Performance and Cognition

<p>This anthology is the first of its kind. In addition to opening up fresh perspectives on theatre studies – with applications for dramatic criticism, performance analysis, acting practice, audience response, theatre history, and other important areas – the book sets the agenda for future work, helping to map the emergence of this new approach. </p><p>Following a comprehensive introduction, the contributors examine:</p><ul> <li>the interfaces between cognitive studies and Lacanian psychoanalysis, phenomenology and communication theory</li> <li>different ideas from cognitive studies that open up the meanings of several plays</li> <li>the process of acting and the work of Antonio Damasio</li> <li>theatrical response: the dynamics of perception, and the riots that greeted the 1907 production of <em>The Playboy of the Western World</em>.</li> </ul><p>This original and authoritative work will be attractive to scholars and graduate students of drama, theatre, and performance. </p> <p>Introduction <em>Bruce McConachie and F. Elizabeth Hart</em> <strong>Section 1: Performance Theory and Cognition</strong> 1. Performance, Phenomenology, and the Cognitive Turn <em>F. Elizabeth Hart</em> 2. Cognitive Studies and Epistemic Competence in Cultural History: Moving Beyond Freud and Lacan <em>Bruce McConachie</em> 3. Performance Strategies, Image Schemas, and Communication Frameworks <em>Tobin Nellhaus </em><strong>Section 2: Drama and Cognition</strong> 4. Essentialism and Comedy: A Cognitive Reading of the Motif of Mislaid Identity in Dryden’s <em>Ampitryon</em> (1690) <em>Lisa Zunshine </em>5. `It Is Required/You Do Awake Your Faith’: Learning to Trust the Body through Performing <em>The Winter’s Tale Naomi Rokotnitz</em> <strong>Section 3: Acting and Cognition</strong> 6. Neuroscience and Creativity in the Rehearsal Process <em>John Lutterbie</em> 7. Image and Action: Cognitive Neuroscience and Actor Training <em>Rhonda Blair</em> <strong>Section 4: The Spectator and Cognition</strong> 8. See the Play, Read the Book <em>Howard Mancing</em> 9. Categories and Catcalls: Cognitive Dissonance in <em>The Playboy of the Western World Neal Swettenham</em> Glossary of Terms <em>Jennifer Pierce</em></p>