The ISMS Flashcards
1
Q
SOPOCO
A
- Period of GREAT CHANGE
- Each decade noted a new developement
- Exciting and turbulent
- Rapid developements in science and technology
- Paradigm shift changed the way people behaved and thought
- People started questioning and interrogating long held beliefs
2
Q
1880’s-1900’s: What did philosophers, theoriest/thinkers do for society?
Social
A
challenged the way people thought about religion, philosophy, physics etc
3
Q
DARWIN
Social
A
- The theory of evolution: We all came from a common ancestor
- Disputed creationism
- Believed we are made up of our genes and environment
4
Q
NIETZCHE
Social
A
- “God is Dead”: people have severed their relationship with God; God is no longer a ruling force in people’s lives
- Morality: The Church is morally wrong; each individual is to give their own meaning to life
- Moral dualism which leads to Nihilism; ways to overcome Nihilism
- Lead to developement of existentialism
5
Q
FREUD
Social
A
- Psychoanalysis, dreams and the subconcious
- We are driven by our instincts, impulses and defence mechanism
6
Q
EINSTEIN
Social
A
- Theory of RELATIVITY
- Revolutionised ideas of time, mass, distance and energy
- Understanding of the physical world changed
7
Q
Industrial Revolution
Political and Economic
A
- Major changes in transport, agriculture and manufacturing (TAM)
- Profound impacts on politics and economy: Capitalism, classes
8
Q
Capitalism
Political and Economic
A
- Private ownership
- Consumerism
- Class divide
9
Q
NEW IMPERIALISM: COLONISATION
Political and Economic
A
- Aggressive competition for overseas territory
- Exploitation of resources and slave labour
10
Q
MARXISM AND KARL MARX
Political and Economic
A
- Criticised the capilast system: Saw it in all it’s flaws of dehumanisation adn explotaion
- Proposed a new classless society
11
Q
1910
Political and Economic
A
The age of European Militarianism
12
Q
WW1: 1914 – 1918
Political and Economic
A
- First time tech used exstensively (tanks, shells, machine guns)
- People dies in millions
- War to end all wars - they belived a war like this would never occur on this scale again
13
Q
What happened between WWI and WWII
A
- 1917: The Russian Revolution
- 1920’s: The Roaring 20’s
- Age of economic prosperity (US: Rapid urbanisation, stock market, wealth; RUSSIA: Rise in communism; GERMANY/ITALY: Rise in facism)
- 1929: Stock market crash, great depression; women voting rights
- 1930’s: World economic crisis
14
Q
1930’s: Effects of The World Economic Crisis
What happened between WWI and WWII
A
- High unemployment rate
- US implemets progressive reforms
- Italy + Germany = Rise of the dictators
- Radio as a dominant media form
- WWII breaks out and ends the recession
15
Q
WWII: 1939 -1945
A
- USA, Britain, Russia against Germany, Italy, Japan
- Holocaust, Blitz, Atomic Bomb
- 50-70 million deaths
- Increased independence of women: encouraged to work
16
Q
COLD WAR: 1946 – 1991
A
- US capitalism vs. USSR communism
- Ideological/Proxy war: space race, arms race, propaganda
17
Q
POST-WWII: Existentialism
A
Rise of feelings of fear and despair, existence of God called into question, life seemed meaningless, science has failed us, loss of external organising principles
18
Q
What were the ISMS?
A
- Symbolism
- Expressionism
- Futurism
- Dadaism
- Surrealism (Epic Theatre)
19
Q
What did the Symbolists and Expressionists want?
A
Wanted to add new meaning to theatre by going beyond the surface reality of Realism
20
Q
What did the Dadaists, Futurists and Surrealists want?
A
They completely renounced traditional theatre and created an entirely new form
21
Q
SYMBOLISM: Time and Place
A
1880’s France
22
Q
SYMBOLISM: Response to Context
A
- Began in the literary world: TS Elliot and Yeats
- First movement to rebel against Realism (Anti-realist movement)
- Avoided any attempt to solve social issues
- Little impact on mainstream theatre, however profound impact on future movements
- Used symbols in replacement for direct statements
- Simplified settings
23
Q
SYMBOLISM: Aims/Intentions
A
- Dramatise thoughts and feelings - create a subjective reality
- Suggest a universal truth that of which cannot be defined by logic
- Therefore logical though communicated ONLY by symbols
- Appreareance is a minor aspect of reality; reality is found in the unknowable and mysterious forces that control reality
- Play becomes a metaphore: uses symbols to evoke feelings and emotions
- Penetrates beyond the surface reality; expressed inner meaning of life
24
Q
SYMBOLISM: Key Features and Characteristics
A
- Keynote: SIMPLICITY
- Mood and atmosphere: created by lighting, colour, shapes, lines
- Lighting UNIFIED stage + actor + set
- Plays were delibirately artificial - intended to mystify the audience so the audience could look for a deeper meaning
- Did not adhere to 3 unities
- Actor akin to sculpture: rhythmic, dance-like movement
- Stock type: Controlled by fate
- Proscenium arch allowed a 3D fluidity
- Set: impressionistic to capture the spirit of life, not the form; Complimented the actor - focus remained on the actor
25
Q
EXPRESSIONISM: Time and Place
A
1910 Germany
26
Q
EXPRESSIONISM: Response to 20th century context
A
- Protest against materialism, industrialism and effects of capitalism
- Saw these things as destroyers of the human spirit
- Used sarcasm and satire
- Expressionist said industrial age had turned humans into machines: with conditioned responses and souls shrivelled by materialistic values
- There was no absolute truth – truth found within humankinds (spirits, desires and visions) – subjective
27
Q
EXPRESSIONISM: Aim/Intention
A
