Representing the Past: Essays in Performance Historiography (Studies Theatre Hist & Culture)

How do historians represent the past? How do theatre historians represent performance events? The fifteen challenging essays in __Representing the Past: Essays in Performance Historiography__ focus on the fundamental epistemological conditions and procedures that serve as the foundational ideas that guide all historians in their endeavors. Unified by their investigations into how best to understand and then represent the past, this diverse group of scholars in the field of theatre history and performance studies offers insights into the abiding issues that all historians face in the task of representing human events and actions. Five primary ideas provide the topics as well as the intellectual parameters for this book: archive, time, space, identity, and narrative. Taking these as the conceptual framework for historical research and analysis, the essayists cover an expansive range of case studies and problems in the historical study of performance from the Americas to Africa and from Europe to India and China. Considering not only how historians think __about__ these concepts in their research and writing but more pointedly—and historiographically—how they think __with__ them, the essayists demonstrate the power and centrality of each of these five ideas in historical scholarship from initial research to the writing of essays and books. Performance history has a diversity of identities, locations, sources, and narratives. This compelling engagement with the concepts essential to historical understanding is a valuable contribution to the historiography of performance—for students, teachers, and the future of the discipline itself. Expanding upon its classic predecessor, __Interpreting the Theatrical Past: Essays in the Historiography of Performance__, this exciting new collection illustrates the contemporary richness of historical thinking and writing in the field of performance history. In The United States, The Emigrant Tale Is A Staple Myth. Much Of What Cella Studies, From James Fenimore Cooper's The Prairie To Willa Cather's O Pioneers! Embodies That Myth. It Springs From The Hope That Life Can Take A Turn For The Better, That A Person Down On Her Luck Can Change Her Fate By Changing Her Location. This Is One Of The Deep Stories Of American Culture....it Is Not Just A Narrative--it Is A Promise, Even A Prophecy....by Reading The Old Stories So Well, Matthew Cella Helps Us To Imagine What Those New Ones Might Be.--wayne Franklin. Matthew Cella Offers An Informative--and Transformative--'map Of Words' For The Great Plains. It Will Appeal Not Only To Scholars But To Anyone Seeking A New Harmony Between Literary Art And Ecological Responsibility In The Grasslands. An Inspiring, Hope-filled Journey.--john T. Price, Author, Not Just Any Land: A Personal And Literary Journey Into The American Grasslands And Man Killed By Pheasant And Other Kinships. Drawing On The Rich Body Of Literary And Critical Writing From The Great Plains, Bad Land Pastoralism In Great Plains Fiction Offers Sharp Analyses Of Peoples In A Demanding Land. Focused On The Region's Intertwined Ecology, History, And Cultures As Found In Its Valorized Texts, This Book Extends Our Understanding Of The Shaping Of The Unique North American Literary Environment Stretching From Texas North To Alberta, Saskatchewan, And Manitoba. Matthew Cella Imaginatively Pairs Texts From Cooper And Cather Through To Annie Proulx, Thomas King, And James Welch In Order To Define A New Pastoralism, One Born Of The ̀great Facts' Of The Great Plains Environment. Richly Detailed And Profoundly Environmentally Conscious, Cella's Study Extends Critical Discussion Of The Region's Writing In Ways Acute, Focused, And Compelling.--robert Thacker, Charles A. Dana Professor Of Canadian Studies And English, St. Lawrence University, And Author, The Great Prairie Fact And Literary Imagination. Using A Pastoral Lens To Examine Ten Fictional Narratives That Chronicle The Dialogue Between Human Culture And Nonhuman Nature On The Great Plains, Matthew Cella Explores Literary Treatments Of A Succession Of Abrupt Cultural Transitions From The Euroamerican Conquest Of The Indian Wilderness In The Nineteenth Century To The Buffalo Commons Phenomenon In The Twentieth. By Charting The Shifting Meaning Of Land Use And Biocultural Change In The Region, He Posits This Bad Land--the Arid West--as A Crucible For The Development Of The Human Imagination. --book Jacket. Introduction: Biocultural Change And Literary Pastoralism In Great Plains Fiction -- 1. (un)settling The Indian Wilderness: Tribal Pastoralism In Cooper's The Prairie And Welch's Fools Crow -- 2. Pastoralism And Enclosure: Marriage And Illegitimate Children On The Range-farm Frontier In Eaton's Cattle And Richter's Sea Of Grass -- 3. Harmonious Fields And Wild Prairies: Transcendental Pastoralism In Willa Cather's Nebraska Novels -- 4. Patches Of Green And Fields Of Dust: Dust Bowl Pastoralism In Olsen's Yonnondio And Manfred's The Golden Bowl -- 5. Healing The Wounds Of History: Buffalo Commons Pastoralism In Proulx's That Old Ace In The Hole And King's Truth And Bright Water -- Epilogue: Pastoral Art And The Beautiful. Matthew J.c. Cella ; Foreword By Wayne Franklin. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.

