Title: "Fourdimensional ideas into a twodimensional stage" : E.E. Cummings' and László Moholy-Nagy's aesthetics of drama and theater
Source document: Brno studies in English. 2008, vol. 34, iss. 1, pp. [139]-149
Extent
[139]-149
-
ISSN1211-1791
Stable URL (handle): https://hdl.handle.net/11222.digilib/104242
Type: Article
Language
License: Not specified license
Notice: These citations are automatically created and might not follow citation rules properly.
Abstract(s)
Canonized and respected as it may be, E.E. Cummings' oeuvre is surely anything but well known: it is far from being general knowledge that his contribution to art and culture well exceed those of a poet. And while some scholars are active in making him more and more respected as a painter, there are few traces of interest in his prose and his dramatic works. This essay shows that five articles written by Cummings for the magazines The Dial and Vanity Fair can together be considered as his dramatic program. Furthermore, it provides a comparative analysis of his theories and those that Laszlo Moholy-Nagy advertised in his essay "Theater, Circus, Variety", a part of the 1925 manifesto The Theater of the Bauhaus. Through this analysis of Cummings' theorizing about theater, this short essay tries to call attention to the fact that in contrast with both present-day thoughts about his importance in the field of drama, as well as criticisms of his own contemporaries, Cummings was actually following the contemporary currents of theater.
References
[1] Cummings, E. E. (1965a) 'Coney Island'. In: Firmage, George J. (ed.) E. E. Cummings. A Miscellany Revised. New York: October House, 149–53.
[2] Cummings, E. E. (1965b) 'The Adult, the Artist and the Circus.' In: Firmage, George J. (ed.) E. E. Cummings. A Miscellany Revised. New York: October House, 109–14.
[3] Cummings, E. E. (1965c) 'The Theatre: I'. In: Firmage, George J. (ed.) E. E. Cummings. A Miscellany Revised. New York: October House, 141–4.
[4] Cummings, E. E. (1965d) 'The Theatre: II'. In: Firmage, George J. (ed.) E. E. Cummings. A Miscellany Revised. New York: October House, 145–8.
[5] Cummings, E. E. (1965e) 'You Aren't Mad, Am I?' In: Firmage, George J. (ed.) E. E. Cummings. A Miscellany Revised. New York: October House, 126–31.
[6] Cummings, E. E. (1970) Him. New York: Liveright.
[7] Curjel, Hans. (1991) 'Excerpt from Moholy-Nagy and the Theater'. Trans. Sibyl Moholy-Nagy. In: Kostelanetz, Richard (ed.) Moholy-Nagy. An Anthology. New York: Da Capo, 94–96.
[8] Crary, Jonathan. (1998) 'The Camera Obscura and its Subject'. In: Mirzoeff, Nicholas (ed.) The Visual Culture Reader. New York: Routledge, 245–52.
[9] Firmage, George G. (ed.) (1965) E. E. Cummings. A Miscellany Revised. New York: October House.
[10] Malamud, Margaret. (2001) 'The Greatest Show on Earth: Roman Entertainments in Turn-of-theCentury New York City'. Journal of Popular Culture 35 (3), 43–58. | DOI 10.1111/j.0022-3840.2001.3503_43.x
[11] Moholy-Nagy, László (1961) 'Theater, Circus, Variety'. Trans. Arthur S. Wensinger. In: Gropius, Walter (ed.) The Theater of the Bauhaus. Middletown: Wesleyan UP, 49–70.
[12] Virilio, Paul (1998) 'A Topographical Amnesia'. In: Mirzoeff, Nicholas (ed.) The Visual Culture Reader. New York: Routledge, 108–121.
[2] Cummings, E. E. (1965b) 'The Adult, the Artist and the Circus.' In: Firmage, George J. (ed.) E. E. Cummings. A Miscellany Revised. New York: October House, 109–14.
[3] Cummings, E. E. (1965c) 'The Theatre: I'. In: Firmage, George J. (ed.) E. E. Cummings. A Miscellany Revised. New York: October House, 141–4.
[4] Cummings, E. E. (1965d) 'The Theatre: II'. In: Firmage, George J. (ed.) E. E. Cummings. A Miscellany Revised. New York: October House, 145–8.
[5] Cummings, E. E. (1965e) 'You Aren't Mad, Am I?' In: Firmage, George J. (ed.) E. E. Cummings. A Miscellany Revised. New York: October House, 126–31.
[6] Cummings, E. E. (1970) Him. New York: Liveright.
[7] Curjel, Hans. (1991) 'Excerpt from Moholy-Nagy and the Theater'. Trans. Sibyl Moholy-Nagy. In: Kostelanetz, Richard (ed.) Moholy-Nagy. An Anthology. New York: Da Capo, 94–96.
[8] Crary, Jonathan. (1998) 'The Camera Obscura and its Subject'. In: Mirzoeff, Nicholas (ed.) The Visual Culture Reader. New York: Routledge, 245–52.
[9] Firmage, George G. (ed.) (1965) E. E. Cummings. A Miscellany Revised. New York: October House.
[10] Malamud, Margaret. (2001) 'The Greatest Show on Earth: Roman Entertainments in Turn-of-theCentury New York City'. Journal of Popular Culture 35 (3), 43–58. | DOI 10.1111/j.0022-3840.2001.3503_43.x
[11] Moholy-Nagy, László (1961) 'Theater, Circus, Variety'. Trans. Arthur S. Wensinger. In: Gropius, Walter (ed.) The Theater of the Bauhaus. Middletown: Wesleyan UP, 49–70.
[12] Virilio, Paul (1998) 'A Topographical Amnesia'. In: Mirzoeff, Nicholas (ed.) The Visual Culture Reader. New York: Routledge, 108–121.