Masks, Transformation, and Paradox

Masks, Transformation, and Paradox PDF Author: A. David Napier
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520045330
Category : Crafts & Hobbies
Languages : en
Pages : 322

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Book Description
Masks are found world-wide in connection with seasonal festivals, rites of passage, and curative ceremonies. They provide a means of investigating the paradoxical problems that appearances pose in the experience of transitional states. In this far-reaching work, A. David Napier studies mask iconography and the role played by masks in the realization of change. The masks of preclassical Greece¯in particular those of the Satyr and the Gorgon¯provide his starting point. A comparison of Greek to Eastern and especially Indian models follows, and the book concludes with an examination of the interpretation of Hindu ideas in Bali that demonstrates the importance of ambivalence in mask iconography.

Masks, Transformation, and Paradox

Masks, Transformation, and Paradox PDF Author: A. David Napier
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520045330
Category : Crafts & Hobbies
Languages : en
Pages : 322

Get Book Here

Book Description
Masks are found world-wide in connection with seasonal festivals, rites of passage, and curative ceremonies. They provide a means of investigating the paradoxical problems that appearances pose in the experience of transitional states. In this far-reaching work, A. David Napier studies mask iconography and the role played by masks in the realization of change. The masks of preclassical Greece¯in particular those of the Satyr and the Gorgon¯provide his starting point. A comparison of Greek to Eastern and especially Indian models follows, and the book concludes with an examination of the interpretation of Hindu ideas in Bali that demonstrates the importance of ambivalence in mask iconography.

A Host of Devils

A Host of Devils PDF Author: Zachary Kingdon
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136476733
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description
A Host of Devils provides an in-depth account of the background, origin and development of the spirit figure sculptures which emerged during colonial times among the Makonde people of Mozambique. The creation of such works is shown to connect with a regional system of knowledge and practice, within which spirits function as a format for expression. The book describes the ways in which the sculpture emerged, as well as the author's experience of learning how to carve.

Maskwork

Maskwork PDF Author: Jennifer Foreman
Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand
ISBN: 0718895290
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 158

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Book Description
The practice of mask-wearing has a long history, even becoming mandatory in times of global crisis. In this useful contribution to the performing arts curriculum, Maskwork takes a new look at the creative and timeless art of masks and mask-making, while also exploring their cultural anthropology from prehistory to the present day. Drawing on her extensive experience in professional theatre and running workshops, Foreman promotes the life-affirming qualities of masks, providing us with an invaluable resource for artists and teachers, as well as parents seeking activities for children at home. Eight themed projects use photographs to document masks and mask-making techniques, with each one offering practical advice and design ideas; materials are inexpensive and easy to acquire.

Revealing Masks

Revealing Masks PDF Author: W. Anthony Sheppard
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520924741
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 408

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Book Description
W. Anthony Sheppard considers a wide-ranging constellation of important musical works in this fascinating exploration of ritualized performance in twentieth-century music. Revealing Masks uncovers the range of political, didactic, and aesthetic intents that inspired the creators of modernist music theater. Sheppard is especially interested in the use of the "exotic" in techniques of masking and stylization, identifying Japanese Noh, medieval Christian drama, and ancient Greek theater as the most prominent exotic models for the creation of "total theater." Drawing on an extraordinarily diverse—and in some instances, little-known—range of music theater pieces, Sheppard cites the work of Igor Stravinsky, Benjamin Britten, Arthur Honegger, Peter Maxwell Davies, Harry Partch, and Leonard Bernstein, as well as Andrew Lloyd Webber and Madonna. Artists in literature, theater, and dance—such as William Butler Yeats, Paul Claudel, Bertolt Brecht, Isadora Duncan, Ida Rubenstein, and Edward Gordon Craig--also play a significant role in this study. Sheppard poses challenging questions that will interest readers beyond those in the field of music scholarship. For example, what is the effect on the audience and the performers of depersonalizing ritual elements? Does borrowing from foreign cultures inevitably amount to a kind of predatory appropriation? Revealing Masks shows that compositional concerns and cultural themes manifested in music theater are central to the history of twentieth-century Euro-American music, drama, and dance.

