The Grand Guignol Theatre in Paris, founded by Oscar Metenier in 1897, soon became world-renowned for staging wild and bizarre spectacles of madness, mutilation, horror and death. Hunter charts the entire history of the Grand Guignol, from its inception to its closure in 1962, referencing and describing dozens of stage productions. Also contains a whole section on films which were either based on, or inspired by, the Grand Guignol and its works.
In what ways does political trauma influence the art arising from it? Is there an aesthetic of war and exile in theatrical works that emerge from such experiences? Are there cultural markers defining such works from areas like Eastern Europe and Israel? This book considers these questions in an examination of plays, performances and theater artists that speak from a place of political violence and displacement. The author's critical inquiry covers a variety of theatrical experimentations, including Brechtian distancing, black humor, pastiche, surreal and hyper-real imagery, reversed chronologies and disrupted narratives. Drawing on postmodern theories and performance studies as well as interviews and personal statements from the artists discussed, this study explores the transformative power of the theater arts and their function as catalysts for social change, healing and remembrance.
Bloody Brilliant: How to Develop, Execute, and Clean Up Blood Effects for Live Performance offers methods and techniques for delivering this special effect on the stage. The world of live theatre presents its own set of unique challenges when creating special effects, particularly blood. There are no cropped-view frames, multiple angles, or reshoots – everything is live and in view of the audience. This book provides helpful insight, information, techniques, and tricks for producing reliable and repeatable blood effects, covering everything from design and budgeting to safety and clean-up. Filled with easy-to-follow descriptions and full-color artwork, this text includes: Practical examples of blood effect budgets, outlining not just money but also labor needs. A breakdown of the components for making an original blood recipe, as well as reliable, industry-tested recipes. Options for dispensing blood to create realistic effects for any budget size. A comprehensive wash-testing database of over 500 examples of fabrics and blood combinations. Prop managers and builders in professional, educational, and regional theatre are sure to benefit from the tips outlined in this book.
The 1940s is a lost decade in horror cinema, undervalued and written out of most horror scholarship. This collection revises, reframes, and deconstructs persistent critical binaries that have been put in place by scholarly discourse to label 1940s horror as somehow inferior to a “classical” period or “canonical” mode of horror in the 1930s, especially as represented by the monster films of Universal Studios. The book's four sections re-evaluate the historical, political, economic, and cultural factors informing 1940s horror cinema to introduce new theoretical frameworks and to open up space for scholarly discussion of 1940s horror genre hybridity, periodization, and aesthetics. Chapters focused on Gothic and Grand Guignol traditions operating in forties horror cinema, 1940s proto-slasher films, the independent horrors of the Poverty Row studios, and critical reevaluations of neglected hybrid films such as The Vampire’s Ghost (1945) and “slippery” auteurs such as Robert Siodmak and Sam Neufield, work to recover a decade of horror that has been framed as having fallen victim to repetition, exhaustion, and decline.
This groundbreaking international bestseller lays to rest many myths about the Holocaust: that Germans were ignorant of the mass destruction of Jews, that the killers were all SS men, and that those who slaughtered Jews did so reluctantly. Hitler's Willing Executioners provides conclusive evidence that the extermination of European Jewry engaged the energies and enthusiasm of tens of thousands of ordinary Germans. Goldhagen reconstructs the climate of "eliminationist anti-Semitism" that made Hitler's pursuit of his genocidal goals possible and the radical persecution of the Jews during the 1930s popular. Drawing on a wealth of unused archival materials, principally the testimony of the killers themselves, Goldhagen takes us into the killing fields where Germans voluntarily hunted Jews like animals, tortured them wantonly, and then posed cheerfully for snapshots with their victims. From mobile killing units, to the camps, to the death marches, Goldhagen shows how ordinary Germans, nurtured in a society where Jews were seen as unalterable evil and dangerous, willingly followed their beliefs to their logical conclusion. "Hitler's Willing Executioner's is an original, indeed brilliant contribution to the...literature on the Holocaust."--New York Review of Books "The most important book ever published about the Holocaust...Eloquently written, meticulously documented, impassioned...A model of moral and scholarly integrity."--Philadelphia Inquirer
People often follow intuitive principles of decision making, ranging from group loyalty to the belief that nature is benign. But instead of using these principles as rules of thumb, we often treat them as absolutes and ignore the consequences of following them blindly. In Judgment Misguided, Jonathan Baron explores our well-meant and deeply felt personal intuitions about what is right and wrong, and how they affect the public domain. Baron argues that when these intuitions are valued in their own right, rather than as a means to another end, they often prevent us from achieving the results we want. Focusing on cases where our intuitive principles take over public decision making, the book examines some of our most common intuitions and the ways they can be misused. According to Baron, we can avoid these problems by paying more attention to the effects of our decisions. Written in a accessible style, the book is filled with compelling case studies, such as abortion, nuclear power, immigration, and the decline of the Atlantic fishery, among others, which illustrate a range of intuitions and how they impede the public's best interests. Judgment Misguided will be important reading for those involved in public decision making, and researchers and students in psychology and the social sciences, as well as everyone looking for insight into the decisions that affect us all.
MUSHA-E ("warrior pictures") constitute one of the major and most dynamic sub-genres of ukiyo-e, the populist art of 19th century Japan. From Hokusai to Kyosai, virtually all of ukiyo-e's greatest artists created musha-e, in particular Kuniyoshi and Yoshitoshi. It was Kuniyoshi who, inspired by the likes of Hokusai, Kunisada and Toyokuni, popularized the warrior print with his series 108 Suikoden Heroes in 1827. In his wake came Yoshitora, Yoshikazu, Yoshitsuya, Yoshiiku, Kuniteru, Kunichika, Toyonobu, Nobukazu, and many other classic artists, forming a body of dazzling, often bloody works which span the 19th century. "The Savage Samurai" presents 300 rare and exceptional Japanese warrior prints, presented in full-page format and full colour throughout. These pictures are collected in the same volume for the first time ever, forming a definitive introduction to ukiyo-e's most visually arresting and exciting sub-genre. The Ukiyo-e Master Series: presenting seminal collections of art by the greatest print-designers and painters of Edo-period and Meiji-period Japan.
