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Definition
Marxism:
*the Government holding people down.
*societal intolerance
*Censorship
*No Freedom under capitalism.
Karl Marx argued there were fundamental contradictions within the capitalist system and the workers were actually anything but free.
Problems of economic order were not transient but the result of a capitalist system. Individual made and then remade through revolution and revolution, class struggle. |
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Definition
Feminism:
*strong women
*bad stigma associated with it
*People will try to bring you down to compromise your principles and beliefs.
*Guys are good and bad, but women get blaimed.
*The value of the maternal figure in childhood development.
(1) Analysis of Patriarchal constructs. (role of the male as the primary authority figure is central to social organization)
(2) Inequality between Men and women at all levels of society.
(3) Gender bias.
*PIG* |
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Post-Modernism (1970s)
Postmodern Theory |
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Definition
words mean less than event.
Freedom through art?
absurdities of events depicting words
Post-Modernism:
1970s
Reaction to modernism.
Performed contradictions.
Doubling/Plurality: placing contradictory experiences within the same frame of reference.
(Skepticism that 1 thing is different than another like social progress from reversion are actually the same such that social progress is impossible and social decline is inevitable.)
Language is arbitrary (subject to each individual's will or judgement) , we make of it what we need. It is essentially symbolic.
Signifier vs. Signified: Meaning depends on the context in which the word appears. A play no longer means an idea, it means an event in which it occurs. (structuralism)
Nihilism similarities --> abandonment of meaning and authority, yet the ultimate authority = "play" of discourse itself.
Fragmentation |
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Term
| 19th Century Existentialism (1800s) |
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Definition
Faith in God. Meaning can be found in God.
19th Century Existentialism:
Soren Kierkegaard - the father of existentialist thought. Believed that through God and in God man may find freedom from tension and discontent and therefore find peace of mind and spiritual serenity.
In contrast to atheist existentialism, Søren Kierkegaard theorized that belief in God (given that we are provided with no proof or assurance) required a conscious choice or "leap of faith."
"existential" = Pertaining to existence.
A vision of the condition and existence of man, his place and function in the world and his relationship and or lack of relationship with God.
"Existence precedes essence": Essence = who you are. Existence = coming into being. The central slogan of existentialism, indicating that a person has NO PREDETERMINED NATURE or range of choices, but is always FREE TO CHOOSE afresh, and thereby reconstitute himself or herself as a different person. ...But this will not cure one's dread and anguish and feelings of meaninglessness, to cure that one must develop one's relationship with God. Note, that you can CHOOSE to or not choose to develop relationship with God.
19 century believed in faith-related, emphasis that there could be, and indeed were, moral standards to which all might beneficially conform.
"Leap of faith" - although Kierkegaard acknowledged that religion was inherently unknowable and filled with risks, faith required an act of commitment (the "leap of faith"); the commitment to Christianity would also lessen the despair of an absurd world.
Authenticity - to make choices based on an individual code of ethics (commitment) rather than because of societal pressures. A choice made just because "it's what people do" would be considered inauthentic. |
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| Modern Existentialism (1940s) |
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Definition
*Atheists believing life has no inherent meaning.
*No such thing as morality.
Modern Existentialism:
•1940s - Post World-war years
•Jean Paul Sartre - Introduced an atheistic & humanistic approach to Existentialist philosophy.
•Individuality: Reasserting subjective realities of Human Individuality, Individual Freedom, and Individual Choice.
•Anguished & Absurd: Isolated being cast into an alien universe possessing no inherent human truth, value, or meaning
•- Morality: No acceptable basis for moral decision making (unlike earlier). Choices based on individual code of ethics.
*WHO I AM* |
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| Modernism + Post War/Postmodernism |
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Definition
Cultural movement, search for meaning.
Modernism can be viewed as a questioning of the axioms of the previous age.
Comprised three periods.
1890-1910
*Symbolist Theatre - 1890
*Theatre of the Avant-Garde - 1896
1910-1930
*Dada - 1916 (WWI 1914-1918)
*Theatre of Cruelty - 1920s
1930-1945
*Marxism
*Theatre of Alienation (Germany)
Post war, Post modernism
1940s-1960s = Theatre of the Absurd
1960s = Performance Art
1970s = Postmodernism |
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