Sources of Dramatic Theory: Volume 1, Plato to Congreve - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 052132694X ISBN 13: 9780521326940

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 1991

Synopsis

This volume includes major theoretical writings on drama from the Greeks, through the Renaissance up to the late seventeenth century, compiled and edited for students of drama and theater. There are substantial extracts from twenty-eight writers including Plato, Aristotle, Horace, Scaliger, Castelvetro, Guarini, Sidney, Jonson, Corneille, Racine, Dryden and Congreve. The compilers have chosen writers who present detailed arguments about issues that are still relevant to our understanding of drama and theater. Many of the texts have been freshly translated and all have been newly annotated and introduced by the compilers, who draw attention to recurrent themes by a system of cross-references. Michael Sidnell's useful introduction explores the issues that frequently concern these writers and practitioners: the nature of imitation, the relation of dramatic text to live performance, the effect of stage action on audience emotion and behavior--issues that still concern critics and theorists of drama today. Later volumes will cover the period from Diderot to Victor Hugo, modern dramatic theory, and performance theory.

About this title

Book Description

This book makes available major theoretical writings on drama from the Greeks to the late seventeenth century for students of dramatic theory who require more than representative snippets. All the texts included here have been newly annotated and many have been specially translated for this volume.

Review

"...Sidnell has drawn material together in an interesting and useful way." Douglas H. White, Letters In Canada

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 1991
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 052132694X
• ISBN 13: 9780521326940
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 328
• Editor: Sidnell Michael J.