This book presents the proceedings of the interdisciplinary conference “La filosofia a teatro” (“Philosophy at the Theatre”, University of Milan, April 22th-24th, 2009) and consists of twenty-eight papers investigating the mutual relations between philosophy and theatre from several different perspectives. The time span covered in the book ranges from Ancient Greece up to present day. The contributions focus on major representatives of both disciplines: poets and playwrights like Aeschylus, Euripides, Aristophanes, Seneca, Calderón, Hölderlin, Büchner, Ibsen, Hofmannstahl, Wedekind, Brecht, Sartre, Moravia, Bernhard, Handke and Stoppard on the one hand and philosophers like Gorgias, Plato, Aristotle, Seneca, Diderot, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Simmel, Klages, Wittgenstein and Sartre on the other. The papers are grouped into three areas: the first area, THE PHILOSOPHER AT THE THEATRE, includes the subsections “The Philosopher as a Dramatist”, “The Philosopher as a Reader”, “The Philosopher as a Character”; the second area, PHILOSOPHICAL ISSUES, consists of the subsections “Order and Reality of the World”; “The Influence of Philosophy on Theatre” and “Reflections on Language”; the third area is devoted to AESTHETICS OF THE THEATRE and includes two subsections: “Theatre as a Form of Cognition” and “The Actor’s and the Audience’s Paradox”. As the editor Alessandro Costazza argues in his introduction to the volume, this thematic division actually discloses a more complex and somewhat more challenging internal organization, based on the four components of human communication: sender, receiver, context, message, code. This may help to provide a comprehensive panorama of the mutual interactions between philosophy and theatre. As an overall tendency, the contributions collected in this volume seem to suggest that philosophy and theatre still have different languages. Even when theatre deals with purely philosophical topics, the inherent ambiguity and, one would dare say, the inconsistency of its means of expression do not allow to draw univocal conclusions, which, in turn, promotes further reflection. Ambiguity and contradiction may at first glance be regarded as unfavourable properties of theatrical communication; still, at a closer look they prove to be a plus, as they grant the playwrights to go beyond the frames of systematic thinking and to call attention to “blind alleys” that cannot be fully grasped inside the philosophical system. Even satire, which is usually thought not to be philosophical at all, may play this critical role. However, it emerges that especially poetic language, its creative freedom, its richness and openness may lead theatre to break the chains of schematic rational language. In some of the papers a parallel is traced between theatrical representation and philosophical knowledge: this underlines the partiality and limitedness of human knowledge on the one hand; still, it permits on the other to revalue the productive and creative function of philosophy based on dialogue and multiperspectiveness.

La filosofia a teatro / [a cura di] A. Costazza. - Milano : Cisalpino, 2010 Apr. - ISBN 978-88-205-1004-6.

La filosofia a teatro

A. Costazza
Primo
2010

Abstract

This book presents the proceedings of the interdisciplinary conference “La filosofia a teatro” (“Philosophy at the Theatre”, University of Milan, April 22th-24th, 2009) and consists of twenty-eight papers investigating the mutual relations between philosophy and theatre from several different perspectives. The time span covered in the book ranges from Ancient Greece up to present day. The contributions focus on major representatives of both disciplines: poets and playwrights like Aeschylus, Euripides, Aristophanes, Seneca, Calderón, Hölderlin, Büchner, Ibsen, Hofmannstahl, Wedekind, Brecht, Sartre, Moravia, Bernhard, Handke and Stoppard on the one hand and philosophers like Gorgias, Plato, Aristotle, Seneca, Diderot, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Simmel, Klages, Wittgenstein and Sartre on the other. The papers are grouped into three areas: the first area, THE PHILOSOPHER AT THE THEATRE, includes the subsections “The Philosopher as a Dramatist”, “The Philosopher as a Reader”, “The Philosopher as a Character”; the second area, PHILOSOPHICAL ISSUES, consists of the subsections “Order and Reality of the World”; “The Influence of Philosophy on Theatre” and “Reflections on Language”; the third area is devoted to AESTHETICS OF THE THEATRE and includes two subsections: “Theatre as a Form of Cognition” and “The Actor’s and the Audience’s Paradox”. As the editor Alessandro Costazza argues in his introduction to the volume, this thematic division actually discloses a more complex and somewhat more challenging internal organization, based on the four components of human communication: sender, receiver, context, message, code. This may help to provide a comprehensive panorama of the mutual interactions between philosophy and theatre. As an overall tendency, the contributions collected in this volume seem to suggest that philosophy and theatre still have different languages. Even when theatre deals with purely philosophical topics, the inherent ambiguity and, one would dare say, the inconsistency of its means of expression do not allow to draw univocal conclusions, which, in turn, promotes further reflection. Ambiguity and contradiction may at first glance be regarded as unfavourable properties of theatrical communication; still, at a closer look they prove to be a plus, as they grant the playwrights to go beyond the frames of systematic thinking and to call attention to “blind alleys” that cannot be fully grasped inside the philosophical system. Even satire, which is usually thought not to be philosophical at all, may play this critical role. However, it emerges that especially poetic language, its creative freedom, its richness and openness may lead theatre to break the chains of schematic rational language. In some of the papers a parallel is traced between theatrical representation and philosophical knowledge: this underlines the partiality and limitedness of human knowledge on the one hand; still, it permits on the other to revalue the productive and creative function of philosophy based on dialogue and multiperspectiveness.
apr-2010
Settore L-LIN/10 - Letteratura Inglese
Settore L-LIN/13 - Letteratura Tedesca
Settore L-FIL-LET/02 - Lingua e Letteratura Greca
Settore L-FIL-LET/11 - Letteratura Italiana Contemporanea
Settore M-FIL/07 - Storia della Filosofia Antica
Settore L-LIN/03 - Letteratura Francese
Settore L-LIN/05 - Letteratura Spagnola
Settore M-FIL/04 - Estetica
Settore L-OR/08 - Ebraico
La filosofia a teatro / [a cura di] A. Costazza. - Milano : Cisalpino, 2010 Apr. - ISBN 978-88-205-1004-6.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/2434/140762
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