Aesthetics in Theatre: The Challenge of Effect Under the Skin

Abstract

The tremendous socio-political transformations that took place in the 19th century contributed to the change of criterion for theatre dramaturgy during the following century. The essence of the history of theatre, as “liminal space”, based on traditional perspectives of theatre illusion and dramatization of identity crisis suffered a profound revolution due to the decay and loss of essential values, thus leading to the emergence of the “theatre of the ‘new’ man”. This essay presents a panoramic view of ways of comprehending aesthetics along the 20th century. Through the work of many outstanding authors on this matter, our modernity is brought to understand that the dramaturgy of mankind will go on being the dramaturgy of theatrical performance, as a form of Art, being the transubstantiation of an ordinary world into a transcendent world of signs.