Alienation and Theatricality - Diderot After Brecht (Hardcover)

Alienation (Vefremdung) is a concept inextricably linked with the name of twentieth-century German playwright Bertolt Brecht with modernism, the avant-garde and Marxist theory. However, as Phoebe von Held argues in this book, alienation as a sociological and aesthetic notion avant la lettre had already surfaced in the thought of eighteenth-century French philosopher and writer Denis Diderot. This original study destabilizes the conventional understanding of alienation through a reading of Le Paradoxe sur le comedien, Le Neveu de Rameau and other works by Diderot, opening up new ways of interpretation and aesthetic practices. If alienation constitutes a historical development for the Marxist Brecht, for Diderot it defines an existential condition. Brecht uses the alienation-effect to undermine a form of naturalism based on subjectivity, identification and illusion; Diderot, by contrast, plunges the spectator into identification and illusion, to produce an aesthetic of theatricality that is profoundly alienating and yet remains anchored in subjectivity.

General

Imprint:	Legenda
Country of origin:	United Kingdom
Release date:	2011
First published:	2011
Authors:	Phoebe von Held
Dimensions:	246 x 174 x 19mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Hardcover
Pages:	254
ISBN-13:	978-1-906540-12-8
Categories:	Books > Language & Literature > Literature: history & criticism > Literary studies > From 1900 Books > Language & Literature > Literature: history & criticism > Plays & playwrights > General Promotions
LSN:	1-906540-12-8
Barcode:	9781906540128

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