"One
of those rare works which reminds us that in spite of the fact that we
wear labels called 'philosopher', 'anthropologist-sociologist', 'art
critic', a common task is to shed some light on the human
condition..."
- Ivan Karp
"...one of the most significant books on
theater and the theory of theater to emerge in the last ten years..."
- Edward S. Casey
| Role Playing and Identity The Limits of Theater as Metaphor
Order Role Playing and Identity © 2004 Bruce Wilshire. All Rights Reserved. |
What do actors accomplish when they play characters on stage? Bruce Wilshire contends that through deliberate mimetic involvement they attempt to display how we are already mimetically involved with others offstage--bound up with them and authorized by them through imitation. Demonstrating that theatre is life-like and that life is theatre-like, he makes use of a phenomenological methodology to establish that acting is more than just role playing; it is the process of creating the self.