| Description |
xvi, 158 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm |
| Contents |
Dance, writing and trauma -- Ballet and the Neoclassicist tradition -- Dances of the self -- Figures of the text -- Heinrich von Kleist and the mechanics of grace -- Aesthetics and dance c.1800 -- Grace and affectation in Über das Marionettentheater -- Kleist's law of movement -- E.T.A. Hoffmann and the true art of dance -- Hoffmann on dance -- Performances of Trauma in Der Sandmann -- The dancing self in Prinzessin Brambilla -- Heinrich Heine and the new language of the body -- Neoclassicism, ballet, and Heine's cultural theory of dance -- Dances of mourning: Laurence and Giselle -- Speaking dancing |
| Summary |
"Lucia Ruprecht's study is the first monograph in English to analyse the relationship between nineteenth-century German literature and theatrical dance. Combining cultural history with close readings of major texts by Heinrich von Kleist, E.T.A. Hoffmann and Heinrich Heine, the author brings to light little-known German resources on dance to address the theoretical implications of examining the interdiscursive and intermedial relations between the three authors' literary works, aesthetic reflections on dance, and dance of the period. In doing so, she not only shows how dancing and writing relate to one another but reveals the characteristics that make each mode of expression distinct unto itself. Readings engage with literary modes of understanding physical movement that are neglected under the regime of eighteenth-century aesthetic theory, and of classical ballet, setting the human, frail and expressive body against the smoothly idealised neoclassicist ideal |
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Particularly important is the way juxtaposing texts and performance practice allows for the emergence of meta-discourses about trauma and repetition and their impact on aesthetics and formulations of the self and the human body. Related to this is the author's concept of performative exercises or dances of the self which constitute a decisive force within the formation of subjectivity that is enacted in the literary texts. Joining performance studies with psychoanalytical theory, this book opens up new pathways for understanding Western theatrical dance's theoretical, historical and literary continuum."--BOOK JACKET |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index |
| Subject |
Kleist, Heinrich von, 1777-1811 -- Criticism and interpretation.
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Hoffmann, E. T. A. (Ernst Theodor Amadeus), 1776-1822 -- Criticism and interpretation.
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Heine, Heinrich, 1797-1856 -- Criticism and interpretation.
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Modern dance -- History -- 19th century.
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Dance in literature.
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Aesthetics in literature.
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German literature -- 19th century -- History and criticism.
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| LC no. |
2006003926 |
| ISBN |
0754653617 hardback |
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9780754653615 hardback |
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