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How Does Language Communicate Through Drama: Television, Film, and Theater as Distinct Discourse Types

Author: 
Year:
Pages:204
ISBN:0-7734-5156-0
978-0-7734-5156-8
Price:$179.95
This book examines three common types of dramatic communication as cultural objects in light of its historical, social, and cultural context. After considering the critique of the classic foundations of Western aesthetic theory and the collapse of the grand narrative, the book explores the contributions of linguistics, hermeneutics, Theodor Adorno, and the School of Frankfurt to the study of Aesthetics. The work not only demonstrates the relevance of these theories in the analysis of cultural products, but also the significance of linking art to its social and historical reality.

Reviews

“The book not only fills a vacuum in the literature that relates aesthetics to contemporary continental theories, but also makes a unique contribution to the understanding of aesthetics itself as a form of sociology, which, when critically analyzed, yields “emancipatory knowledge”, to borrow a term from Jürgen Habermas.” - Dr. Matthew Kanjirathinkal, Professor of Sociology, Park University

“The authors properly situate their study within the context of the decline of the idea of the grand narrative in contemporary social theory. They attribute the displacement of the grand narrative to shifts in dominant social institutions and the role of artists in contemporary society.” - Dr. Jim Faught, Professor of Sociology, Loyola Marymount University

“Fabio Dasilva and Viviana Bompadre combine the sensitivity and perception of an artist with the detail, rigor, and acumen of a scholar in order to produce a hermeneutical analysis of dramatic communication. . . .In their careful and cogent analyses, Dasilva and Bompadre offer an extraordinary breath of Continental Social Thought and Critical Theory.” -Dr. Anthony J. Cortese, Professor, Department of Sociology, Southern Methodist Univeristy, Dallas, TX

Table of Contents

Foreword by Matthew Kanjirathinkal
Acknowledgements
Part I: Theoretical Appoaches
1 Introduction: Aesthetics as “grand narrative” and the reformulation of the concept
2 Two Approaches to Art: Theodor W. Adorno and Maurice Merleau-Ponty
Part II: The Case Studies
3 Introduction
Theater: Jean Genet’s “The Screens”
Cinema: Fellini’s “Roma”
Television: The ‘Telenovela’ and the daily melodrama
Bibliography
Index