What Was Before isn’t Anymore

: Image, Theatre and the Italian New Spectacularity 1978-1984

Abstract

This thesis is an investigation into Italian experimental theatre practices in the late 1970s and early 1980s commonly referred to as ‘New Spectacularity’, of which it considers the socio-cultural background, the philosophical perspectives and the aesthetic contribution. Conscious of traversing rarely trodden ground, this research takes as its subject the New Spectacularity per se while also considering questions regarding its memory and its theorisation. As such, alongside a careful analysis – in some cases the first – of the theatre it takes as its subject of inquiry, this work is invested in drawing up methods and ways of thinking able to do justice to the complex panorama the work exists within. These concern the study of spectatorship in the historical and of the atmospherical quotient of visual theatres, the investigation of the circulation of images as an intermittent movement, and the consideration of affective stances from which the works of art of an era may be crafted in the past as well as reflected upon in the present. These methods and ways of thinking are formulated alongside a study of the Neo-Spectacular stage in an aim to not only shed light on a neglected yet pivotal moment in Italian theatre, but to also be of use to wider discussions concerning performance in its complex and intertwined travelling alongside postmodern philosophy and culture.

Date of Award	2014
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Roehampton
Supervisor	Joe Kelleher (Supervisor) & P. A. Skantze (Supervisor)