JOURNAL OF DERAMATIC ARTS AND MUSIC
Year:2018 | Volume:8 | Issue:16 |Papers Count:8

Ghalishooyan, as a well-known genre in Iranian processional performances is basically the expression of a specific situation between audience and performer which, as a part of ritual processes, can be seen in many processional performances. In this very prominent example of processional performance, the mutual relationship of performer and audience is based on collaborative mood which in turn is one the three basic moods in any performance practice. The general condition in this theatrical genre depends on dynamic and flowing collaboration of performer and audience. Yet, in this case study we encounter a paradoxical aspect in performer-audience collaboration. In Ghalishooyan, the circle of collaboration has become very tight and definite, limited only to those who are allowed to directly attend the process of performance. In this paradoxical situation, the collaborative mood is limited in a manner that another phenomenal mood of performance, namely self-expressive mood, becomes more pronounced. This article would argue for the exclusive grounds of this paradoxical situation only to investigate furthermore the cultural and social issues, like historical and gender subject-matters, next to the effective elements of this performance like collective self-expression and tribal heredity.

In this paper, Curse of the Starving Class, a play by Sam Shepard, has been studied and the identities of the characters have been analyzed based on Jacques Lacan’ s theory. Sam Shepard, a contemporary American playwright, has had a close look at the characters and the question of their identity, mood of actions, and psychic problems have always been a griping subject for Shepard to deal with. For this purpose, Shepard has used dialogues as a firm ground to rely on and beside them, he has got help from the actions that the characters perform. On the other hand, Lacan has built his theories on the basis of language and he believes that the psychoanalysis of human beings lies in the analysis of the language they use. Therefore, the psychoanalysis of the dramatic character is analyzing the dialogues. In order to realize how the human psyche works, Lacan has formulated three Orders. These three orders (Imaginary, Symbolic, and Real) get effects from and in return, affect each other. These effects are the ways that the Identity is shaped. Lacan considers Identity as a non-coherent being which for its so-called unity, depends on different factors. In this project, the goal is to derive the characteristics of each of the Orders in the dramatic characters and to show how they work in order to form the Identity. Some of the characteristics looked for in the dialogues are: Lack, Desire, other/Other, Jouissance, drive, Identification, Aggression, Narcissism, the Mirror Stage, Trauma, and Hysteria. In Curse of the Starving Class, a continuous lack surrounds Identity and it can never be freed. The family members hold these lacks and as they have been tired of the sufferings, they want to change their lives. The characters are filled with the aggression that they have inherited from the previous generations and in return, they make the others suffer from this violence as well. Not being able to achieve to a real wholeness, they misjudge their beings as a unique and united one and reject any oppositions to this manner. In the effect of this aggression, they become obsessed with themselves and deal with their narcissism. The play shows the life of an American family that its members, based on the identities they have gained from the society and each other, in their actions and reactions, ruin the family union. They have been trying really hard to solve their intrinsic lacks and in effect, use their inherited violence as a weapon to satisfy their desires. They are not complete. Therefore, not being able to help the other members, they separate their lives. They see their proper happiness in different things and try to achieve that. However, when they come across the reality of life, they cannot accept it and suffer from Trauma. As they want to escape from themselves, some intend to escape from their country and develop another “ dream land” ; some identify with others, and one lays hysterically in the hands of death.

The concept of diegesis (telling or recounting a story) originally appeared in Plato’ s thesis as opposed to mimesis (showing or enacting a story). In the current era, the notions of diegesis and mimesis, developed as key elements for differentiating verbal narratives from drama, have been reconsidered by narratologists who argue that in a play, an actor presents the sequence of events that is generally mediated through a given narrator in a fiction. In Stage Fright: Modernism, Anti-Theatricality, and Drama (2002), Marin Puchner coined the term “ digetic theatre” . Digetic theatre focuses on a type of theatre that uses narrative and discourse techniques to deviate the audience’ s attention from actors’ performance to words. Puchner uses this term to illustrate descriptive and narrative solutions that have played notable roles in confining, leading, and neutralizing direct theatricality of stage and actors in modern drama. In Iranian drama Beyzai, Influenced by his knowledge of Ta’ ziyeh, tried to reshape local plays and turn them into stage drama for which he benefitted from Persian storytelling traditions. His main concern was to establish Persian drama on the local traditions. Starting his theatrical activities, he attempted to maintain the fine literature of epic poetry by relying on poetic and elevated discourse. The present study explores the process of diegetic language as the pivotal discourse of Naghali and Ta’ ziyeh’ s turning into the Beyzai’ s works. The diegetic and story features of his works will be analyzed by elements such as narrative intermediators, character, action, and setting and their evolution. This study exemines that Beyzai’ s early works, it means Se Barkhani (Three Recounting), have story and diegetic nature by following elements such as narrative intermediator, character, action, and place/space. With these features, these works cannot rightly be considered to be plays, and the title the writer himself has chosen for his works as “ Barkhani” (recounting) is obviously an indicator of this nature. On the one hand, these works reflect the rhythm and richness of the epic poetry in the form of prose, and on the other hand they represent the storytelling of the oral tradition of Naghghali in written form as drama. In Soltan Maar (Serpant the King), he returns to a story atmosphere in which time and place/space easily change, characters change their roles, and whenever actors find it difficult to perform an action they simply present it to the audience in words. Finally, Khaterat-e Honarpishe-ye Naghsh-e Dovvom (Memoirs of the Actor in a Supporting Role) can be classified under “ digetic theatre” . Mimesis and imitation are not neglected in these works, and action, sound, and image are not marginalized from the text for the sake of dialogue-as it is with closet drama. On the contrary, this play is good example that indicates the presence of all the visual and mimetic elements in digetic form. In other words, in the battle between imitating and telling, telling is dominant.

