Black Theatre: Ritual Performance In The African Diaspora

Black Theatre: Ritual Performance In The African Diaspora
ISBN-10
1566399440
ISBN-13
9781566399449
Category
Performing Arts
Pages
432
Language
English
Published
2002-11-08
Publisher
Temple University Press
Authors
Paul Carter Harrison, Victor Leo Walker Ii, Gus Edwards

Description

Generating a new understanding of the past—as well as a vision for the future—this path-breaking volume contains essays written by playwrights, scholars, and critics that analyze African American theatre as it is practiced today.Even as they acknowledge that Black experience is not monolithic, these contributors argue provocatively and persuasively for a Black consciousness that creates a culturally specific theatre. This theatre, rooted in an African mythos, offers ritual rather than realism; it transcends the specifics of social relations, reaching toward revelation. The ritual performance that is intrinsic to Black theatre renews the community; in Paul Carter Harrison's words, it "reveals the Form of Things Unknown" in a way that "binds, cleanses, and heals."

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