The Theatre of Imagining (A Cultural History of Imagination in the Mind and on the Stage)

This book is the first comprehensive analysis of the fascinating and strikingly diverse history of imagination in the context of theatre and drama. Key questions that the book explores are: How do spectators engage with the drama in performance, and how does the historical context influence the dramaturgy of imagination? In addition to offering a study of the cultural history and theory of imagination in a European context including its philosophical, physiological, cultural and political implications, the book examines the cultural enactment of imagination in the drama text and offers practical strategies for analyzing the aesthetic practice of imagination in drama texts. It covers the early modern to the late modernist period and includes three in-depth case studies: William Shakespeare’s __Macbeth__ (c.1606); Henrik Ibsen’s __A Doll’s House__ (1879); and Eugène Ionesco’s __The Killer__ (1957). Annotation This book is the first comprehensive analysis of the fascinating and strikingly diverse history of imagination in the context of theatre and drama. Key questions that the book explores are: How do spectators engage with the drama in performance, and how does the historical context influence the dramaturgy of imagination? In addition to offering a study of the cultural history and theory of imagination in a European context including its philosophical, physiological, cultural and political implications, the book examines the cultural enactment of imagination in the drama text and offers practical strategies for analyzing the aesthetic practice of imagination in drama texts. It covers the early modern to the late modernist period and includes three in-depth case studies: William Shakespeare's Macbeth (c.1606); Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House (1879); and Eug ne Ionesco's The Killer (1957) Front Matter ....Pages i-xv Introduction (Ulla Kallenbach)....Pages 1-27 The Mirror and the Messenger (Ulla Kallenbach)....Pages 29-42 Corruption or Perfection? The Precariousness of the Early Modern Imagination (Ulla Kallenbach)....Pages 43-78 Macbeth: A Dramaturgy of Deceit (Ulla Kallenbach)....Pages 79-114 From Mirror to Lamp (Ulla Kallenbach)....Pages 115-137 The Disenchantment of the Idealist Imagination (Ulla Kallenbach)....Pages 139-171 A Doll’s House: Performing the Cultural Imaginary (Ulla Kallenbach)....Pages 173-215 The Late Modern Reimagining of Imagination (Ulla Kallenbach)....Pages 217-247 The Killer: The Interplay of Absence and Presence (Ulla Kallenbach)....Pages 249-277 Towards a Dramaturgy of Physicalization and Imagination (Ulla Kallenbach)....Pages 279-302 Back Matter ....Pages 303-324