Masks, Transformation, and Paradox

A. David NapierSocial Science
Masks, Transformation, and Paradox

Author: A. David Napier

Publisher: Univ of California Press

ISBN: 0520045335

Category: Social Science

Page: 322

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Masks are found world-wide in connection with seasonal festivals, rites of passage, and curative ceremonies. They provide a means of investigating the paradoxical problems that appearances pose in the experience of transitional states. In this far-reaching work, A. David Napier studies mask iconography and the role played by masks in the realization of change. The masks of preclassical Greece¯in particular those of the Satyr and the Gorgon¯provide his starting point. A comparison of Greek to Eastern and especially Indian models follows, and the book concludes with an examination of the interpretation of Hindu ideas in Bali that demonstrates the importance of ambivalence in mask iconography.

Maskwork

Jennifer ForemanPerforming Arts
Maskwork

Author: Jennifer Foreman

Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand

ISBN: 9780718895297

Category: Performing Arts

Page: 158

View: 110

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The practice of mask-wearing has a long history, even becoming mandatory in times of global crisis. In this useful contribution to the performing arts curriculum, Maskwork takes a new look at the creative and timeless art of masks and mask-making, while also exploring their cultural anthropology from prehistory to the present day. Drawing on her extensive experience in professional theatre and running workshops, Foreman promotes the life-affirming qualities of masks, providing us with an invaluable resource for artists and teachers, as well as parents seeking activities for children at home. Eight themed projects use photographs to document masks and mask-making techniques, with each one offering practical advice and design ideas; materials are inexpensive and easy to acquire.

Masks and Masking

Gary EdsonArt
Masks and Masking

Author: Gary Edson

Publisher: McFarland

ISBN: 9781476612331

Category: Art

Page: 267

View: 161

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For at least 20,000 years, masking has been a mark of cultural evolution and an indication of magical-religious sophistication in society. This book provides a comprehensive understanding of the mask as a powerful cultural phenomenon—a means by which human groupings attempted to communicate their dignity and sense of purpose, as well as establish a continuum between the natural and supernatural worlds. It addresses the distinctive environments within which masks flourished, and analyzes the mask as a manifestation of art, ethnology and anthropology.

A Host of Devils

Zachary KingdonSocial Science
A Host of Devils

Author: Zachary Kingdon

Publisher: Routledge

ISBN: 9781136476662

Category: Social Science

Page: 272

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A Host of Devils provides an in-depth account of the background, origin and development of the spirit figure sculptures which emerged during colonial times among the Makonde people of Mozambique. The creation of such works is shown to connect with a regional system of knowledge and practice, within which spirits function as a format for expression. The book describes the ways in which the sculpture emerged, as well as the author's experience of learning how to carve.

Mask Makers and Their Craft

Deborah BellArt
Mask Makers and Their Craft

Author: Deborah Bell

Publisher: McFarland

ISBN: 9780786457649

Category: Art

Page: 264

View: 865

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Profiling 30 mask makers from around the world, this book explores the motivations and challenges of contemporary artists working to bring the traditional methods and conventions of mask making to an evolving global theatre. There are 181 photographs—including two sections of color plates—which illustrate how the mythic iconography of masks is used in the modern fields of dance, mime, theatre and storytelling. Topics include the ways in which mask artists and performers maintain a sense of universality despite varying local customs; the legacies of Italian mask makers Amleto and Donato Sartori and of the California–based Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre; and the ways in which traditional approaches in mask artistry continue to influence commercial mask performance ventures in film, on Broadway, and in touring companies.

Scripturalectics

Vincent L. WimbushLanguage Arts & Disciplines
Scripturalectics

Author: Vincent L. Wimbush

Publisher: Oxford University Press

ISBN: 9780190664701

Category: Language Arts & Disciplines

Page: 201

View: 539

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In this book ,Vincent Wimbush seeks to problematize what we call "scriptures," a word first used to refer simply to "things written," the registration of basic information. In the modern world the word came to be associated almost exclusively with the center- and power-defining "sacred" texts of "world religions." Wimbush argues that this narrowing of the valence of the term was a decisive development for western culture. His purpose is to reconsider the initially broad and politically charged use of the term. "Scriptures" are excavated not merely as texts to be read but understood as discourse: as mimetic rituals and practices, as ideologically-charged orientations to and prescribed behaviors in the world, as structures of relationships and social formations, as forms of communication. Wimbush is naming and constructing a new transdisciplinary critical project, which uses the historical and modern experiences of the Black Atlantic as resources for framing, categorization, and analysis. Using Chinua Achebe's novel Things Fall Apart as a touchstone, each chapter offers a close reading and analysis of a representative moment in the formation of the Black Atlantic, regarded as part of a history of modern human consciousness and conscientization. Such a history, Wimbush says, is reflected in the major turns in what he calls scripturalectics, part of the construction of the modern world, defined as efforts to manage or control knowledge and meaning.

