- Table View
- List View
The Male Dancer: Bodies, Spectacle, Sexualities
by Ramsay BurtIn this challenging and lively book, Burt examines the representation of masculinity in twentieth century dance. The Male Dancer has proven to be essential reading for anyone interested in dance and the cultural construction of gender.
The Male Dancer: Bodies, Spectacle, Sexualities
by Ramsay BurtIn this challenging and lively book, Burt examines the representation of masculinity in twentieth century dance. The Male Dancer has proven to be essential reading for anyone interested in dance and the cultural construction of gender.
The Male Dancer: Bodies, Spectacle and Sexuality
by Ramsay BurtIn this challenging and lively book, Ramsay Burt examines the representation of masculinity in twentieth century dance. Taking issue with formalist and modernist accounts of dance, which dismiss gender and sexuality as irrelevant, he argues that prejudices against male dancers are rooted in our ideas about the male body and male behaviour. Building upon ideas about the gendered gaze developed by film and feminist theorists, Ramsay Burt provides a provocative theory of spectorship in dance. He uses this to examine the work of choreographers like Nijinsky, Graham, Bausch, while relating their dances to the social, political and artistic contexts in which they were produced. Within these re-readings, he identifies a distinction between institutionalised modernist dance which evokes an essentialist, heroic, `hypermasculinity'; one which is valorised with reference to nature, heterosexuality and religion, and radical, avant garde choreography which challenges and disrupts dominant ways of representing masculinity. The Male Dancer will be essential reading for anyone interested in dance and the cultural construction of gender.
The Male Dancer: Bodies, Spectacle and Sexuality
by Ramsay BurtIn this challenging and lively book, Ramsay Burt examines the representation of masculinity in twentieth century dance. Taking issue with formalist and modernist accounts of dance, which dismiss gender and sexuality as irrelevant, he argues that prejudices against male dancers are rooted in our ideas about the male body and male behaviour. Building upon ideas about the gendered gaze developed by film and feminist theorists, Ramsay Burt provides a provocative theory of spectorship in dance. He uses this to examine the work of choreographers like Nijinsky, Graham, Bausch, while relating their dances to the social, political and artistic contexts in which they were produced. Within these re-readings, he identifies a distinction between institutionalised modernist dance which evokes an essentialist, heroic, `hypermasculinity'; one which is valorised with reference to nature, heterosexuality and religion, and radical, avant garde choreography which challenges and disrupts dominant ways of representing masculinity. The Male Dancer will be essential reading for anyone interested in dance and the cultural construction of gender.
Male-to-Female Crossdressing in Early Modern English Literature: Gender, Performance, and Queer Relations (Routledge Studies in Renaissance Literature and Culture)
by Simone ChessThis volume examines and theorizes the oft-ignored phenomenon of male-to-female (MTF) crossdressing in early modern drama, prose, and poetry, inviting MTF crossdressing episodes to take a fuller place alongside instances of female-to-male crossdressing and boy actors’ crossdressing, which have long held the spotlight in early modern gender studies. The author argues that MTF crossdressing episodes are especially rich sources for socially-oriented readings of queer gender—that crossdressers’ genders are constructed and represented in relation to romantic partners, communities, and broader social structures like marriage, economy, and sexuality. Further, she argues that these relational representations show that the crossdresser and his/her allies often benefit financially, socially, and erotically from his/her queer gender presentation, a corrective to the dominant idea that queer gender has always been associated with shame, containment, and correction. By attending to these relational and beneficial representations of MTF crossdressers in early modern literature, the volume helps to make a larger space for queer, genderqueer, male-bodied and queer-feminine representations in our conversations about early modern gender and sexuality.
Male-to-Female Crossdressing in Early Modern English Literature: Gender, Performance, and Queer Relations (Routledge Studies in Renaissance Literature and Culture)
by Simone ChessThis volume examines and theorizes the oft-ignored phenomenon of male-to-female (MTF) crossdressing in early modern drama, prose, and poetry, inviting MTF crossdressing episodes to take a fuller place alongside instances of female-to-male crossdressing and boy actors’ crossdressing, which have long held the spotlight in early modern gender studies. The author argues that MTF crossdressing episodes are especially rich sources for socially-oriented readings of queer gender—that crossdressers’ genders are constructed and represented in relation to romantic partners, communities, and broader social structures like marriage, economy, and sexuality. Further, she argues that these relational representations show that the crossdresser and his/her allies often benefit financially, socially, and erotically from his/her queer gender presentation, a corrective to the dominant idea that queer gender has always been associated with shame, containment, and correction. By attending to these relational and beneficial representations of MTF crossdressers in early modern literature, the volume helps to make a larger space for queer, genderqueer, male-bodied and queer-feminine representations in our conversations about early modern gender and sexuality.
