This masterpiece of performance theory, lucidly translated, is both an insider’s commentary on modernist aesthetics and an empiricist’s guide to spectatorial experience. It belongs in the hands of every twenty-first student who is interested in semiotic, phenomenological, or cognitive approaches to spoken and lyrical theatre.

– Tracy Davis, Northwestern University

A somewhat belated arrival to the world of Anglophone theatre theory, Otakar Zich’s 1931 Czech classic Aesthetics of the Dramatic Art, presented here in its first complete translation, is both a milestone and a breath of fresh air. Editorial collaborators David Drozd, Pavel Drábek, Tomáš Kačer and Josh Overton have put in meticulous work into this volume which provides not only Zich’s integral text, but also its substantial epistemological and cultural contextualisations. Referred to as a Z to Aristotle’s A in an abecedarium of Czech theatre theory, Zich’s contribution however opens up a new topical chapter of post-Aristotelian dramaturgy concerned with interaction rather than mimesis.

– Duška Radosavljević, Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London

Otakar Zich, the founder of Czech scenographic theory, had a profound impact on the Prague Structuralists whose work, in turn, had a significant impact on the subsequent development of Western dramatic theory. Despite this, Zich’s monumental work, Aesthetics of the Dramatic Art, has never been available in English until this superb translation with David Drozd’s outstanding critical introduction to the work. This is an important and much needed contribution to the history of performance theory.

– Arnold Aronson, Professor Emeritus of Columbia University

Zich's work on dramatic theory was a foundational text from the Prague School of theatre semiotics, which in turn laid the foundations for modern theatre theory. It is major contribution to at last have this basic text available in English translation.

– Marvin Carlson, Professor Emeritus of City University of New York

Aesthetics of the Dramatic Art remains one of the most complete and systematic introductions to modern and contemporary drama and theatre as well as a ground-breaking “aesthetic study of artistic works”. Structuralists and semioticians might have thought they have already said everything about the theory of arts and performance studies, but reading Zich might surprise them and bring us thought-provoking as well as far-reaching new views.

– Patrice Pavis, Professor Emeritus of the University of Kent

Zich's formulations have clearly been appropriated and expanded by generations of scholars who followed him. I especially appreciated the efforts the team went to in keeping his terms separate from many commonly used semiotic words and phrases.

– Joseph Brandesky, Professor Emeritus of Ohio State University