How do historians represent the past? How do theatre historians represent performance events? The fifteen challenging essays in Representing the Past: Essays in Performance Historiography focus on the fundamental epistemological conditions and procedures that serve as the foundational ideas that guide all historians in their endeavors. Unified by their investigations into how best to understand and then represent the past, this diverse group of scholars in the field of theatre history and performance studies offers insights into the abiding issues that all historians face in the task of representing human events and actions.

Five primary ideas provide the topics as well as the intellectual parameters for this book: archive, time, space, identity, and narrative. Taking these as the conceptual framework for historical research and analysis, the essayists cover an expansive range of case studies and problems in the historical study of performance from the Americas to Africa and from Europe to India and China. Considering not only how historians think about these concepts in their research and writing but more pointedly—and historiographically—how they think with them, the essayists demonstrate the power and centrality of each of these five ideas in historical scholarship from initial research to the writing of essays and books.

Performance history has a diversity of identities, locations, sources, and narratives. This compelling engagement with the concepts essential to historical understanding is a valuable contribution to the historiography of performance—for students, teachers, and the future of the discipline itself. Expanding upon its classic predecessor, Interpreting the Theatrical Past: Essays in the Historiography of Performance, this exciting new collection illustrates the contemporary richness of historical thinking and writing in the field of performance history.

Representing the past : an introduction on five themes / THOMAS POSTLEWAIT AND CHARLOTTE CANNING ARCHIVE. Playbills and the theatrical public sphere / CHRISTOPER B. BALME The making of theatre history / SUSAN BENNETT Writing the unwritten : Morris dance and theatre history / CLAIRE SPONSLER TIME. Cyclic perseverance and linear mobility of theatrical events / WILLMAR SAUTER Performative time / TRACY C. DAVIS Representing India's pasts : time, culture, and the problems of performance historiography / APARNA DHARWADKER SPACE. Space and theatre history / MARVIN CARLSON Seeing is believing : the historian's use of images / DAVID WILES When "everything counts" : experimental performance and performance historiography / Shannon Jackson. IDENTITY. History's thresholds : stories from Africa / CATHERINE M. COLE The high stakes of identity : Lorraine Hansberry's Follow the drinking gourd and Suzan-Lori Parks' Venus / HARRY J. ELAM, JR. Fifty years of staging a founding father : political theater, dramatic history, and the question of representation / XIAOMEI CHEN NARRATIVE. Textual evidances / SUSAN L. FOSTER Narratives of nostalgia : Oriental evasions about the London stage / BRIAN SINGLETON Re-enacting events to narrate theatre history / BRUCE McCONACHIE. "This collection of essays will change the basic rules of theatre and performance historiography and establish some completely new ones. At the same time as it strengthens the bridges to the disciplines of general history and cultural history, it opens up many new venues and perspectives to the histories of the stage arts. It sets up the basic categories for performance historiography research and shows in depth how these categories can be applied. This book will become a central point of reference for students and teachers in the field for many years to come."--Freddie Rokem, author, Performing History: Theatrical Representations of the Past in Contemporary Theatre and Philosophers and Thespians: Thinking Performance --Book Jacket "Unusually well conceived, this collection of essays by leading scholars in theatre studies exemplifies a back-to-the-basics approach that is as welcome as it is timely. We are reminded just how difficult it is to capture the most elusive of historical objects--a theatrical performance--but also that we must keep trying."--Martin Puchner, author, The Drama of Ideas: Platonic Provocations in Theater and Philosophy "Representing the Past is required reading for any serious scholar of theatre and performance historiography: original in its conception, global in its reach, thought-provoking and transformative in its effects."--Gay Gibson Cima, author, Early American Women Crities: Performance, Religion, Race