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The Art of the Spectator: Seeing Sounds and Hearing Visions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2024

Piergiorgio Giacchè
Piergiorgio Giacchè*
Affiliation:
University of Perugia
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Extract

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Even before Erving Goffman, in his studies of interaction, develops and makes the most of the metaphor of a daily life entirely composed of representation, or even stage acting, sociology had already stolen from theatre a number of terms and modes particular to it: the concept of “role”, to take the most classic example, but also the term “actor”, which sociology in fact translates as social actor.

Type
Research Article
Information
Diogenes , Volume 49 , Issue 193 , March 2002 , pp. 77 - 87
Copyright
Copyright © ICPHS 2002

References

Notes

1. E. Goffman (1973), La mise en scène de la vie quotidienne: 1. La présentation de soi; 2. Les relations en public (Paris, Editions de Minuit).

2. Most recent French edition: G. Debord (1992), La société du spectacle (Paris, Gallimard).

3. I have borrowed from Eugenio Barba the term "extra-quotidian", by which he means the area and extra-economic regime of the actor's art; see E. Barba (1993), Le canoë de papier. Traité d'anthropologie théâtrale, Bouffonnerie, no. 28-29.

4. P. Giacchè (1988), Antropologia e cultura teatrale. Note per un aggiornamento dell'approccio socio antropologico al teatro, in Teatro e storia, 4, no. I, April, pp. 23-50.

5. J. Addison (1982), Lo spettatore (Turin, Einaudi).

6. In Italian language the same term "successo" means the success of the show and its happening.

7. On the spectator's identity, origins and history, see P. Giacchè (1995), Nostalgia del teatro e simulazione della piazza, in D. Scafoglio & M. Vitale (eds.), La piazza nella storia: eventi, liturgie, rappresentazioni (Naples, Ed. scientifiche italiane), pp. 201-254.

8. The definition of theatre as a "relationship between actor and spectator", reformulated by Jerzy Grotowski (Vers un théâtre pauvre, Paris, La Cité, 1971), is in the end the basis for all the theories and practices in the contemporary theatre; what is at issue of course is a direct physical relationship that separates the theatre from all the forms of media spectacle.

9. It should be noted that, since the arrival and dominance of the mass media, "live spectacle" is defined not by the fact that it is performed by an actor but by the fact that it is happening before spectators who are present.

10. On the conditions that govern spectators' behaviour in the theatre to the extent of telling them precise positions of the body, see P. Giacchè (1991), Lo spettatore partecipante: Contributi per un'antropologia del teatro (Milan, Guerini).

11. "Going outside the performance" and seeking a "theatre of the senses" may also be the actors' aim, as all Carmelo Bene's research and work demonstrates. See P. Giacchè (1997), Carmelo Bene. Antropologia di una macchina attoriale (Milan, Bompiani).