Actio and persuasion : dramatic performance in eighteenth-century France / Angelica Goodden

Inclou referències bibliogràfiques, pàgines 177-190 i índex

"In eighteenth-century France an intellectual battle was fought to raise theprofessional status of acting to that of other arts involving rhetoric and expressive technique. The central strategy was based on the ancient rhetorical notacion of actio, a theory of gesture, attitude, and facial expression already employed in the teaching and practice of religious, frensic, and political oratory. Intevitably, such an emphasis on the physical depiction of ideas had deep philosophical implications. This lucd study describes the developement of this notion in relation both to the rationale behind the more prestigious arts of painting and dance, and to the popular succes of pantomime. The author explores the belief, championed by Diderot and others, that the primary mode of persuasion is not auditory but visual; she also shows how 'correspondances' between the arts were established, and offers vivid insights into the paintings of Watteau and David, the acting styles of Lekain, Mlle Clairon, and Talma, and the oratory of Mirabeau. The firts comprehensive account of 'embodied eloquence' in the performing and visual arts, 'Actio' and Persuasion illuminates basic cultural assumptions in an exciting period of intellectual history." -- Solapa