DR317 L08 SpeechDiscourseII

Slide1: 

DR317 – Texts for Theatre – Spring Term 2007 First of all: THE NOMINATION Send your nomination to P.M.Boenisch@kent.ac.uk or put a note in my pigeon hole

Slide2: 

DR317 – Texts for Theatre – Spring Term 2007 Week 20 Speech and Discourse II

Texts, Signs, Speech: 

Texts, Signs, Speech In the last lecture, we looked at the functions and dynamics of Dramatic Speech: speech as action speech as communication the textual register locution and presentation

Texts, Signs, Speech: 

Texts, Signs, Speech In this lecture, we will look at another key aspect of the textual register: genre speech as discourse: themes isotopies oppositions

The Profile of the Plot: 

The Profile of the Plot A few weeks ago, we had discussed the PROFILE OF THE PLOT With this term, we had referred to conventionalised patterns of modelling action phases and action sequences Examples we had used were the Well Made Play, the Classical Five Act Structure, Elizabethan Theatre, Epic Theatre... If this all sounds foreign, you must start revising this module!

The Profile of the Plot: 

The Profile of the Plot Very often, these conventionalised patterns of plot action also bring with them a conventionalised textual register  Profile + Register = GENRE Note that in everyday language, genre is another of those words which can mean anything, and could refer to theatre, thriller, tragedy...  You must be precise in your use of technical terms for analysing texts!

Theatrical Genres: 

Theatrical Genres you may think that only Literature Students need to bother about ‘genre‘. yet the idea of genre is very useful for theatremakers, too: genre is all about expectations and their fulfillment (or not) Take an example from TV (or cinema): You would not want to see Sitcom-mannerisms in a horror film, nor a comedy routine in a tragic thriller.

Theatrical Genres: 

Theatrical Genres the two theatrical ‘super-genres‘ are: tragedy: ‘fear and pity‘ comedy: high vs low comedy Note that even these genres adhere to changing conventions! Nowadays, when you are going to see a comedy, you don‘t necessarily expect to see Satyrs with a horse‘s tails, haired legs and erected penises.

Theatrical Genres: 

Theatrical Genres Let us therefore look at some of the most important historical genres: Medieval Genres Early Modern Genres 18th / 19th Century The terms you will encounter in the next few minutes are basic knowledge! You must be able to explain and give definitions for each of these historical genres, even when you are totally pissed at the Venue, or are suddenly woken up in the middle of a seminar class!

Medieval Genres: 

Medieval Genres Until the 15th century, the anti-theatrical Christian doctrine allowed performance and theatre only as form of worship (like today in Islam) Mystery Plays: concerning the ‘mysteries‘ of creation and incarnation (the life of Christ); often cycles performed over several days. Famous: Wakefield/Towneley; York; Chester; Coventry; usually on Whitsunday or Corpus Christi day Morality Plays: about Mankind (‘Everyman‘; ‘Vice‘); oldest surviving: Anon., The Castle of Perseverance (ca 1400)

Early Modern Genres: 

Early Modern Genres Commedia Dell‘Arte: from 16th century, in Italy, originated within Venice Carnival; improvised (‘lazzi‘), masked performers, stock characters: Pantalone, Dottore, Innamorati, Zanni, Capitano, Pulcinella ( Punch), and of course Arlecchino; influential all over Europe Tragicomedy: most texts from English Renaissance, incl. Shakespeare Masque: particularly in Jacobean and Caroline times; lavish court spectacles; Ben Jonson, Inigo Jones; introduction of proscenium arch theatre

Genres of the 18th & 19th Century: 

Genres of the 18th & 19th Century Burlesque: a parodic travesty of a serious genre; vs the neoclassical rules of Drama [an anti-movement to the ‘Well Made Play‘] Farce (old Greek genre, revived in 19th century by Eugène Labiche, Georges Feydeau, Arthur Wing Pinero): frantic pace, stylised, clockwork plotting Melodrama (gr.: melos+drama=song plus text): music is vital; ‘pathetic‘; emotional, large casts; stock characters; sensation, not logic; world not words!

Genre in the 20th Century: 

Genre in the 20th Century New genres in the 20th century were ‘social‘ genres: Agit-Prop (‘agitation-propaganda‘) Documentary Drama Absurd Theatre: Samuel Beckett, Eugene Ionesco, Harold Pinter

Theatrical Genres: 

Theatrical Genres Note that Realism, Naturalism, Expressionism, Symbolism (etc.) are STYLES, not genres!

