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Performing Arts General

Theatre of Estrangement

Theory, Practice, Ideology

by (author) Silvija Jestrovic

Publisher
University of Toronto Press
Initial publish date
Nov 2006
Category
General
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9780802090683
    Publish Date
    Dec 2006
    List Price
    $88.00
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9781442682580
    Publish Date
    Nov 2006
    List Price
    $86.00

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Description

In a world flooded with information, images, and sounds – where the distinction between real and simulated becomes increasingly blurred – one of the most pressing concerns of the theatre is how to subvert the stock responses of an audience and make the well-known fresh and meaningful again. Situating the practice of theatrical estrangement firmly in its social and political contexts, Theatre of Estrangement looks at how this concern has manifested itself in Russian and German avant-garde theatre.

Silvija Jestrovic traces the concept of estrangement from its early formulation in the Russian Formalist School of Literary Criticism embodied in the experiments of the Russian avant-garde, to its so-called apotheosis in the theory and practice of Bertolt Brecht. Drawing from a variety of sources – theatrical performances, dramatic works, visual art, film, political events, biographical data – she demonstrates that theatrical estrangement is not only an abstract theoretical postulate, but also a practical artistic strategy shaped by the cultural and historical climate. In the historical avant-garde, Jestrovic argues, estrangement became a way of thinking, a means of comprehending the world, and even a lifestyle. Yet, devices of making the familiar strange are destined to erode in one historical and cultural context and become rediscovered in another to rejuvenate stale art forms and open the door to a fresh and more critical perception of reality. Theatre of Estrangement attempts to make that rediscovery.

About the author

Silvija Jestrovic is a playwright and lecturer in the Department of Theatre Studies at the University of Warwick.

Silvija Jestrovic's profile page