In this essay, I argue that Søren Kierkegaard’s oeuvre can be seen as a theater of ideas. This argument is developed in three steps. First, I will briefly introduce a theoretical framework for addressing the theatrical dimension of Kierkegaard’s works. This framework is based on a distinction between“performative writing strategies” and “categories of performativity.” As a second step, I will focus on Repetition: A Venture in Experimenting Psychology, by Constantin Constantius, one of the best examples of Kierkegaard’s innovative way of (...) doing philosophy. This strange and elusive book introduces the difficult and counter-intuitive notion of repetition. Repetition is a category of performativity that aims to activate the subjectivity of the reader. This performative effect is achieved by confronting the reader with an “unresolved”existential problem that is not yet drawn into clarity but is staged in all its confusions and contradictions. Kierkegaard’s pseudonym Constantius relies here on a performative writing strategy that is animated by a dialectic of advance and withdrawal. In the last and third step, I will analyze Constantius’s own reflection on the performative dimension of his text. Constantius has left several clues behind, each of which suggests that he deliberately developed a performative writing strategy. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Scrutinizing the Art of TheaterAaron Meskin (bio)IntroductionIn his 1992 address to the American Society for Aesthetics, Peter Kivy suggested that philosophers of art might do best by giving up on “grand theorizing” (that is, pursuing the definition of art).1 In its place he proposed that they pursue the “careful and imaginative philosophical scrutiny of the individual arts and their individual problems.”2 Of course John Passmore and others had said (...) similar things at earlier points,3 but philosophical aesthetics has, it seems to me, finally and robustly taken the turn toward the philosophies of the arts. Much of the best work in philosophical aesthetics over the last fifteen years or so has pursued the route Kivy suggested. James Hamilton’s The Art of Theater is part of this turn—it is careful and imaginative scrutiny of the art of theater done at the very highest level, and I am delighted to have this opportunity to comment on it.4In what follows I shall address a number of issues raised by Hamilton’s work: the definition of theatrical enactment; the place of pretending and imagining in theatrical performance; the nature of Hamilton’s “ingredients model” and its relation to more traditional accounts of the work/performance relation; the account of theatrical style on offer; and the question of what we have learned from experimental theater.But before I move on to address those aspects of the book’s content in detail, let me say something about the pedagogical significance of this work. Although there are a number of legitimate ways to teach introductory courses on aesthetics and the philosophy of art (for example, by following a historical progression or by structuring it around certain key issues), one increasingly attractive option is to teach a course that focuses on those aforementioned individual arts and their individual problems. So, for example, I used to regularly teach graduate seminars in aesthetics to students enrolled [End Page 51] in a fine arts doctoral program. These students studied music, art education, the visual arts, theater, and dance; the seminars were designed to provide them with a broad foundation in philosophical aesthetics. Since they typically had no background in philosophy, I made the effort to assign readings and topics relevant to their own artistic practices and interests. Providing them with contemporary cutting-edge philosophical material on music and the visual arts was not hard. Kivy’s work, as well as that by Jerrold Levinson, Arthur Danto, Richard Wollheim, and others, makes that fairly easy. And intriguingly—since philosophers are commonly said to have ignored the art of dance—there’s even a decent amount of recent philosophical work on that art form by such authors as Graham McFee, Frances Sparshott, and Noël Carroll and Sally Banes.5 But where to turn to for the theater students? I would often read some of Aristotle’s Poetics with them, but I have to admit that the serious students of the theater that I encountered in those seminars typically knew that text much better than I did. (Still, I hope I challenged their breezy assumptions about catharsis!) We would read Hume on tragedy together—fun, but not really so much about the theater—and sometimes a bit of Nietzsche. But there was never much to give them from contemporary philosophers on the subject—a few articles here and there, of course, but nothing that clearly laid out the big and distinctive issues that the art form of theater raises. Nothing, to put the point a bit differently, that would provide any evidence that there really was a lively and extant philosophy of theater out there, as there are lively and extant philosophies of film, music, literature, and photography. In short, for those attracted to the prospect of teaching aesthetics as the philosophies of arts, the dearth of good work on theater by contemporary philosophers has been a significant source of frustration and even a bit of an embarrassment.The book in question is not the only recent philosophical work on theater. There are fine articles on the topic by David Osipovich, David Saltz, and Paul Woodruff, among others. Hamilton himself has a string of... (shrink)

The Persian term "Namayeshnameh" meaning the play, is one of the key, frequent, and functional words in the knowledge field of theater studies, dramatic literature, and performing arts, which was created and coined instead of the foreign French word la pièce after the Iranian linguistic change and revisions by the First Academy for the Persian language founded on 1935. According to the new discourses on contemporary theater such as the theory of performance, the theater of cruelty, and post-dramatic theater, (...) which emphasize the clear distinction between the two phenomena of the Theater and the Spectacle, this coined term, which is allied with the Persian word "namayesh" meaning spectacle, seems terminologically ineffective and inappropriate in expressing the scientific, epistemological or philosophical concepts in Persian language and will produce misunderstandings and misconceptions in scientific or philosophical discourses. Therefore, this reflective investigation, with a descriptive-analytical method and by using philosophical attitudes, while examining various aspects of "term" from the point of view of terminology and the foundations of philosophical-scientific language, has addressed the shortcomings of this word and also analyzed it with genealogy; Finally, taking into account the importance of revising the scientific and specialized terms, the alternative term "teatrenevesht" has been proposed. (shrink)