Malicious Deceivers: Thinking Machines and Performative Objects (Sensing Media: Aesthetics, Philosophy, and Cultures of Media)
by Ioana B. JucanIn Malicious Deceivers, Ioana B. Jucan traces a genealogy of post-truth intimately tied to globalizing modernity and connects the production of repeatable fakeness with capitalism and Cartesian metaphysics. Through case studies that cross times and geographies, the book unpacks the notion of fakeness through the related logics of dissimulation (deception) and simulation (performativity) as seen with software/AI, television, plastics, and the internet. Specifically, Jucan shows how these (dis)simulation machines and performative objects construct impoverished pictures of the world, ensuring a repeatable sameness through processes of hollowing out embodied histories and lived experience. Through both its methodology and its subjects-objects of study, the book further seeks ways to counter the abstracting mode of thinking and the processes of voiding performed by the twinning of Cartesian metaphysics and global capitalism. Enacting a model of creative scholarship rooted in the tradition of writing as performance, Jucan, a multimedia performance-maker and theater director, uses the embodied "I" as a framing and situating device for the book and its sites of investigation. In this way, she aims to counter the Cartesian voiding of the thinking "I" and to enact a different kind of relationship between self and world from the one posited by Descartes and replayed in much Western philosophical and — more broadly — academic writing: a relationship of separation that situates the "I" on a pedestal of abstraction that voids it of its embodied histories and fails to account for its positionality within a socio-historical context and the operations of power that define it.
Malicious Deceivers: Thinking Machines and Performative Objects (Sensing Media: Aesthetics, Philosophy, and Cultures of Media)
by Ioana B. JucanIn Malicious Deceivers, Ioana B. Jucan traces a genealogy of post-truth intimately tied to globalizing modernity and connects the production of repeatable fakeness with capitalism and Cartesian metaphysics. Through case studies that cross times and geographies, the book unpacks the notion of fakeness through the related logics of dissimulation (deception) and simulation (performativity) as seen with software/AI, television, plastics, and the internet. Specifically, Jucan shows how these (dis)simulation machines and performative objects construct impoverished pictures of the world, ensuring a repeatable sameness through processes of hollowing out embodied histories and lived experience. Through both its methodology and its subjects-objects of study, the book further seeks ways to counter the abstracting mode of thinking and the processes of voiding performed by the twinning of Cartesian metaphysics and global capitalism. Enacting a model of creative scholarship rooted in the tradition of writing as performance, Jucan, a multimedia performance-maker and theater director, uses the embodied "I" as a framing and situating device for the book and its sites of investigation. In this way, she aims to counter the Cartesian voiding of the thinking "I" and to enact a different kind of relationship between self and world from the one posited by Descartes and replayed in much Western philosophical and — more broadly — academic writing: a relationship of separation that situates the "I" on a pedestal of abstraction that voids it of its embodied histories and fails to account for its positionality within a socio-historical context and the operations of power that define it.