Mask Improvisation for Actor Training & Performance

Mask Improvisation for Actor Training & Performance PDF Author: Sears A. Eldredge
Publisher: Northwestern University Press
ISBN: 9780810113657
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 238

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Book Description
Because mask improvisation work is relatively new in American theater training, this book is designed not only to acquaint readers with the theory of mask improvisation but to instruct them in the techniques of method as well. Featuring dozens of improvisational exercises in the innovative spirit of Viola Spolin, and supplemented with practical appendices on mask design and construction, forms and checklists, and other classroom materials, this book is an invaluable tool for teacher and student alike, as well as compelling reading for anyone interested in acquiring a deeper understanding of masks as agents of transformation, creativity, and performance.

Masks and Human Connections

Masks and Human Connections PDF Author: Luísa Magalhães
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3031166736
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description
This interdisciplinary collection explores four distinct perspectives about the mask, as object of use for protection, identity, and disguise. In part I, contributors address human identities within collective social performance, with chapters on performativity and the far right and masked identities in political resistance and communication. Part II focuses on the mask as a signifying object with strong representational challenges, exploring representations in festivals, literature, and film. Part III investigates the ambiguous use of the mask as a protective and concealing element, delving into visual culture and digital social media contexts. Finally, Part VI draws on the work of Levinas and Deleuze to investigate a philosophical view of the mask that addresses memory and ethics within intersubjective relationships. Questioning the contemporary world, using communication, sociology, visual culture, and philosophical theory, the volume provides a pedagogical and formative perspective on the mask.

Creating Communities

Creating Communities PDF Author: Nourit Melcer-Padon
Publisher: transcript Verlag
ISBN: 3839441862
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 221

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Book Description
How does historical reality interrelate with fiction? And how much are readers themselves involved in the workings of fictional literature? With innovative interpretations of various well-known texts, Nourit Melcer-Padon introduces the use of literary masks and illustrates literature's engagement of its readers' ethical judgement. She promotes a new perception of literary theory and of connections between thinkers such as Iser, Castoriadis, Sartre, Jung and Neumann. The book offers a unique view on the role of the community in post-existentialist modern cultural reality by emphasizing the importance of ritual practices in literature as a cultural manifestation.

The Visual in Performance Practice

The Visual in Performance Practice PDF Author:
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 1848880669
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 185

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Book Description
This volume was first published by Inter-Disciplinary Press in 2011. Papers from the first global conference of Performance: Visual Aspects of Performance Practice (2010) evoke the multi-role, collaborative sense of a jointly crafted production of new discoveries from theory, concept, and design to realization, reflection, and audience reception.

Athenian Tragedy in Performance

Athenian Tragedy in Performance PDF Author: Melinda Powers
Publisher: University of Iowa Press
ISBN: 1609382579
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 211

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Book Description
Foregrounding critical questions about the tension between the study of drama as literature versus the study of performance, Melinda Powers investigates the methodological problems that arise in some of the latest research on ancient Greek theatre. She examines key issues and debates about the fifth-century theatrical space, audience, chorus, performance style, costuming, properties, gesture, and mask, but instead of presenting a new argument on these topics, Powers aims to understand her subject better by exploring the shared historical problems that all scholars confront as they interpret and explain Athenian tragedy. A case study of Euripides’s Bacchae, which provides more information about performance than any other extant tragedy, demonstrates possible methods for reconstructing the play’s historical performance and also the inevitable challenges inherent in that task, from the limited sources and the difficulty of interpreting visual material, to the risks of conflating actor with character and extrapolating backward from contemporary theatrical experience. As an inquiry into the study of theatre and performance, an introduction to historical writing, a reference for further reading, and a clarification of several general misconceptions about Athenian tragedy and its performance, this historiographical analysis will be useful to specialists, practitioners, and students alike.

Living Lilith

Living Lilith PDF Author: M. Kelley Hunter
Publisher: The Wessex Astrologer
ISBN: 1902405897
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 279

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Book Description
Of increasing interest to astrologers, Lilith is the name given to four astronomical points - an asteroid, a star, a dark "e;ghost"e; moon, and the better-known Black Moon. All four Liliths are discussed and differentiated with the aid of numerous case histories and fascinating insights into the lives of public figures. A section of suggested interpretations of Lilith's influence through the signs is included.