Representation and Spectatorship in an Age of Excessive Visuality
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| Year of publication | 2021 |
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| Citation | |
| Description | This issue recognizes as a point of departure the inevitable evolution and constant development of modes of representation and spectatorial practices through time, as evidenced particularly—yet, not exclusively—in drama, theatre and the performing arts. Over the past two decades, the excessive emphasis on visuality which characterizes contemporary Western societies has been further exacerbated due to the overwhelming intervention of social media across the entire spectrum of human activity and experience. As a result, various pressures are currently exerted on almost all modes of representation and conceptions of “seeing.” In general terms, twenty-first century visual culture is mostly noted for a widespread and consequential effacement of critical distinctions between the private and the public, the tangible and the imaginary, the ephemeral and the eternal. At the same moment, within this climate older and long-established means of expression often reinvent their dynamics, since they do not offer themselves as an antidote to the omnipotence of the visual but rather lie openly in synergy with it. Contributors to this issue are invited to consider the impact of excessive visuality as it relates primarily to contemporary English-speaking drama, theatre, and the performing arts but also well beyond these areas. |
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