Philo-Lit

Notes on "What is theory ?" b y Jonathan Culler Philo-Lit The term theory has a lot to do in various fields. But what is this thing called theory? Seems like a big word but in most cases it will be even less than a sort of activity. In literature, we are told that theory has changed the nature of literary studies- but this theory is not the literary theories (which is the way of writing literature and the way it is analysed have changed.). Instead they all have in mind another set of theories- when they complaint that there is a lot of theories, they have a separate set of ideas and names in mind- may be Derrida, Foucault, Spivak etc   The term theory The term theory itself has problems Seems like the term has got two directions 1.        Theory of relativity 2.        Ordinary use of the word ‘Theory’ The author shows an example and says: Theory is more than a guess, a speculation, a kind of explanat...

   Philo-Lit In the first part, Auslander talks about the terms “Postmodernism’ and ‘Performance’ Both terms – equally unstable- both of the terms don’t have a single or fixed meaning. ‘performance’ – usually we think of theatre, dance music etc, which are the traditional performing arts. The concept of postmodernism functions at 3 different levels. - used as a periodizing concept (just a different period in the history of theatre) -A way of describing contemporary culture in which the performance occur. -A stylistic descriptor (a difference in style) All three concepts are complicated as they are difficult to be fixed. Also, all three are interacted with each other.   What is the difference between the adjectives ‘postmodern’ and ‘postmodernist ‘? Postmodern- the term is used often used to refer to a historical period (usually after world war I) Postmodernist- term used to refer to a characteristic of postmodern period. Therefore it refers to th...

Notes on “Modern European Drama: Origins and Patterns” by John Fletcher and James McFarlane Philo-Lit · The modern theatre movement began in the eighties and nineties according to Eric Bentley, with the success of Henri Becque's plays Les Corbeaux (The Vultures) and La Parisienne (Woman of Paris) and Ibsen's Ghosts. Also, along with Andre Antoine’s Theatre Libre expressly for the performance of naturalist plays. · The success of the new movements was the success of naturalism. · The changes in the drama was on two coordinates- (a) Substantive and thematic (b) Formal and Linguistic Ibsen was one author who brought out charges in theme as well as form in drama. Ibsen wrote problem plays (thus, he brought changes in theme) and in case of form, he wrote in prose. · For long years, his achievement remained in large measure domestic to Scandinavia, but in the nineties he burst upon the European scene with all its fury. The new wave of independent theatres p...