Theatre Theory Reader ─ Prague School Writings

The Theatre Theory Reader provides the first comprehensive and critical anthology of texts reflecting on the development of the theater theory of the Prague School—or Prague Linguistic Circle—beginning with early twentieth-century composer and aesthetician Otakar Zich. The majority of the thirty-eight texts date from the 1930s and early 1940s, the period when the Prague Linguistic Circle was most active as both a theoretical laboratory and a focal point for scholars, artists, and intellectuals. A substantial afterword places these writings in context, describing the emergence of the Prague School in an effort to promote a deeper understanding of its texts. Organized thematically and structurally rather than chronologically, the Theatre Theory Reader explores issues and themes in the study of the theater as an art form and as artistic practice. Just as the Prague School theorists viewed theory as a toolbox of approaches to theater analysis, this anthology should be considered a toolbox of analytic possibilities.

David Drozd is a senior assistant in the Department of Theatre Studies at Masaryk University and the Theatre Faculty of Janacek Academy of Music and Performing Arts, Czech Republic. Toma? Kacer is assistant professor in the Department of English and American Studies and a researcher in the Department of Theatre Studies at Masaryk University. Don Sparling is director emeritus of Masaryk University’s Office for International Studies.