Amputation: Texts for an Extraordinary Spectacle

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Amputation: Texts for an Extraordinary Spectacle, by Jens Bjørneboe, is a collection of plays written originally in Norwegian.

[edit] Synopsis

First publication in English of both versions of the Norwegian iconoclast's shocking play that he described as "directed against those forms of society that do not allow room for people who think differently from those in power."

[edit] Summary

The Norwegian iconoclast Jens Bjørneboe described this work as "a wild, almost surrealistic play — partly sinister, partly comic... directed against those forms of society that do not allow room for people who think differently from those in power." In the horrible world of Amputation the dissident individual who cannot be normalized by conditioned reflexes may yet serve society — in the medical sense.

Bjørneboe wrote two versions of the play. Here, in one volume, are both, plus supplemental texts, written by Oddbjørn Johannessen and Esther Greenleaf Mürer, that provide all the materials for an extraordinary reading and, for the avant-garde theatrical group, an extraordinary production of Bjørneboe's shocking and prophetic warning.

[edit] Editions

• Translated from the Norwegian by Solrun Hoaas & Esther Greenleaf Mürer. Grand Terrace, CA: Xenos Books. ISBN 1-879378-46-9 (paper), 173 p.