Routledge Art, Vision, and 19th-Century Realist Drama Book

Explore a new perspective on theatrical history with Art, Vision, and Nineteenth-Century Realist Drama: Acts of Seeing. Part of the Routledge Advances in Theatre & Performance Studies series, this work challenges the traditional view that realism was simply a precursor to modernism or a basic attempt to copy reality on stage. Instead, it presents realism as a complex form of visual modernism. This book examines how theatre functioned at the meeting point between human consciousness and the visible world. By tracing a historical continuum of acts of seeing, the text demonstrates how the realist stage participated in the modern era's investigation into how vision resides within the human body. It is an essential resource for those studying the connection between art, science, and the evolution of performance studies.