Speech and Discourse: 

Speech and Discourse We have now spent some time thinking about how dramatic speech is scripted and presented. We must, of course, also take into account what is being said:  SPEECH AS DISCOURSE

Speech and Discourse: 

‘At the heart of drama is dialogue – not simply speeches, things said by characters, but debate, question and answer. Plays struggle – explicitly or implicitly – with ideas and beliefs [...]. A good way into a play is to think about what it sets up in opposition to what: within characters, between characters, between ideas, between itself and the audience, between itself and other ways of telling stories.‘ Wallis and Shepherd 2002: 103 Speech and Discourse

Themes and Discourse: 

Themes and Discourse Dramatic Speech is not conversation, but stages signs and signals speech also presents the ‘themes‘ of a text However, these themes are not confined to the spoken dialogue alone, but they inform the roles, the action of bodies, even spaces! It is therefore more useful to think of them as discourse

Themes and Discourse: 

Themes and Discourse ‘“Spotting“ a theme by spotting imagery and allusion [in the dialogue/words] is only the beginning of really getting down to thematics. A list of quotations is not enough. With which character is the image connected? In what way? In what circumstances is it uttered? What relationships can we map between such characters, and what does this do to articulate the theme? What do the plot and its resolution – if any – do to the shape of the theme? How do the various themes in the play relate to one another?‘ Wallis and Shepherd 2002: 49

Themes and Discourse: 

Themes and Discourse Discourse is a better word for analytical understanding than ‘theme‘, as it reflects the discursive nature of texts for theatre: they are scripted utterances (dialogues, monologues...) within the framework of a debate (world) that text sets up: they also offer a discursive position to the audience.  The text (as a whole) sets up an entire system of discourses that interact with each other: they compete, contradict, support, reinforce...

Discourse and Ideology: 

Discourse and Ideology this system of discourses sets up frames of references for understanding the text, i.e. the world as it is modelled with its roles, bodies, spaces... as a whole, all of these discourses within a Text for Theatre set up a certain structure of arguments, assumptions, values and analysis: its ideology. Ideology: a fixed belief / system of values (Christian, capitalism, justice, religion, political, economic, Feminism etc.)

Analysing Discourse and Ideology: 

Analysing Discourse and Ideology There are two useful starting points in order to analyse a text‘s system of discourses, and its ideology: isotopies oppositions

Analysing Discourse and Ideology: 

Analysing Discourse and Ideology ISOTOPY (pl.: isotopies) Semiotics: A.J. Greimas, 1966; Greimas borrows this term from nuclear physics; greek isos topos means ‘same level‘ the recurrence of semes, which are the ‘basic atoms‘ of meaning this creates coherence and a continuity of meaning across various sign-systems

Analysing Discourse and Ideology: 

Analysing Discourse and Ideology identifying consistent isotopies helps clarifying meaning and interpretation by interconnecting significant information from various levels (spoken text, space, bodies, etc.)  Isotopies are the ‘main streets‘ of the world of the text

Analysing Discourse and Ideology: 

Analysing Discourse and Ideology Examples for isotopies: Keir Elam (1980: 184 ff.) analyses the first seventy lines of Hamlet, identifying e.g.: Death: sleep, cold, tomb, sickness, quiet... Identity: king, usurpation, ... the unknown: an unnamable thing, ghost, spectacle, illusion, inexplicable ...

Analysing Discourse and Ideology: 

Analysing Discourse and Ideology As Isotopies link different elements, there is also the (very obvious) opposite: OPPOSITIONS Note that as with isotopies, oppositions not only work on the same semiotic level (e.g. between words), but between contrasting semes (‘basic atoms‘) of various sign systems: through opposition, the spaces and/or bodies may thus give a very subtle commentary on the spoken text and/or represented action.

Analysing Discourse and Ideology: 

Analysing Discourse and Ideology Identifying the dominant ISOTOPIES and OPPOSITIONS helps us to spot ‘themes‘ which may not be obvious, or may not appear important, from just looking at the spoken text. They therefore intensify the systems of discourse in a text, and are key indicators of its ideology. Always try to identify the dominant isotopies and oppositions which are scripted by the text.

Analysing Discourse and Ideology: 

Analysing Discourse and Ideology Usually, you will find the dominant isotopies and oppositions of a text for theatre scripted towards the beginning and end of a text.

Texts as Discourse: 

Texts as Discourse Analysing Texts for Theatre from a semiotic perspective and looking at its scripted signals across its sign systems should have shifted your focus from the question ‘What does it mean?‘, to the question ‘How does the text produce and communicate meaning?‘ and ‘How does it set up a debate?‘, i.e. from the meaning to the production of meaning through signs on various levels.

Texts as Discourse: 

Texts as Discourse Analysing Texts for Theatre therefore does now no longer mean finding the (‘one‘) meaning of the text, but describing the network of relations between signs – the ‘world of the text‘.

Homework: 

Homework You must read Shepherd/Wallis, Chapter 3, ‘Dialogue‘ Revise: Aphra Behn, The Rover