Performance and Cognition

Description

This anthology is the first of its kind. In addition to opening up fresh perspectives on theatre studies – with applications for dramatic criticism, performance analysis, acting practice, audience response, theatre history, and other important areas – the book sets the agenda for future work, helping to map the emergence of this new approach.

Following a comprehensive introduction, the contributors examine:

• the interfaces between cognitive studies and Lacanian psychoanalysis, phenomenology and communication theory
• different ideas from cognitive studies that open up the meanings of several plays
• the process of acting and the work of Antonio Damasio
• theatrical response: the dynamics of perception, and the riots that greeted the 1907 production of The Playboy of the Western World.

This original and authoritative work will be attractive to scholars and graduate students of drama, theatre, and performance.

Contents

Introduction Bruce McConachie and F. Elizabeth Hart Section 1: Performance Theory and Cognition 1. Performance, Phenomenology, and the Cognitive Turn F. Elizabeth Hart 2. Cognitive Studies and Epistemic Competence in Cultural History: Moving Beyond Freud and Lacan Bruce McConachie 3. Performance Strategies, Image Schemas, and Communication Frameworks Tobin Nellhaus Section 2: Drama and Cognition 4. Essentialism and Comedy: A Cognitive Reading of the Motif of Mislaid Identity in Dryden’s Ampitryon (1690) Lisa Zunshine 5. `It Is Required/You Do Awake Your Faith’: Learning to Trust the Body through Performing The Winter’s Tale Naomi Rokotnitz Section 3: Acting and Cognition 6. Neuroscience and Creativity in the Rehearsal Process John Lutterbie 7. Image and Action: Cognitive Neuroscience and Actor Training Rhonda Blair Section 4: The Spectator and Cognition 8. See the Play, Read the Book Howard Mancing 9. Categories and Catcalls: Cognitive Dissonance in The Playboy of the Western World Neal Swettenham Glossary of Terms Jennifer Pierce

Related Subjects

1. Performance Theory
2. Theatre History
3. Literary/Critical Theory