Frank, Adam (Author)
Science in Context
Volume: 25, no. 3
Issue: 3
Pages: 447-467
Edition Details: Part of the special issue, “The Varieties of Empathy in Science, Art, and History”
Language: English
This essay offers a reading of Gertrude Stein's lecture Plays (1934) alongside the work of several thinkers on emotion, William James, Silvan Tomkins, and Wilfred Bion. The problem of what Stein calls emotional syncopation at the theater is understood in the context of James' theory of emotion. The essay proceeds to unfold Stein's emphasis on varieties of excitement by way of Silvan Tomkins' writing. It then turns to Wilfred Bion's theory of thinking to argue that the main problem with theater, for Stein, is the difficulty it poses to learning or arriving at genuinely new knowledge. The essay concludes with the suggestion that Stein's plays address the further difficulties of analyzing group dynamics or numbers of individuals, especially in the context of modernist mass media.
...MoreArticle Lanzoni, Susan (2012) Introduction: Emotion and the Sciences: Varieties of Empathy in Science, Art, and History. Science in Context (pp. 287-300).
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