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Towards a Stylistics of the Modes of Ostension1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2009

Patricia Dorval
Patricia Dorval
Affiliation:
Centre d'Études et de Recherches élisabéthaines, Université Paul-Valéry, Montpellier III.
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Extract

Patrice Pavis offers an excellent analysis of ostension in his dictionary of theatre. Ostension (Latin ostendere, to show), he writes, is an essential feature of performance. The expression ‘theatrical ostension’ calls to mind quite naturally the notions of set, stage properties, body motions, and so on. In addition to purely visual elements, ostension also refers to verbal signals. But ostension is rarely total; one often sees only fragments of the dramatic world. Ostension is a relative notion modulated by elements that are not shown or not clearly shown. Synecdoche (the part for the whole) is one possible mode of ostension: the director suggests a complex reality by a characteristic detail: a crown for the King … Performance often resorts to metaphor: one element conjures up another. Pavis concludes that a stylistics or rhetoric of ostension would be a most precious tool for performance analysis.

Type
Articles
Information
Theatre Research International , Volume 18 , Issue 3 , Autumn 1993 , pp. 206 - 214
Copyright
Copyright © International Federation for Theatre Research 1993

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References

Notes

2. Pavis, Patrice, Dictionnaire du théâtre: termes et concepts de l'analyse théâtrale (Paris: Éditions sociales, 1987 (1980)).Google Scholar

3. ‘[L'ostension] existe rarement à l'etat pur [ … ]. II n'y a jamais d'ostension complète: nous ne percevons au cours d'un spectacle que des images ou des fragments de la réalité scénique ou corporelle. L'ostension est une notion relative et qui se manifeste par rapport aux éléments non montrés ou moins montrés. Elle prend la forme d'une synecdoque: une partie renvoie au tout, et le metteur en scène n'a besoin que de suggérer une réalité complexe par un détail caractéristique: la couronne pour le roi, les chaînes et le boulet pour la captivité. La mise en scène precède souvent par métaphorisation: un élément montré en appelle un autre; un objet identique se transforme en mille figurations selon les besoins du jeu. Toute une stylistique ou une rhétorique de l'ostension serait à élaborer selon le mode de la (dé)monstration.’ (Ibid., p. 279).

4. Cf. Morier, Henri's ‘escamotage’Google Scholar (Morier, Henri, Dictionnaire de poétique et de rhétorique (Paris: Presses Univer-sitaires de France, 1961), p. 459).Google Scholar

5. Cf. H. Morier's ‘estompage’, Ibid., p. 460.

6. Cf. H. Morier's ‘effeuillement’, Ibid., p. 397.

7. ‘L'effeuillement [ … ] dissimule par l'ambiguïté des termes et par les precédés de l'estompage. II dévoile par des touches de description partielle, incomplète, par suggestion et allusion [ … ]. L'effeuillement recourt à la comparaison et à la métaphore pour suggérer le comparé; à l'allégorie pourfaire deviner l'allégorisé; au symbole pour faire entendre le symbolisé; aux correspondances pour faire sentir le transposé’ (Ibid., p. 397).

8. All references are to the New Arden Shakespeare editions.

9. Cf. Wickham, Glynne, ‘Hell-castle and Its Doorkeeper’, Shakespeare Survey, 1966, pp. 68–74.Google Scholar

10. Cf. also the immediate textual references (5–9).

11. For illustrations of the myth of Ixion, cf. Gaffiot, Félix, Dictionnaire illustré latin-français (Paris: Hachette, 1934)Google Scholar or Wither, George, A Collection of Emblemes (1635)Google Scholar (A Scolar Press Facsimile, The Scolar Press Limited, 1973 (1968)).

12. Russell Jackson suggested that the beheading might not occur in the cinema and might be due to the video screen, which often crops the edges of films. The remark is relevant but does not invalidate the analysis that remains valuable, if not for this very production, at least for some other film of Macbeth.

13. Tilley, Morris P., A Dictionary of the Proverbs in England in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (University of Michigan Press, 1960 (1950)).Google Scholar

14. Cf. Chevalier, Jean & Gheerbrant, Alain, Dictionnaire des symboles (Paris: Robert Laffont/Jupiter, coll. Bouquins, 1982 (1969)), p. 749.Google Scholar

15. Maybe a variation on the historical stone (described as a throne) on which the kings of Scotland used to take their place for their coronation. Cf. Holinshed, : ‘he turned to the abbeie of Scone, which was of chanons regular, where he tooke the stone called the Regall of Scotland, vpon which the kings of that nation were woont to sit, at the time of their coronations for a throne, & sent it to the abbeie of Westminster, commanding to make a chaire therof for the priests that should sing masse at the high altar: which chaire was made, and standeth yet there at this daie to be seene’Google Scholar (Holinshed, , Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland, London, 1807, vol. I, p. 210).Google Scholar Cf. also Peter Ellis, Berresford, Macbeth (London: Frederick Muller Ltd, 1980)Google Scholar: ‘After the consecration by the Bishop of St. Andrews, MacBeth, like Scottish kings before and after him, was led to the ancient stone known as the Lia Fail, the Stone of Destiny. On this stone he would swear by his honour to serve the commonweal of Scotland and defend the well-being of her people. He was then hailed by each chieftain in turn’ (p. 62).Google Scholar

16. Diel, Paul, Le Symbolisme dans la mythologie grecque (Paris: Petite Bibliothèque Payot, 1966).Google Scholar

17. Brewer, , Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, fourteenth edition by Evans, Ivor H. (London: Cassel, 1990Google Scholar (first published 1870)). Originally, a Latin proverb: Calceus major subvertit. Cf. the expression To tread one's shoes awry (Tilley & O.E.D.).

18. Longman Dictionary of English Idioms, Longman, 1979.Google Scholar First occurrence noted by O.E.D., 1546, Heywood, John, Prov., I, xi (1867), 37Google Scholar: ‘Who waitth for dead men shoes, shall go long barefoote’. Cf. the French variation: ‘En attendant les souliers des morts, on peut aller longtemps pieds nus’ (Dictionnaire de proverbes et dictons, Les usuels du Robert, Les Dictionnaires Le Robert, Paris, 1989, p. 101).Google Scholar

19. Morier, C. H., Op. cit., p. 1136.Google Scholar

20. Diel, P., Op. cit.Google Scholar

21. O.E.D.

22. Durand, Gilbert, Les Structures anthropologiques de l'imaginaire (Paris: Dunod, 1984 (1969)), pp. 339–59.Google Scholar

23. On the notion of equivalents, cf. Girard, René, La Violence et le sacré (Paris: Grasset, coll. Pluriel, 1972), chapter X, pp. 373–407.Google Scholar

24. Dürer, Albrecht, ‘Man of Sorrows by the Column’Google Scholar, Albertina, Vienna, 1509, in Knappe, Karl-Adolf, Dürer, the Complete Engravings, Etchings and Woodcuts (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers).Google Scholar

25. Cf. Morier, H., Op. cit., p. 749.Google Scholar