Mama Dada: Gertrude Stein's Avant-Garde Theatre (Studies in Modern Drama)
by Sarah Bay-ChengMama Dada is the first book to examine Gertrude Stein's drama within the history of the theatrical and cinematic avant-gardes. Since the publication of Stein's major writings by the Library of America in 1998, interest in her dramatic writing has escalated, particularly in American avant-garde theaters. This book addresses the growing interest in Stein's theater by offering the first detailed analyses of her major plays, and by considering them within a larger history of avant-garde performance. In addition to comparing Stein's plays and theories to those generated by Dadaists, Surrealists, and Futurists, this study further explores the uniqueness of Stein via these theatrical movements, including discussions of her interest in American life and drama, which argues that a significant and heretofore unrecognized relationship exists among the histories of avant-garde drama, cinema, and homosexuality. By examining and explaining the relationship among these three histories, the dramatic writings of Stein can best be understood, not only as examples of literary modernism, but also as influential dramatic works that have had a lasting effect on the American theatrical avant-
Mama Dada: Gertrude Stein's Avant-Garde Theatre (Studies in Modern Drama)
by Sarah Bay-ChengMama Dada is the first book to examine Gertrude Stein's drama within the history of the theatrical and cinematic avant-gardes. Since the publication of Stein's major writings by the Library of America in 1998, interest in her dramatic writing has escalated, particularly in American avant-garde theaters. This book addresses the growing interest in Stein's theater by offering the first detailed analyses of her major plays, and by considering them within a larger history of avant-garde performance. In addition to comparing Stein's plays and theories to those generated by Dadaists, Surrealists, and Futurists, this study further explores the uniqueness of Stein via these theatrical movements, including discussions of her interest in American life and drama, which argues that a significant and heretofore unrecognized relationship exists among the histories of avant-garde drama, cinema, and homosexuality. By examining and explaining the relationship among these three histories, the dramatic writings of Stein can best be understood, not only as examples of literary modernism, but also as influential dramatic works that have had a lasting effect on the American theatrical avant-
Mamet Plays: November; Race; The Anarchist (Contemporary Dramatists)
by David MametRaceSparks fly when three lawyers – two black and one white – and a defendant clash over the issue of race and the American judicial system. Drawing on one of the most highly charged issues of American history, David Mamet forces us to confront deep-seated prejudices and barely healed wounds in this unflinching examination of the lies we tell ourselves and the truths we unwillingly reveal to others. NovemberIt's November in a Presidential election year and incumbent Charles Smith's chances for re-election are looking unlikely. Approval ratings are down, his money's running out, and nuclear war might be imminent. But Chuck isn't ready to give up just yet. November is a hilarious take on the state of contemporary America. The Anarchist Cathy is a woman who has served 35 years of a life sentence for killing a policeman in a botched robbery. Her prison officer Ann must decide whether or not to grant her parole. Mamet once again employs his signature verbal jousting in this battle of two women over freedom, power, money, and religion.
Mamet Plays: Boston Marriage; Dr Faustus; Romance (Contemporary Dramatists)
by David MametA collection of outstanding plays from one of America's greatest playwrightsBoston MarriageDavid Mamet conquers new territory with this droll comedy of errors set in a Victorian drawing-room. Anna and Claire are two bantering, scheming ladies of fashion who have long lived together on the fringes of upper-class society. Anna has just become the mistress of a wealthy man, from whom she has received an enormous emerald and an income to match. Claire, meanwhile, is infatuated with a respectable young lady and wants to enlist the jealous Anna's help for an assignation."Devastatingly funny . . . exceptionally clever" New York Times"Brilliant . . . One of Mamet's most satisfying and accomplished plays, and one of the funniest American comedies in years" New York PostFaustusA modern retelling of the classic tale of pride, folly and the ultimate wager. Faustus has it all - fame, success, a loving family. But a careless pact with a beguiling magician threatens everything. In language, scope and theatrical sensibility, Faustus represents a big departure for Mamet, melding resplendent language and metaphysics in an eerie and moving retelling of the tragedy of Doctor Faustus.RomanceWildly humorous and often gob-smackingly outrageous, Romance is an uproarious courtroom farce, which lampoons the American judicial system and exposes the hypocrisy surrounding personal prejudices and political correctness."An exhilarating spectacle†? New Yorker"It made me weep with delight. . . . Romance is funny. Extremely funny.†? Wall Street Journal
Mamet Plays: Duck Variations; Sexual Perversity in Chicago; Squirrels; American Buffalo; The Water Engine; Mr Happiness
by David MametDuck Variations: "A brilliant little play...about two old men sitting on a park bench discussing ducks" (Guardian); Sexual Perversity in Chicago, bar-room banter and sexual exploits in Mamet's home town "sweet sad understanding and utterly believable" (Chicago Daily News); Squirrels is a sequence of philosophising between a younger writer, an older writer and a cleaning lady which "memorably captures the agony of the creative process" (Daily Telegraph); American Buffalo, one of Mamet's most famous plays, is set in a junk shop where Three small-time crooks plot to carry out the midnight robbery of a coin collection - in the hours leading up to the heist, friendship becomes the victim in a conflict between loyalty and business. The Water Engine is "a propulsive, kaleidoscopic nightmare" and Mr Happiness is a short ironic monologue by a Radio DJ commenting on the letters from his listeners.
