JOURNAL OF DERAMATIC ARTS AND MUSIC
Year:2016 | Volume:6 | Issue:12 |Papers Count:8

The purpose of this research is to study the maternalistic approach in Wendy Wasserstein’ s “ The Heidi Chronicles” by focusing on main female characters and their parts as mothers as well as individuals. “ The Heidi Chronicles” is one of the most prominent examples of early feminist plays. It traces the coming of age of Heidi Holland from high school in the 1960s to her career as an art historian in the 1980s. Heidi determines her place in society and juggles work, friendship and romance. She later accepts the maternal role and cherishes it as part of her own feminity. Maternalism is the theoretical viewpoint that incorporates a common idea of femininity and applies it as a support for women’ s involvement in society. This study considered the maternalistic discourse in the prominent dramatic literature of the 80s. This particular period is most known as the aftermath of women’ s right movement in the west, when traditional female roles as mothers and wives were challenged by the young independent and self-sufficient women’ s new perspective in the modern-era. Subsequently, the concept of “ Matrophobia” is visited. Matrophobia isn’ t the fear of your mother or motherhood but the fear of becoming her. Matrophobia is embedded in 1970s feminist women’ s past and continues to linger in contemporary women affecting the depiction of motherhood in the literary work of later generations. By considering Matrophobia in the selected play, as a noticeable example of a feminist text, this study is seeking an understanding of Matrophobia and reduce or eliminate it through the acceptance of Maternalism. The maternal approach to the literary pieces is a new one focusing on female characters as mothers and their challenges with the traditional models of motherhood. The analysis of female characters in the play can help better understand the essence of the challenge and the dilemma of contemporary women in accepting the maternal role as an inseperable part of their own femininity. The sources used are those of recent feminist thinkers and academics as well as sources from the 70s and 80s.

The present research analyzes the location and its relation to the other dramatic elements in the play “ Melody of a Rainy City” composed by Akbar Radi using a descriptive-analytic method and place semiotics. The main purpose of this research is to find, classify and dramatically study the most important locational indicators in the given play. This research intends to analyze and examine the location, according to a semiotic approach, in order to show the implicit and explicit relationships between locations and the different dramatic elements such as characterization, action and plot. In order to analyze the location in this play, Verbal localization (stage direction, verbal indicators, dialogue), non-verbal localization (relationships between on-stage and off-stage, relationships between multiple locations in a single locale and in various locales) have been studied based on the ideas of different semioticians who have studied in this field. The results show that location plays an important role in the dramatic structure of “ Melody of a Rainy City” and it greatly contributes to develop the dramatic elements. Places in this play can be linked to other elements such as character drama, actions and reactions, and plot.

This study is conducted to analyze and show the similarities between the functions of two semiotic systems: food system and language system. In order to achieve the aim of the research, ten movies have been selected and studied, including White Nights (Motamen, 2003), Bā gh-e Ferdows, 5 O’ clock in the Afternoon (Shayeghi, 2005), Havoo (Davoodnejad, 2006), The Fish Fall in Love (Rafie, 2006), The Book of Law (Miri, 2008), Felicity Land (Miri, 2011), Agha Yousef (Rafie, 2011), The Painting Pool (Miri, 2012), Good to Be Back (Mehrjui, 2012) and The Wedlock (Hejazi, 2013). Roland Barthes (1915-1980) and Yuri Lotman (1922-1993) are ones whose thoughts and ideas have developed the framework of this paper. The idea of existing resemblance between food system and language system was first developed by Barthes, French philosopher, linguist, and semiotician. He believed that food system is a signifier system, just like language system. There are different functions assumed to be of language system, functions like interactional and transactional ones, but this research is undertaken based on Lotman’ s theory. Lotman, the founder of the Tartu-Moscow Semiotic School, defined the key functions of language (or text) as 1) transferring the message; 2) the creative function; and 3) the function of memory. To fulfill the first function addressee and addresser need a wholly identical code, to fulfill the second one the system must have the capability to generate new messages and finally, to fulfill the third one the system should have the capability to serve as a condenser of cultural memory. This study showed that the food system can fulfill the functions of the language system adequately. The most prominent role of this system in the films which have been studied is transferring a message. There is always a message which an addresser puts it into dishes, instead of words, and sends it to an addressee. In these films, this message is almost always “ love” and “ kindness” . The Fish Fall in Love, White Nights, Bā gh-e Ferdows, 5 O’ clock in the Afternoon, Havoo, Agha Yousef and Good to Be Back are the films we can see this function in them obviously. The food system has the creative function when its appearance seems novel, beautiful and colorful, just like a poem, and it generate a new message, “ craft” . In the Fish Fall in Love, the Book of Law (Miri, 2008) and Felicity Land the food system serves the purpose of the directors to show creativity. Finally, it has memory function when it shows its capacity to preserve the memory of its previous contexts, contexts such as Yalda and Haft-Sin, Havoo and the Book of Law show this capacity. In addition, based on the results of this study, food system has other functions: showing social convergence and gender and also national differences, as sojoodi mentioned.

