Martin Green is Professor of English at Tufts University.
John Swan is Head Librarian at Bennington College.
"Green and Swan have given us an extraordinary interdisciplinary
work. Using Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, the saltimbanque paintings
of Picasso and Schoenberg's musical experiments as the starting
point, they examine the modernist consciousness, which evolved from
the 16th-century concept of the commedia dell'arte character of
Pierrot, the original free-spirited revolutionary of European
improvisational theater. Green and Swan are sweeping and
occasionally breathtaking as they link the masters of modern
literary culture to the tragicomic, grotesque traditions of the
Harlequin: in literature, Rilke, Kafka, Brecht, and Weill; in art,
Chagall and Rouault; in music, Stravinsky and Ravel; in film,
Keaton, Chaplin, and the German expressionist montage of Lang and
Wiene. From commedia to Caligari, the theme of this enormously
provocative book is revolt and the modern spirit. . . . an
intellectual tour de force."--Choice
"What do Stravinsky, Degas, Chaplin, Isak Dinesen, Meyerhold, Monty
Python, and T. S. Eliot have in common? What do such disparate work
as Picasso's Family of Saltimbanques," Bergman's Sawdust and
Tinsel, Waugh's Put Out More Flags, and Pirandello's Six Characters
in Search of an Author share? As [Green and Swan] persuasively
argue in their new book, all have been influenced by the Italian
commedia dell'arte. . . . Exaggeration, artifice, and a
self-conscious theatricality are commedia's hallmarks;
impertinence, mockery, and irony its weapons against the serious
threats of the real world. No wonder, then, that commedia (along
with the archetypes it supplies) exerted a fierce hold on the
modernist imagination, and according to [the authors] left its
imprint on virtually every area of Western culture from 1890 to
1930."--Michiko Kakutani, in The New York Times
Green and Swan have given us an extraordinary interdisciplinary
work. Using Diaghilev s Ballets Russes, the saltimbanque paintings
of Picasso and Schoenberg s musical experiments as the starting
point, they examine the modernist consciousness, which evolved from
the 16th-century concept of the commedia dell arte character of
Pierrot, the original free-spirited revolutionary of European
improvisational theater. Green and Swan are sweeping and
occasionally breathtaking as they link the masters of modern
literary culture to the tragicomic, grotesque traditions of the
Harlequin: in literature, Rilke, Kafka, Brecht, and Weill; in art,
Chagall and Rouault; in music, Stravinsky and Ravel; in film,
Keaton, Chaplin, and the German expressionist montage of Lang and
Wiene. From commedia to Caligari, the theme of this enormously
provocative book is revolt and the modern spirit. . . . an
intellectual tour de force. Choice"
What do Stravinsky, Degas, Chaplin, Isak Dinesen, Meyerhold, Monty
Python, and T. S. Eliot have in common? What do such disparate work
as Picasso s Family of Saltimbanques," Bergman s Sawdust and
Tinsel, Waugh s Put Out More Flags, and Pirandello s Six Characters
in Search of an Author share? As [Green and Swan] persuasively
argue in their new book, all have been influenced by the Italian
commedia dell'arte. . . . Exaggeration, artifice, and a
self-conscious theatricality are commedia s hallmarks;
impertinence, mockery, and irony its weapons against the serious
threats of the real world. No wonder, then, that commedia (along
with the archetypes it supplies) exerted a fierce hold on the
modernist imagination, and according to [the authors] left its
imprint on virtually every area of Western culture from 1890 to
1930. Michiko Kakutani, in The New York Times"
Green and Swan have given us an extraordinary interdisciplinary
work. Using Diaghilev s Ballets Russes, the saltimbanque paintings
of Picasso and Schoenberg s musical experiments as the starting
point, they examine the modernist consciousness, which evolved from
the 16th-century concept of the commedia dell arte character of
Pierrot, the original free-spirited revolutionary of European
improvisational theater. Green and Swan are sweeping and
occasionally breathtaking as they link the masters of modern
literary culture to the tragicomic, grotesque traditions of the
Harlequin: in literature, Rilke, Kafka, Brecht, and Weill; in art,
Chagall and Rouault; in music, Stravinsky and Ravel; in film,
Keaton, Chaplin, and the German expressionist montage of Lang and
Wiene. From commedia to Caligari, the theme of this enormously
provocative book is revolt and the modern spirit. . . . an
intellectual tour de force. Choice"
What do Stravinsky, Degas, Chaplin, Isak Dinesen, Meyerhold, Monty
Python, and T. S. Eliot have in common? What do such disparate work
as Picasso s Family of Saltimbanques," Bergman s Sawdust and
Tinsel, Waugh s Put Out More Flags, and Pirandello s Six Characters
in Search of an Author share? As [Green and Swan] persuasively
argue in their new book, all have been influenced by the Italian
commedia dell'arte. . . . Exaggeration, artifice, and a
self-conscious theatricality are commedia s hallmarks;
impertinence, mockery, and irony its weapons against the serious
threats of the real world. No wonder, then, that commedia (along
with the archetypes it supplies) exerted a fierce hold on the
modernist imagination, and according to [the authors] left its
imprint on virtually every area of Western culture from 1890 to
1930. Michiko Kakutani, in The New York Times"
"Green and Swan have given us an extraordinary interdisciplinary
work. Using Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, the saltimbanque paintings
of Picasso and Schoenberg's musical experiments as the starting
point, they examine the modernist consciousness, which evolved from
the 16th-century concept of the commedia dell'arte character of
Pierrot, the original free-spirited revolutionary of European
improvisational theater. Green and Swan are sweeping and
occasionally breathtaking as they link the masters of modern
literary culture to the tragicomic, grotesque traditions of the
Harlequin: in literature, Rilke, Kafka, Brecht, and Weill; in art,
Chagall and Rouault; in music, Stravinsky and Ravel; in film,
Keaton, Chaplin, and the German expressionist montage of Lang and
Wiene. From commedia to Caligari, the theme of this enormously
provocative book is revolt and the modern spirit. . . . an
intellectual tour de force."--Choice
"What do Stravinsky, Degas, Chaplin, Isak Dinesen, Meyerhold, Monty
Python, and T. S. Eliot have in common? What do such disparate work
as Picasso's Family of Saltimbanques," Bergman's Sawdust and
Tinsel, Waugh's Put Out More Flags, and Pirandello's Six Characters
in Search of an Author share? As [Green and Swan] persuasively
argue in their new book, all have been influenced by the Italian
commedia dell'arte. . . . Exaggeration, artifice, and a
self-conscious theatricality are commedia's hallmarks;
impertinence, mockery, and irony its weapons against the serious
threats of the real world. No wonder, then, that commedia (along
with the archetypes it supplies) exerted a fierce hold on the
modernist imagination, and according to [the authors] left its
imprint on virtually every area of Western culture from 1890 to
1930."--Michiko Kakutani, in The New York Times
 |
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
