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A historical outlook on theatrical ostension and its links with other terms of the semiotics of drama and theatre

  • Her research interests include general and comparative theory of literature, drama, and theatre.

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Published/Copyright: March 10, 2008
Semiotica
From the journal Volume 2008 Issue 168

Abstract

The first part of the article sketches the history of the term ostension from St. Augustine to Osolsobě. Ostension is explained as the fundament of the theatrical art by comparing it with the older theory of transubstantiation and the modern discussion of iconicity. The second part draws a parallel between ostension and Mukařovský's discovery of the ‘thingness’ of every work of art. The aim is to show that within the Prague School, which initiated modern semiotics and communication theory, there was at the same time a resistance against pan-semiotization and total subsumption of the arts under the theory of communication. Yet the School's insights also safe-guard against an uncritical rejection of semiotics and communication theory. The last part retraces certain pathologies of the theatre and focuses on recent Polish and Czech drama, demonstrating how obvious the destructive influence of the new media is on theatre. These pathologies are analyzed by means of the semiotic model with the focus on ostension. The theoretical framework is enhanced by Karl Bühler's distinction between two fields of language and Keir Elam's theory of possible worlds and frames.

Keywords: ostension; transubstantiation; iconicity; thingness of a work of art; pathologies; deictic field

About the author

Herta Schmid

Her research interests include general and comparative theory of literature, drama, and theatre.

Published Online: 2008-03-10
Published in Print: 2008-01-01

© Walter de Gruyter

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Introduction Theatrical semiosphere: Toward the semiotics of theatre today
  2. Semiotic arts of theatre
  3. Prague's experimental stage: Laboratory of theatre and semiotics
  4. A historical outlook on theatrical ostension and its links with other terms of the semiotics of drama and theatre
  5. Semiotics of nonsemiotic performance
  6. The end of theatre semiotics? A symptom of an epistemological shift
  7. Intercultural theory, postcolonial theory, and semiotics: The road not (yet) taken
  8. Dreams and phantasms: Towards an ethnoscenological reading of the intercultural theatrical event
  9. The homogeneous nature of the theatre medium
  10. The semiotics of curtain calls
  11. Actor-puppet-video projection-spectator-fantasmagorie technologique: Towards a theory for a new theatre genre
  12. Vital signs
  13. Présentation
  14. Paul Ricœur, habitant de ce monde. Les affleurements de la conception peircienne de l'objet du signe et du pragmatisme
  15. Ricœur and Saussure: On meaning and time
  16. Discernements et malentendus
  17. Sémiotique et herméneutique : Le texte et l'action
  18. Ricœur et la sémiotique : Une rencontre « improbable » ?
  19. Le parcours du sens : Ricœur et Benveniste
  20. De la narration à l'action : Inversion du cheminement mimétique ricœurien
  21. La philosophie face à l'univers des signes : Positions et propositions de Paul Ricœur sur la sémiotique et la sémiologie
https://doi.org/10.1515/SEM.2008.004
Keywords for this article
ostension; transubstantiation; iconicity; thingness of a work of art; pathologies; deictic field

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Introduction Theatrical semiosphere: Toward the semiotics of theatre today
  2. Semiotic arts of theatre
  3. Prague's experimental stage: Laboratory of theatre and semiotics
  4. A historical outlook on theatrical ostension and its links with other terms of the semiotics of drama and theatre
  5. Semiotics of nonsemiotic performance
  6. The end of theatre semiotics? A symptom of an epistemological shift
  7. Intercultural theory, postcolonial theory, and semiotics: The road not (yet) taken
  8. Dreams and phantasms: Towards an ethnoscenological reading of the intercultural theatrical event
  9. The homogeneous nature of the theatre medium
  10. The semiotics of curtain calls
  11. Actor-puppet-video projection-spectator-fantasmagorie technologique: Towards a theory for a new theatre genre
  12. Vital signs
  13. Présentation
  14. Paul Ricœur, habitant de ce monde. Les affleurements de la conception peircienne de l'objet du signe et du pragmatisme
  15. Ricœur and Saussure: On meaning and time
  16. Discernements et malentendus
  17. Sémiotique et herméneutique : Le texte et l'action
  18. Ricœur et la sémiotique : Une rencontre « improbable » ?
  19. Le parcours du sens : Ricœur et Benveniste
  20. De la narration à l'action : Inversion du cheminement mimétique ricœurien
  21. La philosophie face à l'univers des signes : Positions et propositions de Paul Ricœur sur la sémiotique et la sémiologie
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