The exploration of laughter’s philosophical significance within the realm of performing arts, particularly the French classical theatre of the seventeenth century, reveals a profound connection to the comedic genre. This literary form, characterized by its gentle yet satirical nature, aims to critique and amend the behavioral and societal flaws of individuals. It often portrays a protagonist whose moral attributes and actions defy societal norms, depicted on stage in an exaggerated manner, amplified and interwoven with theatrical techniques such as verbal (...) wit, comedic behavior, and the humorous repetition of scenarios. Through this lens, comedic dialogue not only elicits laughter but also conveys an ethical message, emerging from the critique of society’s distasteful customs and pervasive misconceptions. The comic and humorous approach offers a fresh, conciliatory perspective on life, contrasting the somber, oppressive reality presented in tragedy, thus serving as a potent vehicle for engaging diverse social groups. This study briefly touches upon the history and evolution of the laughter element, or the comedic genre, within French literature of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It delves into the critical issue and examines the techniques and performances that induce laughter in The Miser, extending the discussion to encompass the philosophy of laughter. (shrink)

The audience occupies a very vita! and significant position within the ambience of the arts in general and theatre in particular. It remains one of the outstanding prerequisites for a complete efficacious and potent theatre experience. Its absence renders the entire activity a no event. Thus its standing within artistic and theatrical parameters is that of uniqueness and indispensability. Effiong Johnson posits that "Not considering the audience in the scheme of the performance is unpardonably a blind stupor which (...) can lead to one predictable outcome: regret!" (215). There can never be a theatre experience or event without the audience. It is considered to be the better half of the event. Their presence, cheers and signs of appreciation encourage performers to break a leg and put up a superlative performance. Nwamuo notes further that audiences beat the drums which spur performers to a frenzy (Inaugural Lecture, 15). William Byrnes adds that no matter how lofty the aesthetic aims of an organization, especially arts outfits, without the regular support of an audience, patrons or members, enough money will not come in to keep the enterprise alive (255). Audiences have existed in the theatre over centuries and have continued to exert influence in different spheres, especially the performance. Dennis Sporregivesusan insight into this by pointing out that: The audience of the 19th century played a significant part in determining what took the stage. Royal patronage was gone and box office receipts were needed to pay the bills,... The Industrial Revolution had created larger urban populations and expanded public education to a degree.... To appeal to this diverse audience, theatre managers had to program for the popular as well as the sophisticated taste if they wanted to make money (409). (shrink)

The central idea upon which plays of Micheal Frayn are established is that a text or event is reborn and reconstructed every time it is recited or recalled. He sublimated history, physics, and various dramatic techniques into splendid drama to reflect upon the dilemmas thrown to the human in today’s world of indeterminacy. It will be explored how Frayn has plied the ‘uncertainty principle’ to drama with a distance from Becket and Brecht by analyzing three plays. Furthermore, his expressed perspective (...) on the Brechtian notion of the ‘alienation effect’ is discussed. The plays chosen for this article are Noises Off (1982), Audience (1991), and Copenhagen (1998). (shrink)

In contrast to film, theater, and literature, audiences typically sing along with popular songs. This can encourage a first-person mode of engagement with the narrative content. Unlike mere spectators, listeners sometimes imagine acting out the content when it is recited in the first-person. This is a common mode of engaging with popular music. And it can be uniquely morally problematic. It is problematic when it involves the enjoyment of imaginatively doing evil. I defend a Moorean view on the issue: (...) It is wrong to enjoy evil whether real or merely fiction. I develop my position through an examination of the controversially song "Mind of a Lunatic" (1990) by the Houston based rap group Geto Boys. (shrink)

Sarah Kane's theatre is one of the most at the same time disturbing and profound representation of the collapses of the human soul. Nevertheless her theatre doesn't only stage the horrors of the pain, but it could be an epistemologically useful tool to decrypt the actual human condition: in this paper my goal is to extend her playworks in a pregnantly ontological and existential instance.

Cinema acts as a significant mediator between urban reality and the imaginary sensory experience of the fictive world. Viewing the city through the lens of a camera enables us to build new narratives. Films have captured port cities within the flows of, goods, people, and ideas, making them ever-present in shared memories, historical narratives, and urban nostalgia. Cultural production plays a role in the on-going construction of local port cultures, whether films, festivals, music, literature, theater, advertisements, or events. Telling (...) the story of the port city – it's past, present, and future; its buildings and its people – contributes strongly to the creation of port city cultures.[i] The big screen can help viewers to perceive complex port city regions, learning from their history, understanding cultural values and developing shared urban narratives to tackle the upcoming challenges. In a broader sense, port city’s ‘Cine-scape’—to use a term coined by Richard Koeck,[ii] puts the cinematic approach to port cities into the spotlight. (shrink)

Dance is intimately connected to both Kierkegaard’s personal life and his life in writing, as exemplified in his famous nightly attendance at the dance-filled theater, and his invitation to the readers of “A First and Last Explanation” to “dance with” his pseudonyms. The present article’s acceptance of that dance invitation proceeds as follows: the first section surveys the limited secondary literature on dance in Kierkegaard, focusing on the work of M. Ferreira and Edward Mooney. The second section explores the (...) hidden dancing dimensions of Kierkegaard’s “leap” and “shadow-dance”. And the third section reinterprets the pseudonymous works richest in dance, Repetition and Postscript, concluding that the religious for him is the lighthearted dance of a comic actor through the everyday theater of the world. (shrink)

