“A gauntlet thrown at the reader’s feet”

Reuss, Gabriella (2025) “A gauntlet thrown at the reader’s feet”. THEATRON: SZÍNHÁZTUDOMÁNYI PERIODIKA, 19 (4). pp. 62-68. ISSN 1418-9941

Preview

Text 07.Reuss-.tordelt.pdf - Published Version Download (174kB) | Preview

Abstract

Otakar ZICH. Aesthetics of the Dramatic Art:Theoretical Dramaturgy. Prague: CharlesUniversity in Prague, Karolinum Press, 2024.476 p. This paper assesses the long-awaited English edition of Otakar Zich’s Aesthetics of the Dramatic Art: Theoretical Dramaturgy (1931), published in 2024 (General editor David Drozd, translated by Pavel Drábek and Tomáš P. Kačer). It highlights the decade-long Czech initiative to make Zich’s seminal but complex writings accessible to an international readership through the Theatre Theory Reader (2016) and related projects. The review situates Zich’s inductive, spectator-centred theory within the intellectual tradition of the Prague Linguistic Circle and early twentieth-century European performance thought. It commends the translators’ methodological clarity and the volume’s dual structure—Introduction and Afterword—for enabling critical engagement with Zich’s intricate aesthetic system, now restored as a foundational text of modern theatre theory.

Actions (login required)

Edit Item