List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Show Trials and Political Theater
1. Hannah Arendt: Judging in Dark Times
2. Bertolt Brecht: Poetic Justice
3. Erwin Piscator: Theater After Auschwitz
4. Trials in Nuremberg
Conclusion: Archives, Law, and Theater Today
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Minou Arjomand is an assistant professor of English at the University of Texas at Austin.
This is a brilliant work that gives us both a social history and
critical theory of postwar theatre. One thinks about the show trial
as a terrible miscarriage of justice, but Arjomand gives trial
theatre another function: public deliberation and judgment on
responsibility and political justice. Whereas much attention has
been given to the theatricality of legal trials, Arjomand asks us
to value the public function of theatre in enacting debates on
justice and establishing a public practice of considered judgment.
The history of postwar German theatre offered here engaged in
critical theory and aesthetics in a new and engaging argument about
aesthetics and politics and the public functions of art in a
democracy.
*Judith Butler, Maxine Elliot Professor of Comparative Literature,
University of California, Berkeley*
Theatricality is pervasive in courtroom scenes. So is the question
about the relationship between ethical judgment and the law.
Political theater has always exploited this conjunction. The show
trial exemplifies the ambivalence between law and theatricality,
while the trial play offers a counterpoint. This is the
constellation Minou Arjomand brilliantly explores, focusing on
productions of trial plays, films, and TV courtroom series from
Brecht and Piscator to Anna Deavere Smith, with Hannah Arendt’s
political philosophy as a touchstone of the argument. A major
intervention into the aesthetics of political theater.
*Andreas Huyssen, Columbia University*
In crystal-clear prose, Staged examines the unique relation between
political thought and theater in German and German-American theater
from the 1920s to the 1970s, one born from the historical
experience of Nazism, the Holocaust, and their aftermath. I was
struck by how much we can learn from this painful period of German
and German-American theater and political thought. The book is very
timely indeed.
*Martin Puchner, Byron and Anita Wien Professor of Drama and of
English and Comparative Literature, Harvard University*
A thoughtful and intelligent book on the ways in which political
theater, or more precisely courtroom dramas, create a space in
which aesthetic, ethical, and political judgments bleed into one
another.
*Choice*
Staged marks an exciting moment for scholarship at the intersection
of law and theater... emerge[ing] from the long-established insight
that law and performance are mutually constitutive.
*The English Association*
For its ambitious articulation of fundamental questions of
aesthetics and politics, and for the study’s under-appreciated
subjects, Staged should be read not just by those interested in
post-war Germany but by anyone interested in how theatre can
benefit judgement and justice.
*Modern Drama*
An exciting moment for scholarship at the intersection of law and
theater...Arjomand’s analysis offers a powerful defense of theater
as a public institution.
*The Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory*
An important contribution to scholarship on political
theater...[and] a strong argument for the continued political
relevance of theater.
*The Germanic Review*
This book is full of small anecdotes...that add humanizing touches
to its subject of study, giving readers a glimpse of the real
personal and political stakes that these theatre artists
encountered...highly accessible.
*Theatre History Studies*
A highly original book that confidently speaks to different
audiences.
*Contemporary Political Theory*
|
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