- Protest against social order, paternalistic family structures and ethics of capitalism
- Wanted to reshape the external world
- Explore the subjective reality of humankind
- Expose inner feelings and experiences of characters
- Wanted social change – therefore themes were strongly represented
28
Q
EXPRESSIONISM: Key Features
A
- Focused on how the human spirit has been distorted by false values - DISTORTION
- Protagonist (author-hero – mouthpiece of the playwright) – searching for identity and fulfilment or a means to change the world
- Warped by materialism and industrialism
- As they become more tortured and disturbed by external world, the more distorted and exaggerated the scenery, lighting, sound and costumes become
- Staging: anti-realist sets, shapes that are altered and exaggerated (sharp angles), abnormal colour, mechanical movement
- Actor’s Schrei: an exaggerated facial expression showing a silent scream (dissatisfaction with bourgeois complacency)
- Speech exaggerated: varied from long speeches and prose to short, rhythmic staccato bursts of speech – reinforces the offbeat atmosphere and dehumanised characterisation
- Theatrical devices: narrators, soliloquies, music, dancing, unusual sound and technical effects
- Unity of time, place and action is disrupted – episodic structure
- Stock characters: strong themes and messages, emphasis on essential experiences of masses, simplified plot, communicate the protest message
- Grotesque imagery and a satirical mood
- Dark and Light contrast
29
Q
FUTURISM: Time and Place
A
1910 Italy
30
Q
FUTURISM: Response to 20th century context
A
- Futurists: saw machine age as the key to an enlightened future
- They glorified machine age rather than focusing on psychological introspection
- Rejected the past because they believed it stood in the way of progress
31
Q
FUTURISM: Aims/Intention
A
- Replaced existing drama with a synthetic one that compressed time and space
- By showing simple, unrelated scenes simultaneously in one dramatic setting
- Amalgamate the arts (liked circuses and musicals and anything that broke the tradish proscenium arch setting)
- Sought confrontations with the audience and challenged their prejudice about what art is
32
Q
FUTURISM: Key Features
A
- Performances were a confrontational mix of forms: visual events, dancing, displays performed simultaneously or in succession – result was quite chaotic
- Actors sometimes performed in the auditorium
- Opposed traditional conventions and employed a variety of art forms - multimedia techniques
33
Q
DADAISM: Time and Place
A
Switzerland 1920’s
34
Q
DADAISM: Response to 20 th C context
A
- Began in 1916
- Based on philosophy of nihilism (belief in nothing, rejection of all certainties, structures, extreme scepticism)
- Grounded in a rejection of values that had provoked WWI
- Because insanity seemed to be the world’s state they replaced logic, reason and unity with illogic ‘calculated madness’
- Expressed disgust with social and artistic traditions: “spat in the eye of the world”
- Tristan Tzara (manifesto): Dada is everything, dada doubts everything,** the real Dadaists are against dada”**
- Destroyed old forms so that new forms could truly represent the human condition
- Succeeded in bringing into question the nature of art
35
Q
DADAISM: Aim/Intention
A
- Protest against the senseless brutality of war, where all moral and aesthetic values were meaningless
- Spread anti-art and non-sense to show that art depended on chance alone
- Did not try to suggest how to improve the world, they just questioned everything that existed
36
Q
DADAISM: Key Features
A
- Used a variety of forms: visual art, dance, lectures, short plays to convey their philosophy
- Like Futurists, they used simultaneity and multiple focuses
- Believed that theatre was an illogical arrangement of unrelated objects and events
- Motto was “nothing” – Grosz – our symbol was nothingness, a vacuum, a void
- No order, no logic, no meaning, no optimism
- Staging intended to shock audiences
- Rejected the proscenium arch
- Against ALL forms of traditional staging
- HUGO BALL – nonsense sound poems
37
Q
SURREALISM: Time and Place
A
France 1930’s
38
Q
SURREALISM: Response to 20 th C Context
[4]
A
- Dadaism was absorbed into Surrealism (also a revolt against Realism)
- Andre Breton launched it in a manifesto in 1924
- Wanted to express real process of thought
- Wanted a new reality based on artistic truth, using the subconscious dream- state of the mind
- Emphasised importance of subconscious (Freud)
39
Q
SURREALISM: Aim/Intention
[3]
A
- Explore imaginative images of dreams and subconscious mind and not be limited by reality
- Expose “inner truths”, and to do this the conscious mind must be subverted
- Go beyond the normal perceptions of the outside world
40
Q
SURREALISM: Key Features
A
- Staging drew inspiration from dream-like images
- Words and images had free reign on stage to encourage the breaking of the natural censorship of the mind
- Sentences without grammatical structure, juxtaposed with situations that seemed to have nothing in common – but they have a connection in the subconscious
- Theatre of Cruelty: Antonin Artaud
- Used new spaces to replace traditional theatre buildings
- Stark lighting, shrill sound effects
- Appeals to the rational mind were useless because people were conditioned by society to ignore their impulses
- Language seen as having too close a connection with rational thought
- Broke down the audience’s defences by assaulting their senses
- Became v influential after WW2 (bitter and disillusioned) and in 1960s (Grotowski and Poor Theatre)
