From Ritual to Theatre: The Human Seriousness of Play"How is social action related to aesthetics? In what ways do the large and small crises that fill, not only the nightly TV news but also our daily lives, relate to the genre of theatre? And how are cultures as seemingly different as the Ndembu of Africa and the pluralistic mini-societies of today's America related? Victor Turner--author, teacher, theorist--deals with these manifold connections in this book of essays which range from anthropology to acting to directing, from everyday life to play to genres of art. He writes about "liminality"-- that particular kind of being "in between" so familiar to actors, artists, musicians, shamans. He explains the connections between the "social dramas" that punctuate our lives both on the large scale, such as Watergate and the Iranian hostage crisis and, on the small scale, in ordinary living and the "aesthetic dramas" known to us through literature and theatre." -- |
Contents
INTRODUCTION | 7 |
SOCIAL DRAMAS AND STORIES ABOUT THEM | 61 |
ACTING IN EVERYDAY LIFE AND | 102 |
Copyright | |
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action activity actors aesthetic African anthropological anthropologists antistructural Arnold Van Gennep Barbara Myerhoff become behavior breach called carnival ceremony cognitive communitas comparative symbology complex conflict creative crisis cultural genres cultural performance dance derived Dilthey domain entertainment ethnography experience flow formal Gennep genres of cultural Greek Grotowski historical human ilomba indeterminacy individual industrial societies initiands involved kind leisure liminal liminal phase Liminoid phenomena ludic Lunda masks matrilineal Max Gluckman Mbwela meaning metaphor mirror models modern modes myth narrative Ndembu normative novices nsang'u perhaps perience play playscript political profane Raymond Firth redressive reflexivity relations relationships religious represent Richard Schechner rites of passage ritual Ritual Process role rules sacred script semiotics sense situation social drama social process social structure sociocultural sport status subjunctive subjunctive mood theatre theatrical tion traditional transformation tribal societies types values village Western Wilhelm Dilthey