Theatre and Encounter by Roger Grainger

Author:Roger Grainger [GRAINGER, ROGER]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781490717289
Publisher: Trafford Publishing
Published: 2014-01-08T16:00:00+00:00

a. Chronological rearrangement, according to which incidents are arranged so as to contribute to, and be illuminated by, the central insight.

b. Chronological censorship, according to which events which are irrelevant to the story are omitted or changed.

c. Re-adjustment of tempo and scale. The heart of the plot may be extended and magnified in significance by speeding up some sections of the story and slowing down others.

d. Fictionalisation of plot. The plot may be ‘improved’, i.e. made more dramatic by inventing embellishments. (Obviously this does not apply in the case of accounts which lay no claim to being anything other than the invention of their presenter or presenters. Many, if not all, traditional stories have been ‘improved’ over the years, and it may well be that some of the most dramatic incidents have been added at a considerably later date—after all, the most treasured characteristic of the tale is its dramatic quality.—

e. Fictionalisation of story linkages, according to which a prearranged plot is re-embedded in the original narrative and made to belong to the circumstances surrounding the original version.

f. Frame manipulation. Spectators and participants, and those whose role includes aspects of both, may be taken into the confidence either of the personages of the drama or of the actors impersonating those personages, and reassured about the fictional or make-believe nature of the proceedings. On the other hand the audience may be encouraged to take the drama seriously enough to believe that it knows things that those playing the parts do not know (dramatic irony). In these and other ways the plot manages to manipulate its own structures by commenting on itself, drawing attention to both its falsehood and its truthfulness.

These changes that happen to the story become part of social truth because they are participated in dramatically. There may not be an original unchanged version. Indeed, considering the identity of drama as celebration, presentation, festival, it is obvious that the artistic contribution must have been dominant from the start. In other words, these are not artistic versions of something else, but expressions of a sensibility that was artistic from the beginning.

In the most ancient dramas of all, the traditional narratives of folklore and religion, the hero’s story is presented in its most effective form, stripped for action by being reduced to the bare outlines of conflict that is the essence of its power. Thus it has a particular shape, which is the configuration of the greatest impact, the greatest personal meaning. The first section sets the scene and states the problem (or problems); the last delivers the conclusions; in between are the ordeals to be overcome along the way. Such stories resemble one another throughout the world (cf Gersie and King 1990; Grainger 1995). Indeed, there is a tendency for stories of all kinds that have been subjected to decades or even centuries of story-telling to possess the same outline and to proceed in threes and multiples thereof.

The schema is immediately familiar. We have only to think of the traditional children’s stories and folk-tales which we know so well—the Frog Prince, for example, or Cinderella.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.