Engaging Audiences: A Cognitive Approach to Spectating in the Theatre (Cognitive Studies in Literature and Performance)

Engaging Audiences asks what cognitive science can teach scholars of theatre studies about spectator response in the theatre. Bruce McConachie introduces insights from neuroscience and evolutionary theory to examine the dynamics of conscious attention, empathy and memory in theatre goers. Engaging Audiences provides an insightful introduction to spectatorship from the perspective of cognitive studies. Using performances of several plays and a wide array of scientific evidence, McConachie examines the dynamics of conscious attention, mental concepts, empathy, emotion, and culture in theatregoing. This ground-breaking study challenges many of the current theories used to understand spectators and is a valuable resource to artists and scholars interested in how and why audiences enjoy performance.--Résumé de l'éditeur Front Matter....Pages i-ix Introduction....Pages 1-21 General Cognition for Theatre Audiences....Pages 23-63 Social Cognition in Spectating....Pages 65-120 Cultural Cognition in History....Pages 121-183 Epilogue Writing Cognitive Audience Histories....Pages 185-207 Back Matter....Pages 209-248