Reviewed by:

• The Director’s Prism: E. T. A. Hoffmann and the Russian Theatrical Avant-Garde by Dassia N. Posner
• James Fisher (bio)

In his legendary 1922 “fantasy-infused” (63) commedia dell’arte-inspired production of Carlo Gozzi’s Princess Turandot, Russian director Evgeny Vakhtangov, long resistant to the juggernaut of realism spreading across European theatres and inspired in part by Konstantin Stanislavski’s work at the Moscow Art Theatre, pointedly banished realism in his innovative theatricalization of Gozzi’s play. As Vakhtangov’s most emblematic production, and also his last, it was aimed to fully break free of the hold of realism. The production was a triumph, but, in a sense, merely a culmination of two decades of avant-garde experimentation by Vakhtangov and others turning toward an overtly theatrical “circusization” (132) of the Russian-Soviet stage. Like Vakhtangov, three particular directors, Vsevolod Meyerhold, Alexander Tairov, and Sergei Eisenstein, looked to dramatic and literary classics of the pre-modern stage for source material that might serve the liberating experimentation they boldly hoped would provide what they viewed as a necessary opposing pole to the rising tide of realism.

Among those sources, works by German Romantic fabulist E. T. A. Hoffmann (1776–1822) attracted Meyerhold, Tairov, and Eisenstein. In her engrossing, impressively researched, and highly readable study, The Director’s Prism: E. T. A. Hoffmann and the Russian Theatrical Avant-Garde, Dassia N. Posner digs into the Hoffmannesque productions of these directors, and those who followed their lead, to remind readers that more than a century of the historical influence of Stanislavski, particularly within acting training in America, obscured a fuller understanding that Stanislavski was only one point of reference and that the vast [End Page 146] diversity of the Russian stage offered varied inspirations. The directors Posner examines sought to maintain the seriousness of purpose inherent in realism, while liberating modern stage artists to imagine new worlds through the use of audacious fantasy supplied by works like Hoffmann’s.

With Claudia Orenstein and John Bell, Posner scholarship includes co-editing The Routledge Companion to Puppetry and Material Performance (2015), but in The Director’s Prism, she asserts her voice fully, proving herself a peer of Lawrence Senelick, Spencer Golub, Julia Listengarten, Sharon Marie Carnicke, and the late Edward Braun, all of whom have within their writings restored neglected aspects of Russian-Soviet theatre. Meyerhold, who was murdered in prison by Stalin’s thugs in 1940, has received considerable scholarly attention since the 1970s and Eisenstein’s cinematic work has long been an area of study by film historians, but Tairov, among other Russian theatricalists, is less known. Posner delves into the Hoffmannesque work of Meyerhold and Eisenstein while illuminating the productions of the comparatively unstudied Tairov, offering penetrating analysis of the accomplishments of all three figures, and particularly their productions inspired by Hoffmann’s grotesque tales.

Curiously, the Prussian-born Hoffmann has inspired considerable scholarship as a literary figure, but relatively little can be found on his theatrical influence. Despite a varied career as a composer, music critic, and jurist, Hoffmann’s most distinct stage legacy was inspired by his 1816 story Nussknacker und Mausekönig (Nutcracker and Mouse King), a dark and psychologically complex socio-critical work best remembered as the basis for Tchaikovsky’s beloved two-act ballet The Nutcracker (1892), a perennial holiday favorite. Only in Werner Mausolf ’s E. T. A. Hoffmanns stellung zu drama and theater (University of Michigan, 1920) and, more recently, Christopher R. Clason’s E. T. A. Hoffmann: Transgressive Romanticism (Romantic Configurations: Studies in Literature and Culture 1780–1850) (Liverpool University Press, 2018) have Hoffmann’s theatrical inspirations received much critical attention. However, Posner makes a persuasive argument that the innovations of Russia’s key theatricalists were significantly enhanced by Hoffmann’s gothic tales to create a movement that destroyed the slavish use of fourth-wall realism. At the same time appeals to a subjective aesthetic emphasizing the role of emotion in...