Mamet Plays: Reunion; Dark Pony; A Life in the Theatre; The Woods; Lakeboat; Edmond
by David Mamet"The finest American playwright of his generation" (Sunday Times)Reunion shows the meeting between a father and daughter after nearly twenty years of separation: "It would be hard to over-praise the way Mr Mamet suggests behind the probing, joshing family chat, an extraordinary sense of pain and loss...although the play has a strong social comment about the destructively cyclical effect of divorce, it is neither sour nor defeatist" (Guardian); In Dark Play, a father tells his five-year-old daughter a story about an Indian boy and his pony "a subtle, lyrical, dreamlike vignette" (Star Tribune); in The Woods, a young man and woman spend the night in a cabin together "a beautifully conceived love story" (Chicago Daily News); Lakeboat portrays eight crew members of a merchant ship exchanging wild fantasies about sex, gambling and violence "Richly overheard talk...loopy, funny construction." (Village Voice); Edmond is an odyssey through the disturbing, suspended dark void of a contemporary New York "it is also a technically adventurous piece pared brilliantly to the bone, highly theatrical in its scenic elisions." (Financial Times)
Mamet Plays: Glengarry Glen Ross; Prairie du Chien; The Shawl; Speed-the-Plow
by David Mamet"The finest American playwright of his generation" (Sunday Times)Glen Garry Glen Ross (also made in to a film starring Jack Lemmon and Al Pacino) "his superb play about real estate salesmen in a cut-throat sales competition" (New Society); in Prairie du Chien a railway carriage speeding through the Wisconsin night is the setting for a violent story of obsessive jealousy, murder and suicide, told within shooting distance of a card-hustler and his victim. "A short poignant study in violence and the twin drives of love and money, told with hypnotic power thorugh a travelling raconteur" (City Limits); The Shawl shows a clairvoyant wondering whether to cheat a bereaved woman of her inheritance and "confirms Mamet's place as about the best living writer of vivid American dialogue" (Daily Telegraph). Set in the cut-throat world of Hollywood, Speed-the-Plow sees two old-time movie collaborators manipulate the aspirations of a young woman who will do anything to attain her dream of success "a brilliant black comedy, a dazzling dissection of Hollywood cupidity." (Newsweek)
Mamet Plays: Crytogram; Oleanna; the Old Neighborhood
by David MametA collection of outstanding plays from one of America's greatest playwrightsCryptogram: "Mamet's play suggests that deception is an endless spiralling process that eventually corrodes the soul. But it also harps on a theme that runs right throughout Mamet's work: the notion that we use words as a destructive social camouflage to lie to others and ourselves...And here through all the repetitions, half sentences and echoing encounter of one question with another, you feel the characters devalue experience through their use of language. As Del cries in desperation at the end, 'If we could speak the truth for one instant, then we would be free.' Mamet's point is that we are held spiritually captive by our bluster and evasions." (Michael Billington, Guardian)Oleanna: "An exploration of male-femal conflicts which cogently demonstrates that whe free thought and dialogue are imperilled, nobody wins" (Independent) The Old Neighborhood: "Mamet, ranked with Miller, Albee and Shepard as America's finest living playwrights, distills the raw, rank flavour of people wading down streams of consciousness...A play of riveting disquiet" (Evening Standard)
Mamet Plays: Boston Marriage; Dr Faustus; Romance (Contemporary Dramatists)
by David MametA collection of outstanding plays from one of America's greatest playwrightsBoston MarriageDavid Mamet conquers new territory with this droll comedy of errors set in a Victorian drawing-room. Anna and Claire are two bantering, scheming ladies of fashion who have long lived together on the fringes of upper-class society. Anna has just become the mistress of a wealthy man, from whom she has received an enormous emerald and an income to match. Claire, meanwhile, is infatuated with a respectable young lady and wants to enlist the jealous Anna's help for an assignation."Devastatingly funny . . . exceptionally clever" New York Times"Brilliant . . . One of Mamet's most