This paper figures the new principle for British modern theatre in particular, in the frame of ‘ post-traumatic’ history which will free all repressed traumas of history and community that is neglected by them, and be taken back to them with inherent violence of their images. Last decade of 20th century began with the harsh and brutal performances of the group of opposing young directors whom had a problem with their generation. Categorizing them in the same group, Aleks Sierz named them ‘ in-yer-face theatre’ . This much of violence on the stage exemplified deep traumas which were buried in the traumatic history. Sarah Kane one of the main figures of this group fulfilled the aim of political theatre by the process I borrowed from recent psychoanalytic researches. She wrote her fifth and last play, ‘ 4. 48 psychoses’ , just before her suicide in 1999. Mentioning reinterpretation of traumas after the mid 20th century, I focus on Judith Herman and Cathy Caruth’ s surveys, as the members of PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) studies. This group has posed new definition for traumatic dreams and memories by devising the term ‘ traumatic reenactment’ . The victim who suffers from these kinds of dreams and memories is lack of drama. It seems part of him has died and everything has stood in that horrible moment which belongs to the past. In this sense, this singular possession by the past extends beyond the bounds of a marginal pathology and has become a central characteristic of the survivor experience of our time. Yet, what is particularly striking in this singular experience is that its insistent reenactments of the past do not simply serve as testimony to an event, but may also, paradoxically enough, bear witness to a past that was never fully experienced as it occurred. Curing these traumas, we both urgently demand historical experience. By reinterpretation of new tragedy in the frame of post-dramatic theatre we could access to a traumatic history. The relationship between community and individuals is inseparable and there will be the unity and tension simultaneously between them. By this relation the spectator acts as a witness and even victim since at the same time he was the observant of his own trauma and others too. So, the entire scene becomes traumatic reenactment of a singular traumatic event which has been fixed in the specific moment of past. By reenacting the past, each actor or spectator stays in the liminal state, as a ritual performance. This moment is the moment of pure consciousness. This will be happened by transgressing the boundaries between the Real and reality, as Jacque Lacan mentioned. Thus, this will be the reborn of the new tragedy which is happened as a tension between two senses: terror/ need. As a result, in the explosion of the Real the missing memory is transformed to narrative language which moves both groups to the shared memory, and this is the aim of political theatre. ‘ 4. 48 psychoses’ can be an appropriate scene for representing this kind of tragedy.

At a time when it is remembered as the era of Mashrooteh, 1285 solar Hijri calendar/ 1906 AD until 1305 solar Hijri calendar/ 1926, we observe the establishment of cinema and showing film in Tehran and some states and provinces of Iran. During this period, new art of cinema entered in political, social and economic contexts which had different applications. Due to the importance of the discourse of modern arts in recognition of the changes of Qajar era and Iranian art history, exploration of its different functional aspects is important and looking at the economic history of cinema in Iran is of the purposes of this study and its collected data have been written in descriptive and analytical method. Some of the questions introduced in this article are as follow: how much the cinema was on the basis of foundations of a market economy in the era of Mashrooteh? And was reached to what economic function? The findings show that economic motivations for making money from merchants and businessmen, cinemas’ owners, and government for obtaining customs duty and taxes was led to create link between newspapers and printing houses for persistent cinematic notifications and companies and the manufacturers and distributors of film for making a profit that has been effective in entering, establishing and spreading cinema to the society of the Iran. But from the beginning to the end of this era which coincided with the coronation of Reza Khan and the decline of the power of parliament in 1305 solar calendar/ 1926 AD in Iran, Iran was a market for consuming movies of other countries. Bringing serial films, screening movie for charity and public works, renting and buying and selling movie and cinematographer device for home show and establishing cinema in hotels and coffeehouses are considered as the other economic aspects of cinema of this period that totally were led to cinema entrepreneurship in society. The price for one single-seat in this 20-year old era was between 1 to 8 Gheran and for the VIP (Loge settlers) it had an increasing price of about 4 to 30 Gheran. Totally, various economic performance of cinema and the rapid formation of the financial cycle of this new art in the era of Mashrooteh, force us to pay attention to the economic aspects of the art for a comprehensive investigation.

