Technology, frames, surfaces. On the metaphoricity of the theatre text

• Applicant: Dr. Hannah Elisa von Sass
• Subject Area: General and Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies
• Term: since 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 434444754

The drama is called a ‘painting’ in the middle of the 17th century, one hundred years later it becomes a ‘wall’, in the 19th century a ‘pyramid’. In the late 20th century, theatre texts were declared ‘machines’, producing ‘text carriers’ instead of figures. The scientific analysis of theatre texts is largely permeated by spatial and material metaphors that lead to a specific theoretical approach. The conceptual ‘apparatus’ marginalizes the fact that texts are also a temporally conditioned medium. The prevailing metaphors evoke the idea of a solid matter, which is often used undisputed in scientific works. In order to understand the meaning of terminologies that have become canonical, it is necessary, on the one hand, to critically revise the self-evidence of their spatial and material expression. On the other hand, one has to ask about linguistic possibilities that are able to focus more on the temporal dimension of theatre texts. This research project aims at identifying which discursive contexts and formative media in historical alternation produce different metaphors in theatre text discourses. Although theatre and literary studies have been subjected to critical debate, for example on the demand of a space-time unit or the corpus of legislation of the French doctrine classique, a systematic approach of the discourse language used since then is still lacking. The basic assumption is that the use of spatial and materialistic metaphors, which sometimes remains subtle, results in a latent shift of knowledge towards an object-like perception of theatre texts.In this context, supplementary metaphors might convey the temporality of theatre text more clearly. In this way, representations of the theatre text as an art of process and its text movements are examined in order to open up the possibilities of expanded use of metaphors. Therefore, the approach of my study is, first, to understand the genesis and power of a metaphorical language in the theoretical treatment of theatre texts, second, to sensitize for its further use in analysis, and third, to consider viable alternatives.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants