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Publication
From effect to affect: narratives of passivity and modes of participation of the contemporary spectator
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Authors
Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
This article considers how dominant cultural and scientific notions
of the body and emotions pervade narratives of a passive spectator in the
western theatrical tradition. Two main conceptions of passivity model the
idea of spectator in the West: one in Antiquity (passivity as receptivity) and the
other in Modernity (passivity as inactivity). Theatre history demonstrates that
these conceptions are intertwined with the development of theatre architecture
and acting practices and theories set out to produce emotional effects on the
spectator. Drawing upon Teresa Brennan’s theory of affect transmission, I will
be looking at how the gradual enclosure of the stage – culminating in Zola’s
fourth wall and Wagner’s darkened auditorium - and the emphasis on the
spectator as the target of theatrical effects is in line with the validity decay of
cultural notions of the transmission of affect that lead to a self-contained
modern subject, that is, confined to the limits of the body. I will be suggesting
that the avant-garde movements in the 20th century and post-dramatic practices
reactivate affective a fluid connection between performers and spectators that
value affect transmission as vital to live events, both as social process and
aesthetic material.
Description
Keywords
Teoria dos afectos Performance Passividade Participação Arquitectura de teatro Transmissão Emoção Efeitos teatrais
Pedagogical Context
Citation
PAIS, Ana. 2015. “From effect to affect: narratives of passivity and modes of participation of the contemporary spectator”. STUDIA UBB DRAMATICA, LX, 2: 123 – 149.
Publisher
Studia Universitatis Babes-Bolyai