JOURNAL OF DERAMATIC ARTS AND MUSIC
Year:2019 | Volume:9 | Issue:18 |Papers Count:8

Enjoying theatrical uniqueness and autonomy, radio drama is a renowned and recognized kind of drama. Meanwhile, dramatic space in radio plays is a critical, important issue to be focused on. Using methods and vehicles provided by semiotics, this study tries to analyze various aspects of “ creation of space” in radio drama, showing how fundamental information could be presented in order to gradually establish the space of the drama. To this end, first space-creating parameters in radio drama are recognized with their functions in space-creating, using textual analysis based on “ stratificational semiotics” . stratificational semiotics is analytical perspective to the text which was presented by Farzan Sojoodi. This theory, proposed in the author’ s book, Applied Semiotics (Sojoodi 2003). Stratificational semiotics, has been proposed first, as a hypothesis, and after being examined and evaluated in research and various studies, , gradually distinguished its position as a scientific theory in discussions of semiotics, and now, stratificational semiotics, is accepted as a scientific theory and considered as the theoretical foundations of numerous theses, books and scientific articles. It seems that giving a very brief account of this approach is inevitable, in the frame of stratificational semiotics, the text is composed of several layers that some of them may be considered more important than the others, But the implications of the text are affecting all layers. “ Meaning” is an outcome of the interaction between all text layers, sub-layers, prior knowledge and codes. This study attempts to rely on the theoretical foundations of stratificational semiotics, to analyze four elements in radio drama-speech, music, sound effect and meaningful silence-as the space builder layers in radio drama. so that, each of these factors produce a “ text layer” and therefore promote their functions and roles in the creation of space. So, we have four layer which include: layer of speech, layer of music, layer of sound effect, layer of silence, and, there is a syntagmatic relations or associations between them. These layers interact with each other, influence each other and finally make the overall space of the play. The effective space-creating leads to mental imagery and producing meaning to the audience of radio drama. The space in this article not only means where the theatre takes place, but it refers to the dominant spirit of the drama’ s world. Space-creating in radio drama occurs in two stages: one, when the author writing the play, and reflected his mind in the drama, and the other, during the recording of the play, that, at this stage, the director is responsible of creation of space. In this paper Space-creating in its first stage, the writing of the script, is desired. Finally, the study intends to show how to create the Comprehensive space of the drama while introducing place, time, action, characters location as well as moods such as warmth, coldness, heaviness, disappointment, happiness, fear, love, sorrow, hesitation, mystery, and etc. through intensifying interaction between different textual layers constructing mood.

Stigma refers to the different view of society to t marred identities. In such cases there is a difference between the potential identity and the actual identity. Those carrying a stigma try to resist public view about themselves by ignoring their position and showing new identities and behavioral characteristics. Social stigma creates unhappiness for a labelled person or community on social grounds that tries to distinguish them, from other portions of society. Stigma then can be attached to a person, by the greater society, who differs from their cultural norms. Social stigma can result from mental disorder, physical disabilities, diseases, illegitimacy, sexuality, beliefs, principles, religion, beauty, gender identity, parenthood, education, race, ethnicity, power, reputation, wealth, occupation, class, affiliation, brainpower or criminality. Attributes associated with social stigma often vary in different societies depending on the geopolitical and corresponding sociopolitical contexts. According to Erving Goffman, there are three forms of social stigma: Obvious deformations (such as wounds), corporal signs or physical and social disability. Variation in personal traits stigmatized in this way, including falling in a school exam, working a low wage job, single parenthood, economic failure, unemployment, welfare dependency, infidelity, mental disorder, drug addiction, and wrong background. Tribal stigmas are behaviors of a tribal group, ethnic, nationality, or religion that is believed to be a deviation from the general normative civilization. Gender is a more outstanding ground in Iranian contemporary drama than other types of stigma. This paper is a gender sociological review over the selected Iranian drama by using Erving Goffman Theory of Stigma. This paper considers stigma as Hamartia and then compares and categorizes different types of stigma between men and women in selected Iranian Drama by exploring the power of labeling in sexual relationships. Then, identity crisis and different ways of hiding stigma are explored: Including abiding behavior, alienation and passive manner toward others (spouse or father) among women; while men try to rebuild their identity and regain their credit. Stigmarelated factors in men are more in connection with the external environment (culture, economics, and politics) and are often in interaction with their counterparts (men), while women are more stigmatized by physiological and marital relations or in interaction with the opposite sex. Omission, eject denial; ignoring privacy are the most common ways of dealing with stigmatized characters. Ultimately, stigma is about public control. A consequence of this is that stigma is necessarily a social happening. Without a society, one cannot have a stigma. What this article has added to Goffman’ s Theory of Stigma is what we have called Pride Mark. To have a stigma, one must have a stigmatizer and someone who is stigmatized. In Pride Mark, one who has stigmatized is noble, enlighten, intellectual man, a person who is marginalized by society because of his superiority in knowledge.

