JOURNAL OF DERAMATIC ARTS AND MUSIC
Year:2015 | Volume:5 | Issue:10|Papers Count:8

Science plays are a new genre in the field of dramatic plays which is rooted in the past. Marlow and Shakespeare are the first playwrights who tried to use scientific subjects in their plays. Before reaching modern time, some of playwrights had concerned on some subjects that were related to scientific subjects, especially chemistry and physics. After the explosion of atomic bomb, among scientific progress of human society, drama showed its interest in similar themes. Now, after atomic bomb explosion in Hiroshima, playwrights attempted to protest against science and its danger for human. This opinion is given in the works of Berthold Brecht and Friedrich Durrenmatt -Galileo and Physicist. In the twentieth century, scientific approach to the development of technology is based on scientific theories and human achievements in the field of science and industry.Most of the scientific aspects of art can be found in the postmodern works. In recent years, literary foundations have showed their interests in scientific plays. Some plays are considered important by scientific institutions and art societies. For example, plays like Copenhagen by Michael Frayne, Wet by Margaret Hudson and Proof by David Auburn has awarded in New York literature Award and Pulitzer Award. Thinkers such as Jean-François Lyotard and Jean Baudrillard give some opinions about the postmodernism and art which explaine the features of these works. Based on these theories, these plays can be categorized as scientific plays which have properties of postmodernism literature. Postmodern plays are a kind of language game in form of intertextuality. Tom Stoppard, British contemporary playwright, is more well-known than other writers because of his effective ideas. Arcadia (1993) with choosing chaos theory as a framework for narrative structure, is the most important scientific play. The framework of this study is Lyotard’s Metanarratives theory and Baudrillard’s opinions about postmodern literature. It is proven scientific position among the works of postmodern- like some plays such as Arcadia. Stoppard, by postmodernism approach and scientific theories like thermodynamics, Newtonian physics, algorithm, mathematics and chaos theory, has succeeded in challenging science in dramatic structure. He could reconcile scientific theories with dramatic elements and merge plot and thematic schemata into scientific subjects in his play. Based on Lyotard’s theory about postmodernism, Stoppard has tried to deny Meta-narrations versus legitimate knowledge. Creating a world between fiction and reality, Stoppard makes Arcadia a story about never happened events that can never be found in history, however all subjects have special position in history. Baudrillard categorized these plays among science–fiction literature and argued about relation between this genre and public media. In Arcadia, particularly in ending scene, past and present times are mixing up together to make a fiction situation that can only be seen in science–fiction stories or movies. So, it can be concluded that scientific plays have postmodern aspects.

From the times of Plato and Aristotle and the philosophers after them, the reader is always assumed to have a passive role in reading the text and perceiving its meaning, and receive only what the author provides.However, many of these equations changed in the modern era and theoreticians appeared whose focus was not just on the writer. They realized that the reader or the audience had a special place and his presence was considered to be important. Wolfgang Iser is one of the most important thinkers who theorized in this field. He is one of the founders of the Literary School of Konstanz which introduced the theory of reception aesthetics.Issues mentioned in this school received a fundamental influence from the field of phenomenology. This school considered the audience as an active agent in the process of reading and creating the literary meaning.Iser believed that there are gaps and blanks in any literary work and wanted to prove that the audience gives life to the art works by filling these. He significantly expanded his view by expressing some ways such as hypothesis making, strategy of reading, omission and highlighting, bridging, etc. He attached significant importance to the audience and knew that the process of completing art works depends on the audience’s reception. This is an issue which is very important in certain branches of performing arts such as theater and puppet show, because theater cannot be implemented without the audience. So, according to what Iser says about literature, the writer attempts to open a way in theater to explain what is happening to the audience when he is watching a show. This paper focuses on the spectator’s action of filling gaps and blanks during the show and investigates the process of understanding and perceiving of the audience. For further explanation of the issue, the research investigates the mental processes of the audience within the methods mentioned in the theory of Iser such as hypothesis making, strategies of reading, omission and highlighting and etc. This study aims to prove that if the audience does not collaborate to fill the gaps while watching the puppet show, it does not follow an appropriate strategy and hypothesis and finally it does not pay attention to omissions and highlighting, the show will decline from an artwork to a meaningless entertainment activity and lose its deeper relations with the audience. In that case, puppets will not have their dramatic natures and will turn into simple toys. This paper, by the descriptive–analytical methodology, intends to deliberate on the process of reading the puppets in puppet shows particularly according to Iser’s theory.

