Within the newly thriving field of ancient Greek and Roman performance and dance studies, The Anatomy of Dance Discourse offers a fresh and original perspective on ancient perceptions of dance. Focusing on the second century CE, it provides an overview of the dance discourse of this period and explores the conceptualization of dance across an array of different texts, from Plutarch and Lucian of Samosata, to the apocryphal Acts of John, Longus, and Apuleius. The volume is divided into two Parts: while the second Part discusses ekphraseis of dance performance in prose and poetry of the Roman imperial period, the first delves more deeply into an examination of how both philosophical and literary treatments of dance interacted with other areas of cultural expression, whether language and poetry, rhetoric and art, or philosophy and religion. Its distinctive contribution lies in this juxtaposition of ancient theorizations of dance and philosophical analyses of the medium with literary depictions of dance scenes and performances, and it attends not only to the highly encoded genre of pantomime, which dominated the stage in the Roman empire, but also to acrobatic, non-representational dances. This twofold nature of dance sparked highly sophisticated reflections on the relationship between dance and meaning in the ancient world, and the volume defends the novel claim that in the imperial period it became more and more palpable that dance, unlike painting or sculpture, could be representational or not a performance of nothing but itself. It argues that dance was understood as a practice in which human beings, whether as dancers or spectators, are confronted with the irreducible reality of their own physical existence, which is constantly changing, and that its way to cognition and action is physical experience.

This interdisciplinary volume of collected, mostly unpublished essays demonstrates how Mikhail Bakhtin's theory of dialogic meaning--and its subsequent elaborations--have influenced a wide range of critical discourses. With essays by Michael Holquist, Jerome J. McGann, John Searle, Deborah Tannen, Gary Saul Morson, Caryl Emerson, Shirley Brice Heath, Don H. Bialostosky, Paul Friedrich, Timothy Austin, John Farrell, Rachel May, and Michael Macovski, the collection explores dialogue not only as an exchange among intratextual voices, but as an extratextual interplay of historical influences, oral forms, and cultural heuristics as well. Such approaches extend the implications of dialogue beyond the boundaries of literary theory, to anthropology, philosophy, linguistics, and cultural studies. The essays address such issues as the establishment and exercise of political power, the relation between conversational and literary discourse, the historical development of the essay, and the idea of literature as social action. Taken together, the essays argue for a redefinition of literary meaning--one that is communal, interactive, and vocatively created. They demonstrate that literary meaning is not rendered by a single narrator, nor even by a solitary author--but is incrementally exchanged and constructed.

The State of Stylistics contains a broad collection of papers that investigate how stylistics has evolved throughout the late 20th and early 21st centuries. In so doing, it considers how stylisticians currently perceive their own respective fields of enquiry. It also defines what stylistics is, and how we might use it in research and teaching.

Focusing on politics, gender, and identities, a group of international dance scholars provide a broad overview of new methodological approaches – with specific case studies – and how they can be applied to the study of ballet and modern dance. With an introduction exploring the history of dance studies and the development of central themes and areas of concerns in the field, the book is then divided into three parts: politics explores 'Ausdruckstanz' – an expressive dance tradition first formulated in the 1920s by dancer Mary Wigman and carried forward in the work of Pina Bausch and others gender examines eighteenth century theatrical dance – a time when elaborate sets, costumes, and plots examined racial and sexual stereotypes identity is concerned with modern dance. Exploring contemporary analytical approaches to understanding performance traditions, Dance Discourses' pedagogical structure makes it ideal for courses in performing arts and humanities.

Silence--scary, inviting, or both? What do you do with silence? And what if silence was a language we could learn to read, hear, and even speak? This book invites you to tune the eyes and ears of your heart to the cadences of silence. Enter into conversations with silence as you are taken on an odyssey. Venture into the Australian bush. Trek deep into the red desert. Encounter shadows and desert dwellers. You will also delve into the tiny houses of everyday silences and receive their gifts of hospitality. And stumbling into that other territory, where silence becomes a death threat, or survival, an orchard can show you the fruit of life beginning again. Conversations with Silence takes you to the Rosetta Stone of an ancient, forgotten language, a language some have called God, or the soul. Immerse yourself in the silent realm of mystics, musicians, poets, and pilgrims of every path. These are our companions, as we explore the nuanced vocabulary of the worlds of silences and join in the conversation with a new voice.

Moving Words provides a direct line into the most pressing issues in contemporary dance scholarship, as well as insights into ways in which dance contributes to and creates culture. Instead of representing a single viewpoint, the essays in this volume reflect a range of perspectives and represent the debates swirling within dance. The contributors confront basic questions of definition and interpretation within dance studies, while at the same time examining broader issues, such as the body, gender, class, race, nationalism and cross-cultural exchange. Specific essays address such topics as the black male body in dance, gender and subversions in the dances of Mark Morris, race and nationalism in Martha Graham's 'American Document', and the history of oriental dance.

What would it mean to invite disability into dialogue? Disability in Dialogue attunes us to the dialogues of and about disability. In the pages of this book, we ask readers to consider the dialogic constitution of disability and to imagine its reformulation. We find the voices, bodies, social norms, visceral experiences, discourses, and acts of resistance that materialize disability in all its dialogic and enfleshed complexity: tensions, contradictions, provocations, frustrations and desires. This volume makes a unique contribution, bringing together authors from disciplines as diverse as communication, dialogue studies, psychology, sociology, design, rhetoric and activism. Because we take dialogue seriously, this book is designed to be brave as we examine the ways of being in the world that dialogic practices engender and allow, as well as beckon to continue. By way of a variety of frameworks, such as discourse analysis, dialogue studies, narrative analysis, and critical approaches to discourse, the chapters of this book take us through a polylogue of and about disability, demanding that we consider our own roles in bringing forth disabled ways of being and how we might, instead, choose ways that enable our common existence.

Based on the author's thesis (doctoral)--University of Surrey, 2003.