Studying the nature of cinema in the European-American cultural sphere is decades old. In Iran, the majority of theoretical discussions in this area have been either translation or imitation of Western ideas and opinions. Since the advent of cinema in Iran until now, reflection on the nature of cinema (especially concerning the Iranian and Islamic identity) as propounded by Morteza Avini was without precedent. The extraordinary themes presented by him quickly attracted the attention of the experts in the field. In recent decades, the issue of national cinema has been transformed into an important topic. It’ s important to reappraise the ideas of Seyyed Morteza Avini since he had a different approach to the national and religious cinema. He tried to redefine the nature of cinema and concepts like the national cinema and its relation to religion from the perspective of a thoughtful Iranian filmmaker. As the director and producer of one of the most important documentary film series after the Islamic Revolution, Avini tried to formulate a theory on cinema which born out of the intellectual foundations of the Islamic Revolution. His attempts resulted in a three-volume book under the title of “ Magic mirror” (Ayene ye Jadoo). He also took efforts from an essentialist perspective to redefine the nature of cinema as a technology arisen from the western culture. Despite his privileged and high status as a promising and revolutionary artist in recent decades of Iranian art and cinema, so far no comprehensive research and critical analysis has been done about his opinions and thoughts from the perspective of the theory and film studies. In the years following Avini’ s martyrdom, some people and organizations tried to shape his thoughts into their desired molds, preventing further analysis of various aspects of his work during different periods of his short life. The authors believe that the only way to keep a thinker’ s heritage from stagnation or freezing into stereotypes is serious critical review and discussion. By suggesting the possibility of capturing the essence and transcending the Western identity of cinema, Avini intended to discover new cinematic potential to express religious concerns. The authors believe that Avini’ s thought is as yet an undiscovered territory abundant with speculative resources that may be scrutinized consistent with new approaches in the field of film study. Critical reconsideration of the work of pioneer thinkers like him will open a new horizon before the eyes of the local theoreticians of cinema. The present study by applying a descriptive/analytical method, tries to uncover some of the neglected aspects and capacities in Avini’ s thought. At the same time, it elucidates certain shortcomings in his approach from a critical viewpoint.

The visual form of a film is the construction of visual elements. This framework is used to advance the story, giving meaning and conveying insight and feeling to the film. In film, there are techniques and rules for arranging visual elements. These techniques are not changeless and fixed laws, but they change according to a film structure or director’ s style. This research is intended to generally study visual structure in films and in particular, Iranian films. Bahram Tavakkoli is an excellent example of this study because his works belong to the stylish part of Iranian movies. The main reason for this study is gathering a proper knowledge of visual elements in film. This research uses a neo-formalist approach for studying the visual form. It means that it emphasizes the dynamic structure of the film which becomes complete by the audience. Neo-formalists emphasize the importance of the form in film, and they believe it is something ordered, and rule based. Every element of this structure must be in relation to other elements making a construction. Even the meaning of a film is part of this structure. Form and meaning are intertwined, so we cannot separate them. Neo-formalists also emphasize on the audience’ s perception system. They think all attendees have inner perceptive systems which help them to gather data from films. Any formal structure cretaes some expectations for the audience. So viewers, dynamically participate in perceiving, analyzing and memorizing data and information they gather from films. We can see this dynamic structure in Bahram Tavakoli’ s films. By concentrating on the point of view, time and space, using shallow depth of field, telephoto and wide-angle lenses, high and low key lighting, low saturated colors, changing hues and subjective spaces, Bahram Tavakkoli gives his story-telling process, a stylish visual characteristic. The first step of this study is analyzing the meaning of form according to neo-formalistic approach. Then the relations between visual form and story structure will be analyzed with Boris Block’ s theory of Visual Structure. It suggests that a film divides into three separate parts; Exposition, conflict, and resolution. Exposition is part of a film in which characters and spaces are introduced to the audience. In conflict, there are struggles between protagonist and antagonist. Resolution is everything that happens after the climax. Also, every film has some important points, like the beginning of the crisis and the climax. All of these parts and points have their visual characteristics which are described in this text. After setting up a theoretical base for analyzing images in film, we study Bahram Tavakoli’ s films. There are three films that we review; A Walk in the Fog (2010); Here without me (2011); The Shallow Yellow Sky (2013).

