Description
Book SynopsisMost philosophy makes little mention of the theater except to denounce it as a place of illusion and moral decay. The theater has tended to respond in kind by steering away from philosophy, driven by the notion that theater consists of actions, not ideas. The Drama of Ideas argues that despite this mutual evasion, the histories of philosophy and theater have in fact been crucially intertwined. Appointing Plato as a hinge figure, Puchner traces this alternative tradition as well as recounting the long-standing philosophical register in drama and philosophy''s more recent theatrical shift.Moving from a consideration of Plato as a dramatist to those Renaissance playwrights who drew on Plato''s chief character, Socrates, Puchner articulates an alternative history of the theater which places philosophy front and center. He believes that modern drama should be understood as Platonic, rather than anti-Aristotelian, as it is often labeled. When Oscar Wilde, George Bernard Shaw, August Strindbe
Trade ReviewThe Drama of Ideas contains a tightly woven and persuasive argument for rescuing a Platonic tradition of interactions between two disciplines: theatre and philosophy. When this unique form of writing is examined within a theatrical context, as drama, a highly innovative form of writing emerges where abstract ideas, on the one hand, and the concreteness of character and scene, on the other, are viewed in a constantly emerging, dynamic and creative interaction with each other. Puchner has produced an ambitious and innovative project. * Freddie Rokem, author of Philosophers and Thespians: Thinking Performance *
Table of ContentsI. THE POETICS OF THE PLATONIC DIALOGUE; II. A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE SOCRATES PLAY; III. THE DRAMA OF IDEAS; IV. DRAMATIC PHILOSOPHY; V. THE NEW PLATONISTS; EPILOGUE: DRAMATIC PLATONISM; APPENDIX 1: SOCRATES TITLES; APPENDIX 2: CHARTING THE SOCRATES PLAY; INDEX
