Collaboration, democracy and the total artwork

Book chapter


Kolb, A. 2015. Collaboration, democracy and the total artwork. in: Colin, N. and Sachsenmaier, S. (ed.) Collaboration in Performance Practice: Premises, Workings and Failures London Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 51-74
Chapter titleCollaboration, democracy and the total artwork
AuthorsKolb, A.
Abstract

This chapter examines 20th-century collaborative practices and discourses in the performing arts – primarily dance – through the lens of composer Richard Wagner’s notion of the Gesamtkunstwerk. The total artwork, expounded in Wagner’s mid-19th-century landmark writings on art’s role in society, was seen as the artistic enactment of a democratic political organisation, with Wagner drawing correlations between artistic and political reform. The chapter shows how Wagner’s objectives can be usefully applied to, and take form in, postmodern dance, tracing a critical genealogy through Bertolt Brecht and the Cunningham-Cage collaboration to the postmodern work of Yvonne Rainer and Pina Bausch, before concluding with an outlook on today’s radical collaborations. Throughout the chapter, different collaborative practices are related to distinct conceptions of democracy.

Research GroupDance group
Page range51-74
Book titleCollaboration in Performance Practice: Premises, Workings and Failures
EditorsColin, N. and Sachsenmaier, S.
PublisherPalgrave Macmillan
Place of publicationLondon
ISBN
Hardcover9781137462459
Electronic9781137462466
Paperback9781349556380
Publication dates
Print08 Dec 2015
Publication process dates
Deposited22 May 2015
Submitted2015
Output statusPublished
Copyright Statement

© 2016

Web address (URL)https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9781137462466_3
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137462466_3
LanguageEnglish
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