Theatre and Its Other

Abhinavagupta on Dance and Dramatic Acting
Erscheinungsjahr 2022
ISBN: 978-90-04-44981-7
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 23, 414 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 834 g

Reihe: Gonda Indological Studies

What is Dance? What is Theatre? What is the boundary between enacting a character and narrating a story? When does movement become tinted with meaning? And when does beauty shine alone as if with no object? These universal aesthetic questions find a theoretically vibrant and historically informed set of replies in the oeuvre of the eleventh-century Kashmirian author Abhinavagupta. The present book offers the first critical edition, translation, and study of a crucial and lesser known passage of his commentary on the Natyasastra, the seminal work of Sanskrit dramaturgy. The nature of dramatic acting and the mimetic power of dance, emotions, and beauty all play a role in Abhinavagupta’s thorough investigation of performance aesthetics, now presented to the modern reader.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Ganser, Elisa

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Theater- und Filmwissenschaft | Andere Darstellende Künste Theaterwissenschaft Schauspieltechnik, Theaterpädagogik
• Geisteswissenschaften Theater- und Filmwissenschaft | Andere Darstellende Künste Theaterwissenschaft Theatergeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Theater- und Filmwissenschaft | Andere Darstellende Künste Tanz

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface

0 Introduction

0.1 A Forgotten Chapter in the History of Indian Aesthetics

0.2 Recovering Dance through Texts: A Note on Method

1 Na?yasastra and Abhinavabharati: Trends and Open Questions

1.1 Editorial History and Textual Reception

1.2 Archiving Performance: Texts and Images

1.3 The Na?yasastra and the Place of Dance in It

1.4 The Abhinavabharati: A Medieval Document on Performance

Part 1 Practice and Aesthetics of Indian Dance

2 Formalizing Dance, Codifying Performance

2.1 Na?ya, n?tta, and n?tya between Movement and Mimesis

2.2 Dance as Technique: a?gahara, kara?a, recaka

2.3 Between Gender and Genre: ta??ava, sukumara, lasya

2.4 Expanding the Idea of n?tta

2.5 Tradition, Creativity, and Artistry: A Saiva Perspective

3 The Aesthetics of Dance

3.1 Dance within Theatre, Dance without Theatre

3.2 Enacting Emotions: A vademecum for the Actor

3.3 Communication without Words

3.4 Dance, Beauty, and the Fabrication of Dramatic Fiction

3.5 Reshaping the Idea of abhinaya in Dance

Part 2 Critical Edition and Annotated Translation of Abhinavabharati ad Na?yasastra 4.261cd–269ab

4 Introduction to the Edition

4.1 General Remarks on the Transmission of the Abhinavabharati

4.2 Genealogy of the Present Text: The Sources

4.3 A Note on the Sanskrit Text and Translation

4.4 Symbols and Abbreviations in the Apparatus

Analysis of ABh ad NS 4.261cd–269ab

Edition and Translation: Abhinavabharati ad Na?yasastra 4.261cd–269ab

Appendix: Kavyanusasana of Hemacandra (pp. 445–449)

Bibliography

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Elisa Ganser, Ph.D. (La Sapienza, Rome), is a researcher at the Department of Indian Studies at the University of Zurich. She has published articles on Indian theatre and dance, and co-edited Theatrical and Ritual Boundaries in South Asia (CIS 19.1–2, 20.1).