This research is about studies of genre film and it more aims to identify and understand the concept of genre film, its dimensions, and especially the meaning of the word “genre film”. Many genre theory studies have used this word, although they didn’t give an exact and evident definition of genre film. The Focus of this article is on the definition of “genre film”. This study aims to answer these basic questions: 1. If we recognize the word “genre film” and its meaning in film studies, is there the “non-genre film”? 2. What distinguishing characteristics have non-genre films? When we want to answer these questions, we have to explain concept, term and practical aspects of the film genre. According to the contrast between ‘author theory’ and ‘film genre theory’, and besed on a comparative study of these theories, in this paper we are trying to distinguish and describe the dimensions and characteristics of genre film with descriptive-analytical method. Initially, a definition of authorship theory and film genre theory will be provided, and then, the above mentioned conflict, “genre film” would be explained. We can detect many films that don’t have these characteristics. These films can be called non-genre films. The results show that properties of non-genre films are the main points of the author’s theory. This means that if two theories are illustrated like two opposite points in a syntactic structure, many of recent genre films are between these two points. When a film is near to one of these points; it would be in the structure of that, and far from the structure of the other. Although there have been a connection between these theories, since the creation of French new wave to now, and can improve structure of each other. Connection between theses two theories has provided a bed for the emergence of some films wich have different characters of two theories. Many directors from commerical cinema have paid attention to critiques and aims of author theory and began to make films which were inspired by author theory. Cinema historians called these films and their directors ‘second generation of new wave’. These films show personality, solitary and individuality of artist (director) and simultaneously, stand in generic structures of genre theory. Although no genre film is completely without artist’s personality and authority and there isn’t any author film that doesn’t have any of the six properties of genre film. When a film closes to genre theory and its structures, it would have no properties of author theory. Six characters are detected for genre films: Repetitive nature, economic nature, social function, predictability, Extensive use of resources and intertextual references, the application of formal elements and symbolic iconography. Therefore, those films which don’t have any of these properties are non-genre films. In the result, most of the films that are highly oriented toward author, aren’t in the range of genre films and have their individuality.

At dawn of cinema, camera has been one of the most important devices for the directors. The device, with its mechanical structure, would be able to record the moments of life on the raw film. The ability which made the people amazed in the beginning. Across their notice to the nature of camera and deployment of cinematic explanation, the directors found out that they could use camera as the device for better storytelling and the more powerful narrative structure as well. This caused the more creative directors to think of the movement of camera as a tool to record various pictures gradually. The directors found out that the camera movement has a large capacity which had already been ignored. They found out that the narrative and dramatic potentials could transfer a part of their existence to the addressee by means of moving abilities of camera. Thereby, the directors’ attention focused on the phenomenon accumulatively, and various approaches emerged to it. This became so important that some directors began to show their individual genre by using the moving camera, and injected the phenomenon to the aesthetic structure of their movies in order to fill them with artistic delicacy. Besides the facts mentioned, the thing that has always been ignored in the researches of Iranian movies is the aesthetics of camera movements. Camera movement, due to its frequency of application, has changed into a common process and most of the film-makers use it with no regards for its expressive potentials. The main goal of this research is investigation and analysis of camera movement aesthetics in Iranian cinema and it is tried to look at this topic from a scientific point of view. Therefore, six movies which are produced from 2001 to 2011 are chosen as the statistical domain: Killing Mad Dogs (Bahram Beizai, 2001); Bright Nights (Farzad Motamen, 2001); Gavkhooni (The River’s End) (Behrooz Afkhami, 2003); Green Fire (Mohammad Reza Aslani, 2007); About Elly (Asghar Farhadi, 2008); Day and Night (Omid Bonakdar & Keyvan Alimohammadi, 2008). In the first section, development of camera movement in cinema history is investigated, so that it becomes clear when directors starded to benefit from camera movement. Then, camera movement is referred to as a method which its only application is to follow the actor and therefore it has changed into an automatic process.In this research, some examples of this type of camera movement are cited. Then, a portable camera is introduced as a machine which has a meaningful character and acts in order to increase the pictorial values of the movie. In this section, characters of the expressive camera movement is investigated and its traces in chosen movies are followed. Finally, we focused on those works which have used camera movement as an innovating matter and have challenged the prevailing and common methods. This research, based on camera and its impact on visual aesthetics, is trying to reach a scientific analysis of the methods Iranian film-makers try to benefit from the portable camera.