In this paper, I try to show how Japanese practices of self-cultivation found in the so-called “ways” can be interpreted as embodied forms of “caring for oneself ” and, therefore, as part of a philosophical Lebenskunst or art of living. To this end, I refer to phenomenological accounts of the body as well as to a unique notion of practice found in the writings of Dōgen Kigen, a thirteenth-century Japanese Zen master. Central to this essay is a concern with embodying (...) kata or pre-defined patterns of movement and posture used in nearly all practices of self-cultivation in Japan. To approach this question, I look at the etymological roots of the term kata and its use in the writings of Zeami, the foremost representative of classical Noh theater, both as author and as actor. This is followed by an analysis of certain aspects of the embodiment of kata and the way it is described in Japanese literature. (shrink)

Even within religion, the creativity of imagination offers an invaluable defense against the tendencies towards dogma and absolutism. It also provides spaces living and experiencing life in diverse ways. This paper discusses the different facets of creative imagination in religious art and literature forms by comparing Isaac Bashevis Singer’s In My Father’s Court with Wayang shadow theater in Indonesia. I will show that they possess similar features demonstrating a reflection on religious law, creativity and everyday life. In Singer’s work, (...) the synagogue is a theater, and Singer’s father functions in the same way the puppet master, or Dalang. operates in Wayang theater. This allows for the negotiations between religious law and the living community. (shrink)

For Kierkegaard the ‘psychological experiment’ is a literary strategy. It enables him to dramatize an existential conflict in an experimental mode. Kierkegaard’s aim is to study the source of movement that animates the existing individual (this is the psychological part). However, he is not interested in the representation of historical individuals in actual situations, but in the construction of fictional characters that are placed in hypothetical situations; this allows him to set the categories in motion “in order to observe completely (...) undisturbed what these require” without caring to what extent someone has met this requirement or is able to meet it (this is the experimental part). -/- The ‘psychological experiment’ is a category of indirect communication that is developed most extensively by Frater Taciturnus, the pseudonymous author of the third part of Stages on Life’s Way. (I) Taciturnus introduces the psychological experiment as a new trajectory in modern literature that offers an alternative to poetry and speculative drama. He develops this new trajectory in praxis (in the novella ‘“Guilty?”/“Not Guilty?” A Story of Suffering: A Psychological Experiment by Frater Taciturnus’) as well as in theory (in the ‘Letter to the Reader’ that accompanies his novella). (II) Two other pseudonymous authors further enrich the conceptual field of the psychological experiment. Constantin Constantius develops the notion ‘experimenting psychology’; Johannes Climacus reflects on the reader’s contemporaneity with the character. (shrink)

Mounting empirical evidence underscores the health benefits of the arts, as recently reported in a scoping review by the World Health Organization. The creative arts in particular are acknowledged to be a public health resource that can be beneficial for well-being and health. Within this broad context, and as a subfield of participatory arts, the term social arts (SA) specifically refers to an art made by socially engaged professionals (e.g., artists, creative arts therapists, social workers, etc.) with non-professionals who determine (...) together the content and the final art product (in theater, visual arts, music, literature, etc.) with the aim to produce meaningful social changes. SA can enhance individual, community, and public health in times of sociopolitical instability and is an active field in Israel. However, SA is still an under-investigated field of study worldwide that is hard to characterize, typify, or evaluate. This paper presents a research protocol designed to examine a tripartite empirically-based model of SA that will cover a wide range of SA training programs, implementations, and impacts. The findings will help refine the definition of SA and inform practitioners, trainers, and researchers, as well as funding bodies and policymakers, on the content and impact of SA projects in Israel and beyond. (shrink)

I consider James Hamilton’s discussion of what I term the complete autonomy thesis, according to which no theatrical performance is a performance of some other work. While agreeing with Hamilton that theatrical performances are often artworks in their own right and that theatrical performance is not a derivative or subsidiary art form, I argue that the complete autonomy thesis overshoots the evidence. Some theatrical performances are autonomous, but many belong to an established tradition of close adherence to the texts of (...) dramatic literature. In such cases, we should say both that the performance itself is an artwork and that it is a performance of some literary work. I suggest that this way of understanding things promotes appreciation of both performances themselves and the dramatic works of literature that are employed in their creation. (shrink)

A complete self analysis on portrait of different dimensions through human characters in the society still...

