The world of theatre criticism is rapidly changing in its form, function and modes of operation in the twenty-first century. The dominance of the internet has led to a growing trend of selfappointed theatre critics and bloggers who are changing the focus and purpose of the discussion around live performance. Even though the blogosphere has garnered suspicion and hostility from some mainstream newspaper critics, it has also provided significant intellectual and ideological challenges to the increasingly conservative profile of the professional critic. This book features 16 commissioned contributions from scholars, arts journalists and bloggers, as well as a small selection of innovative critical practice. Authors from Australia, Canada, Croatia, Germany, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Russia, the UK and the US share their perspectives on relevant historical, theoretical and political contexts influencing the development of the discipline, as well as specific aspects of the contemporary practices and genres of theatre criticism. The book features an introductory essay by its editor, Duka Radosavljevic.
Author(s): Duška Radosavljevic
Edition: 1
Publisher: Bloomsbury Methuen Drama
Year: 2016
Language: English
Pages: 352
Tags: Literary Criticism, Literary Theory, Theatre Studies
Cover page
Halftitle page
Title page
Copyright page
CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS
CHAPTER 1 THEATRE CRITICISM: CHANGING LANDSCAPES
Theatre criticism in the twenty-fi rst century
The public sphere
Conversation
Notes
Works cited
PART I CONTEXTS AND HISTORIES OF THEATRE CRITICISM
CHAPTER 2 STYLE VERSUS SUBSTANCE: AMERICAN THEATRE CRITICISM SINCE 1945
After the war: maturity
Drama at the Times
The rise of the ‘blurb whore’
Acknowledgements
Works cited
CHAPTER 3 THE PROBLEM OF RELIABILITY: THEATRE CRITICISM IN LATVIA
Contemporary context
A glimpse of the Soviet past
Construction of meaning
Latvian theatre practice in the twenty- fi rst century
Conclusion
Notes
Works cited
CHAPTER 4 FROM THE UNCRITICAL CERTAINTIES OF MODERNISM TO THE CRITICAL UNCERTAINTIES OF POSTMODERNISM: REVIEWING THEATRE IN GREECE
Historical survey
The utopia of the post-dictatorship years
From utopia to dystopia: enter depression culture
Theatre economics: the meltdown
The critics and the crisis
The critics’ (postmodern) role
Concluding remark
Notes
Works cited
CHAPTER 5 RUSSIAN THEATRE CRITICISM: IN SEARCH OF CONTEMPORARY RELEVANCE
Theatre criticism in Russia
The Russian school of criticism
New theatre theories and their influence on Russian criticism
How was new theatre of the 2000s perceived by Russian critics?
Contemporary Russian criticism – summary
Notes
Works cited
CHAPTER 6 HOW TO GET YOUR HANDS DIRTY: OLD AND NEW MODELS OF‘MILITANT’ THEATRE CRITICISM IN ITALY
Dirty hands and militancy: creative criticism
Dirty hands after the 1980s: from political statement to material necessity
Notes
Works cited
CHAPTER 7 WHAT GERMAN THEATRE CRITICS THINK AND WHAT THEIR READERS EXPECT: AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF MISUNDERSTANDINGS
Theatre criticism in Germany
The study
The critics
The Readers
Critics and their readers
Notes
Work cited
CHAPTER 8 A BRIEF HISTORY OF ONLINE THEATRE CRITICISM IN ENGLAND
Phase 1
Phase II
Phase III
Conclusion
Notes
Works cited
PART II CRITICS’ VOICES
CHAPTER 9 DO THEY MEAN ME? A SURVEY OF FICTIONAL THEATRE CRITICS
Critic by profession, critic by sensibility
The critic as the butt of the joke
The critic as Lothario
The critic as drunk
The critic as corpse
The critic as theatre lover
Critic by profession, critic by sensibility revisited
Works cited
CHAPTER 10 BETWEEN JOURNALISM AND ART: THE LOCATION OF CRITICISM IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY
Criticism: chronicle of a death foretold
All change? The twenty-first-century critic
Against cultural relativism: in defence of criticism
In support of ‘radical elitism’
Against miserablism: the future of criticism
Notes
Works cited
CHAPTER 11 CODE-SWITCHING AND CONSTELLATIONS: ON FEMINIST THEATRE CRITICISM
Demystifying criticism
Modes of production and constellations of relationships
Danger
Labour and code-switching
Notes
Works cited
CHAPTER 12 THE CRITIC AS INSIDER: SHIFTING UK CRITICAL PRACTICE TOWARDS ‘EMBEDDED’ RELATIONSHIPS AND THE ROUTES THIS OPENS UP TOWARDS DIALOGUE AND DRAMATURGY
It started with a hunch
It started with journalism
It starts with trust
It started decades ago
Notes
Works cited
PART III CHANGING FORMS AND FUNCTIONS OF CRITICISM
CHAPTER 13 CRITICISM AS A POLITICAL EVENT
Towards a politicized critical practice
Criticism and the neoliberal: politics and aesthetics
The fall as gesture of criticism
Configurations of resistance: criticism as a political event
A final return
Note
Works cited
CHAPTER 14 CONVERSATION AND CRITICISM: AUDIENCES AND UNFINISHED CRITICAL THINKING
Digital conversations
Art criticism as a digital conversation
Audience conversations
Written criticism
Unfinished thinking
Some conclusions and a table
Works cited
CHAPTER 15 CROWDSOURCING THE REVIEW AND THE RECORD: A COLLABORATIVE APPROACH TO THEATRE CRITICISM AND ARCHIVING IN THE DIGITAL AGE
Crowdsourced theatre criticism
Accessibility and its limits
Crowdsourcing the archive
Notes
Works cited
CHAPTER 16 ARTICISM (ART + CRITICISM) AND THE LIVE BIRDS OF PASSIONATE RESPONSE
I
II
III
IV
V
Notes
Works cited
CHAPTER 17 PERFORMATIVE CRITICISM AND CREATIVE CRITICAL WRITING
Critiquing objectivity
Theatricalizing theory
Theatre criticism: Susannah Clapp and Lyn Gardner
Works cited
PART IV SAMPLES OF CRITICAL PRACTICE
CHAPTER 18 HOW TO THINK LIKE A THEATRE CRITIC
CHAPTER 19 NOTA
CHAPTER 20 HUFF
CHAPTER 21 TEH INTERNET IS A SERIOUS BUSINESS
INDEX
