The Roots of Theater from the Point of View of Performance and Media Studies
Abstract
This article discusses the issue of cultural roots of theater as analyzed from the point of view of performance and media studies. Its starting point is a critical reading of the well-known book by Eli Rozik, The Roots of Theatre, as well as a debate with some theses held by anthropologists of spectacle, whereby the author is able to point out essential points of his own outlook on the origins of theatre. These are as follows: 1) theater and ritual are live performances, and from the media studies perspective, they are human and iconic media; 2) the roots of theater are manifold (polygenesis); 3) the roots of theatre should not be sought either in the psyche or in prehistory—in both cases, it is about performativity, not theatricality; 4) theatre emerges in sufficiently developed civilizations, in a specific performative environment from which it draws patterns of stage behavior. It means that initially, theater is a medium stitched from other media (in analogy to the rhapsodist stitching songs together). In ancient Greece, theater as a religious and state medium emerged within the framework of the Dionysian festival, which functioned as a vortex of behavior attracting other forms of rituals, spectacles, and contests and afforded many pretexts for implementing various performance art conventions in theatre. Evidence of theater’s heterogeneity in this respect can be found in Aristophanes’ comedies and in medieval performances.
Keywords:
theater history, theater as medium, performance studies, media studies, Eli RozikReferences
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Authors
Artur DudaNicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń Poland
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2522-6888
associate professor of Theater and Performance Studies at Nicholas Copernicus University, Toruń, Poland. He is a member of The Polish Society for Theatre Research, Gesellschaft für Theaterwissenschaft (working group Theatergeschichte/Historiographie) and IFTR. Sincce 2018 he collaborates with Shanghai Theatre Acadamy His research interests include diverse aspects of drama and theater theory, the relationship between the text of a drama and its staging, the aesthetics of contemporary theater, especially Polish (history of the theater in Toruń), Lithuanian and German, and performance studies. He published Teatr realności (2006), Performans na żywo jako medium i obiekt mediatyzacji (2011), Reżyserskie strategie inscenizacji dzieła literackiego (2017), Teatr w Toruniu 1904-1944. Opowieść performatyczna (2020).
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