Thе articlе is devoted to onе of thе grеatest Bulgarian writers: Yordan Radichkov (1929-2004). Thc choice of Radichckov's work "Attеmpt of flying" is eligiЬie to an philosophical interpretation Ьccause of the following reasons. Radichkov has won public recognition in Bulgaria. Не is а classic of the Bulgarian literature and, to а great cxtent, its fасе abroad. Не has а considcraЬle effect on the Bulgarian culture: from theatre to linguistics and philosophy. His works themselves ring true and eminently philosophically; (...) simultaneously, they are not philosophical prose. Нis ideas contain exceptional depth and originality. The mythical and folklore elements which impart characteristic Bulgarian sounding to them are emphasized. Нis typically Bulgarian view of life charms the readers. Summarizing, Radichkov's work "Attempt of fying" is represenrarive of the Bulgarian literature and possesses philosophical depth. (shrink)

While the field of aesthetics has long been dominated by European philosophy, recent inquiries have expanded the arena to accommodate different cultures as well as different definitions. In this volume, scholars and teachers in the fields of African and African American studies advance the debate over the nature of African aesthetics, approaching the subject from a broad range of disciplines. Dance, music, art, theatre, and literature are examined in order to appreciate and delineate the specific qualities and aspects (...) of African aesthetics; additionally, theoretical concepts and issues are discussed to define more clearly the meaning of an "African aesthetic.". (shrink)

This is the revised transcript of a conversation between Darko Suvin [DS] and Federico Pianzola [FP]. The topics discussed are many and the focus keeps zooming back and forth from the historical context of humanities vs. resurgent fascism to formal remarks on literature, theatre, utopia, narrative, and other themes. Particular emphasis is given to a reflection on the dialectical and constructivist approach deployed by Suvin in his works.

During the last ten years of his life, Antonin Artaud shows more and more intensively a multi-faceted and caustic refusal for traditional literature and the ordinary practice of writing. But above all, he shows a stylistic impatience for the alphabetic use of the word and the language. By the intention of creating an inhuman language, which could be understood also by the illiterate people, Artaud wants to undermine the significant use of the word, so that he can achieve a (...) non-representative language, a language that could make real. In this perspective, the aim of our work consists in an inquiry of the expressive forms through which Artaud’s last literary production shows the refusal of canonical literature: especially, we attempt to work about the use of glossolalias, drawings and pictograms included in several Cahiers which Artaud draws up during his confinement in the Rodez’s madhouse, as well as in some of the letters that he writes since 1943. (shrink)

In the performing arts, including music, theater, dance and so on, theoretical issues both about artworks and about performances of them must be dealt with, so that their theoretical analysis is inherently more complex and troublesome than that of nonperforming arts such as painting or film, in which primarily only artworks need to be discussed. Thus it is especially desirable in the case of the performing arts to look for defensible broad theoretical simplifications or generalizations that could serve to unify (...) and potentially comprehensively explain these difficult cases. (shrink)

The present research (total N = 2,057) tested whether people’s folk conception of consciousness aligns with the notion of a “Cartesian Theater” (Dennett, 1991). More precisely, we tested the hypotheses that people believe that consciousness happens in a single, confined area (vs. multiple dispersed areas) in the human brain, and that it (partly) happens after the brain finished analyzing all available information. Further, we investigated how these beliefs arerelated to participants’ neuroscientific knowledge as well as their reliance on intuition, and (...) which rationale they use to explain their responses. Using a computer-administered drawing task, we found that participants located consciousness, but not unrelated neurological processes (Studies 1a & 1b) or unconscious thinking (Study 2) in a single, confined area in the prefrontal cortex, and that they considered most of the brain not involved in consciousness. Participants mostly relied on their intuitions when responding, and they were not affected by prior knowledge about the brain. Additionally, they considered the conscious experience of sensory stimuli to happen in a spatially more confined area than the corresponding computational analysis of these stimuli (Study 3). Furthermore, participants’ explicit beliefs about spatial and temporal localization of consciousness (i.e., consciousness happening after the computational analysis of sensory information is completed) are independent, yet positively correlated beliefs (Study 4). Using a more elaborate measure for temporal localization of conscious experience, our final study confirmed that people believe consciousness to partly happen even after information processing is done (Study 5). (shrink)

The theater principle personifies the universe and all natural as a live performance theater run by an unknown showrunner and indifferent audience members. The principle references evolution as a means of comparison and goes in depth describing exactly how natural occurrences bring out the reality of this principle. And the fortunate circumstances of being a conscious being.

This paper examined selected Efik women‟s hairstyles from the past comparing them to modern day trends. The key questions the study sought to answer were: Have there been changes in styles and materials used in designing Efik women‟s hair? Have the meanings associated with these hairstyles changed overtime?The paper uses historical methodology; primary sources are pictures of hairstyles while secondary sources are history books, journals and literature review to arrive at conclusion concerning Efik women hairstyles. Current trends show that (...) there have been some changes in patterns and evolutions in materials used. Meanings are also changing. Whereas in old times, hairstyles could tell age, social class, marital status, occupations and spiritual affinity. This is hardly the case now. (shrink)

This essay provides an interpretation of the potential and limits of Michael Fried's difficult claims in his essay "Art and Objecthood" (1967) that cinema by its nature escapes the problems of modernism and also escapes the problems of theater. By focusing on Stanley Cavell's account of how cinema as an automatic medium escapes problems associated with variability across performances, I try to render a version of Fried's claim about cinema and theater that can ground a figurative version of his claim (...) about cinema and modernism, where film at least provides us a symbol of relief from concerns about medium specificity. In the second part of the essay I argue that something close to Cavell's and Fried's thoughts (about using the figure of theater to remind us of cinema's specificity, but also of cinema in its character as a symbol of relief from medium-specific concerns) takes on a certain urgency in questions about what cinema is in the digital age, manifested in representations of theater in the digitally photographed "Shakespeariadas" series by the contemporary Argentine filmmaker Matías Piñeiro. (shrink)