The art of montage in film history appeared in the years between 1900 and 1907. According to many film historians, montage was first used by American filmmaker Edwin S. Porter. However, montage theory and aesthetics of montage developed after the October Revolution in Russia in 1917 by the great filmmakers and theorists of the era such as Lev Kuleshov, and particularly Sergey Eisenstein and Vsevolod Pudovkin. Slavko Vorkapich, filmmaker, editor and cinema lecturer was another key theorist of montage in the history of cinema who worked on the theorization of montage at the same time, yet his contribution despite being significant is not regarded as highly as that of the Russian masters. The impact of his thoughts and work on American cinema in the 1920s and 1930s is undisputable. The notion of “ Kine-aesthetics” and its value in cinema and the issue of interconnectedness and the chain of integration of shots in the art of montage, as opposed to Eisenstein’ s cinematic views and the theory of “ collision” , is notable. This article attempts to examine the ideas of these two theorists of montage and the similarities and divergences of their views.

As the discourse of literature, the notion of silence in film’ s discourse would be considered as an absent element in the background of the text. Silence appears either through structural and content elements or diverse textual signs like spectral and interdependent relationship such as less/more distance, saturated or pale light in foreground that make it definable and explainable. But the representation of silence in cinema is distinct from silence in writing or speech. Because of its abstraction and with response to this question that “ How silence is represented in cinema’ s discourse? “ We are able to perceive a novel definition of silence in cinema in the framework of semiotic studies. Silence finds its signification through a sign or signs in a discursive context or chain in which they refer to it. Thus, silence like other elements or notions of signification with which it is in opposition such as sound, is perceived or explained either by an expression or other forms of expression which are in fact the expressive signifiers of silence. In other words, the presence of this expression or expressive signifier of silence in discursive context of film is necessary in order to demonstrate its trace. In the discourse of film, silence is created through action, rhythm, extensity, movement, repetition, the game of light penumbra, the absence of dialogue, time, spacing, perspective, and music. Therefore, silence has no longer the general sense of silence. In fact, silence can create a tensive space which results in creation of dynamic and fluid values in discursive regime. Tensive space is composed of intensive and extensive zones. Such process is realizable by the interdependence of these components. Intensive zone is the atmosphere of subject modalities whose orientation tends to the passions and internal world of actant while the extensive space concentrates on the external, quantitative and cognitive aspect. If the extent of tensive space is limited or reduced, we encounter with the extensive and concentrated situation, but in the case of unlimited and multiple extensive of tensive space, we are facing extensive circumstances. Among different approaches to the interpretation of silence, visual semiotics foundation which is the theoretical framework of this research can be considered as an efficient and suitable approach to study silence in the discourse of cinema. Adopting and profiting a descriptive and analytical research methodology, this research tries to respond to this question that “ how can study the silence system of Kieś lowskyan cinema in the framework of semiotics with application of discursive approach. Also another question which arises is that “ what kind of factors or variables should be regarded in the process of silence signification. It seems that abovementioned structural and content elements crystalize the function of silence in the discursive system of Three Colors Trilogy: Blue as the corpus of this study based of tensive scheme of discourse in the framework of semiotics. In its turn, the goal of this research is the analysis and the investigation of silence place and its signification besides semiosis functions in Kieś lowskyan cinema.

In this essay, narrative functions and structural designation of song and dance scenes in Disney feature animations are studied. Most of Disney feature animations contain more than one song and/or dance scene. On the surface, these scenes are merely intermissions, devised to entertain the spectator. Some scratch the surface and point their capability to give information about characters or settings. But this essay tries to show that song and dance scenes do much more and are heavily interconnected with narrative structure of the film. The first question is: what deviations do song/dance scenes have from ordinary realism and narrative rules of “ ordinary scenes” ? It is argued that song/dance scenes have some relative freedom from causality and ordinary realism, ruling ordinary (which here means non song/dance) scenes. Song/dance scenes violate the rules of realism, governing other scenes and most other genres. Characters dance and sing for the benefit of camera, instead of any character in the film and the non-diegetic music accompanies their performance. Sometimes a person cries out his inner secrets and desires loud in a song and in the end it’ s like no one has ever noticed. The story/discourse time and space relationship, causality and story logic can be different in such scenes. Also the visual style can change. After examining the main deviations, the second and main question is taken into account: what narrative capabilities and special functions do these deviations prepare for the song/dance scenes in Disney feature animations? In other words, how do song and dance scenes shape the narrative structure of films, and how could special features of such scenes contribute to the narration? having a structural narratological point of view, it is shown that these scenes have functions like explicit presentation of story information, as character traits and settings or the theme of story; more freely integration of gags, jokes and visual and metaphorical creativities in the film; intuitive expression of characters inner feelings. Also it is shown that these scenes deeply contribute to the narrative structure of the films. They change narrative temporal pattern by adding summaries and halts between scenes, take part in resemblance of particular events or existents. Most of all, song and dance scenes are less likely to induce less suspense and surprise in the viewer. They are meant for existents more than events. Songs usually talk about how a character is, or feels about something, instead of worrying about what happened to him/her. A considerable number of songs are representing characters, their inner feelings, goals, fears, or even places they live in. This changes the overall structure of narrative. Because with song and dance, instead of a chain of events, we have portraits of characters. Having these at hand, it is concluded that song/dance scenes are closely interconnected with the narrative structure of Disney animated feature films. Since these scenes have critical functions in narrative, they can’ t be considered arbitrary or just intermissions. This means they can’ t be separated from the film without altering the narrative.

