Reading Theatre

244 Pages·1999·11.178 MB·English

by  Anne Ubersfeld, Jean-Patrick Debbeche, Paul J. Perron, Frank Collins

Reading Theatre
Anne Ubersfeld
Translated by Frank Collins
Edited and with a foreword by
Paul Perron and Patrick Debbeche
Anne Ubersfeld's three-volume work, Lire le theatre, has made a resound-
ing impact on the semiological study of drama. Reading Theatre is a long-
awaited translation of the first volume.
Clear and systematic in its approach, the book covers all the basic ele-
ments of theatrical text and performance. Ubersfeld begins by refuting
the view of performance as the simple 'translation' of a dramatic text, and
outlines a much more complex dynamic. In subsequent chapters she sim-
ilarly begins with a brief critique of fundamental models and then teases
out the complexities of action, character, space, time, and dialogue. A
range of specific examples brings substance and clarity to her points.
Ubersfeld shows how such formal analysis can enrich the work of the-
atre practitioners, offering a fruitful reading of the symbolic structures of
stage space and time, and opening up multiple possibilities for interpret-
ing a play's lines of action. Though firmly grounded in formalist and
semiotic studies, the book exhibits a refreshing scepticism about scientific
positivism, stressing the fundamental ambiguity of any dramatic text as
well as the sociohistorical grounding of particular text and performance
styles.
A pioneering work, this contemporary classic continues to inform
debates in theatre semiotics. Addressed as much to actors and directors as
to students and scholars, it will be read widely in theatre circles through-
out the English-speaking world.
(Toronto Studies in Semiotics)
ANNE UBERSFELD is Professor Emeritus and former Director of the Institut
d'etudes theatrales at the University of Paris-Sorbonne.
FRANK COLLINS is Associate Professor of French and Medieval Studies, Uni-
versity of Toronto.
PAUL PERRON is Professor of French and Principal, University College, Uni-
versity of Toronto.
PATRICK DEBBECHE holds a PhD in literary theory from the University of
Toronto and is a researcher in the semiotics of theatre.
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ANNE UBERSFELD
Reading Theatre
Translated by Frank Collins
Edited and with a foreword by
Paul Perron and Patrick Debbeche
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS
Toronto Buffalo London
www.utppublishing.com
© University of Toronto Press Incorporated 1999
Toronto Buffalo London
Printed in Canada
ISBN 0-8020-4455-7 (cloth)
ISBN 0-8020-8240-8 (paper)
Toronto Studies in Semiotics
Editors: Marcel Danesi, Umberto Eco, Paul Perron, and Thomas A. Sebeok
Reading Theatre is a translation of Lire le theatre 1 (© Editions Belin 1996)
Printed on acid-free paper
Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data
Ubersfeld, Anne
Reading theatre
(Toronto studies in semiotics)
Translation of: Lire le theatre.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8020-4455-7 (bound) ISBN 0-8020-8240-8 (pbk.)
1. Theater - Semiotics. I. Collins, Frank. II. Perron, Paul. III. Debbeche,
Patrick. IV. Title. V. Series.
PN2039.U2313 1999 792'.01 C98-933021-4
University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial assistance to its
publishing program of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts
Council.
Contents
Acknowledgments xi
Foreword xiii
Introduction xxi
Chapter I: Text-Performance 3
1. The Performance-Text Relation 3
1.1. The Text-Performance Opposition 4
1.1.1. Classical Practice 5
1.1.2. Against the Text 6
1.2. The Distinction between Text and Performance
1.2.1. Verbal and Non-verbal Signs 7
1.2.2. The Components of a Theatrical Text 8
1.2.3. Performance and Textual Activity 9
2. The Theatrical Sign 11
2.1. On Theatrical Communication 11
2.2. The Sassurian Definition of the Sign 12
2.3. Non-verbal Signs 12
2.4. Performance and Codes 14
2.5. Remarks on the Theatrical Sign 14
2.6. Denotation, Connotation 15
2.7. The Sign Triad and Theatre 16
2.8. The Problem of the Referent 18
3. Theatre and Communication 20
3.1. Two Sets of Signs 20
3.2. The Six Functions 21
3.3. The Receiver-Audience 22
vi Contents
3.4. Illusion-Denial 24
3.4.1. The Status of Dream 24
3.4.2. Theatrical Illusion 25
3.4.3. Denial: Consequences 26
3.4.4. Denial: Theatricalization 27
3.4.5. Theatricalization-Text 29
3.5. Trance and Knowledge 29
Chapter II: The Actantial Model in Theatre 32
1. The Larger Structures 32
1.1. Macrostructures 33
1.2. Surface/Deep 34
1.3. Structure and History 34
1.4. The Theatrical Story 35
2. Animate Elements: From Actant to Theatre 35
3. The Actantial Model 37
S.l.Actants 37
3.2. The Helper-Opponent Pair 40
3.3. The Sender-Receiver Pair 41
3.4. Subject-Object 44
3.4.1. Subject and Hero 44