For more than a decade, an aura of discontentment has challenged existing models and theories that have established the structures in various fields of human endeavours such as philosophy, architecture, political science, media, literature, arts and the humanities in general. For instance, the architectural design of what was hitherto referred to as modern building has at least a sitting room (parlour), a kitchen, a bathroom and a toilet as well as two or more number of bedrooms depending on the (...) size of the family, including the master's bedroom. This design was a view that transcended from the old traditional caves and all manner of living spaces that were devised by the early man. The modern concept arose out of man's need to assume a better living status based on his new initiatives. In the field of media and communication, the period of technological evolvement and development that brought about the coinage of descriptive terms such as 'electronic age' and now 'computer age', was preceded by a 'stone age' where the means of communication was prototypical of that archaic society. Though nothing has changed tremendously in interpersonal communication, there are modern means of interpersonal communication made possible by the advent of the telephone. Prior to the advent of this modern technology, interpersonal communication was only made possible in a face-to-face situation or mere errand. Mass Communication in early traditional societies was done with the use of smoke or town-criers who were employed to go round the communities with their gongs to make announcements. This means of communication hardly made it possible for ideas or information to be shared among people who resided in different parts of the world, unlike today. (shrink)

Vehicle externalists hold that the physical substrate of mental states can sometimes extend beyond the brain into the body and environment. In a particular variation on vehicle externalism, Susan Hurley (1998) and Alva Noë (2004) have argued that perceptual states, states with phenomenal qualities, are among the mental states that can sometimes spread beyond the brain. Their vehicle externalism about perceptual states will be the main topic of this article. In particular, I will address three strong objections to their vehicle (...) externalism, objections by Ned Block (2005), Jesse Prinz (2006), and Fred Adams & Ken Aizawa (2008). Though in some ways these objections appear disparate, I will argue that all of them depend on a crucial presupposition, one which Hurley, Noë, and their sympathizers should reject. This presupposition is that perceptual character is fixed by an instantaneous snapshot of neural states, a view that Hurley dubbed ‘temporal atomism.’ To put the presupposition in more familiar terms, all three objections are implicitly committed to something like Dennett’s Cartesian Theater (1991). -/- In the first part of the article, I will discuss Hurley and Noë’s views, and include reasons why their views entail the rejection of the Cartesian Theater. In the next part of the article I will introduce the three objections and show how they presuppose something like a Cartesian Theater. I will also show that, if the Cartesian Theater is rejected, the objections all vanish. In the final part of the article I address the charge that Noë and Hurley confuse causation with constitution. This charge reveals a lack of appreciation for the way in which dynamical explanation motivates Hurley’s externalism. (shrink)

In this paper, I discuss the myriad ways that gender roles are interrogated within The Left Hand of Darkness and “When It Changed.” I first examine gender as science in §1, outlining the ways Le Guin and Russ consider and critique essentialist perspectives holding that gender roles are ‘natural’ phenomena driven by rigid biological differences between men and women. Then, in §2, I explore gender as fiction, analyzing how each text presents gender roles as discursively constructed and malleable. In §3, (...) I explicate these observations within a hybrid conceptualization of gender as science fiction and argue that this suitably describes the gender portrayals Le Guin and Russ make in their texts. (shrink)

In 1842, Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard published Repetition: A Venture in Experimenting Psychology under the pseudonym Constantin Constantius. In this complex and distinctive work, he introduced a novel approach to philosophical inquiry. In Gilles Deleuze’s apt summary, Kierkegaard invents “an incredible equivalent of theater within philosophy” and establishes repetition as “the fundamental category of the philosophy of the future.” -/- [In Dutch: In 1842 publiceert de Deense filosoof Søren Kierkegaard De herhaling: een proeve van experimenterende psychologie onder het pseudoniem Constantin (...) Constantius. In dit curieuze en eigenzinnige boek introduceert hij een nieuwe manier van filosofie bedrijven. Kierkegaard, zo vat Gilles Deleuze het treffend samen, verzint “een verbluffend equivalent van het theater in de filosofie” en maakt de herhaling tot “de fundamentele categorie van de filosofie van de toekomst”.]. (shrink)

With DLT’s success in driving the development of cryptocurrency (such as Bitcoin), the technology bridged to a myriad of knowledge-based applications, most notably in the areas of commerce, industry and government . In the language of technology sector insiders, these areas were ‘disrupted’ by Blockchain. Some higher education analysts, technology industry insiders and futurists have claimed that Blockchain technology will inevitably disrupt higher education in a similarly dramatic fashion. The aim of this commentary is to introduce a healthy dose of (...) realism into the hype-filled atmosphere of the Blockchain-for-higher-education narrative. A postdigital approach is taken because it treats digital and non-digital technologies as having equal material and cultural standing as candidates to transform higher education. (shrink)

