Ghosts of Theatre And Cinema in the Brain

Ghost Theatres of the Brain focuses on the staging of Self and Other as phantom characters inside the brain (in the "mind's eye," as Hamlet says), exploring the brain's anatomical evolution from animal drives to human consciousness to divine aspirations, through distinctive cultural expressions in stage and screen technologies. Even-numbered chapters look at specific dramas with ghost characters from the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans to Shakespeare, Japanese Noh, modern drama, and recent films. Odd-numbered chapters examine various intersections of psychoanalytic and neuroscientific theories to explore the brain's inner theatre, regarding ghosts and gods performed onstage and onscreen, as extensions of and connections between different brains in particular cultures.

Mark Pizzato is Associate Professor of Theatre and Film, University of North Carolina-Charlotte. He is the author of Edges of Loss: From Modern Drama to Postmodern Theory, which focuses on the drama of Eliot, Artaud, Brecht, and Genet (University of Michigan Press, 1998) and Theatres of Human Sacrifice: From Ancient Ritual to Stage and Screen Violence (SUNY Press, 2004). Pizzato has also published articles on theatre and media studies in various journals, including Journal of Popular Film and Television, Spectator, Performing Arts International, Essays in Theatre, Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism, and Journal of Ritual Studies. Since 1998 he has been the Vice-President of Editorial Policy for the Performance in History website project.