New York Review of Books

Author Information

Jonas Barish (1922-1998) was a distinguished theatre historian and authority on Ben Jonson and Shakespeare. He taught at the University of California. A leading scholar of his generation, Barish was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available