ABSTRACT
Pieces in other sections of this reader address specific areas of the politics of representation in performance; those in this section deal with broad, fundamental issues and positions. Louis Althusser (1918-89), continuing and redirecting the tradition begun by Gramsci, offers a modern theory of ideology. Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) outlines a mode of performance which opposes ideology in two ways, both offering an alternative explanation of the social world and redrawing the stage’s relationship with its audience. Jean-François Lyotard (1924-98) proposes an aesthetic strategy which counters the very structure of thought on which ideology rests.
