Nietzsche's love affair with the theater was among the most profound and prolonged intellectual engagements of his life, but his transformational role in the history of the modern stage has yet to be explored. In this pathbreaking account, David Kornhaber vividly shows how Nietzsche reimagined the theatrical event as a site of philosophical invention that is at once ancestor, antagonist, and handmaiden to the discipline of philosophy itself. August Strindberg, George Bernard Shaw, and Eugene O'Neill— seminal figures in the modern drama's evolution and avowed Nietzscheans all—came away from their encounters with Nietzsche's writings with an impassioned belief in the philosophical potential of the live theatrical event, coupled with a reestimation of the dramatist's power to shape that event in collaboration with the actor. In these playwrights' reactions to and adaptations of Nietzsche's radical rethinking of the stage lay the beginnings of a new direction in modern theater and dramatic literature.

A collection of new essays on the philosophy of theatre and the philosophy of drama, combining historical perspectives and new directions.

From Plato onwards, philosophers the world over have pondered the fraught relationship between the illusory practices of the stage and the rational pursuit of knowledge. In this engaging and accessible volume, David Kornhaber sheds new light on this ancient quarrel. Drawing on a global array of theatrical traditions and spanning millennia-from the Sanskrit dramas of classical India to Shakespeare and Greek tragedy, from the Noh drama of Japan to West End comedies and avant-grade performances.Theatre & Knowledge vividly demonstrates how questions of knowledge have long animated the theatre and continue to motivate some of its most innovative practices. As much as philosophy itself, the theatre has always been instrumental in probing the boundaries of what we can possibly know. Concise yet thought-provoking, this is essential reading for undergraduate and postgraduate students of Theatre and Philosophy.

The Drama of History plumbs the rich relationship between drama and philosophy. Kristin Gjesdal offers a lively and accessible discussion of the philosophical aspects of Henrik Ibsen's work. She shows how well-known nineteenth-century philosophers such as Hegel and Nietzsche develop their thoughts in interaction with the dramatic arts. At the heart of this interaction is a shared interest in exploring the existential condition of human life as lived andexperienced in history. In this sense, Gjesdal engages philosophy's capacity beyond its narrow academic confines.

This transdisciplinary project represents the most comprehensive study of imagination to date. The eclectic group of international scholars who comprise Imagination and Art propose bold and innovative theoretical frameworks for (re-) conceptualizing imagination in all of its divergent forms.

Recent philosophical reexaminations of sacred texts have focused almost exclusively on the Christian New Testament, and Paul in particular. The Book of Job and the Immanent Genesis of Transcendence revives the enduring philosophical relevance and political urgency of the book of Job and thus contributes to the recent "turn toward religion" among philosophers such as Slavoj Zizek and Alain Badiou.