Reading Theatre

by Ubersfeld, Anne; Perron, Paul; Debbeche, Patrick; Collins, Frank; Perron, Paul; Debbeche, Patrick

• ISBN13: 9780802082404
• ISBN10: 0802082408
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-07-01
• Publisher: Univ of Toronto Pr

Summary

Ubersfeld show how formal analysis can enrich the work of theatre practioners and offers a reading of the symbolic structures of stage space and time as well as opening up mulitple possibilities for interpreting a play's line of action.

Author Biography

Anne Ubersfeld is Professor Emeritus and former Director of the Institut d'Ttudes thTGtrales at the University of Paris-Sorbonne. Paul Perron is Principal of University College and a professor of French at the University of Toronto.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	xi
Foreword	xiii
Introduction	xxi
Text-Performance	3	(29)
The Performance-Text Relation	3	(8)
The Text-Performance Opposition	4	(1)
Classical Practice	5	(1)
Against the Text	6	(1)
The Distinction between Text and Performance	7	(1)
Verbal and Non-verbal Signs	7	(1)
The Components of a Theatrical Text	8	(1)
Performance and Textual Activity	9	(2)
The Theatrical Sign	11	(9)
On Theatrical Communication	11	(1)
The Sassurian Definition of the Sign	12	(1)
Non-verbal Signs	12	(2)
Performance and Codes	14	(1)
Remarks on the Theatrical Sign	14	(1)
Denotation, Connotation	15	(1)
The Sign Triad and Theatre	16	(2)
The Problem of the Referent	18	(2)
Theatre and Communication	20	(12)
Two Sets of Signs	20	(1)
The Six Functions	21	(1)
The Receiver-Audience	22	(2)
Illusion-Denial	24	(1)
The Status of Dream	24	(1)
Theatrical Illusion	25	(1)
Denial: Consequences	26	(1)
Denial: Theatricalization	27	(2)
Theatricalization-Text	29	(1)
Trance and Knowledge	29	(3)
The Actantial Model in Theatre	32	(40)
The Larger Structures	32	(3)
Macrostructures	33	(1)
Surface/Deep	34	(1)
Structure and History	34	(1)
The Theatrical Story	35	(1)
Animate Elements: From Actant to Theatre	35	(2)
The Actantial Model	37	(27)
Actants	37	(3)
The Helper-Opponent Pair	40	(1)
The Sender-Receiver Pair	41	(3)
Subject-Object	44	(1)
Subject and Hero	44	(1)
Consequences	45	(1)
Sender and Subject: Autonomy of the Subject?	46	(1)
The Arrow of Desire	47	(1)
Actantial Triangles	48	(1)
The Active Triangle	48	(2)
The Psychological Triangle	50	(1)
The Ideological Triangle	51	(1)
Multiple Models	52	(1)
Reversion	52	(1)
Two Models	53	(1)
Doubling or Mirroring of Structure	53	(1)
Multiple Models: Determination of the Principal Subject(s)	54	(3)
Multiple Models: The Example of Phedre	57	(2)
The Instability of Actantial Models	59	(1)
The Attenuated Importance of the Subject in Modern Theatre	60	(2)
Some Conclusions	62	(2)
Actors and Roles	64	(8)
Actors	64	(3)
Roles	67	(3)
Procedures	70	(2)
The Character	72	(22)
Criticism of the Concept of Character	72	(6)
Character and Meaning	72	(1)
The Textual Character	73	(1)
On the Character as Locus	74	(1)
The Character Lives On	75	(3)
The Character and Its Three Main Themes	78	(9)
The Character and Its Figures	78	(2)
The Character and the Actantial System	80	(1)
The Character and the Actorial System	81	(1)
The Character as a Rhetorical Element	81	(1)
The Character in Relation with the Referent	82	(1)
The Connotative Network	82	(1)
The Character's Poetic Function	83	(1)
The Individual-Character	83	(2)
The Character as Subject of Discourse	85	(1)
Discourse and Speech Situation	85	(2)
The Character: Subject of Enunciation or Twofold Enunciation	87	(1)
Procedures for the Analysis of Characters	87	(5)
Establishing an Actantial Model	88	(1)
Character and Paradigms	89	(1)
Analysis of the Character's Discourse	90	(1)
Analysis of the Character's Discourse as a String of Words	91	(1)
The Character's Discourse as Message	91	(1)
Theatricalization of the Character	92	(2)
Theatre and Space	94	(32)
The Stage Locus	95	(3)
Text and Stage Locus	95	(1)
A Locus to Be Constructed	96	(1)
A Concrete Locus	96	(2)