Für Simone de Beauvoir ist der Existentialismus die einzige Philosophie, die der Aufgabe gewachsen ist, eine ethische Verhaltensweise, die sich auch unmittelbar in die Praxis umsetzen lässt, zu entwerfen. Die Werke, in denen Beauvoir eine existentialistische Ethik formuliert und deren Umsetzbarkeit veranschaulicht, sind allen voran ihr Essay Für eine Moral der Doppelsinnigkeit und ihr Theaterstück Die unnützen Mäuler. Mit der dramaturgischen Darstellung einer Grenzsituation ist es der Philosophin und Schriftstellerin gelungen, eine Synthese von Werten umrisshaft zu erläutern, aus denen sich (...) praktische Handlungshinweise, ohne die Notwendigkeit eines universellen Wertesystems vorzusehen, ableiten lassen. Einer kurzen Einführung, die auf die Umstände bzw. auf die historischen Hintergründe, die Simone de Beauvoir Beauvoir dazu bewogen haben, als engagierte Intellektuelle dezidiert zu sozialen und politischen Fragen Stellung zu beziehen, wird eine prägnante Analyse von Beauvoirs Ethikentwurf folgen. Da vorliegender Beitrag für die Aktualität von Beauvoirs Die unnützen Mäuler plädiert, werden parallele Verhaltensmuster der Vergangenheit und der Gegenwart ans Licht geführt werden, um praktische Möglichkeiten aufzuzeigen, wie es heute gelingen kann, sich für eine ethisch vertretbare Lebensweise zu entscheiden. Wohlgemerkt handelt es sich dabei – ganz in Beauvoirs Sinne – um einen Versuch bzw. um einen Entwurf. (shrink)

According to a traditional Cartesian epistemology of perception, perception does not provide one with direct knowledge of the external world. Instead, your immediate perceptual evidence is limited to facts about your own visual experience, from which conclusions about the external world must be inferred. Cartesianism faces well-known skeptical challenges. But this chapter argues that any anti-Cartesian view strong enough to avoid these challenges must license a way of updating one’s beliefs in response to anticipated experiences that seems diachronically irrational. To (...) avoid this result, the anti-Cartesian must either license an unacceptable epistemic chauvinism, or else claim that merely reflecting on one’s experiences defeats perceptual justification. This leaves us with a puzzle: Although Cartesianism faces problems, avoiding them brings a new set of problems. (shrink)

Given Aristotle’s response to Plato’s views by positing a cathartic function for tragedy, it is understandable that an author opposing him through the development of a non-Aristotelian theatrical theory would spontaneously draw closer to Platonic thought. However, Brecht’s stance goes beyond this spontaneous proximity in this debate. This article challenges those critics who have overlooked the direct relationship between Plato and Brecht, and it offers a reasoned decision on Walter Benjamin’s verdict that epic theatre is a form of Platonic (...) drama. Moreover, it argues that Brecht’s endeavour aimed to create a theatre that remained impervious to Plato’s critiques. The article analyzes Brecht’s achievements in epic theatre as an expression of disenchantment, demonstrating how, through the techniques he developed, he radically dismantled the magical effect that was essential to Aristotelian theatre. (shrink)

Architectural space has some triggers for unique experiences and one of them is its atmosphere. The atmosphere has an unstable structure so that it is difficult to define clearly. We are capable of immediate appreciation, such as being inside or outside. Thus, the threshold between bodily experiences and mental emergence becomes a blurred one, like a haze. It is sensed in bodily presence by human beings. The boundaries, such as subject and object, are transgressed through the atmosphere. The subject appears (...) as a body and its movement in this discussion. Recognition of the existence of the body in space plays a significant role throughout the architectural design process. Theatrical dance or dance theatre (Tanztheater) practices provide new horizons for understanding the presence of the body in the space. Pina Bausch, as a choreographer, is one of the pioneers of this genre. The aim of the study is to point out the relations of body, space and atmosphere in Pina movie (2011). This study identifies choreographies with different aspects as follows: (1) In the atmospheric aspect; subject, object and their role in the atmosphere of choreographies by Pina Bausch were observed. (2) In the fictional space aspect; various spaces were examined in the sense of body-object-atmosphere interaction. (3) In the bodily aspect; space which is produced by the body and vice versa in dance theatre was investigated in the volumetric reflections of the body. This research contributes to bridging performative arts and architecture as understanding the space. It can be a guide for an architectural design studio to understand the role of the body through dance theatre. (shrink)

ABSTRACT GIRMAW ASHEBIR SINSHAW: A comparative analysis of theatre art curriculum for undergraduate in Indonesia and Ethiopia. Thesis. Yogyakarta: Graduate school, Yogyakarta State University, 2018. This research aimed at described: their communality in the theater art curriculum for undergraduate in both of Ethiopia and Indonesia the main objectives are: (1) Exploring the difference between the theatre art curriculum for undergraduate in of Ethiopia and Indonesia. (2) Discovering the similarities between the curriculum of undergraduate theatre art program of (...) Ethiopia and Indonesia. A descriptive qualitative research method was used for its research. It used simple random sampling method to collect data from theatre art curriculum for undergraduate program documents of Ethiopian and Indonesia. The data were gathered by using two different techniques of data collection consisting of document study and open-ended interviews. Document study is the main data collecting technique and interview was used to support the primary technique. During the document study method the data were gathered in library and privately from the different lecturers and scholars that the relative document such like; books, magazines, journals and research papers. The data consist of two types of curriculum documents which are from Ethiopia and Indonesian theatre art curricula for undergraduate program. These data was compared to examine the similarities and difference in terms of the number of semesters, course, size of contents and the graduate profiles. The results of the research show that the theatre art curriculum for undergraduate in Indonesia different from that of Ethiopia. The structures of course arrangement, time management, the course content size, a number of courses and credits are a big deference between these two curricula. Several Indonesian course contents and names are similar to those in Ethiopia but the size of which are different. The courses offered in Ethiopia curriculum are all in the form of course work, while, in Indonesia students do the course work for seven semesters and the last semester is for research. Indonesia has an elective course which is 14 credit hours, and in Ethiopia there is no elective course. With regards to course matters and evaluation methodology, the two countries theatre art curriculums share similarities in terms of the structure, the content and subjective areas of the program. This research can provide the benefit for multiple stakeholders for revising, preparing, evaluating and as a reference for the next studies in the relevant field. (shrink)

