A Psychoanalytic Perspective on Theories of Spectator- Character and Actor-Character Identification in the Theatre
Turri, Maria Grazia
Date: 11 May 2015
Publisher
University of Exeter
Degree Title
PhD in Drama
Abstract
From Aristotle’s theory of tragic katharsis to Brecht’s formulation of the
Verfremdungseffekt, theorists of the theatre have long engaged with the
question of what spectatorship entails. Such question has, directly or indirectly,
extended to the investigation of acting. In the wake of Brecht’s critique of
conventional theatre, ...
From Aristotle’s theory of tragic katharsis to Brecht’s formulation of the
Verfremdungseffekt, theorists of the theatre have long engaged with the
question of what spectatorship entails. Such question has, directly or indirectly,
extended to the investigation of acting. In the wake of Brecht’s critique of
conventional theatre, emphasis has been put on the study of spectatorship from
the point of view of its cultural determinants and its conscious cognitive aspects,
while unconscious processes have been mostly ignored.
In this thesis I take a psychoanalytic perspective to analyse theories of the
theatre that have investigated the process of identification of the spectator or
the actor with the character. According to psychoanalysis, mechanisms of
unconscious identification, such as projection and introjection, are fundamental
to psychic development and to the construction of the self.
By analysing Aristotle’s theory of tragic katharsis through Freud’s theory of
transference, I propose a new understanding of spectatorship as transference
dynamic. I then conduct an in-depth enquiry into eighteenth-century theories of
acting which lead up to Diderot’s Paradoxe sur le comédien. I investigate the
paradox of the actor, in its fruitful tension between sensibility and
understanding, from the perspective of Melanie Klein’s concept of unconscious
phantasy and Bion’s theory of alpha-function. I hence interpret the art of the
actor as the performing of alpha-function on the spectator’s unconscious
emotions.
The new insights afforded by a psychoanalytic perspective of spectating and
acting illuminate the moral function of theatre and resolve some of the
controversial points brought forward by various theorists, including Brecht and
Rousseau. The moral function of theatre can be construed as a transpersonal
process in which unconscious identifications between spectator and actor
promote the development of a reflective view of the self.
Doctoral Theses
Doctoral College
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