satisfying and accomplished plays, and one of the funniest American comedies in years" New York PostFaustusA modern retelling of the classic tale of pride, folly and the ultimate wager. Faustus has it all - fame, success, a loving family. But a careless pact with a beguiling magician threatens everything. In language, scope and theatrical sensibility, Faustus represents a big departure for Mamet, melding resplendent language and metaphysics in an eerie and moving retelling of the tragedy of Doctor Faustus.RomanceWildly humorous and often gob-smackingly outrageous, Romance is an uproarious courtroom farce, which lampoons the American judicial system and exposes the hypocrisy surrounding personal prejudices and political correctness."An exhilarating spectacle” New Yorker“It made me weep with delight. . . . Romance is funny. Extremely funny.” Wall Street Journal
Mamet Plays: November; Race; The Anarchist (Contemporary Dramatists)
by David MametRaceSparks fly when three lawyers – two black and one white – and a defendant clash over the issue of race and the American judicial system. Drawing on one of the most highly charged issues of American history, David Mamet forces us to confront deep-seated prejudices and barely healed wounds in this unflinching examination of the lies we tell ourselves and the truths we unwillingly reveal to others. NovemberIt's November in a Presidential election year and incumbent Charles Smith's chances for re-election are looking unlikely. Approval ratings are down, his money's running out, and nuclear war might be imminent. But Chuck isn't ready to give up just yet. November is a hilarious take on the state of contemporary America. The Anarchist Cathy is a woman who has served 35 years of a life sentence for killing a policeman in a botched robbery. Her prison officer Ann must decide whether or not to grant her parole. Mamet once again employs his signature verbal jousting in this battle of two women over freedom, power, money, and religion.
Mamet Plays: Duck Variations; Sexual Perversity in Chicago; Squirrels; American Buffalo; The Water Engine; Mr Happiness
by David MametDuck Variations: "A brilliant little play...about two old men sitting on a park bench discussing ducks" (Guardian); Sexual Perversity in Chicago, bar-room banter and sexual exploits in Mamet's home town "sweet sad understanding and utterly believable" (Chicago Daily News); Squirrels is a sequence of philosophising between a younger writer, an older writer and a cleaning lady which "memorably captures the agony of the creative process" (Daily Telegraph); American Buffalo, one of Mamet's most famous plays, is set in a junk shop where Three small-time crooks plot to carry out the midnight robbery of a coin collection - in the hours leading up to the heist, friendship becomes the victim in a conflict between loyalty and business. The Water Engine is "a propulsive, kaleidoscopic nightmare" and Mr Happiness is a short ironic monologue by a Radio DJ commenting on the letters from his listeners.
Mamet Plays: Reunion; Dark Pony; A Life in the Theatre; The Woods; Lakeboat; Edmond
by David Mamet"The finest American playwright of his generation" (Sunday Times)Reunion shows the meeting between a father and daughter after nearly twenty years of separation: "It would be hard to over-praise the way Mr Mamet suggests behind the probing, joshing family chat, an extraordinary sense of pain and loss...although the play has a strong social comment about the destructively cyclical effect of divorce, it is neither sour nor defeatist" (Guardian); In Dark Play, a father tells his five-year-old daughter a story about an Indian boy and his pony "a subtle, lyrical, dreamlike vignette" (Star Tribune); in The Woods, a young man and woman spend the night in a cabin together "a beautifully conceived love story" (Chicago Daily News); Lakeboat portrays eight crew members of a merchant ship exchanging wild fantasies about sex, gambling and violence "Richly overheard talk...loopy, funny construction." (Village Voice); Edmond is an odyssey through the disturbing, suspended dark void of a contemporary New York "it is also a technically adventurous piece pared brilliantly to the bone, highly theatrical in its scenic elisions." (Financial Times)
Mamet Plays: Glengarry Glen Ross; Prairie du Chien; The Shawl; Speed-the-Plow (Methuen Contemporary Dramatists Ser.)
