Martin Puchner

The Drama of Ideas (eBook, PDF)

Platonic Provocations in Theater and Philosophy

• Format: PDF

Produktbeschreibung

Most philosophy has rejected the theater, denouncing it as a place of illusion or moral decay; the theater in turn has rejected philosophy, insisting that drama deals in actions, not ideas. Challenging both views, The Drama of Ideas shows that theater and philosophy have been crucially intertwined from the start. Plato is the presiding genius of this alternative history. The Drama of Ideas presents Plato not only as a theorist of drama, but also as a dramatist himself, one who developed a dialogue-based dramaturgy that differs markedly from the standard, Aristotelian view of theater. Puchner discovers scores of dramatic adaptations of Platonic dialogues, the most immediate proof of Plato's hitherto unrecognized influence on theater history. Drawing on these adaptations, Puchner shows that Plato was central to modern drama as well, with figures such as Wilde, Shaw, Pirandello, Brecht, and Stoppard using Plato to create a new drama of ideas. Puchner then considers complementary developments in philosophy, offering a theatrical history of philosophy that includes Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Burke, Sartre, Camus, and Deleuze. These philosophers proceed with constant reference to theater, using theatrical terms, concepts, and even dramatic techniques in their writings. The Drama of Ideas mobilizes this double history of philosophical theater and theatrical philosophy to subject current habits of thought to critical scrutiny. In dialogue with contemporary thinkers such as Martha Nussbaum, Iris Murdoch, and Alain Badiou, Puchner formulates the contours of a "dramatic Platonism." This new Platonism does not seek to return to an idealist theory of forms, but it does point beyond the reigning philosophies of the body, of materialism and of cultural relativism.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Oxford University Press
• Erscheinungstermin: 14. April 2010
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9780199742240
• Artikelnr.: 41941608

Autorenporträt

Martin Puchner holds the H. Gordon Garbedian Chair in English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. He is the author of Stage Fright and Poetry of the Revolution, which was awarded the MLA's James Russell Lowell Prize. He is also the co-editor of the Norton Anthology of Drama.

Inhaltsangabe

I. The Poetics of the Platonic Dialogue
1. Plato, Dramatist
2. Tragedy, Comedy, Satyr Play
3. Plato's Dramaturgy
II. A Brief History of the Socrates Play
1. Socrates on Stage
2. The Death of Socrates
3. The Comic Stage Philosopher
III. The Drama of Ideas
1. August Strindberg and Georg Kaiser
2. Oscar Wilde
3. George Bernard Shaw
4. Luigi Pirandello
5. Bertolt Brecht
6. Tom Stoppard
IV. Dramatic Philosophy
1. Søren Kierkegaard
2. Friedrich Nietzsche
3. Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus
4. Kenneth Burke
5. Gilles Deleuze
V. The New Platonists
1. Iris Murdoch
2. Martha Nussbaum
3. Alain Badiou
Epilogue: Dramatic Platonism
Appendix 1: Socrates Titles
Appendix 2: Charting the Socrates Play
Index