The vision and yearning of any Theater Administrator involves basically the tripartite objective of guaranteeing satisfaction, having a full house and maximizing profits. But due to the nature of theater as predominantly a collaborative art and the variances in temperament, aspiration and vocation of the various artistic endeavors, conflict often arise which militates against the attainment of the above objective by the theatre administrator. This work examines some conflict in the play production (the theater production) and prescribes certain measures, (...) which the theater administrator can adopt in order to surmount them. (shrink)

Since the middle of the 20“ century, various governments, organizations and stakeholders have suggested ways of realizing a desirable change, which is an index of development. The quest for this pursuit had led to the evolution of concepts and theories examples of which are; modernization, dependency, sustainable, participatory, and post development among others. The reality of this pursuit still proves to be unresolved for many developing nations as a result of the constraints of some of these theories especially those that (...) conceive development according to the standard of the developed western states of the world. The way in which governments and development planners set out objectives of development without finding out the people’s needs from them or involving them is however bewildering. Development planners assume to know the needs of nations and individuals. Inadvertently, this approach to development does not bring about sustainability in the life of the project, nor does it have a lasting effect The lacunae as argued in this paper have to do with the issue of people’s participation and adequate strategies to incorporate them. It thus suggests that the use of popular arts is effective in addressing issues of development. The genre of this popular art in question is referred to as Theatre for Development (TFD). (shrink)

To succeed, every organization including theatre necessarily requires human and material resources. The material resources cannot on their own function. It is the human capital within the organization that utilizes and drives the materials in a certain direction in order to achieve predetermined objectives. This places the human capital in a pivotal role and justifies the attention often paid to personnel matters in organizations. Personnel themselves have to be managed. One potent avenue for adequately managing human resources towards the (...) realization of predetermined goals and objectives is good and effective communication. This paper examines the options open to the Theatre Administrator (the head of theatre organizations)) in order to foster coherence and adequately harmonize theatre personnel towards achieving the goals of guaranteeing satisfaction, having a full house and maximizing profits. (shrink)

It is observed that most development modalities employed over the years for achieving community development in Africa have not leaved up to expectation in terms of involving the majority of people in the quest for national transformation and development; rather, these modalities tend to complicate the very problems they are set out to solve. The situation is mostly like this because the adopted development strategies have not taken adequate cognizance the essence of effective communication methods and the importance of people’s (...) perspectives and peculiarities in these processes. Mostly, the so-called outsiders and experts in development matters who are physically and socially separated from the people think for them and about their development. This situation is inimical to genuine and sustainable development. It is important therefore to note that development can only be meaningful and sustainable when it is people generated; involving people’s real needs and their participation in the process of achieving them. It is at this point therefore that community theatre can come handy as it has the potentials to bring people together to discuss issues that disempowered them and participatorily proffer solutions to the negatives. Community theatre can be explored to work with rural and urban people; mostly the rural dwellers who are mostly disempowered. In view of this therefore, this paper posits that community theatre is a method of participatory communication towards achieving social change. (shrink)

Using William Shakespeare’s Hamlet and the play-within-the play, The Murder of Gonzago, as a case study, this essay argues that theatrical utterances constitute a special case of language usage not previously elucidated: the utterance of a statement with propositional content in theatre functions as an event. In short, the propositional content of a particular p (e.g. p1, p2, p3 …), whether or not it is true, is only understood—and understood to be true—if p1 is uttered in a particular time, (...) place, and situation (i.e. during a theatrical event); otherwise, the propositional content in those theatrical utterances can either be false or contingently true. (shrink)

This article seeks to contribute to the debate on how political representation can promote democracy by analysing the Chamber in the Square, which is a component of legislative theatre. A set of techniques devised to democratise representative governments, legislative theatre was created by Augusto Boal when he was elected a political representative in 1993. After briefly reviewing Nadia Urbinati’s understanding of democratic representation as a diarchy of will and judgement, I partially endorse Hélène Landemore’s criticism and contend that (...) if representation is to be democratic, citizens’ exchange of opinions in the public sphere should be invested with the power not only to judge, but also to decide political affairs. By opening up a space where the represented can judge, decide, and contest the general terms of the bills representatives present in the assembly, the Chamber in the Square harnesses political representation to democracy. (shrink)

