Description
Book SynopsisOffers an in-depth, multidisciplinary compendium of essays about one of the most influential theatre artists of the twentieth century. Hans-Thies Lehmann's theory of post-dramatic theatre and developments in critical theory serve to provide a previously unavailable vocabulary for discussion of Kantor's theatre.
Trade Review“This groundbreaking collection of beautifully edited essays is impressive in both scope and depth. The book deftly interweaves Kantor’s Polish, Jewish, international, and theoretical roots, thus illuminating essential connections between each in thrilling new ways.”- Dassia Posner, author of
The Director’s Prism: E. T. A. Hoffmann and the Russian Theatrical Avant-Garde “A unique collection, full of splendid writing and vivid insight, destined to become an essential resource on one of the twentieth century’s seminal experimental theater artists.”- Jonathan Kalb, Hunter College, the author of
Great Lengths: Seven Works of Marathon Theater “An invaluable and much needed collection on the incomparable Kantor—his work, his life, his theatrical prescience. Kantor confronted the twentieth century in profound ways that changed the future of theater. This volume approaches his methods and means through twenty-first century lenses that Kantor’s own work might be said to have forecast—post-dramatic theory, new materialism, thing theory, and posthumanism. As such,
Theatermachine expands our understanding not only of the theater artist but of theory and practice that would follow.”- Rebecca Schneider, Brown University, the author of
Performing Remains: Art and War in Times of Theatrical ReenactmentTable of Contents
- Introduction
- Kantor: A Short Biography
- Part I: Kantor in Theory
- Tadeusz Kantor and Modernism
- Tadeusz Kantor’s Objects: Materialism of the Encounter
- Human/Object/Thing: Kantor’s Puppets and Bio-objects
- Crushed People: Kantor and Trauma Theory
- Kantor and the Theatre of Postmemory
- Postdramatic Tragedy: Notes on the Theatre of Tadeusz Kantor
- Kantor and the Posthuman Stage
- Part II: Kantor, Locally
- Transgression and Eschatology in the Work of Tadeusz Kantor
- Possessed by the Traumatic Past: Postmemory and S. An-sky’s Dybbuk in Kantor’s Dead Class
- Tadeusz Kantor and Bruno Schulz
- Kantor and Witkacy: Childish Games with Death
- Witkacy’s and Gombrowicz’s Influence on the Theatre of Tadeusz Kantor
- Kantor’s and Grotowski’s Poor Theatre
- Imagining a Future that Never Was: Tadeusz Kantor’s Symbiotic Jewish-Polish Stage
- Kantor and Slobodzianek: The Dead Class and Our Class
- From Tadeusz Kantor’s Anatomy Lesson to the Autopsy in Polish Contemporary Art
- Part III: Kantor, Globally
- Kantor and Early Twentieth Century European Avant-Garde Directors
- Tadeusz Kantor and the German Bauhaus: From Technological to Metaphysical Utopia.
- Kantor and Japan
- On the Reception of Tadeusz Kantor’s Work in Germany
- Kantor and the Contemporary European Avant-Garde: Marthaler, Perceval, and Hermanis
- Kantor and the Contemporary French Avant-Garde
- Kantor, Pina Bausch, and Dance Theatre
- Kantor and the American Avant-Garde
- Contributors
