A glance at medieval maps tells us that cartographers of the Middle Ages divided space differently than we do today. In the great mappae mundi, for instance, Jerusalem takes center stage, with an image of the crucified Christ separating one place from another. The architects of medieval cathedrals manipulated space to clarify the roles and status of anyone who crossed the threshold. Even in the most everyday context, space was allotted according to gender and class and was freighted with infinitely subtle and various meanings. The contributors to this volume cross disciplinary and theoretical boundaries to read the words, metaphors, images, signs, poetic illusions, and identities with which medieval men and women used space or place to add meaning to the world.

Theatermachine: Tadeusz Kantor in Context is an in-depth, multidisciplinary compendium of essays about one of the most influential theater artists of the twentieth century. Hans-Thies Lehmann's theory of postdramatic theater and developments in critical theory-particularly Bill Brown's thing theory, Bruno Latour's actor-network theory, and posthumanism-serve to provide a previously unavailable vocabulary for discussion of Kantor's theater. Drawing on diverse approaches, the contributors write about Kantor from both global and local perspectives: as an exemplar of "postdramatic tragedy"; in relationship to Jewish culture and Yiddish theater; through the prism of postmemory and trauma theory; and in relation to Japanese, German, French, Polish, and American avant-garde theater. This comprehensive anthology arrives at a time when we grapple with the materiality of our modern lives-AI, technobjects, and algorithms-and might thus also be better poised to understand the materiality that permeates Kantor's theater. Theatermachine argues that while confronting the twentieth century's most pressing, but least comfortable, questions-those of a human's worth, dignity, essence, and purpose-Kantor might also have been, unwittingly, a harbinger of the twenty-first century's political, ethical, aesthetic, and critical discourse.

Tadeusz Kantor (1915-1990) was a Polish visual artist, writer, and theatre director, who can be placed among a select group of the twentieth century's most influential performance practitioners. The breadth and diversity of his artistic endeavours align Kantor with such varied figures as Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz (Witkacy), Marcel Duchamp, Vsevolod Meyerhold, Oskar Schlemmer, Antonin Artaud, Jackson Pollock, Jerzy Grotowski, Allan Kaprow, Peter Brook, Pina Bausch, and Robert Wilson. In significant ways, Kantor's work with the Cricot 2 company and his theories of theatre consistently challenged and expanded the boundaries of traditional and non-traditional theatre forms. Tadeusz Kantor's Memory: Other pasts, other futures -- published following Kantor's centenary year and the 60th anniversary of the founding of Cricot 2, as well as anniversaries of the group's key productions The Dead Class (1975), Wielopole, Wielopole (1980), and Let the Artists Die (1985) -- gathers international perspectives from across academia and the arts to offer a major critical reappraisal of Kantor's work. The book includes scholarly contributions by researchers from around the world, alongside reflections by leading collaborators and colleagues, and a selection of rarely seen images. Together, these materials offer an invaluable, contemporary insight into Kantor's theoretical and artistic practice and an unprecedented view of its global sphere of influence. Michal Kobialka is Professor of Theatre Arts at the Department of Theatre Arts and Dance, University of Minnesota. He has published over 75 articles, essays, and reviews in academic journals in the US and Europe. He is the author of A Journey Through Other Spaces: Essays and Manifestos, 1944-1990 (University of California Press, 1993), This Is My Body: Representational Practices in the Early Middle Ages (University of Michigan Press, 1999), and Further on, Nothing: Tadeusz Kantor's Theatre (University of Minnesota Press, 2009); editor of Of Borders and Thresholds: Theatre History, Practice, and Theory (University of Minnesota Press, 1999); and co-editor (with Barbara Hanawalt) of Medieval Practices of Space (University of Minnesota Press, 2000) as well as (with Rosemarie K. Bank) of Theatre/Performance Historiography: Time, Space, Matter (Palgrave, 2015). Natalia Zarzecka is Director of Cricoteka: The Centre for the Documentation of the Art of Tadeusz Kantor, in Krakow, where she has led development of the centre's new building and museum space on the Vistula river. She has co-curated several Polish and international exhibitions, including within the Kantor Centenary programme at Cricoteka (2015) and 'An Impossible Journey: The Art and Theatre of Tadeusz Kantor' at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts in Norwich, UK, within the Polska! Year (2009). She is co-editor of Italian and Polish editions of the Wielopole, Wielopole Dossier (Titivillus, 2006; Cricoteka, 2007) and Kantor Was Here (Black Dog Publishing, 2011), co-translator (with Silvia Parlagreco) of Podroz Tadeusza Kantora kompendium biograficzne (2002), and author of various texts on Tadeusz Kantor and Cricoteka. For more information about Polish Theatre Perspectives, and to view Open Access editions of this and other PTP titles, please visit www.ptp.press.

