The Death of Character: Perspectives on Theater After Modernism (Drama and Performance Studies) [Hardcover]

Elinor Fuchs (Author)

Book Description

Series: Drama and Performance Studies | Publication Date: June 1996

What makes this book exceptional is Fuchs' acute rehearsal of the stranger unnerving events of the last generation that have in the cross-reflections of theory determined our thinking about theater. She seems to have seen and absorbed them all. - Herbert Blau, Center for Twentieth Century Studies, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. A work of bold theoretical ambition and exceptional critical intelligence. - Una Chaudhuri, New York University...Fuchs makes an exceptionally lucid and eloquent case for the value and contradictions in postmodern theater. - Alice Rayner, Stanford University. Surveying the extraordinary scene of the postmodern American theater, Fuchs boldly frames key issues of subjectivity and performance with the keenest of critical eyes for the compelling image and the telling gesture. - Joseph Roach, Tulane University. In this engrossing study, Elinor Fuchs explores the multiple worlds of theater after modernism. She begins with the story of the decline of character, once the central link between the artist and the spectator. In theatrical modernism Fuchs sees a series of strategies to compensate for this decline. Postmodern theater no longer greets the demotion of character with anxiety, despair, or satisfaction as in Pirandello, Beckett, or Brecht but puts in its stead a multiple subject, a protean spectator, and a dispersed field of attention. These changes are reflected in the dramaturgy, staging, gender representations, and audience expectations of contemporary theater. While "The Death of Character" engages contemporary cultural and aesthetic theory, Elinor Fuchs always speaks as an active theater critic. Nine of her Village Voice and American Theatre essays conclude the volume. They give an immediate, vivid account of contemporary theater and theatrical culture written from the front of rapid cultural change.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Treating theater as a crucial mediating term between the heterogeneous fullness of life and the clarifying abstractions of theory and as a grounding principle in a period of conflicting or dissolving truths, Fuchs (Yale and Columbia) demonstrates in this sage and sane examination of postmodern theater (especially in the US) why she is one of the most astute observers of the contemporary scene. As a critic she brings to this perceptive, dense study not only insights of sheer brilliance but historical perspective (including samplings of her own reviews and articles, 1979–93) and contextual overview rare in contemporary critical writing. Although clearly supportive of trends challenging more traditional approaches in theater, she remains objective and balanced throughout. She provides illuminating analyses of work by such artists as Richard Foreman, Robert Wilson, Meredith Monk, Reza Abdoh, Elizabeth LeCompte, and Suzan-Lori Parks, among others, and such influential theorists as Jacques Derrida. Arguably the most accessible yet learned road map to what remains for many impenetrable territory, Fuchs' book, heavily theoretical but constantly anchored to specific performances, is an obligatory addition to all academic libraries serving upper-division undergraduates and abovD. B. Wilmeth, Brown University, Choice, December 1996

(D. B. Wilmeth, Brown University Choice 1996) --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

ELINOR FUCHS, a New York theater critic noted for her writing on contemporary experimental theater, is on the faculty of the School of the Arts at Columbia University and is Lecturer at the Yale School of Drama. She has also taught at Harvard University, New York University, and Emory University. She is editor of Plays of the Holocaust: An International Anthology, and co-author (with Joyce Antler) of the documentary play Year One of the Empire. Her essays have appeared in such publications as American Theatre, The Drama Review, Modern Drama, Theater, and Performing Arts Journal. She has been a contributor to The Village Voice since 1982.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Indiana Univ Pr (June 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0253330386
• ISBN-13: 978-0253330383
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 6.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,141,887 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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