This study traces the origins of European modernism in Nineteenth-century Paris, examining every major avant-garde movement that sprung from this epicentre in the early Twentieth century: Expressionism, Dadaism, etc. In this wide-ranging overview Berghaus demonstrates a mastery of primary and secondary sources in several different languages.

GÜNTER BERGHAUS was formerly a Reader in Theatre History and Performance Studies, has been Guest Professor at the State University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and at Brown University, Providence/RI, USA. He is now a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Bristol, UK. He has published a dozen books and a large number of articles on theatre anthropology, avant-garde performance, Renaissance and Baroque theatre and dance history. He has directed numerous plays from the classical and modern repertoire and devised many productions of an experimental nature. He has been principal organizer of several international conferences and held research awards from the Polish Academy of Sciences, the German Research Foundation, the Italian Ministry of Culture, the British Academy, and the Brazilian Ministry of Education.