Theatermachine: Tadeusz Kantor in Context is an in-depth, multidisciplinary compendium of essays about one of the most influential theater artists of the twentieth century. Hans-Thies Lehmann's theory of postdramatic theater and developments in critical theory-particularly Bill Brown's thing theory, Bruno Latour's actor-network theory, and posthumanism-serve to provide a previously unavailable vocabulary for discussion of Kantor's theater. Drawing on diverse approaches, the contributors write about Kantor from both global and local perspectives: as an exemplar of "postdramatic tragedy"; in relationship to Jewish culture and Yiddish theater; through the prism of postmemory and trauma theory; and in relation to Japanese, German, French, Polish, and American avant-garde theater. This comprehensive anthology arrives at a time when we grapple with the materiality of our modern lives-AI, technobjects, and algorithms-and might thus also be better poised to understand the materiality that permeates Kantor's theater. Theatermachine argues that while confronting the twentieth century's most pressing, but least comfortable, questions-those of a human's worth, dignity, essence, and purpose-Kantor might also have been, unwittingly, a harbinger of the twenty-first century's political, ethical, aesthetic, and critical discourse.

Tadeusz Kantor (1915-1990) was one of the twentieth century's most innovative visual artists, stage directors, and theoreticians. His theatre productions and manifestos challenged the conventions of creating art in post-World War II culture and expanded the boundaries of Dada, surrealist, Constructivist, and happening theatre forms. Kantor's most widely known productions-The Dead Class (1975), Wielopole, Wielopole (1980), Let the Artists Die (1985), and Today Is My Birthday (1990)-have had a profound impact on playwrights and artists who continue today to engage with his radical theatre. In Further on, Nothing, Michal Kobialka explores Kantor's theatre practice from the critical perspective of current debates about representation, memory, and history. He pursues the intriguing proposition that Kantor gave material form to a theatre practice that defined the very mode of postmodern operation and that many of its theoretical notions are still in circulation. According to Kobialka, Kantor's theatre still offers an answer to reality rather than a portrayal of a utopian alternative. Further on, Nothing includes new translations of Kantor's work, presented in conversation with Kobialka's own theoretical analyses, to show us a Kantor who continues to offer-and deliver on-the promise of the avant-garde

The recipient of the annual Award for Outstanding Book in Theatre Practice and Pedagogy from the Association for Theatre in Higher Education, This Is My Body realigns representational practices in the early Middle Ages with current debates on the nature of representation. Michal Kobialkai's study views the medieval concept of representation as having been in flux and crossed by different modes of seeing, until it was stabilized by the constitutions of the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215. Kobialka argues that the concept of representation in the early Middle Ages had little to do with the tradition that considers representation in terms of Aristotle or Plato; rather, it was enshrined in the interpretation of Hoc est corpus meum [This is my body] -- the words spoken by Christ to the apostles at the Last Supper -- and in establishing the visibility of the body of Christ that had disappeared from view. Michal Kobialka is Professor in the Department of Theatre Arts and Dance at the University of Minnesota.