Staging Consciousness: Theater and the Materialization of MindStaging Consciousness argues that theater is a living invalidation of the Western dualism of mind and body, activating human consciousness through its embodiment of thought in performance. While consciousness theory has begun to find ways to bridge dualist gaps, Staging Consciousness suggests that theater has anticipated these advances, given the ways in which the physical theater promotes nonphysical thought, connecting the two realms in unique and ingenious ways. William W. Demastes makes use of the writings of such varied theater practitioners as Antonin Artaud, Jerzy Grotowski, Samuel Beckett, Tony Kushner, Sam Shepard, Spalding Gray, Peter Shaffer, and others, illuminating theater as proof that mind is an extension of body. The living stage incubates and materializes thought in a way that highlights the processes of daily existence outside the theater. This book offers a new way for theater practitioners to look at the unique value of the theater and an invitation for philosophers and scientists to search for new paradigms in theater, the oldest of art forms. William W. Demastes is Professor of English, Louisiana State University. His previous books include Theatre of Chaos: Beyond Absurdism, into Disorderly Order. |
Other editions - View all
Staging Consciousness: Theater and the Materialization of Mind William W. Demastes Limited preview - 2002 |
Staging Consciousness: Theater and the Materialization of Mind William W. Demastes No preview available - 2002 |
Common terms and phrases
actually agenda Angels in America Antonin Artaud appears argues Artaud assault audience awareness Bart Kosko Beckett behavior bivalent Bohm brain Cartesian dualism Cartesian Theater central chaos chaos theory complex concrete consciousness contemporary created creative Crick critical crucial cultural Damson Dennett dichotomies discrete discursive drama dualism Dysart emergent engage evolutionary existence experience fact fully fuzzy fuzzy logic Gray's Grotowski homunculus human immaterial input interaction Kushner language linear literally logic magic material reality materialist meme mental mind move multivalent mystery mystical naturalist nature neural nonlinear notion observes onstage operates parallel patterns Penrose performance perhaps perspective Peter Shaffer physical play play's postmodern potential preconscious quantum realism realm reflection result reveals rhythms Schechner scientific sciousness seems selfhood sense serial Shaffer Shepard soliton sort soul Spalding Gray stage suggests Swimming to Cambodia syuzhet theory thing thought tion traditional University urge vision Western Wilson York
References to this book
Cyberculture, Cyborgs and Science Fiction: Consciousness and the Posthuman William S. Haney No preview available - 2006 |