Narratives -especially the fictional narratives- of any kind which are narrated through any medium often introduce the assumptions about the world and the ways it is perceived. Since the conceptualization is considered as one of the fundamental objectives as well as functions of the narratives, the study, taking the conceptual approach, analyzes the origins of the cinematic mythical narrative. To this end, arguing the concept of Origin (Arche) and its relation to Religion and Myth through analyzing the pattern of the Hero’s Journey of the mythical narratives, we show the mentioned archetype as a form of an anagogical process and essentially the process of the spiritual evolution and return to the original values in the religious thought. From mythological perspective, Hero Myth is considered as one of the most prevalent and familiar myths in the contemporary world. So, due to the hero character’s mythical as well as structural functions at forming the dramatic pattern, the hero myth can be taken as an effective pattern in the dramatic structures. One of the most appropriate approaches to read, perceive and criticize a text either in the realm of fictional narrative or other narrative media such as film is Mythological Criticism. Recognizing the concept of Origin in the mythological studies through the visual and narrative analysis of the first and last shots of The Searches as the case study, the study shows that the pattern of the hero’s journey in the fiction film originates from the primordial and eternal concepts and in particular the beginning as well as the end of the Creation. The perception refers to that authentic eternal story, the original myth of the Creation and Return of Man. This journey is considered as the fundamental or basic pattern of Man life. The pattern of Man’s Creation ends with an ontological turn, getting him to the starting point. Hence, it can be claimed that the archetype of hero’s journey roots in the prominent archetype of Creation. Therefore, the authentic samples of the narrative arts refer to and are enforced by the pattern of the hero’s journey and in other words the mythical narratives’ structure, the narratives organized in the form of the authentic mythical patterns and emanated from the depth of unconscious psyche; although, it does not mean that one fictional structure is applied or repeated in all the fictional narratives or in other words, all the fictional narratives follow the same fictional or dramatic structure. In fact, the myths not only narrate a story, but also create the patterns for the representation of the principle concepts or themes of the human mind. The study’s theoretical framework include Carl Gustavo Jung’s Archetype and Collective Unconscious theories in the realm of the analytical psychology, Joseph Campbell’s Monomyth theory in the realm of mythological studies, and Mircea Eliade’s Origin Myth in the realm of religious and mythological Studies.

In recent years, in the most important animation films, we can find an increase in the presence of females in children or young teenaged films. It seems that feminism thoughts have effected cultural entertainments such as kinds of toys, comic books, popular music and also industrial film productions, specially animation works (for example, Spirited away (2001), Monsters vs. Aliens (2009) and Brave (2012)). Some of these products belong to huge companies like Walt Disney. In former decades, young teenage girls were obeyed personage in most films. But nowadays, everything has changed. In new films, female heroes have the first, main and effective roles. Heroines are more different characters than the past homogeneous samples. They are not weak girls waiting for a lovely survivor, but they are heroines who try to save themselves and even their friends.They play not only an effective role in making their fate, but also they influence their own environment and other’s life. They pass all levels of heroic journey like a real hero but with all female characteristics. The structure of these new heroines represents a new heroic pattern. The statement of new pattern is the main question of this research. In order to find the quality of the presence of female heroes, in this research, we have studied “Spirited away” (Miyazaki, 2001). This is one of the most famous animations containing various visual symbols, such as a girl with a perky role. This animation film has been welcomed by the audiences in many movie theaters of the world. A famous Japanese company animation that was named Ghibli made this marvelous production. “Spirited away” went in honor Academy Award Oscar for the best animation in 2001 and later 34 other international awards, meanwhile, this animation had nominated for 19 awards in its career.This animation film was registered as 41 top films in cinema history in IMDB reference site. The theoretical framework for analyzing this movie is based on hero’s journey mono myth of Joseph Campbell that allowed us to understand most of the visual symbols used in it. Then, according to the existence of female hero, we analyze hero’s journey of Joseph Campbell with “wild woman” archetype theory of Clarissa Pin kola Estes.The results show that the total framework of story line and character development is based on Campbell theory (hero’s journey), but because of the presence of female heroes, “wild woman” theory can explain this movie adequately. The results show that “peace with father” and “meeting the goddess” levels in Campbell’s theory are not suitable for female hero’s characters in this movie. Therefore, in this story, having a connection with “wild woman” is one of the levels of the improvement of heroine. Using symbolic paraphrase of Estes about feminine conditions of heroines, some parts of Campbell’s pattern which were need to be reviewed would be completed. Therefore “Spirited away” can be looked as a female narration of Campbell theory (hero’s journey) that can be analyzed by wild woman archetype theory of Estes.