Towards a Semiology of Theatrical Space	98	(5)
Space and the Social Sciences	98	(1)
Space and Linguistics	98	(1)
Space and Psychoanalysis	99	(1)
Space and Literature	99	(1)
The Spacial Sign in Theatre	100	(1)
Definitions of the Iconic Sign	100	(1)
The Twofold Status of the Stage Sign	101	(1)
A Double Referent	101	(1)
Functions of the Stage Sign	102	(1)
A Spacialized Universe	102	(1)
Theatrical Space and How to Approach It	103	(8)
Space and Text	103	(1)
Text, Space, and Society	104	(1)
Space and Psychological Elements	105	(1)
Stage Space as Icon of the Text	105	(1)
Spatiality and Totality of the Text	106	(1)
Space and Textual Paradigm	106	(2)
Space and Syntactic Structures	108	(1)
Space and Figures	109	(1)
Space and Poetics: Consequences	110	(1)
The Stage and Its Point of Departure	111	(1)
History and Codes	111	(1)
The Concrete Space of the Stage	111	(1)
Space and the Audience	112	(3)
Space and Perception	112	(2)
The Audience and Theatricalization	114	(1)
Denial	114	(1)
Spatial Paradigms	115	(3)
The Content of Dramatic Spaces	116	(1)
A Disjunctive Functioning	116	(1)
Semanticized Features	116	(1)
Organized Sets	117	(1)
The Stage and the Off-stage	117	(1)
Transformations	118	(1)
Theatrical Architecture and Space	118	(2)
The Theatrical Object	120	(6)
How Objects Are Used	120	(1)
How to Read Objects	120	(1)
Towards a Textual Classification of the Object	121	(1)
The Text-Performance Relation and the Object	122	(1)
Towards a Rhetoric of the Theatrical Object	123	(1)
The Object as Production	124	(2)
Theatre and Time	126	(32)
Duration and Theatrical Time	126	(8)
The Unity of Time	127	(1)
History and the Off-stage World	128	(1)
A Ceremony outside Time	129	(1)
Temporal Discontinuity	130	(2)
The Dialectic of Time	132	(1)
Space-Time or Temporal Rhetoric	132	(2)
Temporal Signifiers	134	(4)
Didascalic Signifiers	135	(1)
Rhythms	135	(1)
Characters' Discourse	136	(1)
Closure	137	(1)
Temporality as a Relation between Signifiers	137	(1)
Reference	138	(3)
Framing	139	(1)
The Here-and-Now	140	(1)
Historicizing the Present	140	(1)
Time and Sequences	141	(17)
Three Moments	142	(1)
Long Sequences	143	(1)
Act versus Scene	144	(1)
Montage/Collage	144	(1)
Mixed Forms	145	(1)
The Articulation of Sequences	145	(1)
The Sequence of Average Length	146	(1)
Micro-Sequences	147	(1)
Segmenting into Micro-Sequences	148	(1)
The Function of Micro-Sequences	149	(1)
An Example: Lorenzaccio, act 2, scene 2	150	(6)
Some Consequences	156	(2)
Theatrical Discourse	158	(31)
Conditions for Theatrical Discourse	158	(4)
Definitions	158	(1)
Theatrical Enunciation	158	(2)
Twofold Enunciation	160	(2)
Discourse and the Process of Communication	162	(1)
The Discourse of the Scriptor	162	(7)
Theatrical Enunciation and the Imperative	163	(1)
We Are in the Theatre	164	(2)
The Discourse of the Scriptor as a Totality	166	(1)
Scriptor's Speech, Character's Speech	166	(2)
The Sender-Scriptor and the Receiver-Public	168	(1)
The Character's Discourse	169	(9)
The Character's Discourse as Message: The Six Functions	170	(2)
The Character's Language	172	(1)
The Character's `Idiolect'	173	(1)
The Social Code	173	(1)
Subjective Discourse	174	(3)
Heterogeneity of the Character's Discourse	177	(1)
Dialogue, Dialogism, Dialectics	178	(11)
Dialogue and Situation of Dialogue	178	(2)
Dialogue and Ideology	180	(1)
Questioning Dialogue	181	(1)
Contradictions	182	(1)
Contradictions between Speech and Discursive Position	182	(1)
Contradictions between Conditions of Enunciation and Content of Discourse	183	(1)
Utterances in Dialogue	183	(1)
Productive Speech	183	(1)
Dialogue and Dialogism	184	(2)
Some Procedures for Analysing Dialogue	186	(1)
Some Concluding Remarks	187	(2)
A Prelude to Performance	189	(4)
The Real and the Body	190	(1)
The Cleaning Rags and the Serviettes	190	(1)
Exorcism, Exercise	191	(1)
Pre-existing Meaning	192	(1)
Notes	193	(14)
Bibliography	207	(4)
Index of Terms	211	(2)
Index of Authors and Titles	213