In the theatre, one individual, the artistic director, is saddled with the responsibility of tapping, sieving and blending the skills, talents and vocation of all the other artists into a complete artistic, visual and auditory whole. This is an enormous task which requires ingenuity, creativity and hard-work. All the effort, time, energy and money spent in this endeavour will come to nought if at the end, there is no audience to appreciate the work of all the artists who laboured (...) towards the production. Therefore, the whole idea behind any theatre activity is the presentation to an audience of a unified theatrical effect which has the capacity of arousing them both emotionally and intellectually . It has been observed that the place of the audience in the entire theatre structure and in the making of any theatre cannot be ignored particularly, as the theatre’s major and only target is the audience . The above trend may provoke one into asking what an audience is or what constitutes an audience whom the various artists work for. (shrink)

Beyond the eras a dialogue seems to have been established between Bruegel the Elder (1525-1569) and Antonin Artaud (1896-1948). The poet’s wonder at the « painting of the North », both realistic and emblematic, reveals his deepest ideal as an artist : painting, a « magical » operation, deploys a power of expression based on signs and no longer on words, which the theatre is also called upon to seize. The juxtaposition of Bruegel’s Triumph of Death and a famous (...) drawing by Artaud, Le Théâtre de la cruauté [The Theatre of Cruelty], highlights the striking convergences between the two artists. Through their pictorial works, both of them renew over the centuries the funerary and mythical symbolism of death, inherited from the macabre scenes of medieval paintings, but also from ancient times. Studying the references to theatrical iconography in Bruegel’s painting, where carnival and crudity of death reinforce each other, allows us to deepen the meaning of these resonances. For the two artists, form and poetic momentum meet so that representation, as a structure common to painting and theatre, fixes a moment of the world, while animating that moment to infinity, thanks to signs conceived as « true hieroglyphs » (Artaud), a problem that Michel Foucault associated with the strongest truth that the experience of madness carries. (shrink)

This dissertation is an attempt to find a single framework for understanding two seemingly conflicting aspects of Nabokov's Russian novels---the metaphysical and the existential. The metaphysical aspect is analyzed according to Leibniz's "Monadology," with its key concepts of the monad, pre-established harmony, the optimization of the universe, and sufficient reason. The existential aspect is examined according to Sartre's theory of the gaze from "Being and Nothingness"; its main notions are being-for-another, radical individuation and intersubjective struggle. Concern with the level of (...) being is assumed to be the most basic and unifying element of the Nabokovian worldview. It is shown that Nabokov conceives individual being as value, and that he understands self-authorship as self-ownership. The value of individual being is threatened by intersubjective contact: the other, via the gaze, can undermine its property status, and eventually alienate it. All particular plots are derived from these underlying premises. The key Nabokovian themes of blindness, non-transparency, loss, memory and art are demonstrated to refer back to the root concepts of the gaze and self-protection. ;The dissertation develops two original conceptual tools: a theory of unreliable focalization and a theory of paranoid experience ;Close readings of Nabokov's texts have resulted in several philological findings. Structural and textual parallels have been discovered between "Mashen'ka" and Shakespeare's "Hamlet," as well as between "Priglashenie na kazn'" and Descartes' "Meditations." It has also been shown that the protagonist's story in "Zashchita Luzhina" is repeated four times and not two. (shrink)

Drawing on Husserl, Ingarden and Levinas’ works, this article explores Ibsen’s Rosmersholm from a phenomenological perspective, aiming to shed light both on this play and on the phenomenology of hunger and theatre, as well as on the larger meaning of alimentary enjoyment.

There is a long tradition in philosophy and literary theory defending the view that engagement with literature promotes readers’ empathy. Until the last century, few of the empirical claims adduced in that tradition were investigated experimentally. Recent work in psychology and neuropsychology has now shed new light on the interplay of empathy and literature. This article surveys the experimental findings, addressing three central questions: What is it to read empathically? Does reading make us more empathic? What characteristics of (...) literature, if any, affect readers’ empathy? While experimental studies have delivered no conclusive answers to these questions, it has exposed their psychological complexity and constructed a more nuanced picture of the diverse ways in which literature interacts with our empathic capacities. (shrink)

Many great authors claim that reading literature can expand your phenomenal imagination and allow you to imagine experiences you have never had. How is this possible? Your phenomenal imagination is constrained by your phenomenal concepts, which are in turn constrained by the phenomenology of your own actual past experiences. Literature could expand your phenomenal imagination, then, by giving you new phenomenal concepts. This paper explains how this can happen. Literature can direct your attention to previously unnoticed phenomenal (...) properties of your own past experiences, as brought to mind by involuntary memory. This process gives you the opportunity to notice those phenomenal properties for the first time, and so also to form phenomenal concepts of those properties. Forming a new phenomenal concept strictly expands the range of your phenomenal imagination. It gives you the capacity to imagine more than you could have before, including certain specific kinds of experience that you yourself have never enjoyed firsthand. Literature’s capacity to expand your phenomenal imagination in this way is central to its social, moral, and epistemic value. (shrink)

The objective of theatre establishments as business concerns remains predominantly to cover costs and make profits. Of all the avenues generation, gate-takings remain readily available and have been used by theatres for centuries now. But due to fraudulent activities, theatre establishments can be short-changed. Consequently, revenues can be lost and the establishments unable to meet their obligations; taxes, honoraria, rents, wages etc. it is therefore imperative to adopt measures that would strengthen gate-takings as revenue machinery, devoid of fraudulent (...) practices. This work examines theatre as a business and prescribes measures that can be adopted to safe-guard gate-takings, as part of internal financial control in theatre establishments. (shrink)