Duncan’s Open Form and Cagean Intermedia: The Practice of “Theatre” After Black Mountain
What is Duncan’s allusion to John Cage’s “open scales” doing at the end of “Passages 17”? Roughly contemporaneous with Jack Spicer’s “Poetry as Magic” workshop, Charles Olson’s west coast delivery of the Special View of History lectures and Duncan’s staging of Medea at Colchis were Cage’s classes on...
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Centre de Recherche "Texte et Critique de Texte"
2020-12-01
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| Series: | Sillages Critiques |
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| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/sillagescritiques/10156 |
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| author | Edward Alexander |
| author_facet | Edward Alexander |
| author_sort | Edward Alexander |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | What is Duncan’s allusion to John Cage’s “open scales” doing at the end of “Passages 17”? Roughly contemporaneous with Jack Spicer’s “Poetry as Magic” workshop, Charles Olson’s west coast delivery of the Special View of History lectures and Duncan’s staging of Medea at Colchis were Cage’s classes on experimental composition at the New School for Social Research. While the Fluxus and Happenings movements that emerged from Cage’s New School course rejected many premises Duncan retained as a “derivative poet” both the west and east coast variants of the post-Black Mountain vanguard were working through problems traceable to the institution’s final phase under Olson’s rectorship in 1952-53. I examine the postwar avant-garde as a cultural formation in which Duncan’s serial open-form compositions and Cagean event-based work constitute branches of a single sensibility whose root can be intimated in the watchword “theatre” that haunts this period’s work. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-d8222d03f16e455db6d2184cc55d2331 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1272-3819 1969-6302 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2020-12-01 |
| publisher | Centre de Recherche "Texte et Critique de Texte" |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Sillages Critiques |
| spelling | doaj-art-d8222d03f16e455db6d2184cc55d23312025-01-30T13:47:08ZengCentre de Recherche "Texte et Critique de Texte"Sillages Critiques1272-38191969-63022020-12-012910.4000/sillagescritiques.10156Duncan’s Open Form and Cagean Intermedia: The Practice of “Theatre” After Black MountainEdward AlexanderWhat is Duncan’s allusion to John Cage’s “open scales” doing at the end of “Passages 17”? Roughly contemporaneous with Jack Spicer’s “Poetry as Magic” workshop, Charles Olson’s west coast delivery of the Special View of History lectures and Duncan’s staging of Medea at Colchis were Cage’s classes on experimental composition at the New School for Social Research. While the Fluxus and Happenings movements that emerged from Cage’s New School course rejected many premises Duncan retained as a “derivative poet” both the west and east coast variants of the post-Black Mountain vanguard were working through problems traceable to the institution’s final phase under Olson’s rectorship in 1952-53. I examine the postwar avant-garde as a cultural formation in which Duncan’s serial open-form compositions and Cagean event-based work constitute branches of a single sensibility whose root can be intimated in the watchword “theatre” that haunts this period’s work.https://journals.openedition.org/sillagescritiques/10156TheatrePoetryOpen FormIntermediaBlack MountainAntonin Artaud |
| spellingShingle | Edward Alexander Duncan’s Open Form and Cagean Intermedia: The Practice of “Theatre” After Black Mountain Sillages Critiques Theatre Poetry Open Form Intermedia Black Mountain Antonin Artaud |
| title | Duncan’s Open Form and Cagean Intermedia: The Practice of “Theatre” After Black Mountain |
| title_full | Duncan’s Open Form and Cagean Intermedia: The Practice of “Theatre” After Black Mountain |
| title_fullStr | Duncan’s Open Form and Cagean Intermedia: The Practice of “Theatre” After Black Mountain |
| title_full_unstemmed | Duncan’s Open Form and Cagean Intermedia: The Practice of “Theatre” After Black Mountain |
| title_short | Duncan’s Open Form and Cagean Intermedia: The Practice of “Theatre” After Black Mountain |
| title_sort | duncan s open form and cagean intermedia the practice of theatre after black mountain |
| topic | Theatre Poetry Open Form Intermedia Black Mountain Antonin Artaud |
| url | https://journals.openedition.org/sillagescritiques/10156 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT edwardalexander duncansopenformandcageanintermediathepracticeoftheatreafterblackmountain |