The word ‘ cyborg’ – a combination of ‘ cybernetic’ and ‘ organism’ – refers to a hybrid creature whose biological features are profoundly tied to the most recent high technologies. The biological characteristics are not exclusively bound to the human body, but also encompass his mind and spirit. Gradually human mind, synthesized by technology, turns the man into a cyborg. As a theoretical concept, the cyborg was first introduced by Donna Haraway (1991a [1985]) to outline human-technology relations and has been used to represent the more extreme technological interventions in the body from implants to plastic surgery. According to Haraway, “ a cyborg is a cybernetic organism, a hybrid of machine and organism, a creature of social reality as well as a creature of fiction. ” So in her approach to cyborg, the importance of science fiction is as much as the importance of social reality. Haraway believes science fiction has been transformed into social reality. Also, as she has explained in A Cyborg Manifesto (1985), “ by the late twenties century, our time, [… ] we are all [… ] theorized and fabricated hybrids of machine and organism; in short, we are cyborgs” . Haraway believes that the cyborg is our ontology, but such an idea does not seem to be quite acceptable by the public or among popular culture and sounds rather exaggerated. People usually believe that new technologies – unless they overtly integrate with the human flesh– are just simple tools or gadgets provided to serve man and do not change his ontology. Most of them think there is a long gap between science fiction and social reality. On the other hand, cinema reflects the folklore as a mirror and simultaneously shapes the popular culture by its influences. This twofold function of cinema makes it a quite convenient field to study the cyborgs in human conditions. Also, nowadays fans of sci-fi movies are so much more than fans of science fiction stories. This article considers that the body and the mind are not separate from each other and the combination of any of them with technology, affects the other. But for better understanding, the cyborg, is divided into two parts: physical cyborg and mental cyborg. The physical cyborg in this study is the visible combination of flesh and machine. Parts of the living human body combines with technology, like an artificial organ. The mental cyborg is the integration of technology with the human mind that can change his understanding of space and time and the world around him. Mental cyborg can provide disembodied experiments and sometimes by creating artificial memory, changes the identity. This article first would consider the representation of cyborgs in cinema through three movies, ‘ Blade Runner’ , ‘ Terminator’ and ‘ Her’ . Furthermore, investigating images that cinema presents of cyborg, it helps to understand what is meaning and shape of the cyborg in cultural public memory. Finally, this paper would investigate how cinema, as a technology, lets its staff and audience to become cyborgs.

In order to study and survey ancient civilizations, the role of musical instruments of these civilizations must be reviewed based on existing monuments that contain musical inscriptions. To study common musical instruments in two neighboring civilizations can help to clarify parts of the musical culture of the research. Ancient civilizations of Elam and Mesopotamia were connected and affected each other throughout the years in terms of culture, politics, and religion. Music has a special position in Mesopotamia so that there are lots of frescos showing people in power together with musicians on the palaces’ walls. The unique role of music in Mesopotamia is such that queens were buried with musicians and their instruments. On the other hand, only written texts about music are obtained from this civilization, the oldest of them dating back to the second millennium BC. Music and musicians are also present in various scenes in Elam. The discoveries so far show musical instruments and music in religious ceremonies, wars, and celebrations. Due to limited excavations conducted in Elam compared with Mesopotamia, one cannot certainty talk about the music and instruments used in the musical culture of Elam. Studying musical instruments in Elam and Mesopotamia can provide a better understanding about music in Elam. Harp is a very important melodic instrument in the ancient world and had a vital role and permanent presence in the music of Mesopotamia and Elam. This musical instrument can be seen continuously on ancient monuments from Elamite and Mesopotamia civilizations. The first signs of the presence of harp in vertical form are in the fourth millennium BC, in these two areas and the changing process of harps from simple to complex arcuate shape is traceable. Also, the process of change in the resonance box of the instrument and the decorations on the tailpiece bar that may have associations with the religious beliefs of Assyrians are other issues to investigate in the field. This instrument is played with a plectrum, and this can distinguish horizontal and vertical harps. The horizontal harps emerged in the early second millennium BC, without an indication of the presence of simple shapes. It has then-in the course of its life in the region-experienced structural changes. This musical instrument entered the Elamite musical culture in the first millennium BC. Horizontal harps used in Elamite musical culture underwent some structural changes. These types of harps have a significant difference with the Assyrian types. Horizontal harp was used for solo or Duet in the musical culture of Assyrians while in Elamite culture, they used it in Orchestra. Based on ancient artifacts from the civilizations of Mesopotamia and Elam, the instruments mentioned in two musical cultures will be analyzed and then compared.

