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Scandal on Stage: European Theater as Moral Trial. By Theodore Ziolkowski. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009. Pp. xi + 190. Cloth $88. ISBN 978-0521112604.
As a communal medium, theater exceeds any other art form in its ability to function as a testing ground for sociopolitical, ethical, and aesthetic norms. This study traces the history of theater's public offenses, and analyzes scandal as a manifestation of society's ongoing struggle to (re)establish its civic institutions, shared values, and beliefs. In doing so, it aims to shed light on a question with which drama theorists have long concerned themselves: can theater serve as a moral institution, as proposed by Friedrich Schiller in the late eighteenth century?
The book spans almost two centuries of predominantly German and French theater history, and its author must be commended for doing at least partial justice to theater's myriad forms by including literary drama, musical composition, and ballet in his analysis. Without exception, the playwrights and composers under investigation have been well researched, and rather than adding further work analyses Ziolkowski draws on existing scholarship in order to discern the main aspects that underlie theatrical scandals across genre and time. As the author himself points out, his approach is that of a literary and cultural historian, not a theater scholar. Indeed, readers familiar with theoretical models from the field of theater studies will likely regret...