Theatre and Citizenship: The History of a Practice
Cambridge University Press
Edition: Illustrated, 2/10/2011
EAN 9780521193276, ISBN10: 0521193273
Hardcover, 268 pages, 22.9 x 15.2 x 1.6 cm
Language: English
Originally published in English
Citizenship is a contested term which today inspires both policy-makers and radical activists. David Wiles traces this ideal to its classical roots, examining both theatre and citizenship as performative practices. Wiles examines how people function collectively rather than as individuals, for example through choruses or crowd behaviour in the auditorium. He explores historic tensions between the passivity of the spectator and the active engagement of a citizen, paying special attention to dramatists like Aristophanes, Machiavelli and Rousseau who have translated political theory into a theatre of, and for, active citizens. The book is a fresh investigation of familiar and less familiar landmarks of theatre history, revealing how plays function as social and political events. In this original approach to theatre history, Wiles argues that theatre is a powerful medium to build communities, and that attempts to use it as a vehicle for education are very often misplaced.
1. Introduction
citizenship and theatre
2. Athens
democracy and chorality - The Frogs - Plato and Aristotle
3. Florence, Rome and Machiavelli
Machiavelli's political works - Cicero - Terence's Andria - The Mandrake and the Society of the Trowel - 'The Sunflower' in a politician's garden - coda
Goldoni, Ayckbourn and the comic genre
4. From Coventry to London
Christian fraternity - the Weavers' Pageant in Coventry - Elizabethan London
Shakespeare and Heywood - John Milton and revolutionary tragedy
5. Geneva
Rousseau versus Voltaire
Geneva - Rousseau - The Letter to d'Alembert - the battle for a public theatre - conclusion
two ideals
6. Paris and the French Revolution
Brutus and the active citizen audience - tragedy as a school for citizens
the career of M. J. Chénier - the revolutionary festival - Diderot and bourgeois realism
7. The people, the folk, and the modern public sphere
collectivism in pre-war Germany - the Indian People's Theatre Association - in search of the public sphere
Epilogue
Washington's monuments to citizenship.