Dr Tamar Jeffers McDonald

Virgin Territory: Representing Sexual Innocence in Film, was published by Wayne State University Press at the end of March, and contains 14 chapters exploring the various ways different films, genres, stars and directors have elected to portray virginity at different historical moments. Contributors include Celestino Deleyto, on The 40 Year Old Virgin, Gaylyn Studlar on the virginal star image of the young Elizabeth Taylor, and Jeffers McDonald herself contesting the myth of Doris Day’s perpetual virginity.

Dr Tamar Jeffers McDonald

Hollywood Catwalk: Exploring Costume and Transformation in American Film, is published this month by I B Tauris. In this book, Jeffers McDonald examines how and why Hollywood has recycled images and narratives about the power of costume transformation to change both external circumstances and the person within for so many decades, looking at a wide range of films, from silent cinema classics to contemporary action films. In-depth case studies include The Bride Wore Red (1937), Calamity Jane (1953) and The Devil Wears Prada (2006).

Richard Schechner, New York University

A film of a lecture introduced by Paul Allain Grimond Lecture Theatre 1, 16 February 6-30-8pm. The lecture investigates the 9/11 bombings of the twin towers in New York City and their implications for performance studies. It begins with news images from around the world distributed at the time and is based on an eyewitness response to the events.

Professor Patrice Pavis and Joel Anderson.

English translation of My Three Sisters (pdf), Professor Patrice Pavis's play working from Chekhov's Three Sisters. Funded by the School of Arts's Research Committee.

Professor Patrice Pavis and Joel Anderson.

English transltion of Theses for the analysis of dramatic text (pdf) which proposes a systematic way of analysing texts. Funded by the School of Arts's Research Committee.

Darryl Grantley

The Social Geography of London in Restoration Comedy (pdf) grew out of research on the representation of London in early modern drama, the bulk of which is due to be published as London in Early Modern English Drama: Representing the Urban Built Environment by Palgrave/Macmillan.

See the Social Geography of London in Restoration Comedy web page for further information.

The journal Film Studies: An International Review is edited at Kent.

Grant Pooke

Grant Pooke, Lecturer in History and Philosophy of Art, has just published a major new critical and biographical study of the Marxist art historian Francis Klingender based on extensive archival research: Francis Klingender 1907-1955. A Marxist Art Historian out of Time (Gill Vista Marx Press, 2008). As Dr John Callow, Director of the Marx Memorial Library, writes in the preface: 'Klingender's legacy of creative engagement with Marxism; the originality of his approach to art history - examining such topics as the impact of industrialisation upon aesthetics, Goya's politics and the purpose of radical cartoons in the fight against tyranny - together with his commitment to sharing his knowledge and enthusiasm with the mass of the working people; are all deserving of our attention and praise.

See the Marx Memorial library website for further information.

Saint Pancreas is Oliver Double’s stand-up comedy show based on his experiences as a parent of two diabetic children, and includes material that would normally be considered too difficult and traumatic for comedy. This allows him to explore how such material affects the audience’s responses, the performer-audience relationship, and his own creative processes. Throughout the project, contextual research was carried out into other comedians who have dealt with traumatic subjects (including interviews with key performers like Mark Thomas, Andre Vincent), as well as relevant theories of comedy and theatre (Freud, Bergson, Stanislavski).

See the St Pancreas web page for further information and to order.

All papers by Murray Smith

The School of Arts and Philosophy collaborated in organizing a series of research seminars dedicated to issues in the philosophy of art and aesthetics:

• Overview of talks (pdf)
• What Difference Does it Make? Science, Sentiment and Film (pdf)
• Empathy and the Extended Mind (pdf)
• Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know (pdf)

Jon Kear and Ben Thomas

Jon Kear and Ben Thomas have both made contributions to a new book published in the Routledge Research in Cultural and Media Studies series: Writers' Houses and the Making of Memory. According to Harald Hendrix, Professor of Italian Studies at the University of Utrecht and editor of this volume, 'this innovative new book examines the ways in which writers’ houses contribute to the making of memory. It shows that houses built or inhabited by poets and novelists both reflect and construct the author’s private and artistic persona'. The international profile of the contributing authors reflects the fact that this volume of essays is a product of the EEC funded ACUME Cultural Thematic Network, which is hosted by the University of Bologna but involves various Universities across Europe including Kent.

• Jon Kear, 'Une chambre mentale: Proust's Solitude', pp. 221-34.
• Ben Thomas, 'Casa Vasari in Arezzo: Writing and Decorating the Artist's House', pp. 139-48.

Edited by Robert Shaughnessy

This Companion explores the remarkable variety of forms that Shakespeare’s life and works have taken over the course of four centuries, ranging from the early modern theatrical marketplace to the age of mass media, and including stage and screen performance, music and the visual arts, the television serial and popular prose fiction.

See the Cambridge University Press website for further information.

Robert Shaughnessy

This lively and provocative study offers a radical reappraisal of a century of Shakespearean theatre. Topics addressed include modernist Shakespearean performance's relation with psychoanalysis, the hidden gender dynamics of the open stage movement, and the appropriation of Shakespeare himself as a dramatic fiction and theatrical icon.

