Action: Anthropology in the Company of ShakespeareThis book is an anthropological study of play-acting. Acting on the stage is seen as an example of social action in general. The focus is on the playing of Shakespeare, and on the players' use of and reflections upon time, space, plot, and acting. In her new book, Kirsten Hastrup aims at a renewed understanding of action and motivation within any social setting. By listening to such experts of action as the players of Shakespeare, we achieve a comprehensive reappraisal of current notions of human agency. In the process, we are offered a set of methodological tools and analytical concepts that may enrich future anthropological analysis of individual actions in their social context. The work is an unprecedented approach to action and acting. For anthropologists and other social or cultural scientists, Hastrup offers a fresh perspective on performance, and on the construction of the analytical object. For theatre historians and dramatists, the combination of detailed (ethnographic) analys |
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Page 111
... shared space ; their acts must resonate with life , distil the basic impulses to any action , which is always deeply social by its being motivated by moral horizon . The artist must work with his audience's capacities ( Geertz 1983 ...
... shared space ; their acts must resonate with life , distil the basic impulses to any action , which is always deeply social by its being motivated by moral horizon . The artist must work with his audience's capacities ( Geertz 1983 ...
Page 300
... shared meanings is the point of theatre . ' Shared meaning ' does not refer to a canonical interpretation of texts , but to the sense in which the actions and words hurled out from the stage free the audience's imagination and resonate ...
... shared meanings is the point of theatre . ' Shared meaning ' does not refer to a canonical interpretation of texts , but to the sense in which the actions and words hurled out from the stage free the audience's imagination and resonate ...
Page 334
... shared concerns . ' Centre stage ' moves with particular social agents , whose presence is of a kind that moves people and make them act . Power , then , or the ability to focus attention sheds new light on the dialectic between the ...
... shared concerns . ' Centre stage ' moves with particular social agents , whose presence is of a kind that moves people and make them act . Power , then , or the ability to focus attention sheds new light on the dialectic between the ...
Contents
Preface and acknowledgements | 7 |
Companion Shakespeare | 13 |
The plot | 36 |
Copyright | |
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acting actor Simon Callow actress agency agents ambiguity audience Barba become character character's Cicely Berry context created cultural desire direct director Peter drama Elizabethan emotions event experience expression feeling Fiona Shaw Gielgud Granville-Barker Hamlet human illusion imagination individual intention Jane Lapotaire Juliet Stevenson Kermode language liminal listen living lyric magic mask meaning metaphor Michael Pennington Michael Redgrave mimesis motive nature Nicholas Woodeson notion Ophelia particular passion performance person Peter Brook players and directors players of Shakespeare playwright plot poetic poetry present production reality reflects rehearsal Renaissance rhythm Rosalind Royal Shakespeare Company says scene seems sense Shakespeare's plays Shakespeare's theatre shared Simon Callow Simon Russell Beale simply social space soliloquy speak spectator speech stage Stanislavski story suggested T.S. Eliot theatre of action theatrical thing tragedy Troilus and Cressida truth understanding voice whole words world of theatre