The paradoxical happiness of mass-man Cover Image

Fericirea paradoxală a omului-masă
The paradoxical happiness of mass-man

Author(s): Maria Zarnescu
Subject(s): Cultural Essay, Political Essay, Societal Essay
Published by: Universitatea de Teatru si Film »I.L. Caragiale« (UNATC)
Keywords: hyper consumerism; mass-man; neophilia; Gilles Lipovetsky

Summary/Abstract: As predicted more than half century ago, the consumer society has been influencing human life and mentality and that includes the perception of theatrical art, too. The cultural democratization and the technological boom have a leveling effect on the impact of any cultural act. Publicity and the perpetual rush for novelty at all cost cause the existence to be deprived of any profound meaning. The present way of life - promoted by virtual communication and stimulated by euphoriants - have reduced the human being to the condition of superficial witness, incapable of focusing on anything, and seems to be concerned only to preserve the illusive state of well-being reached through the acceptance of the imperatives of the consumer society. It is in this social reality that theatre, surviving in spite of all the gloomy prospects preached by some, must find its own way of existing, between its classical foundations and the bombastic experiments of the present.

  • Issue Year: 6/2013
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 167-172
  • Page Count: 6
  • Language: Romanian