Theatrocracy : Greek Drama, Cognition, and the Imperative for Theatre

__Theatrocracy__is a book about the power of the theatre, how it can affect the people who experience it, and the societies within which it is embedded. It takes as its model the earliest theatrical form we possess complete plays from, the classical Greek theatre of the fifth century BCE, and offers a new approach to understanding how ancient drama operated in performance and became such an influential social, cultural, and political force, inspiring and being influenced by revolutionary developments in political engagement and citizen discourse. Key performative elements of Greek theatre are analyzed from the perspective of the cognitive sciences as embodied, live, enacted events, with new approaches to narrative, space, masks, movement, music, words, emotions, and empathy. This groundbreaking study combines research from the fields of the affective sciences - the study of human emotions - including cognitive theory, neuroscience, psychology, artificial intelligence, psychiatry, and cognitive archaeology, with classical, theatre, and performance studies.This book revisits what Plato found so unsettling about drama - its ability to produce a__theatrocracy__, a "government" of spectators - and argues that this was not a negative but an essential element of Athenian theatre. It shows that Athenian drama provided a place of alterity where audiences were exposed to different viewpoints and radical perspectives. This perspective was, and is, vital in a freethinking democratic society where people are expected to vote on matters of state. In order to achieve this goal, the theatre offered a dissociative and absorbing experience that enhanced emotionality, deepened understanding, and promoted empathy. There was, and still is, an urgent imperative for theatre. Theatrocracy is a book about the power of the theatre, how it can affect the people who experience it, and the societies within which it is embedded. It takes as its model the earliest theatrical form we possess complete plays from, the classical Greek theatre of the fifth century BCE, and offers a new approach to understanding how ancient drama operated in performance and became such an influential social, cultural, and political force, inspiring and being influenced by revolutionary developments in political engagement and citizen discourse. Key performative elements of Greek theatre are analyzed from the perspective of the cognitive sciences as embodied, live, enacted events, with new approaches to narrative, space, masks, movement, music, words, emotions, and empathy. This groundbreaking study combines research from the fields of the affective sciences - the study of human emotions - including cognitive theory, neuroscience, psychology, artificial intelligence, psychiatry, and cognitive archaeology, with classical, theatre, and performance studies. This book revisits what Plato found so unsettling about drama - its ability to produce a theatrocracy , a "government" of spectators - and argues that this was not a negative but an essential element of Athenian theatre. It shows that Athenian drama provided a place of alterity where audiences were exposed to different viewpoints and radical perspectives. This perspective was, and is, vital in a freethinking democratic society where people are expected to vote on matters of state. In order to achieve this goal, the theatre offered a dissociative and absorbing experience that enhanced emotionality, deepened understanding, and promoted empathy. There was, and still is, an urgent imperative for theatre. Cover -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction: theatre as a mimetic mind -- Distributed cognition -- Prediction -- Emotions -- Comparative social modeling -- Empathy -- The mimetic mind -- 1 Muthos: probability and prediction -- Making sense of surprisal -- Basic Bayes -- Probabilistic politics -- Extending prediction -- 2 Opsis: the embodied view -- Environment and action -- Phantasia theatre -- The seeing place of Dionysos -- Re-thinking open-air theatre -- The four realms of theatrical three-dimensional space -- Dionysos and dopamine -- 3 Ethos: the character of catharsis -- Mask as theatrical frame -- The affective mask -- Projecting emotions -- The mutable mask -- Peripheral and foveal vision -- Kuleshovian contexts -- The mask in its cultural and cognitive context -- Culture, literacy, and face processing -- A cognitive change of masks -- 4 Dianoia: intention in action -- Perception and action -- The action-orientated spectator -- Kinesthetic emotional contagion -- Mitigating mirror neurons -- Whole body perception -- Sensorimotor gestures -- Chorality and empathy -- 5 Melos: music and the mind -- Cross-cultural music -- The super-expressive aulos -- The dissonant lament -- A musical tragic paradox -- Musical dissonance and absorption -- Prediction and musical expectancy -- 6 Lexis: somatosensory words -- The movement of meter -- Masked language -- Linguistic evaluative conditioning -- A somatosensory analysis of Aeschylus -- Understanding the unintelligible -- 7 Metabasis: dissociation and democracy -- The Default Mode Network -- En xena xenon - "a stranger in a strange land"--Dissociation - absorption - empathy -- Ancient empathy in action -- Coda: ancient empathy today -- Index This Book Examines Classical Greek Theatre, Asking How Ancient Drama Operated In Performance And Became Such An Influential Social, Cultural And Political Force. Meineck Approaches Greek Theatre From The Perspective Of The Cognitive Sciences As An Embodied Live Enacted Event, And Analyses How Different Performative Elements Acted Upon Audiences To Create Absorbing Narrative Action, Emotional Intensity, Intellectual Reflection And Empathy. This Was The Key To The Transformative Artistic And Social Power That Enabled Greek Drama To Advance Alternate Viewpoints. He Also Explores What The Model Of Greek Drama Can Reveal About Live Theatre's Value In Cultural, Social And Political Discourse Today.-- Peter Meineck. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. "This book examines classical Greek theatre, asking how ancient drama operated in performance and became such an influential social, cultural and political force. Meineck approaches Greek theatre from the perspective of the cognitive sciences as an embodied live enacted event, and analyses how different performative elements acted upon audiences to create absorbing narrative action, emotional intensity, intellectual reflection and empathy. This was the key to the transformative artistic and social power that enabled Greek drama to advance alternate viewpoints. He also explores what the model of Greek drama can reveal about live theatre's value in cultural, social and political discourse today."-- Provided by publisher