This article attempts to investigate the element of tragedy and the pertinent structure in Romeo and Juliet, Overture-Fantasia by Tchaikovsky, the famous Russian composer of the romantic era, and to apply thereon the model proposed by Gustav Freytag, the German dramatist and critic. The Pyramid proposed by Freytag for the analysis of the narrative structure of tragic story plots includes five sequential parts: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and, finally, dé nouement, resolution or catastrophe. This study shows that with prior contemplation and thorough appreciation of the foundations and the tragic structure of Shakespeare’ s Romeo and Juliet, Tchaikovsky has designed his music in a five-part sonata form – introduction and prelude, exposition, development, recapitulation, coda or epilogue – that may be corresponded to the five-act structure of Shakespeare’ s drama as well as the five-part model proposed by Freytag. At the outset, the composer begins his work by choosing Friar Laurence – the monk from the Shakespearean play – as a central persona of the story, showing that Tchaikovsky was well aware of the characters of this drama. He discerned the fact that Friar Laurence begins this tragedy, and for that reason, he also started his music in a tragic setting with a vocal piece. Moving on, in the second part, he presents the feud theme as the primary theme, where the main focus of the drama is dispute and feud between the two families Capulet and Montague, and the love theme as the secondary theme, where there is amity and love between Romeo and Juliet. In the third part, the development, he expands these two themes and then brings the music to the point of climax within this thematic challenge. This part of music coincides with the climax section in Freytag’ s pyramid, a corresponding counterpart of which can also discern in the Shakespearean narrative. In concord with tragic stories, the main character of the story exhibits the fatal flaw (hamartia), and this flaw leads the main characters of the story to calamity and decline in the fourth part. In the fifth part, because of this disaster, a sense of fear and pity matures in the audience that results in catharsis – the audience self-identify and attain mental and internal purge. As for the history of the making of this work of music, Tchaikovsky was first presented, in 1869, an initial outline by Balakirev, who was a countryman of Tchaikovsky’ s. He examined and amended the proposed outline three times during the next decade, and the main original edition performed and spectated today is the last revision from 1880. This article also examines how loyal the composer is to the dramatic work, through a meticulous and analytical examination of the musical repertory using Freytag’ s Pyramid. It demonstrates that Tchaikovsky has been remarkably successful in the conceptualization of tragedy in this piece of music. The article also aims to render a better explanation of the composer’ s exact expression of all narrative parts in a well-defined structure to help the audience achieve a better appreciation of this work.

In Turkmen musical culture “ Bagshy” plays a significant role as the vehicle for the tradition of “ Bagshy” and also in the absence of written history and literature he also conveyed these to later generations. Among the Turkmens, similar to the other bards of Central Asian musical traditions which are based on individual performers, their role has been changed severely up to now. According to the history of Turkmens, Bagshy’ s role and meaning could be studied in three stages, the past which refers to the history and culture which Turk tribes of Central Asia held in common before the 14th century, the recent past which include the history of Turkmen nomads wandering in Central Asian plateaus to 19th century and the present-day situation that deals with sedentary Turkmen tribes that has lived under various political systems during the 20th century. The study of the common history of Turkmens and other Turk tribes of Central Asian reveals that in the past “ Bagshy” referred to various but intertwined concepts such as musician, healer, narrator, clergy, and the wise man. It seems that the present-day “ Bagshy” and his role among the Turkmens derives from “ shaer-Bagshy” a reduction of “ shaman-Bagshy” in the recent past, that then separated into two roles of poet and musician. In present-day Turkmen-Sahra, in contrast to prevalent definitions, “ Bagshy” involves various types of musical activities which somehow reflect various signs of their ancestors, healers, narrators, and musicians. “ Bagshy” in present-day Turkmen musical culture is categorized into four groups. The first, “ golag Bagshy” , do not perform music but know the tradition of Bagshy very well, the second group, “ yanama Bagshy” and “ tayagh Bagshy” , only sing and the third one only plays musical instruments: “ dutar Bagshy” , “ gyjeg Bagshy” and “ toyduk Bagshy” . The last group is both player and singer, but each member has a different role in Turkmen Musical life such as healer, the narrator, Khalifa (master) Bagshy (both singer and player). This paoer is an attempt to examine changes in meanings and roles of “ Bagshy” through centuries, various associations and variants of word “ Bagshy” among the Turkmens from past to present and to study them comparatively. The study is based on analyzing the proposed hypothesis about the history of “ Bagshy” and collected data on its present situation gathered during fieldwork in Turkmen-Sahra as the important habitat for the Turkmens in Iran. To answer the question about the transformation of “ Bagshy” among Turkmens, a review has been carried out on paradoxical ideas offered by the scholars about it. Then according to historical studies, I try to portray the “ Bagshy” up to the 20th century, and finally, by comparing the results with data gathered from present-day Turkmen-Sahra, it is possible to explain the extent of changes. Despite changes in this musical tradition in the past centuries, some continuous elements such as the healing function and narrating heroic stories and performing according to “ yol” could be interpreted as clues pointing to their shamanistic origin.