Generating theatre meaning : a theory and methodology of performance analysis / Eli Rozik.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Rozik, Eli.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Theater--Semiotics.

Theater.

Theater--Philosophy.

Acting--Philosophy.

Acting.

Physical Description:

x, 292 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Brighton [England] ; Portland, Or. : Sussex Academic Press, 2008.

Summary:

This book offers a theory and methodology of performance analysis as an alternative to traditional play-analysis. The underlying theme is that theatre performance is a descriptive text generated by the theatre medium and that the process of generating meaning takes place in the actual encounter between a theatre performance and the spectator. Many new understandings result, including how the theatre medium is iconic in the new sense of operating images of real or mental models, and how this impacts on the verbal text and stage metaphor; how poetic principles structure fictional worlds and bestow unity and wholeness on performance-texts; how a dialogue between implied director and implied spectator is inscribed in the performance-text; and how the implied spectator is characterized by functions of framing, reading, interpreting and experiencing a performance-text. It follows that actors' bodies on stage fulfil functions of textuality, metatheatricality, personification, characterization and aesthetic effect.

An Introduction surveys major contributions made to a methodology of performance analysis, particularly throughout the twentieth century, and problematizes the main issues. Part I is devoted to the semiotic substratum of the performance-text, i.e. to the theatre medium and its basic means of generating theatre texts and meaning. The innovation of this approach lies in seeing theatre first and foremost as a nonverbal medium. Part II deals with the poetic structure of fictional worlds described by the theatre medium and the metaphoric and rhetoric structures that operate on the level of relationship between the description of such a world and the world of a spectator. Part III contains analyses of actual performance-texts that illustrate the application of principles previously presented.

Generating Theatre Meaning is the first comprehensive book to address the necessity of a methodology of performance analysis and take issue with criticism of traditional theatre semiotics.

Contents:

Introduction: State of the Art and Perspectives 1

Main schools and trends 2

The formalist movement 2

The Prague Linguistic Circle 3

Roman Ingarden 4

The semiotic school 4

Post-semiotic criticism 5

The IFTR Performance Analysis Working Group 6

Main theoretical topics 7

Textual nature of the theatre performance 7

Descriptive nature of the performance-text 8

Imagistic nature of the theatre medium 8

Basic convention of the theatre medium 10

Univocal nature of theatre units 10

Segmentation of the performance-text 11

The principle of acting: deflection of reference 12

Theatrical nature of the play-script 12

Poetic structure of the fictional world 13

Metaphoric nature of the fictional experience 14

Rhetoric structure of the theatre experience 15

Role of the implied director 15

Role of the implied spectator 16

A phenomenology of theatre 16

Part I Semiotic Substratum

1 The Imagistic Nature of Iconicity 21

Imagistic thinking: from Nietzsche to neuroscience 23

Iconicity: image imprinting and language mediation 25

The basic convention of theatre 27

Explanatory power of the imagistic approach 27

Typical iconic units 28

Real objects on stage 29

Stage metaphor 31

Stage convention 32

2 Segmentation of Performance-texts 34

Segmentation of real interaction 35

Ingarden's view of fictional verbal interaction 39

The pragmatic approach of Serpieri et al. 40

Segmentation of iconic interaction 41

Segmentation of stage objects 44

Segmentation of iconic interaction in Habimah's The Seagull 45

3 Stage Metaphor and Symbol 48

A theory of verbal metaphor 48

Stage metaphor 52

Speech act stage metaphor 56

Stylistic implications of mixed stage metaphor 57

Stage allegory 58

Personification 58

Substitution 59

Mediation by abstraction 60

Mixed praxical and allegoric discourse 61

Stage symbol 61

4 Stage Conventions 64

Reading principles 65

Kinds of stage conventions 66

Medium conventions 66

Imagistic conventions 67

Functions of stage conventions 68

Semiotic functions 68

Poetic functions 69

Norms and styles 76

5 Acting: The Quintessence of Theatre 78

Deflection of reference 79

Expanded notions of 'actor', 'text' and 'character' 82

Existential gaps between text and two worlds 84

The fundamental gap between real action and enacting action 86

Experiencing the performers' bodies 88

6 The Theatrical Nature of the Play-script 90

Two kinds of theatre texts 91

The literary fallacy 93

Play-script analysis 95

Intertextual relations between performance-text and play-script 97

Part II Additional Strata and Disciplines

7 The Poetic Structure of the Fictional World 105

The twofold structure of the performance-text 106

Archetypal patterns of response 107

The stratified structure of the fictional world 110

Mythical layer 110

Praxical layer 111

Naive layer 112

Ironic layer 113

Aesthetic layer 114

Structure of the character 116

Possible fallacies 116

Sophocles' Oedipus the King 118

8 The Metaphoric Nature of the Fictional Experience 120

The metaphoric principle 121

The expressive nature of fictional worlds 122

The principle of personification 123

The apparent double reference of the performance-text 124

The mechanism of textual metaphor 125

Poetic implications 127

Metaphor in dramatic practice 129

Sophocles' Oedipus the King (continued) 129

Yerushalmi's Jephthah's Daughter 130

9 The Rhetoric Structure of the Theatre Experience 133

The pragmatic nature of speech interaction 134

The pragmatic nature of stage/audience interaction 135

Descriptive nature of the performance-text 136

Performative nature of the performance-text 136

Equivalence agent/director and object/spectator 137

Notion of 'macro-speech act' 138

Rhetoric nature of the stage/audience interaction 139

Yerushalmi's Jephthah's Daughter (continued) 143

10 The Implied Director 146

Hermeneutic vs. creative interpretation 147

The mechanism of creative interpretation 149

Fidelity, creativity, and legitimacy 150

Creative interpretation and intertextuality 151

Productions of Beckett's Waiting for Godot 152

The play-script 152

Creative interpretations of Waiting for Godot 154

11 The Implied Spectator 161

Real vs. implied spectator 161

Roles of the implied spectator 163

Yerushalmi's Woyzeck 91 164

Framing a performance-text 164

Reading a performance-text 166

Interpreting a performance-text 168

Experiencing a performance-text 171

Dialogue between implied director and implied spectator 173

12 A Phenomenology Theatre 174

State's phenomenological approach 175

Alternative phenomenological approaches 179

Functions of actors' bodies on stage 180

Textuality 181

Metatheatricality 181

Personification 182

Characterization 183

Aesthetic effect 183

Life Class: a personal experience 184

Theatre vs. performance art 186

Part III Examples of Performance Analysis

13 A Transient Shadow: A Silent Description of a Speaking Fictional World 191

Reading A Transient Shadow 192

Interpreting A Transient Shadow 198

Principles of non-verbal description 202

Inherently non-verbal acts 202

Symbolic non-verbal acts 203

Metonymic non-verbal acts 203

Metaphoric non-verbal acts 204

Metaphoric hand gestures 204

Allegoric characters 205

Projected titles 205

14 Suz/o/Suz by La Fura dels Baus: Theatre at the Borderline 207

The notion of 'performance' 208

The notion of 'actual' 210

Performing an action vs. enacting an action 213

Suz/o/Suz by La Fura dels Baus 213

15 Habimah's The Trojan Women: A Ready-made Metaphor of Unjustified War 222

Euripides' The Trojan Women and its Homeric sources 223

Sartre's adaptation: Les Troyennes 227

Habimah's production of Les Troyennes 231

16 Robert Wilson's H.G: Non-theatrical Space as Stage Metaphor 237

Reading H.G. 238

On the legitimacy of interpretation 244

An attempt at interpretation 245

The warren - a found-space metaphor 247

17 Yerushalmi's Woyzeck 91: Intention in Creative Interpretation 250

Buchner's Woyzeck 251

Yerushalmi's Woyzeck 91 257

18 Methodological Conclusions 266

Aims of performance analysis 267

Means of performance analysis 268

Theoretical focus 268

Personal experience 269

Use of video recording 269

Abridged account 270

Intuition of structure and meaning 270

Independent performance analysis 270

The disciplines of performance analysis 271

Excludes disciplines 275.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 277-288) and index.

ISBN:

9781845192525

1845192524

OCLC:

163625299