Ludics in Surrealist Theatre and Beyond

Author, Researcher, or Creator

Vassilki Rapti, Emerson CollegeFollow

Department

Visual and Media Arts

Author(s)

Vassilki Rapti

Resource Type

Other

Publication, Publisher or Distributor

Routledge

Publication Date

2018

Related Information

Review from Amazon.com “Rapti (classics, Harvard) offers a dense, erudite argument that surrealist drama is not mimetic but methectic ... Summing Up: Recommended.' Choice '... reintroduces the reader to work of playwrights with whom scholars and readers of surrealism are not necessarily familiar ... demonstrates that the appeal of surrealist ludics is indeed universal and therefore exceeds all cultural boundaries.' “--Comparative Drama --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Brief Description

This is the paperback (2017) release of Rapti’s (2013) Ludics in Surrealist Theatre and Beyond. This book re-examines the misunderstood artistic medium of surrealism within the theatre, especially when compared to painting and poetry. This work reconsiders surrealist theatre from the perspective of ludics-a poetics of play and games-an ideal approach to the Surrealists, whose games blur the boundaries between the 'playful' and the 'serious.' In this book Rapti demystifies André Breton's controversial attitude toward theatre, brings justice to surrealist theatre by highlighting the unique character that derives from the inherent element of play, and also traces the impact of surrealist theatre in areas that extend beyond the generally acknowledged influence on the Theatre of the Absurd. A a wide variety of Surrealist and Post-Surrealist playwrights and stage directors, from several different countries, and from the 1920s to the present: Roger Vitrac, Antonin Artaud, Ganter Berghaus, Nanos Valaoritis, Robert Wilson, and Megan Terry, are explored in this work.