Fool
About this book
Combining personal narrative, interviews, and literary analysis, Fool elaborates the potential for fool figures from throughout literary history to reconfigure subject-object relations and point towards new possibilities in creative and critical thought. Drawing on Johanna Skibsrud's experience in clown classes in France and the US, Fool challenges and extends the correlation Theodor Adorno suggests between thinking and clowning. It considers a diverse range of literary and theoretical sources from Richard Wagner's Parsifal to Karen Barad's Meeting the Universe Halfway. The book also refers to a varied cast of literary and historical clowns and fools, including the early Shakespearean actor Richard Tarlton, Alban Berg's Wozzeck, and Cirque du Soleil's Shannan Calcutt.
Skibsrud elaborates on the role of the 'fool' and 'foolishness' in literature, not as an element of a particular work's content, plot, or style but instead as a creative mode of thought activated through the reading and writing of literary texts. This innovative book charts new ground in literature, philosophy, and performance studies, and is an invaluable resource for specialists in all three fields.
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Information
Table of contents
- Cover Page
- Half-Title Page
- Series Page
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Contents
- Series Preface
- Author's Preface
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Foolish Objects: Between Public and Private Selves
- 2 To the Point of Clowning: Going Astray with Theodor Adorno
- 3 āTouching the Impossibleā: A Conversation with Slava Polunin
- 4 Becoming Clown: A Conversation with David Bridel and Mike Funt
- 5 Notes from the Theatre: Fragments and Criticisms
- 6 Trompe lāOeil: A Brief History
- 7 Thinking: With David Bridel (October 2021āJune 2022)
- Two Photographs
- Works Cited
- Index
