Automata and Mimesis on the Stage of Theatre History by Kara Reilly (review)

• Autores: Minsoo Kang
• Localización: Technology and Culture, ISSN-e 1097-3729, Vol. 54, Nº. 4, 2013, págs. 971-973
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Recently published books on automata (self-moving machines designed to mimic living beings) have elucidated the significance of these fascinating objects from the perspectives of the history of science and technology, intellectual history, and cultural history. Kara Reilly�s new study of the topic makes a fresh contribution by looking at automata in terms of theatrical performance both literally, in the sense of an entity that appears onstage, and figuratively, as a descriptive representation of humanity in written texts. The book does not provide a continuous history of automata as theatrical objects, nor does it restrict itself to a comprehensive analysis of a single episode in that history. Rather, the author presents illuminating discussions of the object�s appearance in five different historical contexts. As it is explained in the introduction to the book, this strategy is deployed to illustrate �historical breakages,� as described by Michel de Certeau, in which meanings attached to certain objects, ideas, and events sometimes undergo radical and unexpected changes. One of the book�s central topics is the automaton�s capacity for the mimicry of life and the complicated role it played, as such a mimetic machine, in the perennial Western debate on the relationship between nature and art.