Theatre, Communication, Critical Realism

Book excerpt: From oral culture, through the advent of literacy, to the introduction of printing, to the development of electronic media, communication structures have radically altered culture in profound ways. As the first book to take a critical realist approach to culture, Theatre, Communication, Critical Realism examines theatre and its history through the interaction of society s structures, agents, and discourses. Tobin Nellhaus shows that communication structure - a culture s use and development of speech, handwriting, printing, and electronics - explains much about why, when, and how theatre has transformed.