Studies on Iranian music are particularly conducted to show its melodic aspects and are highly occupied by the discussions of modal systems of dastgā h-ha and the arrangements and functions of notes and their alteration within a tetrachord and pentachord. In general, we can consider three main factors in melodic contours including directions, intervals and time values. However, accustomed listeners of Iranian music pay little or no attention to microtones and their complicated arrangements. In fact, the combination of those three elements plus the presentation of such features arouse their emotion. In order to study and categorize the melodic shapes of gū sheh-ha of the radī f of Iranian traditional music, a system is designed. In this system, all the main gusheh-ha of seven dstgaā h-ha and five ā vā z-ha of the radī f (here the version of Mī razā Abdullā h is used as the main reference) are studied and the melodic shapes of them are categorized. For each gū sheh two types of melodic movements are recognized, structural and momentary movements. The researcher has used his own experience of familiarity with radī f, as a musician, to distinguish the structural elements from momentary musical incidents. Living in a society is the best way to learn and experience everyday life to make sense of the music and the culture of that society. Nonetheless, in order to categorize the musical elements, a systematic approach, which leads to a sort of comparative examination of data, is working accurately. The approach presented in this study helps to examine the qualitative phenomena of melodic movement in various gū sheh-ha of dastgā h-ha and their subdivisions to acquire a general picture of one of the elements of form in Iranian traditional music. Based on the findings, the central features in melodic shape of gū sheh-ha of the radī f are summarized. In 106 gū sheh-ha of various dastgā h-ha and their subdivisions ā vā z-ha which have been studied in this project, pendulum movement of melody and moving level with the very limited tonal material have the highest rank in various melodic shapes and movements. As well as pendulum and level melodic contours as the main melodic movements, there is another movement which is sequential descending of the melody. The findings of this study also revealed that some types of melodic shapes, such as “ inverted arc, ” “ sequential ascending, ” and “ terrace descending” appears very rarely in melodic movements of Iranian melodies, and ascending melodic movements are not popular in melodic structure of dastgā h-ha. Moreover, melodies in traditional music of Iran are usually tended to move in a level with a very limited tonal material or to have a wave shape outline.

Since 1981, some rules have been gathered in the form of a book in order to harmonize poem and music. At that time, the researches were rejecting ancient “ Tasnif” based upon the frameworks developed by them rather than seeking to discover aesthetics within such “ Tasnif” and their evolution. The theoretical basis of researches in this era was rhythmizing the discourse according to metric reading of vocabulary, while in “ Tasnif” of Qajar dynasty, composed prior to prescribing such rules, there is a relative relationship between quantity of syllables and quantity of melody and in some cases flexibility can be seen in paralleling the quantity of syllable and melody. Obviously, for short syllables in comparison with long ones, the quantity is selected as a shorter melody and in this debate we call it “ dominant side” and the cases in which such relations have not been met properly are named as “ lack of conformity” . The lack of conformities may be caused by verbal, musical and language necessities. The long syllables in comparison with the short and stretched ones have more flexibility to accept non compliances and shortening the long syllables is the most common lack of conformity. Extending the quantity of tone of different kinds of syllables are also common to some extent and there is seen no limitation in using them. The important point is that the sequence of short syllable with the quantity of long melody and long syllable with quantity of short melody are rarely seen and this is the very lack of consecutive and reverse conformity. There is no difference of approach toward open or closed syllables. The tempo and time of melodies are effective in admitting the lack of conformities, as well and they have more preparation to adhere to the changes in a range between 0. 4 and 0. 80 seconds. The proportion of melodies changes toward the dominant side are normally half or double and other proportions are seen less.