The unity of plot is the most important principle in classical drama. In Poetics, Aristotle prefers action to character and equates the unity of plot with the unity of action. Modern theories however, eliminate such a decisive differentiation between the character and the action and consider them highly interconnected. Changing the central character and replacing him/her with another character violates yet another principle of classical drama, namely the unity of the central character. In the present study, the analysis of observational data is utilized in order to examine the setup of the films with central character replacement using the theories of Aristotle and other theoretician influenced by him. Through observing and analyzing these films, it is concluded that in order to maintain the unity of plot they employ mechanisms such as attendance of the alternative central character in the causal chain, maintaining the unity of action, emphasizing on an unaltered theme, using the capacities of epic. The effect of the change of the central character on the unity of plot is associated with the extent to which these mechanisms are used. The possibility of maintaining the unity of plot increases with the number of utilized mechanisms. Otherwise, the change and replacement of the central character results in a hybrid plot i. e. there would be two separate plots.

The purpose of writing this article is to analyze different factors and features of catharsis in music and dramatic literature and the influence of it in creating narratives and play scripts and also its impact on visual arts particularly in western painting and printmaking. In fact, catharsis is not only found in dramatic literature or poetry, but we could witness its impact on both audio and visual arts. Therefore, in order to recognize and comprehend the factors and influences of catharsis in different art forms (particularly painting and printmaking), we have to first answer the key question of this research which is whether the elements of catharsis only feature in dramatic literature and play scripts or we can also perceive its appearance in other forms of art. Regarding outcomes and conclusion, we found out that catharsis has not only appeared in dramatic literature, theatre or cinema but its footsteps can be seen in music, painting, printmaking, bas-relief, sculpture and many more different forms of arts. As a result if we consider factors and features of catharsis have been presented in showcasing different stages of a play script, theatre or cinema, or in the span of a piece of music, hence this element has been featured in painting by single or multi panel canvases or it has been conveyed to the audience by one or more copies of printmaking (gravure) or by one or more than one panels in bas-relief (storytelling bas-relief) or by using one or multiple numbers of sculptures-which are positioned in one place together-. Research method: Analytic – Descriptive. References are from library resources and in some cases from reliable internet websites.

Symbolic aspects of human culture have been generally known by interpretive anthropologists as the most considerable and significant aspect of the human culture embracing unresolved significances and meanings of human cultural existence. The scientific method for studying and interpreting symbols, known as semiology, roots in linguistic works of Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913) which has obviously influenced structural and symbolic approaches in anthropology. Music and its rituals, according to anthropological studies, would be undoubtedly categorized as an integral part of human culture and no culture could be assumed without its musical aspects. Moreover, Music realm, considering its intangibility and subjectivity, has always revealed its potential for being culturally symbolized and musical instruments, therefor, would expectedly represent these cultural symbols. The study of music in its cultural and social context is known as ethnomusicology and the science of musical instruments, embracing the study of their technical, historical and cultural aspects, is called Organology. This study aims to interpret symbolic characteristics of Guilan’ s Naqā re, a double-conical percussion instrument (comparable with Indian Tabla) in its social and cultural context. The Naqā re is traditionally played with wooden drumsticks and due to the context, would be played in solo form or with the accompaniment of Sornā (a local wind instrument). The accompanied form, known as Sā z-o-Naqā re, has historically been a common form in Iranian culture relating to joyful rituals and ceremonies. Morphologically, furthermore, the word Sornā is composed of Sor (ceremony) and nā (fife) which clearly indicates to this social and cultural function. The role Naqā re plays in these situations seems to be confined to a musical accompanier performing background rhythm for the wind instrument. But, in some other more transcendental occasions and religious rituals, the Naqā re is played solo and sometimes the smaller drum is to be veiled. This prohibition is so comparable with the fact that in Guilan’ s traditional culture, as recorded in my ethnography, the smaller drum of Naqā re is known as š eytune (attributed to Satan, devil). Although the act of veiling the smaller drum and the prohibition of its more treble sound might initially encourage us to attribute this symbol to religious beliefs of Satan, but Looking on this issue from the symbolic anthropology viewpoints shows that the concept of Satan here has a cultural meaning rather than religious one. Since, in a traditional musical tight rope walking ceremony in Guilan called Lā fand-Bā zi, the same phenomenon would be seen. The scene has two different and contradictory characters: the hero and the clown (anti-hero). During the play, Naqā re and Sornā are played to enthusiast the scene. The Hero attempts to maintain his balance on the rope and the clown, who is called š eytā nak (a little Satan), tries to fail the hero by ridiculing him which makes the audience laugh. Comparing these two symbols, š eytune (small drum of Naqā re) with š eytā nak (clown of the play) could demonstrate that the concept of Satan in the traditional culture of eastern Guilan has a cultural meaning which will assist to interpret Naqā re’ s different symbolic characteristics.