Skip to main content
Northwestern University Press
Fulcrum Beta logo beta
  1. Home
  2. The Director's Prism: E. T. A. Hoffmann and the Russian Theatrical Avant-Garde

The Director's Prism: E. T. A. Hoffmann and the Russian Theatrical Avant-Garde

Dassia N. Posner 2016
The Director's Prism investigates how and why three of Russia's most innovative directors— Vsevolod Meyerhold, Alexander Tairov, and Sergei Eisenstein—used the fantastical tales of German Romantic writer E. T. A. Hoffmann to reinvent the rules of theatrical practice. Because the rise of the director and the Russian cult of Hoffmann closely coincided, Posner argues, many characteristics we associate with avant-garde theater—subjective perspective, breaking through the fourth wall, activating the spectator as a co-creator—become uniquely legible in the context of this engagement. Posner examines the artistic poetics of Meyerhold's grotesque, Tairov's mime-drama, and Eisenstein's theatrical attraction through production analyses, based on extensive archival research, that challenge the notion of theater as a mirror to life, instead viewing the director as a prism through whom life is refracted. A resource for scholars and practitioners alike, this groundbreaking study provides a fresh, provocative perspective on experimental theater, intercultural borrowings, and the nature of the creative process.
Buy Book
ISBN(s)
  • 978-0-8101-3356-3 (hardcover)
  • 978-0-8101-3355-6 (paper)
  • 978-0-8101-3357-0 (e-book)
Subject
  • Performing Arts
Citable Link
  • Resources
  • Stats

Resources

Search and Filter Resources

Filter search results by

Section

  • Add filter Section: Chapter 3: Peregrinus Tyss Meets Pipifax: Eisenstein, the Grotesque, and the Attraction to constrain search results to 1 item1
Filter search results by

Keyword

  • Add filter Keyword: GVYTM to constrain search results to 1 item1
  • Add filter Keyword: Tieck to constrain search results to 1 item1
  • Add filter Keyword: creative process to constrain search results to 1 item1
  • Add filter Keyword: forestage to constrain search results to 1 item1
  • Add filter Keyword: framing devices to constrain search results to 1 item1
  • more Keyword »
Filter search results by

Creator

  • Remove constraint Creator: Dementiev, P.1
Filter search results by

Format

  • Remove filter Format: image1
    Filter search results by

    Image Content

    • Remove filter Content: mise-en-scène design1
Filter search results by

Year

  • Add filter Year: 1921 to constrain search results to 1 item1
Filter search results by

Exclusivity

  • Add filter Exclusivity: Exclusive to Fulcrum to constrain search results to 1 item1

Search Constraints

Filtering by: Content mise-en-scène design Remove constraint Content: mise-en-scène design Creator Dementiev, P. Remove constraint Creator: Dementiev, P. Format image Remove constraint Format: image
Start Over
1 entry found
  • First Appearance
  • Section (Earliest First)
  • Section (Last First)
  • Format (A-Z)
  • Format (Z-A)
  • Year (Oldest First)
  • Year (Newest First)
Number of results to display per page
  • 10 per page
  • 20 per page
  • 50 per page
  • 100 per page
View results as:
List Gallery

Search Results

Drawing (detail) of P. Dementiev’s proposed solution to how to stage the audience-within-an-audience of Puss in Boots: with the fictional audience sitting along the lip of the stage, their heads ringing the forestage like footlights.

Mise-en-scène drawing for Puss in Boots (Dementiev)

From Chapter 3: Peregrinus Tyss Meets Pipifax: Eisenstein, the Grotesque, and the Attraction

P. Dementiev, mise-en-scène drawing (detail) for Puss in Boots, based on the play by Ludwig Tieck (December 1, 1921). Russian State Archive of Literature and Art, f. 963, op. 1, ed. khr. 1274: 9.

Stats

20,593 views since September 28, 2016
Northwestern University Press logo

Northwestern University Press

Powered by Fulcrum Beta logo beta

  • About
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Contribute
  • Accessibility
  • Preservation
  • Terms of Service
  • Log In

© Northwestern University Press 2019

x This site requires cookies to function correctly.