审核人：

• 导演棱镜：ETA Hoffmann和Dassia N. Posner创作的俄罗斯戏剧先锋队
• 詹姆斯·费舍尔（生物）

卡洛·古齐（Carlo Gozzi）的图兰朵公主在1922年的传奇作品“奇幻注入”（63）中，由喜剧媒体创作，俄罗斯导演叶夫根尼·瓦赫坦戈夫（Evgeny Vakhtangov）长期以来抵制在欧洲各大剧院散播的现实主义风潮，并部分受到康斯坦丁·斯坦尼斯拉夫斯基（Konstantin Stanislavski）在莫斯科艺术剧院的作品的启发，在他对古齐的戏剧进行新颖的戏剧化处理时，明显消除了现实主义。作为瓦赫坦哥夫最富有象征意义的作品，也是他的最后一部作品，它的目的是完全摆脱现实主义的束缚。制作是成功的，但从某种意义上说，仅仅是瓦赫坦托夫和其他一些人转向俄国-苏联舞台上戏剧性的“马戏化”（132）的二十年前卫实验的高潮。像Vakhtangov一样，三位特别导演Vsevolod Meyerhold，Alexander Tairov和Sergei Eisenstein，

在这些资料中，德国浪漫主义神话家ETA Hoffmann（1776-1822）的作品吸引了Meyerhold，Tairov和Eisenstein。导演棱镜：ETA Hoffmann和俄罗斯戏剧先锋乐队Dassia N. Posner在她的引人入胜的，令人印象深刻的研究和高度可读的研究中，深入研究了这些导演以及跟随导演的Hoffmannesque作品，以提醒读​​者，超过一个世纪以来，斯坦尼斯拉夫斯基的历史影响力，尤其是在美国的表演训练中，使人们无法更全面地理解斯坦尼斯拉夫斯基只是一个参考点，而广阔的​​前景[End Page 146]俄罗斯舞台的多样性提供了各种灵感。波斯纳导演的作品试图保持现实主义内在目的的严肃性，同时解放现代舞台艺术家，通过利用霍夫曼的作品所提供的大胆幻想来想象新世界。

波斯纳奖学金由克劳迪亚·奥伦斯坦（Claudia Orenstein）和约翰·贝尔（John Bell）共同编辑，《木偶与物质表现的Routledge伴侣》（2015年），但在《导演棱镜》中，她充分表达了自己的声音，证明自己是劳伦斯·塞内利克（Lawrence Senelick），斯宾塞·古鲁布（Spencer Golub），朱莉娅·林肯加藤（Julia Listengarten），莎朗·玛丽·卡尼克（Sharon Marie Carnicke）和已故的爱德华·布劳恩（Edward Braun）的同龄人，所有这些人的著作都恢复了俄罗斯-苏联剧院被忽视的方面。迈耶霍尔德（Meyerhold）于1940年被斯大林的暴徒在监狱中谋杀，自1970年代以来受到了学术界的广泛关注，爱森斯坦的电影作品长期以来一直是电影史学家研究的领域，但泰罗夫（Tarrov）和其他俄罗斯戏剧家一样，鲜为人知。波斯纳深入研究了梅耶尔德（Meyerhold）和爱森斯坦（Eisenstein）的霍夫曼式风格作品，同时阐明了未被研究的泰洛夫的作品，对这三个人物的成就进行了深入的分析，尤其是他们的作品受到霍夫曼怪诞故事的启发。

奇怪的是，普鲁士人霍夫曼（Hoffmann）作为文学人物激发了可观的学术研究，但是在他的戏剧影响力方面却鲜有发现。尽管霍夫曼的作曲家，音乐评论家和法学家经历了各种各样的职业，但霍夫曼最鲜明的舞台遗产却是受他1816年的小说《胡桃夹子和老鼠王》（Nussknacker undMausekönig）的启发而创作的，这是一部黑暗而又心理上复杂的社会批判性作品，被人们牢记为基础。柴可夫斯基备受喜爱的两幕芭蕾舞剧《胡桃夹子》（1892年），是常年度假的最爱。仅在沃纳·莫索夫（Werner Mausolf）的ETA霍夫曼（Staung zu）戏剧和剧院（密歇根大学（University of Michigan），1920）中，以及最近的克里斯托弗·克拉森（Christopher R. Clason）的电影中ETA霍夫曼：《侵略性浪漫主义》（浪漫形态：文学与文化研究1780–1850年）（利物浦大学出版社，2018年）使霍夫曼的戏剧灵感受到了广泛的关注。但是，波斯纳说服了一个有说服力的论点，认为霍夫曼的哥特式故事极大地增强了俄罗斯主要戏剧家的创新能力，从而创造了一场运动，摧毁了奴隶制对第四壁现实主义的使用。同时呼吁主观美学，强调情感在……中的作用。