The Image of the Feminine in the Poetry of W.B. Yeats and Angelos Sikelianos

Anastasia PsoniArt
The Image of the Feminine in the Poetry of W.B. Yeats and Angelos Sikelianos

Author: Anastasia Psoni

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

ISBN: 9781527523807

Category: Art

Page: 480

View: 445

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Modernism, as a powerful movement, saw the literary and artistic traditions, as well as pure science, starting to evolve radically, creating a crisis, even chaos, in culture and society. Within this chaos, myth offered an ordered picture of that world employing symbolic and poetic images. Both W.B. Yeats and Angelos Sikelianos embraced myth and symbols because they liberate imagination and raise human consciousness, bringing together humans and the cosmos. Being opposed to the rigidity of scientific materialism that inhibits spiritual development, the two poets were waiting for a new age and a new religion, expecting that they, themselves, would inspire their community and usher in the change. In their longing for a new age, archaeology was a magnetic field for Yeats and Sikelianos, as it was for many writers and thinkers. After Sir Arthur Evans’s discovery of the Minoan Civilization where women appeared so peacefully prominent, the dream of re-creating a gynocentric mythology was no longer a fantasy. In Yeats’s and Sikelianos’s gynocentric mythology, the feminine figure appears in various forms and, like in a drama, it plays different roles. Significantly, a gynocentric mythology permeates the work of the two poets and this mythology is of pivotal importance in their poetry, their poetics and even in their life as the intensity of their creative desire brought to them female personalities to inspire and guide them. Indeed, in Yeats’s and Sikelianos’s gynocentric mythology, the image of the feminine holds a place within a historical context taking the reader into a larger social, political and religious space.

Mask Improvisation for Actor Training & Performance

Sears A. EldredgePerforming Arts
Mask Improvisation for Actor Training & Performance

Author: Sears A. Eldredge

Publisher: Northwestern University Press

ISBN: 0810113651

Category: Performing Arts

Page: 238

View: 823

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Because mask improvisation work is relatively new in American theater training, this book is designed not only to acquaint readers with the theory of mask improvisation but to instruct them in the techniques of method as well. Featuring dozens of improvisational exercises in the innovative spirit of Viola Spolin, and supplemented with practical appendices on mask design and construction, forms and checklists, and other classroom materials, this book is an invaluable tool for teacher and student alike, as well as compelling reading for anyone interested in acquiring a deeper understanding of masks as agents of transformation, creativity, and performance.

Revealing Masks

W. Anthony SheppardMusic
Revealing Masks

Author: W. Anthony Sheppard

Publisher: Univ of California Press

ISBN: 9780520223028

Category: Music

Page: 368

View: 103

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This book is about the use of exoticism, particularly the use of masks and stylized movement, in opera and other musical theater genres of the twentieth century. The author explores in depth a topic that effects a wide variety of important composers, dancers, and dramatists, but has never been comprehensively studied.

Masks and Masking in Medieval and Early Tudor England

Meg TwycrossLiterary Criticism
Masks and Masking in Medieval and Early Tudor England

Author: Meg Twycross

Publisher: Routledge

ISBN: 9781351919302

Category: Literary Criticism

Page: 432

View: 845

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Drawing on broad research, this study explores the different social and theatrical masking activities in England during the Middle Ages and the early 16th century. The authors present a coherent explanation of the many functions of masking, emphasizing the important links among festive practice, specialized ceremonial, and drama. They elucidate the intellectual, moral and social contexts for masking, and they examine the purposes and rewards for participants in the activity. The authors' insight into the masking games and performances of England's medieval and early Tudor periods illuminates many aspects of the thinking and culture of the times: issues of identity and community; performance and role-play; conceptions of the psyche and of the individual's position in social and spiritual structures. Masks and Masking in Medieval and Early Tudor England presents a broad overview of masking practices, demonstrating how active and prominent an element of medieval and pre-modern culture masking was. It has obvious interest for drama and literature critics of the medieval and early modern periods; but is also useful for historians of culture, theatre and anthropology. Through its analysis of masked play this study engages both with the history of theatre and performance, and with broader cultural and historical questions of social organization, identity and the self, the performance of power, and shifting spiritual understanding.