{"product_id":"postcolonial-opera-william-kentridge-and-the-unbounded-work-of-art-paperback","title":"Postcolonial Opera: William Kentridge and the Unbounded Work of Art - Paperback","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/reportcopyrightinfringement.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eReport copyright infringement\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eJuliana M. Pistorius\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOpera has long been known for its ability to be used as a tool for colonial expression. But it is increasingly used to narrate histories of colonial trauma, oppression, and struggle. What does it mean for a colonial form to represent the experiences of those it used to exclude and undermine? How can opera adapt to meet the challenges of ethical representation and reparation? \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn response to these questions, \u003cem\u003ePostcolonial Opera: William Kentridge and the Unbounded Work of Art \u003c\/em\u003eexamines the social and political role of opera in the postcolony. Taking the multimedia operatic experiments of William Kentridge, South Africa's most celebrated contemporary visual artist, as a starting point, author Juliana M. Pistorius investigates contemporary opera's potential to process the troubled histories that haunt post- and decolonial societies. Centered around the critical-theoretical themes of return, confession, mourning, time, displacement, and totality, the book considers Kentridge's productions for puppets (\u003cem\u003eIl Ritorno d'Ulisse\u003c\/em\u003e, 1998; \u003cem\u003eConfessions of Zeno\u003c\/em\u003e, 2002), his operatic installation for a miniature automated theatre (\u003cem\u003eBlack Box\/Chambre Noire\u003c\/em\u003e, 2005), his chamber work for performers and machines (\u003cem\u003eRefuse the Hour\u003c\/em\u003e, 2012), and his 'processional operas' (\u003cem\u003eTriumphs and Laments\u003c\/em\u003e, 2016; \u003cem\u003eThe Head \u0026amp; the Load\u003c\/em\u003e, 2018). Pistorius argues that the artist's newly conceived operatic form, built on ideas of unboundedness rather than totality or formlessness, offers opportunities to engage anew with questions of race, coloniality, and cultural belonging in the postcolony. While Kentridge's pieces take the artist's responsibility to deal with the genre's colonial past seriously, she shows how they also offer humor, beauty, and catalytic opportunities to reimagine the form and function of opera in the postcolonial present. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cem\u003ePostcolonial Opera\u003c\/em\u003e intervenes in contemporary debates about opera's relevance and contributes to the growing study of the art form's relationship with race and coloniality. Ultimately, Pistorius argues that Kentridge's multimedia experiments--at once local and global--present compelling perspectives on the contradictions and compromises of the genre's position in the postcolony.\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eJuliana M. Pistorius\u003c\/strong\u003e is a Marie Sklodowska Curie Global Research Fellow at University College London and the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. Her research engages with questions of race, coloniality, and political resistance in Western art music, with a special focus on opera in apartheid and post-apartheid South Africa. Since graduating with a DPhil from the University of Oxford she has held a Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellowship at the University of Huddersfield and has been admitted as a research fellow to Africa Open Institute for Music, Research, and Innovation at the Stellenbosch University. She is a founding member of the Black Opera Research Network (BORN) and the reviews editor for \u003cem\u003eCambridge Opera Journal\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 304\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.48 x 9.17 x 6.35 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e June 10, 2025\u003c\/div\u003e\n            ","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53100752240947,"sku":"9780197749210","price":75.38,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0300\/5595\/6612\/files\/WQPpoqYs-C9780197749210.webp?v=1772490556","url":"https:\/\/www.vysn.com\/en-ca\/products\/postcolonial-opera-william-kentridge-and-the-unbounded-work-of-art-paperback","provider":"VYSN","version":"1.0","type":"link"}