Beginning with the triple impulses of Naturalism; symbolism and the grotesque; the bulk of the book concentrates on the most famous directors of this century - Stanislavski; Reinhardt; Graig; Meyerhold; Piscator; Brecht; Artuaud and Grotowski. Brauns guide is more practical than theoretical; delineating how each director changed the tradition that came before him.
#1821188 in eBooks 2007-02-08 2007-02-08File Name: B00440D2HU
Review
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful. Pointless Academic MasturbationBy JLCI came across this book while preparing a course on multiculturalism and gender. hoping that it might add an interesting dimension to the section about images of masculinity and the discourse around sex. Unfortunately. it doesnt. and how a reputable press like Minnesota green lighted this one is beyond me.I usually dont write negative reviews. as (1)I figure its up to each individual to make up his or her mind about the merits of a work and (2) its a LOT of work to write. edit. and publish a book... even a bad one. With this. however. given the high price of academic texts. the difficulty of flipping through/reviewing a copy in person. AND the lack of good research materials in gender and sexuality studies... I felt compelled.I dont really know for whom the book is intended. or for whom it would prove a useful addition to a research bibliography. Its certainly not a "readerly" book such that a general. non-academic audience would read it for pleasure. Its also not "meaty" enough academically to warrant use within a scholarly paper.So. how did it come to be? Publish or perish? Did the author need to get a book out to get tenure? Did he somehow write a very sexy. glossy cover letter to the publisher. who took the book because of the subject matter (sex sells!) and didnt actually read the manuscript? Im not sure. but I suspect perhaps a mixture of all of these.Unfortunately. the book proved useless for the class I was preparing. and has little in it for serious students of sexuality. feminism. gender studies. or Queer Theory. Its a hodge-podge of abstruse academic jargon. little snippets of random artwork discussions. random chapters from Proust. etc.The glue that holds these fractured. ultimately unsatisfying pieces together are post-structural transitions and buzz words like "transgression" or "disruption." which are neither defined clearly here nor extended into a new arena that would make their use necessary.Scholars like Judith Butler. for example. are very tough reads with very complex ideas and language. but its all necessary and after you struggle with a difficult passage. you come away with a new idea or way of looking at an issue. This book leaves you re-reading a particularly difficult passage three or four times. only to realize that you didnt miss anything: it didnt go anywhere. or just kept you right where you were in the first place thirty pages ago.This is particularly clear in the books seeming thesis (if indeed. there is one... as I had trouble finding it):ejaculation has been a problematic area of western discourse. I read. and read. and read... and kept saying. "Okay. So what?"This book is. pardon the pun. sheer academic masturbation.0 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Seminal text on. well. semen. Read this to think hard about the male bodys relation to masculinity.By Prof. Josh VandiverWhat is cum? How does ejaculation shape a man? Why is the "money shot" so valuable that it is described as. well. money?These are just a few of very many and very important questions we ought to be asking about the male body. about men. and about masculinity.As a professor of political theory and Men and Masculinity Studies. I can testify to the fact that nothing like Murat Aydemirs Images of Bliss: Ejaculation. Masculinity. Meaning exists in English. We owe him and University of Minnesota Press a debt of gratitude. We need a great many more works exploring these issuesmdash;and Aydemir has gotten the investigation going in a sophisticated. and often quite witty. way. As noted by previous reviewer. the prose is often dense and designed for academics and advanced students. But. in contrast. I believe the work has a great deal of theoretical heft. Close engagement with Ayedemir will repay the reader handsomely.Highly recommended for scholars and advanced students in Men and Masculinity Studies and related disciplines like Porn Studies. For example. Aydemir builds on and refines important theoretical advances on the "money shot" made by Linda Williams in Hard Core: Power. Pleasure. and the "Frenzy of the Visible". Expanded edition.22 of 67 people found the following review helpful. Ejaculation. Masculinity. MeaningBy Dwight RobinsonDo not be seduced by the title of this book. It is the most boring and irrelevant piece of academic hoo ha I have ever seen. Perhaps it has a place on a dusty shelf of academic thesis somewhere. Very few of these works deserve the light of day and this is most assuredly one of those. My response to this work: Who cares?
