Reading for the Soul in Stanislavski‘s The Work of the Actor on Him/Herself: 
       Orthodox Mysticism, Mainstream Occultism, Psychology and the System in the 
                      Russian Silver Age 
                          BY 
                            
                         C2010 
                       Patrick C. Carriere 
        
        
        
        
              Submitted to the graduate degree program in Theater and the 
                 Graduate Faculty of the University of Kansas 
               in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of 
                      Doctor of Philosophy. 
        
        
        
        
        
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                              Chairperson* 
                               
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                        Date 
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               The Dissertation Committee for Patrick C. Carriere certifies 
               that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: 
                              
                              
         
         
         
         
         Reading for the Soul in Stanislavski‘s The Work of the Actor on Him/Herself: 
        Orthodox Mysticism, Mainstream Occultism, Psychology and the System in the 
                        Russian Silver Age 
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
                          Committee: 
         
         
         
         
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                                     Chairperson* 
                                                  
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                              Date approved:_______________________
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                                                         Contents 
                 List of Plates                                                                         iii 
                 Preface                                                                                iv 
                 Introduction                                                                           1 
                 Chapter I: The Roots of the Actor‘s Soul                                               52 
                 Chapter II: The Ikon and the Actor                                                     89 
                 Chapter III: Occult Cosmology, Concepts of Creation and the Construction of the Soul in 
                             Stanislavski‘s System                                                      137 
                 Chapter IV: Steiner, Stanislavsky, Symbolists and the Life of Art                      179 
                 Chapter V: Mystical Psychology and Engineering the Soul in the System                  225 
                 Conclusion                                                                             277 
                 Appendix I                                                                             291 
                 Appendix II                                                                            298 
                 Works Cited                                                                            302 
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                                                      List of Plates 
                Figure 1: Andrei Rublev‘s ―Hospitality of Abraham‖                                    94 
                Figure 2: Hans Holbein‘s The Body of the Dead Christ in the Tomb                      120 
                Figure 3: The Schematic of the Soul of the Actor in the Creative Process According to the 
                          Tenets of Stanislavski‘s System.                                            158 
                Figure 4: Chakras as understood by European occultists.                               160 
                Figure 5: A comparison of Leadbeater‘s chart of the creation of the universe according to the 
                          tenets of theosophy and an inverted copy of Stanislavski‘s rendering of the actor‘s 
                          creative process.                                                           165 
                Figure 6: The Titles of the Eight Volume Collected Works of Stanislavski and their English 
                          Translations.                                                               291 
                Figure 7: My Translation of the Chapter Tiles of the First Volume of An Actor‘s Work… 
                          compared to the original and English Translations.                          295 
                 
                 
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