3.4.2. Consequences 45
3.5. Sender and Subject: Autonomy of the Subject? 46
3.6. The Arrow of Desire 47
3.7. Actantial Triangles 48
3.7.1. The Active Triangle 48
3.7.2. The Psychological Triangle 50
3.7.3. The Ideological Triangle 51
3.8. Multiple Models 52
3.8.1. Reversion 52
3.8.2. Two Models 53
3.8.3. Doubling or Mirroring of Structure 53
3.8.4. Multiple Models: Determination of the Principal
Subject(s) 54
3.8.5. Multiple Models: The Example of Phedre 57
3.8.6. The Instability of Actantial Models 59
3.8.7. The Attenuated Importance of the Subject in Modern
Theatre 60
3.9. Some Conclusions 62
Contents vii
4. Actors and Roles 64
4.1.Actors 64
4.2. Roles 67
4.3. Procedures 70
Chapter III: The Character 72
1. Criticism of the Concept of Character 72
1.1. Character and Meaning 72
1.2. The Textual Character 73
1.3. On the Character as Locus 74
1.4. The Character Lives On 75
2. The Character and Its Three Main Themes 78
2.1. The Character and Its Figures 78
2.1.1. The Character and the Actantial System 80
2.1.2. The Character and the Actorial System 81
2.1.3. The Character as a Rhetorical Element 81
2.1.4. The Character in Relation with the Referent 82
2.1.5. The Connotative Network 82
2.1.6. The Character's Poetic Function 83
2.2. The Individual-Character 83
2.3. The Character as Subject of Discourse 85
2.3.1. Discourse and Speech Situation 85
2.3.2. The Character: Subject of Enunciation or
Twofold Enunciation 87
3. Procedures for the Analysis of Characters 87
3.1. Establishing an Actantial Model 88
3.2. Character and Paradigms 89
3.3. Analysis of the Character's Discourse 90
3.3.1. Analysis of the Character's Discourse as a String of
Words 91
3.3.2. The Character's Discourse as Message 91
4. Theatricalization of the Character 92
Chapter IV: Theatre and Space 94
1. The Stage Locus 95
1.1. Text and Stage Locus 95
1.2. A Locus to Be Constructed 96
1.3. A Concrete Locus 96
2. Towards a Semiology of Theatrical Space 98
2.1. Space and the Social Sciences 98
viii Contents
2.1.1. Space and Linguistics 98
2.1.2. Space and Psychoanalysis 99
2.1.3. Space and Literature 99
2.2. The Spacial Sign in Theatre 100
2.2.1. Definitions of the Iconic Sign 100
2.2.2. The Twofold Status of the Stage Sign 101
2.2.3. A Double Referent 101
2.2.4. Functions of the Stage Sign 102
2.2.5. A Spacialized Universe 102
3. Theatrical Space and How to Approach It 103
3.1. Space and Text 103
3.2. Text, Space, and Society 104
3.3. Space and Psychological Elements 105
3.4. Stage Space as Icon of the Text 105
3.4.1. Spatiality and Totality of the Text 106
3.4.2. Space and Textual Paradigm 106
3.4.3. Space and Syntactic Structures 108
3.4.4. Space and Figures 109
3.5. Space and Poetics: Consequences 110
4. The Stage and Its Point of Departure 111
4.1. History and Codes 111
4.2. The Concrete Space of the Stage 111
5. Space and the Audience 112
5.1. Space and Perception 112
5.2. The Audience and Theatricalization 114
5.3. Denial 114
6. Spatial Paradigms 115
6.1. The Content of Dramatic Spaces 116
6.1.1. A Disjunctive Functioning 116
6.1.2. Semanticized Features 116
6.1.3. Organized Sets 117
6.2. The Stage and the Off-stage 117
6.3. Transformations 118
7. Theatrical Architecture and Space 118
8. The Theatrical Object 120
8.1. How Objects Are Used 120
8.2. How to Read Objects 120
8.3. Towards a Textual Classification of the Object 121
8.4. The Text-Performance Relation and the Object 122
8.4.1. Towards a Rhetoric of the Theatrical Object 123
8.4.2. The Object as Production 124
Contents ix
Chapter V: Theatre and Time 126
1. Duration and Theatrical Time 126
1.1. The Unity of Time 127
1.1.1. History and the Off-stage World 128
1.1.2. A Ceremony outside Time 129
1.2. Temporal Discontinuity 130
1.3. The Dialectic of Time 132
1.4. Space-Time or Temporal Rhetoric 132
2. Temporal Signifiers 134
2.1. Didascalic Signifiers 135
2.2. Rhythms 135
2.3. Characters' Discourse 136
2.4. Closure 137
2.5. Temporality as a Relation between Signifiers 137
3. Reference 138
3.1. Framing 139
3.2. The Here-and-Now 140
3.3. Historicizing the Present 140
4. Time and Sequences 141
4.1. Three Moments 142
4.2. Long Sequences 143
4.2.1. Act versus Scene 144
4.2.2. Montage/Collage 144
4.2.3. Mixed Forms 145
4.2.4. The Articulation of Sequences 145
4.3. The Sequence of Average Length 146
4.4. Micro-Sequences 147
4.4.1. Segmenting into Micro-Sequences 148
4.4.2. The Function of Micro-Sequences 149
4.4.3. An Example: Lorenzaccio, act 2, scene 2 150
4.4.4. Some Consequences 156
Chapter VI: Theatrical Discourse 158
1. Conditions for Theatrical Discourse 158
1.1. Definitions 158
1.2. Theatrical Enunciation 158
1.3. Twofold Enunciation 160
1.4. Discourse and the Process of Communication 162
2. The Discourse of the Scriptor 162
2.1. Theatrical Enunciation and the Imperative 163