by David Mamet"The finest American playwright of his generation" (Sunday Times)Glen Garry Glen Ross (also made in to a film starring Jack Lemmon and Al Pacino) "his superb play about real estate salesmen in a cut-throat sales competition" (New Society); in Prairie du Chien a railway carriage speeding through the Wisconsin night is the setting for a violent story of obsessive jealousy, murder and suicide, told within shooting distance of a card-hustler and his victim. "A short poignant study in violence and the twin drives of love and money, told with hypnotic power thorugh a travelling raconteur" (City Limits); The Shawl shows a clairvoyant wondering whether to cheat a bereaved woman of her inheritance and "confirms Mamet's place as about the best living writer of vivid American dialogue" (Daily Telegraph). Set in the cut-throat world of Hollywood, Speed-the-Plow sees two old-time movie collaborators manipulate the aspirations of a young woman who will do anything to attain her dream of success "a brilliant black comedy, a dazzling dissection of Hollywood cupidity." (Newsweek)
Mamet Plays: Crytogram; Oleanna; the Old Neighborhood
by David MametA collection of outstanding plays from one of America's greatest playwrightsCryptogram: "Mamet's play suggests that deception is an endless spiralling process that eventually corrodes the soul. But it also harps on a theme that runs right throughout Mamet's work: the notion that we use words as a destructive social camouflage to lie to others and ourselves...And here through all the repetitions, half sentences and echoing encounter of one question with another, you feel the characters devalue experience through their use of language. As Del cries in desperation at the end, 'If we could speak the truth for one instant, then we would be free.' Mamet's point is that we are held spiritually captive by our bluster and evasions." (Michael Billington, Guardian)Oleanna: "An exploration of male-femal conflicts which cogently demonstrates that whe free thought and dialogue are imperilled, nobody wins" (Independent) The Old Neighborhood: "Mamet, ranked with Miller, Albee and Shepard as America's finest living playwrights, distills the raw, rank flavour of people wading down streams of consciousness...A play of riveting disquiet" (Evening Standard)
Mametz: with a Welsh-language translation (Faber Drama Ser.)
by Owen Sheers'"For years afterwards the farmers found them - the wasted young, turning up under their plough blades." So run the blunt, grimly beautiful opening lines of the Welsh poet Owen Sheers's elegy for the men, 4,000 of them from the 38th (Welsh) Division, who were killed or wounded in the Battle of Mametz Wood in July 1916. Sheers revisits that chapter of carnage in a stirring, sprawling promenade show. He draws on the writings of two survivors in particular. One is the poet David Jones whose fractured, enervated, modernist response to his war-time experiences, In Parenthesis, was hailed as a "work of genius" by TS Eliot. The other key influence is the writer Llewelyn Wyn Griffith. driven to wondering how the sun "could shine on this mad cruelty and on the quiet peace of an upland tarn near Snowdon"... We end up in dark woods and a place of numb desolation, bombarded by words that pierce the heart and vignettes that capture the stomach-churning sacrifice. The finest commemoration of the First World War centenary I've seen to-date, this deserves a much longer life.'Dominic Cavendish, Daily TelegraphMametz by Owen Sheers was premiered by National Theatre Wales in June 2014. It is one of the set plays on WJEC's A level Drama specification. This dual edition combines the original English-language play with a Welsh-language translation by Ceri Wyn Jones, one of Wales's most eminent poets.
The Mammoth Sails Tonight! (Oberon Modern Plays)
by Adrian MitchellThe Mammoth is the greatest sailing ship ever built. It is to carry Princess Alysoun from Norway to Scotland, where she is to marry King Andrew the Bold. But she falls in love with Sir Patrick Spens, the bravest captain to sail the seven seas. This is a passionate, funny, subversive celebration of a play.
The Man (Modern Plays)
by James Graham"This is my first tax return. Thank you...erm for offering to... for helping. I realise it's a bit weird. It's just. This is...it's the only way I can think to make it better. The only way I can think to do it. With other people. Like this." Tax is really, really taxing for Ben Edwards. Self-employed. And afraid...And now he must face his dreaded self assessment form, with every receipt evoking the good times and the bad - memories of things gone wrong, gone right, the journeys he's been on, the relationships that have begun and ended and the people he has lost. As Ben begins to stitch together the patchwork quilt that was the Tax Year 2009/2010, he relives a year that was both hilarious and tragic, all mixed up in one shoe box of receipts.Award-winning playwright James Graham presents an affectionate and funny portrait of one man's year-long experience, pieced together from receipts, shopping and commercial transactions. With a web of narratives, the play's structure is innovative and flexible. In performance, each receipt triggers a unique story and the actor plucks the receipts from the audience's hands at random.