See the Palgrave website for further information.

'...makes a significant contribution to the literature on the difficult task of theorizing Shakespeare on stage.' - J.Schlueter, Choice

Aylish Wood

Digital Encounters is a cross media study of digital moving images in animation, cinema, games and installation art. In a world increasingly marked by proliferating technologies, the way we encounter and understand these story-worlds, game spaces and art works reveals aspects of the ways in which we organise and decode the vast amount of visual material we are bombarded with each day.

Working with examples from The Incredibles; The Matrix; Tomb Raider: Legend and Bill Viola's The Five Angels for the Millenium, Aylish Wood considers how viewers engage with the diverse interfaces of digital effects cinema, digital games and time-based installations and argues that technologies alter human engagement, distributing our attention across a network of images and objects.

This groundbreaking study of digital technology will revitalise this area of research.

See the Routledge website for further information.

Nicola Shaughnessy

This book is a study of Gertrude Stein’s diverse and idiosyncratic oeuvre, ranging from established works such as The Autobiography of Alice B. Tolkas to her lesser known pieces for the theatre.

Drawing upon feminist, psychoanalytic and performance theory, Nicola Shaughnessy re-evaluates Stein’s prose, poetry and drama. Reference is made to Stein’s previously unpublished material, in particular her notebooks or ‘carnets’ which offer new insights into her life and work.

The book explores the importance of autobiography as a pervasive element throughout Stein’s writing. Above all, Nicola Shaughnessy shows how Stein’s work benefits from being situated in an interdisciplinary artistic context with influences from art, theatre and music as well as literature.

This book offers new ways of reading and responding to Stein’s work and will be of interest to students and teachers of literature and theatre.

See the Northcote House website for further information.

Edited by Kate Chedgzoy, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Susanne Greenhalgh, Roehampton University, London, Robert Shaughnessy, University of Kent, Canterbury

This collection offers the first definitive study of a surprisingly underdeveloped area of scholarly investigation, namely the relationship between Shakespeare, children and childhood from Shakespeare’s time to the present. It offers a thorough mapping of the domain in which Shakespearean childhoods need to be studied, in order to show how studying Shakespearean childhoods makes significant contributions both to Shakespearean scholarship, and to the history of childhood and its representations.

See the Cambridge University Press website for further information.

Paul Allain and Jen Harvie

What is theatre? What is performance? What connects them and how are they different? What events, people, practices and ideas have shaped theatre and performance in the twentieth century? And where are they heading next?

The Routledge Companion to Theatre and Performance offers some answers to these big questions. It provides an accessible, informative and engaging introduction to important people, events, concepts and practices that have defined the complementary fields of theatre and performance studies. Three easy-to-use alphabetized sections include over 120 entries on topics and people ranging from performance artist Marina Abramovié, to directors Vsevolod Meyerhold and Robert Wilson, The Living Theatre’s Paradise Now, the haka, multimedia performance, political protest and visual theatre. Each entry includes crucial historical and contextual information, extensive cross-referencing, detailed analysis and an annotated bibliography.

The Routledge Companion to Theatre and Performance is a perfect reference guide for the keen student and the passionate theatre-goer alike.

A.C. Bradley

A.C.Bradley's Shakespearean Tragedy, first published in 1904, ranks as one of the greatest works of Shakespearean criticism of all time. In his ten lectures, Bradley has provided a study of the four great tragedies - Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth - which reveals a deep understanding of Shakespearean thought and art.

This centenary edition features a new introduction by Robert Shaughnessy which places Bradley's work in the critical, intellectual and cultural context of its time. Shaughnessy summarises the content and argumentative thrust of the book, outlines the critical debates and counter-arguments that have followed in the wake of its publication and, most importantly, prompts readers to engage with Bradley's work itself.

See the Palgrave website for further information.

Oliver Double

An examination of the art of stand-up comedy, its constituent parts and how they work. Considering stand-up comedy to be an art-form deserving greater attention and analysis, Getting the Joke provides an exploration of the work of the stand-up comedian.

Beginning with a brief history of the art form, the book goes on to examine the key elements, such as the comedian's stage persona, their material and how this is generated, the art of performance, their relationship to and interaction with the audience, and the development of stand-up skills. The book draws on interviews with many of the leading stand-up comedians, including Jo Brand, Alexei Sayle, Ross Noble and Rhona Cameron, and contains detailed analysis of examples from both the British and American markets.

Aimed at fans of stand-up and aspiring comedians alike, Getting the Joke is the first book of its kind to offer an accessible and engaging analysis of the art of stand-up comedy.

See the Chortle website for full review.

Oliver Double is also the author of Stand-Up: On Being a comedian - 'a fantastic book for anyone who's got any interest in stand-up comedy' (Mark Lamarr). See the Methuen bookshop website for further information.

Co-edited by Paul Allain and Grzegorz Ziolkowski.

Polish Theatre after 1989: beyond border is a comprehensive examination of Polish theatre since 1989, bringing together analysis of the major groups, artists, concepts, events and plays that have made such an impact in the West in the last 15 years.