{"product_id":"9781789620382-emergence-of-a-theatrical-science-of-p","title":"The Emergence of a theatrical science of man in France, 1660–1740","description":"\u003cmeta content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\" http-equiv=\"Content-Type\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThis book highlights a radical departure from discussions of dramatic literature and its undergirding rules to a new, relational discourse on the  emotional power of theater. Grounded in contemporary and early-modern theories, this reassessment of the theatrical experience shows a broader  change in conceptions of subjectivity, emotionality, and learning during the early French Enlightenment.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe emergence of a theatrical science of man in France, 1660-1740\u003c\/i\u003e highlights a radical departure from discussions of dramatic literature and its undergirding rules to a new, relational discourse on the emotional power of theater. Through a diverse cast of religious \u003ci\u003etheaterphobes\u003c\/i\u003e, government officials, playwrights, art theorists and proto-\u003ci\u003ephilosophes\u003c\/i\u003e, Connors shows the concerted effort in early Enlightenment France to use texts about theater to establish broader theories on emotion, on the enduring psychological and social ramifications of affective moments, and more generally, on human interaction, motivation, and social behavior. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis fundamentally anthropological assessment of theater emerged in the works of anti-theatrical religious writers, who argued that emotional response was theater’s \u003ci\u003eraison d’être\u003c\/i\u003e and that it was an efficient venue to learn more about the depravity of human nature. A new generation of pro-theatrical writers shared the anti-theatricalists’ intense focus on the emotions of theater, but unlike religious \u003ci\u003etheaterphobes\u003c\/i\u003e, they did not view emotion as a conduit of sin or as a dangerous, uncontrollable process; but rather, as cognitive-affective moments of feeling and learning.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eConnors’ study explores this reassessment of the theatrical experience which empowered writers to use plays, critiques, and other cultural materials about the stage to establish a \u003ci\u003etheatrical science of man\u003c\/i\u003e—an early Enlightenment project with aims to study and ‘improve’ the emotional, social, and political ‘health’ of eighteenth-century France.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Rarewaves","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":40701058777185,"sku":"9781789620382","price":128.64,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0092\/7504\/8033\/files\/orig_41668564_d882d0fa-c40b-4d05-9f55-99054852d447.jpg?v=1781800541","url":"https:\/\/www.rarewaves.com\/products\/9781789620382-emergence-of-a-theatrical-science-of-p","provider":"Rarewaves.com","version":"1.0","type":"link"}