Performing Dark Arts: A Cultural History of Conjuring - Theatre and Consciousness Series v. 2 (Paperback)

Michael Mangan (author)

£26.50

Paperback 280 Pages / Published: 14/03/2008

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Synopsis

Magic and conjuring inhabit the boundaries and the borderlands of performance. The conjuror's act of demonstrating the apparently impossible, the uncanny, the marvellous, or the grotesque challenges the spectator's sense of reality. It brings him or her up against their own assumptions about how the world works; at its most extreme, it asks the spectator to re-evaluate his or her sense of the limits of the human. "Performing Dark Arts" is an exploration of the paradox of the conjuror, the actor who pretends to be a magician. It aims to illuminate the history of conjuring by examining it in the context of performance studies, and to throw light on aspects of performance studies by testing them against the art of conjuring. The book examines not only the performances of individual magicians from Dedi to David Blaine, but also the broader cultural contexts in which their performances were received, and the meanings which they have attracted. "Performing Dark Arts" is part of the "Theatre and Consciousness" series (series editor is Daniel Meyer-Dinkgrafe).

Publisher: Intellect Books
ISBN: 9781841501499
Number of pages: 280
Weight: 514 g
Dimensions: 229 x 175 x 17 mm

MEDIA REVIEWS

"If you want to learn about the one trick that all good conjurers have up their sleeve, the oldest in the book--here it is, rehearsed across the centuries. It is to make sure that whichever cup the audience looks under--mere chicanery or actual sorcery--the ball is not there."
--Mark Stafford"Times (UK)" (07/14/2007)
"This is an erudite book which wears its scholarship lightly and is a pleasure to read. Complex theoretical frameworks are introduced in ways that will make them accessible to the general reader, and the book's argument opens up new implications and applications for the study of magic as performance. . . . I was genuinely surprised and delighted with many of Mangan's observations."
--Roberta Mock, University of Plymouth, United Kingdom (03/16/2007)
"Conjurors as performers have always had a special niche in exploiting the marvelous or the uncanny and trading upon our hope or fantasy that some real magic may be at work. Mangan's delightful book shows that they will always be able to do so."
--Rob Hardy "Commercial Dispatch "
If you want to learn about the one trick that all good conjurers have up their sleeve, the oldest in the book here it is, rehearsed across the centuries. It is to make sure that whichever cup the audience looks under mere chicanery or actual sorcery the ball is not there.
--Mark Stafford"Times (UK)" (07/14/2007)"
This is an erudite book which wears its scholarship lightly and is a pleasure to read. Complex theoretical frameworks are introduced in ways that will make them accessible to the general reader, and the book's argument opens up new implications and applications for the study of magic as performance. . . . I was genuinely surprised and delighted with many of Mangan's observations.
--Roberta Mock, University of Plymouth, United Kingdom (03/16/2007)"
Conjurors as performers have always had a special niche in exploiting the marvelous or the uncanny and trading upon our hope or fantasy that some real magic may be at work. Mangan s delightful book shows that they will always be able to do so.
--Rob Hardy "Commercial Dispatch ""