In this article, the emergence and development of concert in Qajar era are studied; the period between Nassery (The king Nasserdin shah) era and Qajar dynasty’s downfall. In this article we are going to introduce the background of one of the most important events in modern history of Iranian classical music that in addition to social aspects of music, has affected the performance of Iranian classical music. The methodology of this research is based on documentation and analysing the data. The structure of the paper is built on spatial important changes in which time priorities are considered. So, we divide the era into four periods; 1.acquaintance with the concert in the west and The Royal School of Iran by kings and dignitaries, 2.performance in Zahirodolle private gardens, 3.performance in public parks by different political parties, 4.performance in theater and cinema halls with various motivations. Iranian acquaintance with concert in the west and Iran caused emergence of the first concerts in our country. Anjomon Okhovat, social Sufi institution, played a very important role in conducting the orchestra and concerts. Along with these developments, Mashrouteh Movement encouraged parties to hold public concerts. Concerts organized by Constitutionalist in different cities, led to the development of this new phenomenon. Aref Qazvini, poet and musician, and Darvish Khan, musician, were pioneers in this way. Aref’s political Gazaliyat (lyric poems) and his Tasanif (popular songs) excited the public too much. The first private concerts were performed in new Grand Hotel and cinemas halls located in Tehran, Lalezar Street. People liked theater and performance, therefore they should be considered in concerts. Due to this important matter, Tasnif and Reng were paid attention. Creation Pishdaramad which was performed as an introductory, and made familiar the singer and audience with atmosphere of the music, was one of the achievement of concerts. Gradually, European concerts were introduced and concert organizers, Persian and western, increased. Concert was one of the important phenomena that could gradually move Iranian classical music from the royal or aristocratic circles to the social middle strata. Thus, a number of singers, instrumentalists and composers who were known among aristocrats only, little by little got popularity among ordinary people. Concerts could play a very important role in promotion of political opinions and tried to meet the important needs of the Era. Concerts had a very important effect on the process of creation of musical works based on instrumental and vocal genres and could change the structures of these genres, too.Gradually, western classical music could find a proper position in Iranian society. Western concerts were a very good chance for Iranians to know their music. Co-executive interactions between Iranian and western musicians (in different sequences) were noteworthy points of that period.

Kule-farah area or Narsyna Temple, in the north of Ize, consisted of 6 stone relieves since about 2500 to 500 (BC) new Elam periods. Religious ceremony theme with music is one of the most important issues of stone relieves in Kule-farah, I, III and IV that shows a group of musicians and the largest documented collection of musical instrument of Elam Era. This study aimed to understand the evolution and application of two main factors in instrument and position of musicians in these three stone relieves. This study analyses pictures of 3 stone relieves of 6 available stone relieves in Kule-farah area and used relevant information and library studies and field investigations. We took some photos of Kule-farah and recorded movies in this area. The results have been compared with previous studies. Finally, the dimensions of each stone relief (Length, width, height, figures) and their issue would be presented. To analyses the stone relief of musicians, the similarities and differences (type of orchestration, dress, hair, social status, location and position of them) among three stone relieves are mentioned. In conclusion, musicians should be considered as main members of temple that have played a major role in advance the rituals of worship. Their position in the scene reflects the importance of their role during the religious ceremony. In the stone relieves I and III, musicians are presented during the religious rituals and beside animal sacrifice, but in the stone relief IV we can see a General Banquet whose guests are eating. Numbers and figures of musical instrument in the Elam period had the evolutionary process. Diversity and increasing number of instruments increases the doubts about historical continuity and interconnected with the evolutionary process of musical instrument in the Elam period. Orchestra of III is consisted of three harpers vertical, Orchestra of IV consisted of one conductor that is in front of 6 musicians -they have two kind of stringed instrument (horizontal and vertical grip). Structure of orchestra of I is most orchestra diverse -it has three musical instruments for three musicians: two stringed instruments, a harp and vertical and horizontal harp percussion square. Musicians’clothing, hair and the faces without beard shows gender differences in male and female. In stone relieves IV and III, musicians are dressed in short robe and in stone relief I they are dressed in long robe. In these three stone relieves musicians have fastened their hair and have no beard. Symbols are used to show feminine of musical instruments: harp and drums, long robe, hair tucked behind and the faces with no beard. According to the long robe, musicians of Kule-farah I that historically is more recently than III and IV, emphasis two points: 1. The possibility of presentation of the female musicians in Elam court land, 2. The increasing social status of musicians in Elam court.