Art, Vision, and Nineteenth-Century Realist Drama Acts of Seeing [Paperback]

Realism in theatre is traditionally defined as a mere seed of modernism, a crude attempt to reproduce an exact copy of reality on stage. Art, Vision & Nineteenth-Century Realist Dramaredefines realism as a complex and under-examined form of visual modernism, one that positioned theatre at the crux of the encounter between consciousness and the visible world. Tracing a historical continuum of acts of seeing on the realist stage, Holzapfel demonstrates how theatre participated in modernitys aggressive interrogation of visions residence in the human body. New findings by scientists and philosopherssuch as Diderot, Goethe, M?ller, Helmholtz, and Galtonexposed how the visible world is experienced and framed by the unstable relativism of the physiological body rather than the fixed idealism of the mind. Realist artists across media paradoxically embraced this paradigm shift by focusing on the embodied observer. Drawing from extensive archival research, Holzapfel conducts close readings of iconic dramas and their productionsincluding Scribes The Glass of Water, Zolas Th?r?se Raquin, Ibsens A Doll House, Strindbergs The Father, and Hauptmanns Before Sunrisealongside analyses of artwork by major painters and photographerssuch as Chardin, Nadar, Millais, Rejlander, and Liebermann. In a radical challenge to existing criticism, Holzapfel argues that realism in theatre was never the attempt to reproduce an exact copy of the seen world but rather the struggle to make visible the act of seeing.

Introduction: Acts of Seeing  1. Scribes Actions of Seeing  2. Zolas Tunnel Vision  3. Ibsens Ocular Realism  4. Strindbergs Composites  5. Hauptmanns Lived Perspective  Conclusion: Seeing Realism

Holzapfel's new ways of seeing realism are interesting and add a valuable new layer to understandl#"